McCain enabled Russian oligarchs' takeover of Montenegro: The Nation

[amborin]

<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081020/ames_berman>

(i posted this last week but think it deserves more attention)


"McCain has repeatedly emphasized his willingness to stand up to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as proof that only he possesses the fortitude and judgment to become the next leader of the free world.

In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, McCain lashed out at Putin and the Russian oligarchs, who, "rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power... reassembling the old Russian Empire."

McCain rushed to publicly support the Georgian republic during its recent conflict with Russia and amplified his threat to expel Moscow from the G-8 club of major powers."

<snip>

" despite McCain's tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russia's oligarchy--indeed, they have promoted the Kremlin's geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor.

The most notable example is the tale of how McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, advanced what became a key victory for the Kremlin: gaining control over the small but strategically important country of Montenegro.

...Davis and his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, received several million dollars to help run Montenegro's independence referendum campaign of 2006. The terms of the agreement were never disclosed to the public, but top Montenegrin officials told the US diplomats that Davis's work was underwritten by powerful Russian business interests connected to the Kremlin and operating in Montenegro...

<snip>

Russian oligarchs control huge chunks of the country's industry and prized coastline--and Russians exert a powerful influence over the country's political culture.

"Montenegro is almost a new Russian colony, as rubles flow in to buy property and business in the tiny state," Denis MacShane, Tony Blair's former Europe minister, wrote in Newsweek in June. The takeover of Montenegro has been a Russian geostrategic victory--quietly accomplished, paradoxically enough, with the help of McCain and his top aides. "

Rick Davis introduced Deripaska to McCain at a villa in Davos, Switzerland. They met again seven months later, at a reception in Montenegro celebrating McCain's birthday, as reported in the Washington Post


big long article continues.....

disgusting....

shows how McCain enabled russian oligarchs' takeover of Montenegro....etc....

[rockymountaindem]

1. Wow

I had no idea that McCain's people were/are in bed with guys like Deripaska. I'm hardly surprised, though. Thanks for posting.

[grassfed]

2. I fear for Obama

The Russian Oligarchs and their US partners are relentless and ultra-violent. They will not passively relinquish one cent of their stolen wealth. Georgia and Montenegro are just two examples of the deep corruption in the McCain gang of Neocons, arms smugglers, and subversive operators of all kinds.

Two of the few "Abramoff Montenegro" google links not scrubbed:
Ney and Abramoff, whom DeLay once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends," crossed paths as early as 1996. That year Ney took a trip to Montenegro sponsored by a foundation that had links to Abramoff, who was a lobbyist for Montenegro.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701918_pf.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JZS/is_3_22/ai_n24981800/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1

Seeing Russia the Abramoff way: a corrupt deal brokered by Jack Abramoff led Tom DeLay to sell a critical foreign-aid vote to the Russian mob
The IMF bailout was arranged to stave off the utter collapse of the "post-Soviet" Russian economy, which had been brought about through a corrupt "privatization" scheme "paid for in large part by U.S. Taxpayers," in the words of Time Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier.

Some 145 million Russians received U.S.-subsidized vouchers "for shares in some 15,000 large state enterprises," recalls Meier. "But before long, it all started to go bad--really bad. Privatization began with the vouchers--but who would get the factories and mines was more often than not understood long beforehand. In many regions, the so-called Red Directors would retain the controlling stakes in their old enterprises." This outcome was not accidental; instead, it was the result of a carefully laid plan. On August 23, 1990, Nikolai Kruchin, administrative director of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), issued a document entitled "Emergency Measures to Organize Commercial and Foreign Economic Activity for the Party," which outlined the fashion in which the Soviet ruling elite would supervise "privatization" efforts. According to Kruchin, "confidentiality will be required and in some cases anonymous firms will have to be used disguising the direct ties to the CPSU. Obviously the final goal will be to systematically create structures of an 'invisible' party economy."

Anonymous firms and other shell companies--including illicitly chartered banks--proliferated in Russia during the mid-1990s. Huge amounts of money were flowing into the "invisible" Communist Party economy, and nothing was coming out. The "Red Directors" bought up--or simply stole--everything of value, and spirited their profits away into offshore havens. Meanwhile, Russia's public debt was soaring as a result of extravagant welfare promises made during Boris Yeltsin's 1996 reelection campaign--promises that resonated with hard-pressed Russian citizens who were left, in many instances, even more destitute than they had been prior to the "collapse" of communism.
The oligarchs running Russia's "invisible economy" turned to the IMF for yet another bailout; some elements of the oligarchy, such as NaftaSib, worked with the likes of Jack Abramoff to bring key congressmen, including Tom DeLay, onboard.

Enter Abramoff

The proposed bailout met some resistance. In the Senate, "Phil Gramm had actually succeeded in getting the votes necessary to nix new bailout money for the IMF, and it was Chuck Hagel who broke ranks and squirreled the deal," former Wall Street Journal Moscow correspondent Anne Williamson recalled to THE NEW AMERICAN.
The party-aligned Russian oligarchs "were using Israeli banks to move their ill-gotten gains out of Russia" at the time Abramoff was brought onboard as a lobbyist, reports Williamson. This was possible because "Israel had no money laundering law prior to 2000.... Abramoff, working his Israeli connections, probably met the NaftaSib people somewhere along the way, and--of course--they were happy to play whatever role necessary in the wake of the collapse to nab DeLay--the prize Abramoff was offering up."

[amborin]

3. here it is again....second posting