CarwilBJ's Twitter Archive

With the offlining of gas supply pipelines and divestment from the Russian oil sector as two examples, it's worth thinking through how *some* sanctions are intrinsically progressive. (a second example follows…) @JavierBlas/1498354014282555397
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 2 Favorites 2022 Feb 28 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Think about the oligarch-targeting sanctions for a minute… For at least four decades, there's been a revolving cycle among Western-backed privatization policies, private banking, and real estate.
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood 0

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Foreign leaders (and their friends and family) who loot their countries were offered a red carpet to stash their stolen cash in Western banks. For example, the brother of Mexican president Carlos Salinas: nytimes.com/1996/06/05/world/peso-trail-special-report-mexican-mover-shaker-got-red-carpet-citibank.html
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…in reply to @CarwilBJ
The looting itself often came via accepting bribes from contractors and companies seeking to privatize state industries.
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…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Once a niche industry, private banking exploded, as have the creation of shell companies in tax havens, designed to receive this loot. A sequence of investigative data dumps reveal this… icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers
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…in reply to @CarwilBJ
In Russia, there has been absolutely massive outflows of capital over the past quarter century: themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/13/russia-lost-750b-to-capital-flight-since-1994-bloomberg-a64790
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood 0

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
And a stunning concentration of wealth: 98 Russian billionaires hold a combined wealth of $421 billion. That tops all Russian citizens’ bank deposits, which totaled 27.7 trillion rubles ($420.7 billion) in 2019. themoscowtimes.com/2019/03/06/98-russian-billionaires-hold-more-wealth-than-russians-combined-savings-a64720
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood +12 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Russian billionaire bank accounts are largely outside Russia, as are their vacations, forms of conspicuous consumption, etc.
On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood 0

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Who benefits from these ultrarich elites? Often Western banks, resorts, and luxury brands, but above all, real estate.
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood +4 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Two images of the beneficiaries… supertall towers on Central Park and the Trump Tower chain. ny.curbed.com/2017/10/20/16511458/bill-de-blasio-russia-real-estate-buzzfeed theguardian.com/cities/2019/feb/05/super-tall-super-skinny-super-expensive-the-pencil-towers-of-new-yorks-super-rich newyorkyimby.com/2017/10/new-look-at-supertall-262-fifth-avenue-midtown-south.html
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood 0

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Whether or not we call this money laundering, this circulation of wealth has distorting effects in our cities and our politics.
Permalink On twitter.com ♻️ 1 Retweets ❤️ 1 Favorite 2022 Feb 28 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Is this a specifically national concern unique to Russia? Absolutely not. To the extent to which astronomical wealth can be used to buy into US/Western politics, this is a general problem.
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…in reply to @CarwilBJ
And as long as our political system is open to the highest bidder, the most unequal countries will have elites who use their money to buy off our politicians.
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…in reply to @CarwilBJ
On the flip side, the richer part of world has created a system that welcomes and rewards the elites of other countries when they steal money from the public. This is a dangerous feedback loop, for both rich and poor countries.
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…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Like many other systemic problems, there is an opportunity now to see a larger problem with some moral clarity, and perhaps make systemic—rather than solely anti-Russian—responses.
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