Because Russia needs to be punished for not donating to the Clinton Foundation!

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I've seen a lot of name dropping about shareblue, but haven't seen much to really understand what it is. Is it basically another CTR?

CTR rebranded. Kinda like how Comcast rebranded themselves as "Xfinity" because the name "Comcast" had such a bad stigma to it, same with CTR changing to ShariaBlue

Huh, TIL.

This is a complete strawman. No one has argued for worse relations with Russia. Even Obama and Hillary wanted to 'reset' and improve relations with Russia (which they utterly failed at).

The concern is that Trump may be compromised by Russia. Whether it's through blackmail (more and more items in The Dossier are being confirmed), or just good ole fashioned bribery (receiving kickbacks from Russian oil oligarchs for lifting sanctions). This should be a real concern for all Americans.

Or is your argument that even if he is compromised, we could benefit from it? If so, then I don't even know where to start.

Which items in the dossier were confirmed?

Nothing worthy of note apparently m

If the FBI needs a witness, I can personally confirm there is a Ritz Carlton in Moscow. Beyond that, Moby says the rest is legit too...

This should be a real concern for all Americans.

Please elaborate on some of the facts so I can show my conspiracy friends at work.

How about the fact that the dossier claimed that Trump and his associates where offered 19% stake in the Russian oil company Rosenft in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Russia. (Pg 30).

And of course, completely unrelated, Rosneft sold 19.5% of it's company to undisclosed parties. Their largest privatization since the 1990's.

PDF says "Trump Intelligence Allegations", I said facts in my reply, it's been posted here already today under "gee, I have this hunch,what do you think?" angle.

Everything listed above is a fact. The information of the deal was collected by private intelligence firm. The company sold a large amount of it's holding to a private, and not fully known entity.

If you're not willing to even recognize the possible significance of the connection, then I don't quite know what to say.

Everything listed above is a fact.

Who says that, please, a viable source within the US Govt., something other than MSM showing it's a fact, I'm not finding it.

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You're just being nonsensical, and moving the goal posts now.

The mental gymnastics you're doing to defend God Emperor Trump is just comical.

They have been trying sell this stake for a while.

My guess is the undisclosed party is Turkey and/or Saudi Arabia.

Check this out:

> The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plan was a "direct slap in the face" to Qatar's plans. No wonder Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a failed attempt to bribe Russia to switch sides, told President Vladmir Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in Saudi Arabia's hands and will "not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports", according to diplomatic sources. When Putin refused, the Prince vowed military action

Wikipedia is okay but overly-summarizes a vastly complicated issue.

Maybe the Saudis are giving up on their threats now that the war looks to be going Assad's way. So now they get a leveraged deal for 19% the company with 25% down but they won't say this publicly or maybe ISIS turns back on their funders. They also aren't on the best of terms with Qatar publicly.

If the above is the case, who loses out the most?

I have no idea how Trump and team fit into all of this as it appears a lot of this was in motion before the election. Doesn't mean turn a blind eye to the rest of the Russian connections - maybe they are adjunctly related as a Plan B.

One easy way to identify propaganda is when there is a major story like this energy deal (regardless of Trump), that doesn't even link back to it's own previous reporting on the subject over a year ago.

But we also shouldn't forget about Glencore and it's history of bypassing sanctions.

Not undisclosed. It's a joint purchase by Switzerland based Glencore and (what really blows my mind) Qatar investment authority. Qia put in 2b or so and Glencore put in ~300m

For one: Glencore contributed only 300 million euros of equity to the deal, less than 3 percent of the purchase price, which it said in a statement on Dec. 10 had bought it an "indirect equity interest" limited to just 0.54 percent of Rosneft.

In addition, public records show the ownership structure of the stake ultimately includes a Cayman Islands company whose beneficial owners cannot be traced.

Not undisclosed

Not undisclosed .

Glencore (Switzerland) = 300m Qatar investment authority (Qatar) = 2.5b Banca Intesa (Italy) =5.2b Assortment of Russian banks = 2.2b

The real corruption is the fact that Russia claimed they had the money before they secured the European financing. Effectively laundering billions of dollars of dark money

Read the article. The front companies are known, the ultimate beneficiaries are not.

But pre-election they wouldn't stop saying "if Trump was president we'll end up going to war with Russia!"

I'd love to see any commentary claiming that.

Trump was consistently soft on Russia during the campaign, he even made Pence look like a fool during the debates by completely undercutting him on whether they'd be tough on Russia in Syria. Let's also not forget that it was Trump that softened the GOP platform on Russia and Ukraine.

It was Hillary and her insistence on no-fly-zones that people claimed would start World War III with Russia.

Exactly. OP is misinformed.

The only time anything resembling that statement was made might have been when they were attacking Trump's temperament. Maybe he misconstrued what was being said because they didn't understand the context.

Putin is an ex-KGB thug for sure, but Putin is not Russia any more than Obama or Trump are the US. There is nothing wrong with it. This is all just a witch hunt by the DNC. Go to /r/Libertarian

I think most all of it has to do with putins corruption. He makes ridiculous amounts of money by contracting projects and taking money from it. Example would be the Sochi games. about half way down Russian oligarchs ,putins friends, pad the construction estimates to take the extra money from government loans for themselves (millions of dollars).

Putin also silences his opposition. Yes, we should try and have a better relationship with russia but that doesn't mean that we should be friendly with Putin and the Russian oligarchy

Agreed. Can't be blind about it.

Putin is not very kind to rich shady fucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co8s0egftsc. I wouldn't believe all that is said about the man. ex-KGB yes, but he comes from a very troubling/poor child hood/upbringing and I believe he truly cares about Russia and her people. Of course if Russia prospers, he does as well. Not saying he is a Saint, but much of him is truly not known/taught in the West, because of this Ruskie fear mongering propaganda that has been going on for decades.

It's the issue of him using his position as president to get rich! Here in America we call that an ethical violation because it opens the door up to being bought. Crazy scenario, let's say that trump, for instance, suddenly raised the cost of memberships to his resorts, increased the rent in his buildings and started to appoint people who have bailed him out in the past. People would become suspicious about these actions, justifiably, because it would appear that he is using his position to increase his wealth.

I agree, but the thing is, there is no actual evidence he is worth the billions the West says he is. This is curious to me. I've looked into, and there is no hard evidence. Is he a millionaire? Maybe. A billionaire? Not seeing it. Something aint right about the reporting. Seems like more propaganda of some sorts. Watch a few documentaries on the man. He's a very curious individual. Almost like he wants people to think x, when it's really y. Could be inherited from his childhood and days in the KGB. At the end of the day, idk... Who the fuck knows, lol? Crazy ass world/times we live in...

Very true! I doubt we'll ever truly know..

I doubt we'll ever truly know..

Aye. We will never truly know the full truth about so much, which saddens me. I'm a person who wants to know the whole truth.

I would bet it's hard to find any person in Congress or above that has not become more wealthy while in office.

This is a 10 minute video that explains the background:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXpIfZqg8zA

No Ruskies 2?

A improvement of relations would be a great thing.

Its all about pipelines.

Michael Bay needs a reason to make the next "Red Dawn" flick...that's it, the only reason for all this theater.

War makes some people very rich, but not the average citizen.

What would Jesus of Nazareth do?

Americans hate change

America needs an enemy to keep the military industrial complex chugging along and its economy humming. Every Time there is a threat of a recession america goes to war.

Years of 'official' russia hate has actually made people through this propaganda hate russia. By changing this, along with more highlights of lies told by america, will further reduce the credibility of the government, the old government the military industrial complex influenced government. Spanner in the works.

Becoming friends with a long time "enemy" means USA is somewhat declaring that it is no longer the ONE TRUE SUPERPOWER OF THE EARTH TO RULE THEM ALL. Which is once again spanner in the works.