Did Trump Agree to Lift Russia Sanctions in Exchange for 19% of Russian Energy Giant Rosneft?

[jonathan]

Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier

"Steele had spent more than twenty years in M.I.6, most
of it focusing on Russia. For three years, in the nineties,
he spied in Moscow under diplomatic cover. Between
2006 and 2009, he ran the service’s Russia desk, at
its headquarters, in London. He was fluent in Russian,
and widely considered to be an expert on the country."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier



GQ

What Else Does the Donald Trump–Russia Dossier Tell Us?

(excerpts)


On December 29, 2016, Barack Obama announced that he would be ramping up
sanctions and kicking 35 Russian diplomats out of the United States in
response to reports of Russian interference and meddling in the 2016
election. Historically, any diplomatic action or expulsion has warranted
an equal and opposite tit-for-tat response. That same day, a high school
friend sent me a CNN Breaking News tweet reporting that an unnamed U.S.
official had told CNN that Putin planned on responding by shutting down
the Anglo-American School of Moscow. My old school.

Then something unusual happened: The very next day, the Kremlin came
forward saying that it had no such plans. Moreover, in one final act of
defiance against Obama, Putin announced that he would hold off on any
and all negotiations until then–President-elect Trump took office.


Earlier that month on December 7,(2016) Russian President Vladimir Putin
and his right-hand man, Igor Sechin, announced that they had
successfully sold a 19.5 percent stake in Russia’s largest state-owned
oil company, Sechin’s Rosneft, for a whopping 10.2 billion euros (or $11
billion). Sechin bragged that it was the largest privatization in global
oil and gas in 2016.

One of Vladimir Putin’s closest deputies, Sechin is ostensibly an oil
tsar whose salary has afforded him a tremendous amount of clout. He has
a hostile relationship with the press and has sued multiple outlets for
publishing stories about his lifestyle. In the past, Rosneft has held
extensive business ties with ExxonMobil—the very same ExxonMobil that
until recently was headed up by now Secretary of State (and recipient of
Putin’s Order of Friendship) Rex Tillerson. Exxon and Rosneft had
arranged for a $500 billion offshore-drilling venture as recently as
2012, but Obama’s 2014 sanctions during the Ukraine crisis clamped down
on business dealings with Russia, effectively kneecapping the deal and
costing Exxon $1 billion in the process. Needless to say, crude barons
like Tillerson and Sechin both stand to do gangbusters, whether directly
or indirectly, from the lifting of economic sanctions. (It should be
noted that White House cybersecurity adviser Rudy Giuliani’s law firm,
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, also counts Rosneft among its clients.)

One such conversation is the reported July meeting between Sechin and
then–Trump adviser Carter Page, as summed up in the dossier on October
18, 2016. According to the dossier, the Russian oil tsar allegedly
offered the Trump administration a 19 percent stake in Rosneft, on the
condition that Trump lift the aforementioned U.S. sanctions on Russia
upon his taking office.

But who ended up negotiating and buying a stake in Rosneft, which even
the company described as a deal of "unprecedented complexity"?

Russian businessmen also use the term matryoshka to describe the complex
shell companies used by oligarchs in order to pull off convoluted deals.
For example, on paper, the Rosneft deal was brokered by a conglomerate
of shell companies and financial institutions. This reportedly included
several banks, namely Italy’s Intesa; the Qatar Investment Authority
(QIA); and Glencore, a U.K.-Swiss trading house. But Glencore's
300-million euro contribution accounts for a relatively measly 3 percent
of the total sale price, which earned the traders a .54 percent stake in
Rosneft—think of that as a brokerage fee. That leaves a roughly 19
percent stake in the company—the same figure reportedly thrown around by
Sechin in the Steele dossier and the same figure touted by Putin in his
post-privatization public statements, which others have argued could be
a coincidence.

Furthermore, a quarter of the funds (roughly 2.2 billion euros) is still
left unaccounted for. The series of matryoshkas used to complete this
deal is dizzying and includes a company based in the Cayman Islands,
where local laws effectively prevent reporters from tracking down and
revealing the identity of the owners. A company called QHG Cayman Ltd.
was declared as a partner just nine days after the privatization deal
was announced and just eleven days after QHG Holding, another nesting
doll, was formed.

Could President Trump's refusal to release his tax returns contain the
final matryoshka? It stands to reason that the contents could either
prove or effectively disprove 45’s possible involvement and collusion
with the Russian state. After all, if Trump’s tax returns list any of
the banks in the consortium amongst his lenders, it might be a sign that
he effectively traded American foreign policy for cold, hard cash.

https://www.gq.com/story/trump-russia-dossier-matryoshka

[David E. Powell]

The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.

Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.

[jonathan]

On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>
> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>

The reported bribe offer happened before the election
and as the article states no one can track where
the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
by hiding his tax returns that could expose
the transaction.



--

[Fred J. McCall]

jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Fri, 4 May 2018 20:15:37
-0400:

Your delusions are not facts.


--
"Ordinarily he is insane. But he has lucid moments when he is
only stupid."
-- Heinrich Heine

[David E. Powell]

1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.

2. Sales of large shares of high profile Energy Companies are hard to hide. Reports on major owners of stock in publicly traded companies are published in their Annual Reports every year. These are both reported to governments involved and to every shareholder in the company. Privately owned companies report who owns what percentage to the Government every year. If any Americans owned a large percentage of said company, it would have to report said ownership to the U.S. Government under law. So would the owner, especially because there are Foreign Tax Credits issued to those paying U.S. Income Tax who have paid Foreign Tax as well. The Government would be very interested if someone had income they did not report, and if the person were paying other taxes on the income that they could take off U.S. Federal tax, and State tax in whatever state they are living in, they would want that deduction.

3. After Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President, he began a Process to put his money and assets in trust. His Family is mainly running the business end, but stocks and cash holdings are most likely in a Blind Trust. This is to prevent Presidents from making decisions based on their own financial holdings. The staff at GQ, which advertises itself as a magazine for professional individuals, should know all of these things.

4. If we want to talk U.S Politics and Foreign Oil Companies, how about the son of former U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden? Hunter Biden was hired by a Ukrainian Natural Gas Company following the 2014 change of Government in Kiev. I don't recall GQ making "collusion" allegations against Joe Biden. I also don't notice a mention of this an the recent GQ article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html

<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html>

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27403003

<http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27403003>

I do notice this excerpt from the GQ Story, talking about Steele's Background:


"Steele is said to be the first president of the Cambridge Union to invite a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization to speak. And he presided over numerous high-profile political debates, including one in which the proposition that President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies had hurt the U.K. carried the house."

> --

[jonathan]

On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
> On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>>>
>>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>>
>> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
>> and as the article states no one can track where
>> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
>> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
>> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
>> the transaction.
>
> 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
>

The bribe was to Trump.

> 2. Sales of large shares of high profile Energy Companies are hard to hide. Reports on major owners of stock in publicly traded companies are published in their Annual Reports every year.

You didn't read the article, the transactions were deliberately
made as complicated and difficult to trace as possible, a
Russian specialty. And this bribe report happened to coincide
with Trump going from ..."I'd be happy to release my taxes once
the (never ending) audit is over"....to...."You'll see my taxes
over my dead body".

Gee, what a coincidence.

[Fred J. McCall]

jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Sat, 5 May 2018 19:26:34
-0400:

>On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
>> On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>>> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>>>>
>>>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>>>
>>> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
>>> and as the article states no one can track where
>>> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
>>> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
>>> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
>>> the transaction.
>>
>> 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
>>
>
>The bribe was to Trump.
>

Any evidence for this preposterous claim? Yeah, I thought not.

[jonathan]

On 5/6/2018 2:52 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
> jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Sat, 5 May 2018 19:26:34
> -0400:
>
>> On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>> On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>>>> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>>>>>
>>>>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>>>>
>>>> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
>>>> and as the article states no one can track where
>>>> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
>>>> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
>>>> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
>>>> the transaction.
>>>
>>> 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
>>>
>>
>> The bribe was to Trump.
>>
>
> Any evidence for this preposterous claim? Yeah, I thought not.
>
>

There's plenty of circumstantial evidence of Trump's
corruption. We'll all have to wait for the Mueller
and Cohen investigations to see the facts.

Trump's obsessive lack of criticizing Putin is
clear evidence Trump is hiding something dramatic.
And Trump using every single method of obstructing
and undermining the investigation with relentless
guilt-ridden zeal is clear evidence Trump is
hiding something dramatic.

An innocent person doesn't act that way, only
a very guilty person.







--

[Fred J. McCall]

jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Sun, 6 May 2018 08:25:39
-0400:

>On 5/6/2018 2:52 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
>> jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Sat, 5 May 2018 19:26:34
>> -0400:
>>
>>> On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>> On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>>>>> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>>>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>>>>>
>>>>> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
>>>>> and as the article states no one can track where
>>>>> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
>>>>> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
>>>>> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
>>>>> the transaction.
>>>>
>>>> 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The bribe was to Trump.
>>>
>>
>> Any evidence for this preposterous claim? Yeah, I thought not.
>>
>

>There's plenty of circumstantial evidence ...
>

In other words, no, you have no evidence other than your delusions.

<snip Jonthy LoonSpew>

[jonathan]

Trump is the living, breathing personification
of a guilty conscience....


"A guilty conscience is the guilt feeling that comes along with
being aware of having done something wrong. Some signs of a
person having a guilty conscience are actions such as
lashing out upon others, creating diversions, using
avoidance and the changing of subjects.

When one seems to *judge others a lot* this is a good sign
that they are hiding behind their judgements from something
they did in which they wish not anyone know. Perhaps a
better question to ask is how might one avoid having a
guilty conscience?

If you listen carefully to someone who is being *highly judgemental*
of others, and you happen to know this person fairly well, you
will notice that their judgements are actually highly
accurate descriptions of that persons own short comings.

Hence why the saying goes, “to judge another is to judge oneself”.
Careful! Because when you judge you are actually giving away
your deepest most personal issues."



https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-guilty-conscience-What-are-some-signs-of-this

[Fred J. McCall]

jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Sun, 6 May 2018 17:17:20
-0400:

Once again, your delusions are not facts.

<snip LoonSpew>

[David E. Powell]

On Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 7:26:35 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
> On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
> > On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
> >> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
> >>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
> >>>
> >>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
> >>
> >> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
> >> and as the article states no one can track where
> >> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
> >> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
> >> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
> >> the transaction.
> >
> > 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
> >
>
> The bribe was to Trump.

Please post proof that such a bribe happened.

> > 2. Sales of large shares of high profile Energy Companies are hard to hide. Reports on major owners of stock in publicly traded companies are published in their Annual Reports every year.
>
> You didn't read the article, the transactions were deliberately
> made as complicated and difficult to trace as possible, a
> Russian specialty.

There are still ways to check, given that publicly traded companies have to inform shareholders of who they pay massive amounts of money to. With American Companies, or Foreign ones that file records for American Shareholders, this is often found in the Annual Report or Form 10-K. My only point was that hiding such a transfer is pretty tough. Even the Russian Oligarchs' data on ownership gets out there. In fact, if there is one Putin hallmark, it is being blatantly obvious in their machinations to rub things in. There would be major red flags. (Sorry.)

[Dean Markley]

Jonthy can't post proof because there isn't any. He's just suffering from a bad case of TDS.

[jonathan]

On 5/7/2018 10:41 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
> On Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 7:26:35 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>> On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>> On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>>>> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>>>>>
>>>>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>>>>
>>>> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
>>>> and as the article states no one can track where
>>>> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
>>>> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
>>>> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
>>>> the transaction.
>>>
>>> 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
>>>
>>
>> The bribe was to Trump.
>
> Please post proof that such a bribe happened.
>

When the Mueller investigation is complete, we'll
know then.

Rosneft is controlled by the Russian govt, by Putin.
If you think Putin is the model of fiscal transparency
you're deluded. Russia is a Mafia state and Putin the
Godfather.

Btw, Igor Sechin is the CEO of Rosneft...gee guess what?
I guess the meeting was about the price of vodka?


"Page vehemently denied that he met with Sechin. But in
November, the House Intelligence Committee released a
transcript of Page’s congressional testimony revealing
he had in fact met with other Rosneft officials, including
Sechin's subordinate Andrey Baranov, during a trip to
Moscow in 2016.

According to the dossier, Rosneft officials used their
meeting with Page to push for the U.S. to lift sanctions
on Russia for its support of armed separatist groups
in eastern Ukraine."
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-dossier-one-year-later-what-we-know-777116




But please you show proof of Trump's accusations
that almost every one on Mueller's staff, almost
every one in the Justice Dept, almost everyone
in the FBI are Clinton lovers that'll commit
bias and misconduct...felonies...just to get Trump.

The party of law and order is tearing down any and
all law enforcement agencies to cover up Trump's
misdeeds, that's not just un American, it's
fascism at it's worst.

And how many other accusations has Trump made
with zero evidence? Too many to count.

Fact is Steele is a renowned Russian expert
with perhaps the best connections inside
Russia, and if he says the bribe attempt
happened it almost certainly did.

Even the pee videos have Trump rattled, offering
false alibis when no one even asked him.
So they must be true too.

And God only knows what Trump is hiding in his taxes.
His excuses for not releasing them are as
lame as they come, he's hiding plenty.

His day will come.

>>> 2. Sales of large shares of high profile Energy Companies are hard to hide. Reports on major owners of stock in publicly traded companies are published in their Annual Reports every year.
>>
>> You didn't read the article, the transactions were deliberately
>> made as complicated and difficult to trace as possible, a
>> Russian specialty.
>
> There are still ways to check, given that publicly traded companies have to inform shareholders of who they pay massive amounts of money to. With American Companies, or Foreign ones that file records for American Shareholders, this is often found in the Annual Report or Form 10-K. My only point was that hiding such a transfer is pretty tough. Even the Russian Oligarchs' data on ownership gets out there. In fact, if there is one Putin hallmark, it is being blatantly obvious in their machinations to rub things in. There would be major red flags. (Sorry.)
>

--

[Fred J. McCall]

jonathan <WriteI...@gmail.com> wrote on Mon, 7 May 2018 19:32:56
-0400:

>On 5/7/2018 10:41 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
>> On Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 7:26:35 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>>> On 5/5/2018 8:46 AM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>> On Friday, May 4, 2018 at 8:15:40 PM UTC-4, jonathan wrote:
>>>>> On 5/3/2018 9:59 PM, David E. Powell wrote:
>>>>>> The U.S. Government does not buy or own oil companies.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Oil Companies in the U.S. are not State-Owned. American Capitalism doesn't work like that.
>>>>>
>>>>> The reported bribe offer happened before the election
>>>>> and as the article states no one can track where
>>>>> the money went. The implication is Trump stuffed
>>>>> the mone in his pocket and is hiding the transaction
>>>>> by hiding his tax returns that could expose
>>>>> the transaction.
>>>>
>>>> 1. The U.S. Government does not own Foreign Oil Companies.
>>>>
>>>
>>> The bribe was to Trump.
>>
>> Please post proof that such a bribe happened.
>>
>
>When the Mueller investigation is complete, we'll
>know then.
>

In other words, you have no proof other than wishing real hard. Once

again, your delusions are not facts.

<snip JonthySpew>