sberbank
Since the April 4th, we all have been enjoying the "revelations" coming from OCCRD, an organization funded by the George Soros' Open Society Foundation and the USAID, a front for C.I.A. operations and operatives. In brief, they claim that people known to President Putin personally shifted $2bln though some offshore shell companies to avoid sanctions on financial translations with Russia that were imposed by Obama regime.

For several years we have witnessing a frantic search for the "Putin's fortune" in banks and companies around the world. In 2014 it was estimated $400bln. In 2015 it shrunk to $40bln. This year, it's meager $2bln they are now talking about.

What all of these American and European small time neo-liberal crooks don't understand is that Vladimir Putin thanks to his work to restore Russia has already become a figure comparable to Saint Vladimir and Peter the Great. We don't need to wait for centuries to recognize his place in history.

The West refuses to understand that Vladimir Putin has already taken everything in Russia, but not in terms of money or wealth, but in terms of responsibility.

Imagine a feeling to be an intricate part of something historically great. This is a feeling similar to being in a presence of God. It cannot be replaced by the act of counting money.

Let's look back a bit: In 2011, Reuters expressed much concern about at the time Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's efforts to return Russian money from offshore.
Dec 19 - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday decried the illicit use of offshore structures by Russian state businesses to spirit cash out of the country and ordered them to return from the "offshore shadows".

The comments by Putin, who has launched a bid to return to the Kremlin next March, mark his clearest indication to date of concern that accelerating capital flight is being partly driven by corrupt schemes run by managers at state businesses.

The wide-ranging nature of Putin's comments is likely to raise concern among publicly traded firms in sectors such as metals and mining, telecommunications, power, real estate development and retail that are owned via offshore structures.

Since Putin first became president in 2000, the government has pressed companies to return to Russia, suspecting them of using their offshore status to minimise their tax exposure.
British tabloid Reuters referred to a famous meeting Putin held with the heads of the energy companies, and the government officials in December 19th, 2011.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused a number of heads of Russian energy companies of money laundering through offshore areas and of creating corruption schemes. [source]
Putin's speech at a session of a government commission for advancing power engineering held at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro-electric power plant on December 19th, 2011


Uploaded on Dec 20, 2011
The outflow of financial resources from the energy sector is intolerable. It's time to put an end to the offshore legacy of the era of wild privatizations. Otherwise, we can't have a healthy business climate in the country. We can't even talk about being trustworthy.

I request the Energy Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry, industry agencies within two months to check companies with a government stake such as Gazprom, Vnesheconombank, and it wouldn't hurt Sberbank either. Bring all things to an end.

Returning the Russian economy's strategic sectors from the offshore shadows to the national economy is our priority task for the next period.
Reminder that Putin is talking about the state-owned companies, and the companies with the state of a shareholder.

Putin:
It's a shame that the reason, the push for this inspection didn't come from the Ministry of Energy, it didn't come from FSB, it came from citizens. Everywhere, all over the country, people are talking about the problems in the energy sphere.

Altogether we have check 352 heads of energy companies, 162 officials are affiliated with 355 commercial companies. Practically every other. These is in addition to those they are officially running. We discovered that in some cases the entire regions of the Russian Federation have fallen under control of some family clans. For example, the energy system of the Northern Caucasus region mostly is being controlled by one family, the family of Mr. Kaitov.

[In 2013, the family of Kaitov was "cut off" the energy sources, was under investigation and currently many members of this "family" are locked up]

How was it done? Consumers were remitting money, paying for the services of the affiliate companies, who act as agents of the energy producers. Next step, this money being turn into cash via multiple shell companies, or directly being taken by the family members.

In some cases, the real shareholders of the companies that distributes energy are not known. Everything is hidden offshore. Meanwhile these distributors take up to 67% of the market, ladies and gentlemen. It's, of course, our common problem. In 2008-2010 profits from the selling energy grew, do you know how much? It's up 279%. Only for them... For the organizations distributors. They also raised their dividends to shareholders by 312%. Considering, that the essence the business model of these companies is collection of utility (electric and natural gas) payments from the consumers. I think that Energy Ministry should find simpler and transparent methods to organize this kind of work.

But this is not enough... After they collect money from the consumers... The schemes are built in such way that money flows through offshore companies and there they leave part of the money, then money comes back here... What kind of work is this?

We should put an end to the offshore heritage of the wild epoch of privatization. If we want to create a normal investment climate in the country, there is no doubt that we cannot tolerate offshore schemes, primarily in the infrastructure industries.
In 2011, under the law companies were allowed to keep their profits abroad, but only after taxes are paid in Russia, which those companies were avoiding doing.

"However, the removal of funding from industry through offshore businesses is unacceptable."

Putin also demanded that top managers of state-owned energy businesses declare their assets as well as their relatives' incomes. If questionable connections are revealed, such officials should be replaced, he declared.

The entire meeting is here December 19, 2011

Five years later...

Moment of Schadenfreude, skadefryd, and þórðargleði for Soros and the US Treasury.

Who benefits from the Panama Papers Leak?
"The ICIJ is funded by the Adessium Foundation, Open Society Foundations, The Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Fritt Ord Foundation, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Ford Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and Waterloo Foundation.

"The "Panama Papers" were also supported (funded) by USAID, the United States Government agency which is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid."

"USAID estimated its budget for "media strengthening programs in over 30 countries" at $40 million annually, including aiding "independent media organizations and bloggers in over a dozen countries," In Ukraine before the coup, USAID offered training in "mobile phone and website security," which sounds a bit like an operation to thwart the local government's intelligence gathering, an ironic position for the U.S. with its surveillance obsession, including prosecuting whistleblowers based on evidence that they talked to journalists."

"USAID, working with billionaire George Soros's Open Society, also funds the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which engages in "investigative journalism" that usually goes after governments that have fallen into disfavor with the United States and then are singled out for accusations of corruption. The USAID-funded OCCRP also collaborates with Bellingcat, an online investigative website founded by blogger Eliot Higgins."

"The primary targets: Vladimir Putin, Bashar Al-Assad, Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the Argentine leader Mauricio Macri, the King of Saudi Arabia, and a sister of the former King of Spain."

"Another target is the Russian Sberbank, whose U.S. investment banking branch recently enlisted the services of the Podesta Group. According to its lobbying registration form, the firm will work on banking, trade, and foreign relations issues. One of the three lobbyists working on the account is Tony Podesta, a bundler for the Clinton campaign and the brother of campaign chairman John Podesta, who co-founded the firm."

Comment: Wikileaks had the following to say regarding the Panama Papers:






"Panama Papers" Casualty in brief:

- Iceland's embattled Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunlaugsson has resigned.
- Head Of "Transparency International" In Chile Resigns After "Panama Papers" Revelations
- Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday has demanded resignation from Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif
- Shots Fired: Wikileaks Accuses Panama Papers' Leaker Of Being "Soros-Funded, Soft-Power Tax Dodge"

Meanwhile in Russia....

The Russian Audit Chamber knows more about the grey offshore schemes of Russian business than the authors of an ICFJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) report published on April 4, Oksana Dmitriyeva, a member of the Russian State Duma Committee for Budget and Taxes, said.

She called for bringing the investigation into all facts of withdrawing finance abroad to the end; initiate criminal proceedings and punish appropriate bureaucrats.