If Michael Cohen could drop a foreign drafted policy document on the National Security Advisorās desk, then says who he wasnāt in a position to do similar favors for paying corporate interests?
āArtemenkoās proposal would have required a withdrawal of Russian forces from eastern Ukraine and would have allowed Ukraine to lease Crimea to Russia for a 50 or 100 year team, the Times reported. It would have also lift U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration.ā
Considering Cohen was apparently funneling this plan to Flynn, another piece of the conspiracy to collude puzzle looks to be fitting in placeāa little quid (legitimizing Russiaās long term occupation of Crimea and eliminating those pesky US sanctions) pro quo (assisting the Trump campaign vis a vis Russian interference in the 2016 election)ā¦
How much $$$$ was involved?
and would have allowed Ukraine to lease Crimea to Russia for a 50 or 100 year team,
And donāt forget leasing the US to Russia for a 4-8 year term.
Glad to hear that this matter is proceeding along despite all the noise and protestations from the administration.
This piece of the puzzle has always struck me as the most explicit and solid evidence of the quid pro quo.
Iām starting to feel insulted I havenāt been asked to testify for Mueller at this point.
OT but the Artemenko peace deal terms sound pretty reasonable to me.
Reasonable how? Itās essentially they get to keep what they took and get out from under sanctions. And they have to repaint a bunch of vehicles and spring for new uniforms for some of their military.
It āsoundsā reasonable but it isnāt. Crimea was annexed by Russia, so to agree to letting them lease Crimea would be condoning their aggression. Crimea isnāt even physically attached to Russia and Crimea receives all its utilities from Ukraine. Russian wanted their deep water ports and oil. It would be nothing but appeasement and give Russia more leverage in infiltrating eastern Ukraine, which has a greater Russian influence than western Ukraine. Itās really a war about energy. Russia is desperate to take over all of Ukraine as all of their oil to Europe flows through it.
Unless youāre on Putinās payroll you donāt have anything to worry about.
Treason investigation.
Stripped of citizenship.
I like the way you people think.
Aw, cāmon, what about Soros? Iām still waiting for my crisis actor check. Should be here any day now. Canāt Mueller please call me?
Along with the ham-fisted pro Russian changes made to the GOP 2016 platform seemingly out of nowhere.
An unknown % ownership in Russian Oil company fro Trump.
Seventeen percent rings a bell.
Another set of big reveals in the Muelller investigation.
First, bringing Artemenko in for grand jury questioning tells us that Mueller is in fact going after Cohen. He just has help from SDNY on other claims. Iāve long maintained that the election conspiracy related issues generate clear, actionable criminal claims against the Trump crew. We will look back on the decision to have the SDNY/USAO NY do the Cohen raid as a political stroke of genius.
Second, FBI agents working under Mueller detained the lawyer for Joseph Mifsud (he was Papadopoulosā primary Russian connected contact and how he learned about the hacking of HRCās emails). The lawyerās name is Stephen Roh who has written a dystopian version of the Mueller investigation (much like the Nunes memo or the HSPCI report) but in it one can reverse engineer some key actual data points. Mueller used his tried and true technique of grabbing dudes at the airport (this one at JFK).
Third, this same book reveals that Mueller interviewed Ivan Timofeev (whom is mentioned in court filings as connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was connected to Papado through Mifsud).
What this shows is that while Joseph Mifsud has gone missing for several months, Mueller has been quite busy finding those connected to him. I think Mifsud went missing as a consequence of these interviews. He, I suspect, has been esconded by the Russian intel services to keep him away from Mueller.
Then thereās the matter of Micheal Avenattiās reveal that a representative of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a sovereign wealth fund with multiple divisions and working groups, showed up at Trump Tower hanging out with Cohen, Flynn, Perry (and likely Trump) just a few days after the Rosneft sale closed. The Steele Dossier alleges that Putin offered Trump a cut of the sale of Rosneft. That sale was completed just after the election. Putin needed the money to cover a budget shortfall for the Russian government, but one can assume that he pockets a share of any transaction done by the government and then uses it as a slush fund for political and personal purposes. Here, it seems quite possible (if not likely) that Putin took home a piece of the Rosneft purchase price paid by QIA/Glencore, and then used it to dole out financial rewards/incentives to his friends, including Donald Trump.
QIA āpurchasedā 19% of Rosneft and partnered with Swiss investment giant, Glencore, bought 0.5 percent. Less than a year later, in Sept. 2017, QIA/Glencore were trying to unload 14% of to CEFC China Energy Co, but the deal broke down.
Iāve read elsewhere that there is an understanding that QIA/Glencore would sell their stake back to Russia (which would make the purchase essentially a bridge loan enabling Putin to skim off the top).
That Avenatti is getting this evidence tells me that the Mueller investigation has largely been following up on all of the leads identified in the Steele Dossier and has found credible evidence to support its claims.
For the myriad of potential investigatory threads and crimes, I think the primary one will be the Russian election conspiracy thread.
āPeace Plan-Pushing Ukrainian Pol.ā A few decades ago, that was known as Time-Style (not Times Style, as in the NYT, but Time, Henry Luceās rag), well parodied by S.J. Perelman when he described himself as ārapier-thin, button-cute and pauper-poor is S.J. Perelman.ā
By the way, Perelman was the funniest writer in the English language during the 20th century. Look him up.
Reasonable in the sense that I am pretty sure that there probably is an actual majority for staying part of Russia in Crimea.
Letās not forget that the Soviet Union had been around for a good while, and these borders are pretty arbitrary.