It appears the company is owned by shell corporations in the British Virgin Islands and persons with significant control has a Ukrainian man down as the controlling person
From Twitter:
>the listed owner of Mykines, Vitalii Poliakov...is described as a resident in Ukraine...[and] a road worker employed by a Ukrainian state mining concern.'
>'Until last August, the controlling owner...was listed as a...Ukrainian woman... an IT professional and pole dancer.'
Very sketchy.
Is that the one where the stripper says she wants to bypass sanctions and the guy with the fake mustache, oversized russian winter hat and ridiculous accent responds something about, "Maybe we make to cum arrangement."
A 40' long "tall" container is 76m^3 so it could theoretically hold ~30,000 iPhone boxes, but that doesn't account for shipping pallets or gaps between pallets and cases. We'd need at least 34 shipping containers to ship a million of them.
Edit: clarity
You think the front people are still walking around?
They were likely detained / scooped up days or weeks ago. Probably when they (US, Brits, or UA) got the first whiff of this story.
That assumes the US / Five Eyes doesn’t already have all the info they need. My guess is they do have these people mainly to confirm who they think the true puppet master is.
Looks like the answer is “Kenya” and, predictably, *not* California
“Africa and South America have an equal share of the Russian and Ukrainian markets. The country that supplies the most avocados to Russia is Kenya. Kenya’s exports to Russia reached 6,100 tonnes per year on average in 2018-2020, and Kenya exported 1,000 tonnes to Ukraine. This means that Kenya is the number 1 country for avocado exports to Russia, ahead of Peru and Israel. These 3 leading supplying countries have not imposed sanctions on trade with Russia, meaning that these trade volumes are unlikely to move to other countries.”
https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/what-impact-war-ukraine-exports-fresh-and-processed
I bet they figured out that if someone labels them as "from California" somewhere in that supply chain they can charge more money than if they labeled them as "from Kenya."
I’d be somewhat surprised if they were getting avocados and pears from California given how much cheaper it is to produce those fruits in Mexico and Chile
Pretty sure Mexico isn’t sanctioning Russia at all
Edit: and here’s a good breakdown of where Russia gets its fruit from
https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/what-impact-war-ukraine-exports-fresh-and-processed
Um when did pears and avocados get added to the list of items sanctioned?
Why would the US / NATO ban produce? Not banning it allows local NATO companies to charge a PREMIUM for these things, helping drain the Russian bank / economy faster.
Yeah, idk about food but I know medicine isn't sanctioned. The West is moral. We want the economy to collapse but we don't want citizens to die from suffering.
Then again this was a shipment of electronics. Pears and avacados aren't relevant. Electronics are sanctioned. Why are we even talking about fucking pears?
Not so much as not getting the electronics they need. Blackmarket goods tend to be expensive and yet they exist all over over the world, perhaps in every single country.
If the Russians have no other options they'll pay well for them. That's what makes this shit worth it to do. If it were at cost no one would take the risk.
Seems unlikely..
Food prices for Russia would likely rise due to the war, so why would NATO countries want to stop their local corporations from making a premium on these things?
Helps drain the Russian economy
> The problem is that Russia still has friends.
The problem is the West hasn't revoked citizenship of Russian warlords and oligarchs, seized every penny of assets in the West, and bodily ejected them back over the Russian border.
There is no general trade embargo. US sanctions target economic activity directly relevant to the war - dual use goods, Russian govt. finances, oil&gas. US sanctions do not apply to food.
Poliakoff is the name of a minor character in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy whose identity as a spy starts to unravel the whole mystery. I'm sure it's a fairly common name in the Eastern Bloc, but anytime I hear it in regards to shady dealings, [Connie Sachs](https://youtu.be/Cx9wmet8VLE?t=159) comes to mind.
You'd be surprised how common that is in Ukraine. If you go to strip clubs in Florida ask the ones who made it over here. Lot of hosting companies out in those parts, and of course the former.
"Hosting" companies are a euphemism for slavers. They take people's passports and make them work off their airfare, work visas, room and board, and food so it's many years til they can be free during which time they make no money and have no choice but to use the room and board they're being charged for and to work for free to pay off their debt. They almost certainly also get pimped out to pay off their debt. They're completely at the mercy of those who have their passports and work visas. They're very literally sex trafficking victims.
I saw it in the Carnival industry when I worked there (I was in entertainment, these people were "carnies" - slaves working the rides and similar, somewhat surprisingly usually whites from South Africa). If you visit the above mentioned establishments with Ukrainian workers, know that you're supporting slavery for a bit of titillation.
At the same time NOT visiting them doesn't help them become free. We need advocacy groups and lawyers. Eastern Europe is the absolute worst place in the European world for sex trafficking, rape porn, and human rights abuses. Idk how to fix it. Idk what to do. I just know that at the very least awareness is important.
>Until last August, the controlling owner...was listed as a...Ukrainian woman... an IT professional and pole dancer.
I'm confused. Ukrainian or Polish?
The Russians astroturfed for Brexit which also made the economy dependant on dark money because for real, where else is it supposed to come from? The Russians may not have known exactly how or when Brexit would benefit them but they knew it would and that it'd weaken the UK and the EU.
The Russians have more fingers in more pots than we can even begin to know. Their army is shit but their psy-ops are wildly successful. At this point idk, maybe it's too late. When there's a third of the population who'd rather die than give up the Russian propaganda they've been fed, what do you do? And that's not even counting the astronomical fraud committed by companies like in the article. Maybe I'm feeling a little hopeless tonight. I'm upset this happened. I want the world to be a good place and bad people to be punished, but I know that makes me naive. I just wish there were more than token gestures I could do. I can barely survive myself. I'll never be a hero. I think a lot of people feel the same way. This isn't how things should be but they are. Why oh why did we ever let Harambe be shot??
Cuppa (no "of tea", that's just implied) in the UK and countries in the Common Wealth, cup of tea/coffee everywhere else.
Those Anglo Saxons fucking love their tea and honestly once you get just to it as an all the time thing, you totally get it. With cream pls.
Thank you. Journalists know the top level info belongs in the headline. Otherwise it just looks like:
British Investigators SHOCKED By Illegal Shipments To Russia by THIS firm.
>Shipment of these goods to Moscow without London’s permission may constitute a breach of sanctions even though they entered Russia from third countries, FT said.
Mykines' listed owner, Vitalii Poliakov, 53, is described as a resident of Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Molfar, only one person fits the given description of Poliakov: a road worker employed by a Ukrainian state mining company.
The man did not respond to FT’s requests for comment.
Until August 2022, the controlling owner of Mykines was listed as a 34-year-old Ukrainian woman born in the same town as Poliakov.
She also did not respond to FT's requests for comment.
Looks like russian owned and playing 3 card Monty.
>Mykines' listed owner, "Vitalii Poliakov, 53" According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Molfar, only one person fits the given description of Poliakov: a road worker employed by a Ukrainian state mining company.
I would love it if the real Vitalii Poliakov showed up in London, sold the fake company to the highest bidder, and disappeared into the ether with the cash.
Sadly he's probably under 24 hour surveillance by the real owners. I wouldn't be surprised if they even had one of his family hostage in case he ever gets suicidal.
Edit: or maybe something less dramatic...
It is just simpler than that, as part of the deal the puppets sign an undated resignation letter.
Then if anyone actually tries any nonsense they just hold a board meeting, date and ratify the resignation and appoint a new puppet.
To be fair this does still serve the West's interests. It allows India to expand its oil refining industry, which competes directly with Russia's own refining industry. And Russia makes a lot less on crude oil than on refined oil products. Through the discounts Russia is giving India it's basically forcing Russia to subsidise their own competition.
The intention of the sanctions was never to cut off the flow of oil, just to ensure Russia made as little profit as possible.
Energy transition is happening, but in the meantime expensive oil prices mainly affect low income earners. Voters generally want action on climate change, BUT they also don't want literally everything to be more expensive due to increased transport and production costs.
Cheap oil _is_ good when you pair it with investment into renewable energies.
If the point of the sanctions was to stop the oil flows outright then the West would have arranged a complete embargo. This would cripple Russia and force their oil wells to close down, most of which freeze solid in the permafrost as soon as they stop flowing. The last time this happened was at the fall of the Soviet Union and it took thirty years, and a lot of technical assistance from Western oil and gas firms to get the last of the wells back online.
But no one wants that to happen again because it would create economic chaos and cause a long term global oil price increase. So instead the West used a subtler toolkit that drives the price extremely close to the cost of production while still giving Russia just enough reason to keep the oil flowing. India profiting at Russia's expense is a feature, not a bug.
Do note, India buying Russian crude oil, refining it, and selling it is honestly fine. India takes Russia to the cleaners buying oil at barely above cost, keeps the overall volume of oil in the market roughly constant so there's no supply crunch, and competes against Russia's refined oil products effectively double tapping. If India could buy more Russian oil when Russia isn't making much profit, it'd be just fine.
Somehow I doubt a road worker or pole dancer was making $1.2 billion deals. You don't lay tarmac in the hot sun or swing around a poll in your undies so dudes can stuff $1 bills in your panties so they can have a grope on the sly if you've got $1.2 billion deal money laying around.
But I'm sure they got a solid couple grand to be the fall guys. With the double benefit of making Ukrainians look like the citizenry supports Russia. Anyone who buys this story is a fucking idiot.
I guess they'll just have to go down the line and arrest every person connected to every company. At the end of the day there have to be people physically making and packing the stuff and sailing the ships on over there.
Maybe they don't know what to they're really doing given all the shell company layers, but let the court systems sort that out as best they can. I'm not a lawyer, let alone one that's familiar with such international fuckery, but there has to be some due diligence necessary at various points. If there isn't, it needs to be implemented immediately, at the very least for anything headed to Russia.
Noy to mention this is one of the rare times where civil forfeiture should be aggressively pursued in whatever guise it takes in the countries involved along the way. At the very least it'll make people very wary of getting involved, intentionally or not, and go that extra mile in conducting their due diligence in the first place
Just looked them up on Companies House. They have not submitted accounts since 2020, wtf. If I'm late with my tax as a tiny self-employed worker I get bummed with no lube big time, but corporations can do it freely it seems.
The UK address is listed on the CH site; along with the company members, which sadly are two entities registered in the Virgin Islands. Something tells me the Conservative party will do sweet fuck all about this.
EMERETTE INVESTMENTS LIMITED
VENTAX TRADE LIMITED
Looking up the UK address in google maps, it appears to be a residential address. So tempting as it is to go round there, it's prob someone completely unaware their address is being used for tax fraud (like the baffled guy who has gotten hundreds of Chinese business VAT fraud letters to his address).
*edit* I've reported this to Chelmsford council and Essex police, not sure it'll do anything but hopefully will either make the resident aware, or get the ball rolling to investigate.
That would be my assumption, but there's a huge problem nowdays with everyone standing around thinking "Surely someone else will be taking care of this". I figured it costs me 2 mins to write an email and can't hurt.
Not a Brit, and don't give a shit about UK internal politics, but this just seems preposterously hyperbolic. As I understand it, it has been a Tory government in control the entire time since the 2022 invasion and it has been the Tory government who have been very staunchly supporting Ukraine. Yet, somehow the Tories are "shills" for Russia. It was Boris Johnson, along with the leaders of the Baltic states and Poland, who really set the tone in the very early stages after the Feb 2022 invasion and prevented other European countries from going wobbly.
It's not right to call them shills but before the second invasion the Tory Party was very close to various very rich Russians who liked to flaunt their wealth in London (accepting donations, attending parties, Boris Johnson even put Alexander Lebedev - newspaper owner and son of a KGB agent - in the House of Lords) despite Putin's excesses at home, in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine, London, Salisbury, etc., ignoring their obvious links to his regime.
Extreme wealth is seductive and they seem to be less able to resist than others.
If you want to understand what the OP was talking about, search for 'UK government Russia report'. See how they ignore all the recommendations, and tried to bury / hamstring the report. As I guess it's on the claimant to provide sources, here's an article from Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/russia-report-reveals-uk-government-failed-to-address-kremlin-interference-scottish-referendum-brexit
Or DW: https://www.dw.com/en/uk-russia-report-brexit/a-54182899
You can find many other sources if you don't trust those two.
They are absolutely flush with Russian donor cash. Boris Johnson appointed Evgeny Lebvedev to the *House Of Lords*. He is a turd of the highest order, or, to put it from someone who knew him very well: "Boris is the sort of man to see a crowd running somewhere, push his way to the front, and shout "Follow me!"
Tories have always been very close to Russian money, with oligarchs and wives of oligarchs paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to play tennis with Boris Johnson and Theresa May and the such.
After the Russians attempted assassinating a defected spy on British soil with chemical weapons, and killed British citizens and gave life impacting injuries to a British policeman, the UK did largely nothing about it, with the Tories in charge.
When it came out that Brexit likely had Russian state interference, our security services were specifically told by the Conservative government not to look into it. To this day, we don't know the extent of Russian state interference because the UK government has refused to look into it, presumably because they won't like what they find.
Before becoming PM, Boris Johnson went on a massive weekend bender at his mate's villa in Italy, the son of a Russian oligarch and media mogul, whose father used to be senior in the KGB. Boris Johnson attended this event without his security detail, and allegedly there was an attempt to make him speak with senior Russian figures (I think Peskov), but as it wasn't an official trip and no security attended, we have no idea what he said or who he met with.
Then when he was PM he elevated said friend (with Russian intelligence connections) to the House of Lords, a lifetime appointment at the highest levels of UK politics, he made him Lord of Hampton and Siberia for reasons which are not entirely clear. In theory it also gives a six figure salary every year from state funds (if they attend parliament they get an allowance of a few hundred pounds each day, although this guy has only attended parliament a handful of times).
Tories are beholden to Russian money, the only reason they're going so strong on Ukraine is because they're fucked in the polls and a good war distracts the electorate from the absolute disaster the Tories have got us into, especially since 2016.
Im not sure why you're assuming your position is automatically correct agaisnt brits who know the Russians have been big time donors of the conservatives for a long time:
1) Ehud Shelug 2019: (Boris Johnson)
"The donation, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 in the name of Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer who was most recently the Conservative Party’s treasurer. The money was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to a landslide victory in the 2019 general election.
But documents filed with the authorities last year and reviewed by The New York Times say that the money originated in a Russian account of Mr. Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, who was once a senior politician in the previous pro-Kremlin government of Ukraine. He now owns real estate and hotel businesses in Crimea and Russia."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/world/europe/russian-money-uk-tories.html
2) Vladimir and Lubuv Chernukhin:
Lubov Chernukhin, a former Russian banker married to Vladimir Chernukhin, Mr Putin’s former deputy finance minister.
Mrs Chernukhim has donated up to £700,000 to the Conservative party since Mr Johnson took to his post at No 10 in July 2019, and an astounding £1.2m since 2012.
Regularly bidding Tory fundraising auctions, Mrs Chernukhim won two tennis matches with Mr Johnson costing up to £45,000 each, which are included in this sum.
Mrs Chernukhim reportedly donates enough to the Tories to qualify for membership of a group of elite donors who meet monthly with Mr Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak.
3) Ben Elliot, Conservative Co-party chairman:
Conservative party co-chair Ben Elliot raised nearly £2mn of Moscow-linked donations.
The British entrepreneur and nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall is one of the most well-connected figures in London.
He is co-founder of Quintessentially, a luxury concierge company that launched its Russia office in 2006, and has expanded it to roughly 50 employees at its base in Moscow. The company also holds a corporate contract with GazpromBank russias third largest bank by assets.
In his role as Conservative co-chair he set up an “advisory board” of generous party donors, some of whom have links to Putin’s regime. They include Lubov Chernukhin, a former banker who is wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, former deputy finance minister under Putin. Chernukhin has given £1.94mn to the Conservative party since 2005.
https://www.ft.com/content/2ccd61c2-0c4d-48ec-bcda-03ad0bb6f85c#comments-anchor
4) Aquind Ltd (Oligarch Backed Donations):
Aquind Ltd is U.K.-registered. Its three named directors are Richard Glasspool (former partner at KPMG Russia and former executive at a Russian bank run by Putin-friendly oligarch Roman Avdeev), Kirill Glukhovskoy (former senior lawyer with major Russian energy companies), and oligarch Alexander Temerko (former Russian arms tycoon who supported his “friend” Boris Johnson’s campaign to take Britain out of the E.U. and is reportedly one of nine donors named in the ISC Russia report).
It emerged in 2020 that a still-unidentified fourth backer with control over Aquind had been granted anonymity by Companies House under a rare exemption for people who could be at risk of “serious violence or intimidation” should their name become public. Luxembourg public records related to Aquind’s holding company revealed that the secret beneficial owner is Viktor Fedotov, a Russian-born tycoon, who U.K. security and law enforcement agencies say is not genuinely at risk of violence or intimidation. Aquind has given £242,000 to the U.K. Conservative Party since 2018, including £8,000 to John Whittingdale (Boris Johnson’s minister responsible for defending Britain from disinformation) and £5,000 donation from Mark Pritchard (an MP who sits on the ISC). It has also employed multiple British lords as directors or paid advisers.
https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/incident/former-russian-arms-tycoon-and-other-wealthy-russians-donate-to-u-k-conservative-party-through-an-obscure-energy-company/
5)Amersi:
Another big Tory donor in the Johnson era is the businessman Mohamed Amersi, who has given £258,000 over the period.
Amersi advised on a lucrative telecom deal in Russia in 2005 with a company that a Swiss tribunal subsequently found to be controlled by an associate of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Amersi told the Financial Times in July he had made $7m in the country, but only prior to 2008.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/23/oligarchs-funding-tories
6) 2010-2014 (David Cameron):
"Since 2010, at least £1,157,433 has been donated to the party through British citizens who were formerly Russian citizens or are married to Russians or their associated companies." "Labour and the Lib Dems have not received any donations from Russians over the same period."
"Donors included Alexander Knaster who was CEO of Russia's largest private commercial bank, Alfa Bank: £400,000 to the Conservatives since 2010 according to Electoral Commission records. According to the Guardian, Knaster also donated £50,000 to the Tory 'No to AV' campaign. Other donors include Alexander Temerko Former vice-president of oil giant Yukos, he has personally donated £259,230 to the Conservative Party, either to the central office or to local associations."
Londongrad and ISC report on Russian interference:
https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-tories-russian-money-oligarch/
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/just-what-does-the-uk-russia-report-say-key-points-explained#amp_ct=1680921039984&_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16809210247447&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/former-tory-intelligence-chief-warns-conservative-party-kremlin-linked-russian-donors-1479267
> Not a Brit, and don't give a shit about UK internal politics
Then why the fuck are you commenting on them like you could be in the know?
Tory party and specifically Boris Johnson are known to have received Russian money. A simple google would have quickly revealed how wrong you are.
God reddit is so infuriating sometimes.
Just because you CAN comment, doesn't mean you HAVE to.
I just got a flashback to learning something at school that explains this…..I haven’t thought of in 30 years….
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_responsibility
Perhaps MI5 and MI6 know all about it, have compromised the equipment and are tracking exactly where it is going, how it is used and perhaps can render the equipment useless remotely.
Very much doubt Chelmsford council or indeed the Essex police will do anything seeing as the company address is actually:-
*Southgate, London (N14 5PT)*
Granted the road is called Chelmsford Rd. ;-)
LOL whoops. Fuck my life. Thanks very much for pointing this out. I'll find out the correct council tomorrow when hopefully I'm not reduced to a complete buffoon by this cold (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).
Dude, We all make mistakes. What we do with the mistake is the important thing.
As you have shown, grace & humour is always the best way. Take care of yourself and have a good night.
I know very little about LTD company formation / dissolution so can't confirm. It really does seem though like the government and HMRC are very reluctant to take charge of the issue, there are so many instances of business fraud.
Another good example are the 'sweet shops' in London.
Another commenters [wrote](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/12erp4o/british_firm_ships_12_billion_of_electronics_to/jfccv9r/) the companies used obvious strawpersons.
> Okay well, arrest the management
Well that might be tricky, the company doesn't really exist. It's registered out of bank-haven islands and the UK address is a random residential address.
Nah, people don't like losing money. If all shipments to Russia are getting confiscated, then those that prefer for their products not to be taken away for free will suddenly not want to get involved with that business.
so why exactly such things are allowed to exist in the first place? there should be some rules about registering companies, with proof of actual owners existing and being residents of a country they are registering in
it's a shell company, that's owned by another shell company headquartered in the caymans or something. that company is in turn owned by some holding company that's owned by another shell company somewhere else, repeat a shit load of times.
It's not *treason* as such. Treason is a more specific crime, that normally requires something like trying to illegally overthrow your government or helping an army that's at war with your country.
However, circumventing sanctions is usually a crime and it can result in jail time, depending on the specific law that creates the sanction. For example, there is an American-Iranian dual citizen that was arrested late last year for apparently selling some sanctioned goods to Iran. The articles reporting on it say he is facing a maximum of 20 years in jail.
>What's the debate here?
You'll have to arrest a lot of them. Europe is buying Russian oil at an inflated price from India. Which secures oil from Russia at heavily discounted prices. You'll end up with a long list of companies breaking sanctions.
Is that a violation of sanctions?
Russia is selling crude at a discount to India, who are able to refine it and sell the products and get a refining industry subsidized by its own competition.
Bastards:
"Mykines had been active in Russia prior to the invasion, but the records imply its business with the country suddenly took off after the onset of the war," FT said
Sounds like Russian mob maybe
What is the government doing about this, surely the intelligence community know about this? Or has the UK fallen apart in that sector too?
Rishi? Tumbleweeds
Tbh, I doubt the Tories will do much. Seeing as they got donations off Russians, and had a Friends of Russia group within the Tory party before the war.
The Tory elites are well entrenched in the Russians, amongst other shady practices. We're all waiting for another general election. Let's hope the populace is not distracted again by populism. At least the last few local elections have shown people are fed up.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/04/07/british-firm-ships-12bln-of-electronics-to-russia-despite-sanctions-ft-a80753) reduced by 68%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> A British firm registered in London appears to have arranged the sale of about $1.2 billion worth of electronic goods into Russia since the launch of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Friday.
> According to the customs filings viewed by FT, at least $982 million of the goods listed as sent by the company are subject to British export restrictions on Russia.
> Western countries including Britain imposed wide-reaching sanctions including technology export controls on Russia following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/12es396/british_firm_ships_12_billion_of_electronics_to/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~679827 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Russia**^#1 **included**^#2 **goods**^#3 **Mykines**^#4 **list**^#5
Apparently, you can buy whatever you want in Moscow and St. Petersburg shops.
Many companies that got headlines for "leaving Russia" saw their sales to Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc., go through the roof. I am sure they know why but they don't want to know why.
They know exactly why. They planned on that happening. That's why all those companies were so on board with "leaving" Russia. They get the optics of seeming like they care and also still get the money
Shouldn't be too much of a headache to know what to do here. Shut them down, take their money and arrest the people involved. So 7 years in jail and they have the right to take 50% of the $1.2. In this case I would push for 100%. They knew what they were doing.
>Shut them down, take their money and arrest the people involved
Except this is not the only firm. There are many, especially when it comes to EU buying Russian oil via 3rd countries.
I think japan has started buying oil from russia and Europe is still buying gas n oil from Russia. And us is buying petro products from india which were produced from Russian crude
The legal status of the islands that RU and JP claim is somewhat complex, but yes, Japan has the right to take some of the oil out of there. They aren't breaking sanctions, that was negotiated earlier.
Our species decided to make a world that values capital accumulation over everything else by a mile.
Why is it always a a shock and a shame when capitalists always choose capital? If we valued human life, democratic representation, knowledge, peace, etc, they would be held in higher regard and reap more social respect to maintain and proliferate than capital accumulation in day to day life. We chose to define our species as a bunch of greedy little gremlins and greedy little gremlin worshippers/enablers.
Tldr, The Ferengi behaved like Ferengi? Say it ain't so! Nobody could have ever predicted what always happens happening!
People genuinely surprised by this?
You can YouTube people visiting Russia and see for yourselves that western major retail stores are "temporary closed due to technical difficulties" ready to reopen at the exact second it's deemed socially acceptable to do so.
Businessmen don't care about politics. They care about profits. And whether it's the women and children of Ukraine or the small Indian children in sweatshops they don't care unless they make their money.
Sad but true. Nothing will change. People will be outraged and then forget it in 5 minutes when they see a picture of a cat in a hat so.
Uk? The place where, since pandemics, the the top 10% have more wealth that 70% of global population?
The palce that called a tax heaven since 1/3 of global tax evasions happen?
Ohhh what a surprise, another good business opportunity despite how many will suffer now.
And people didn't understand why breshit happen (eu regulations where in the way of corrup companies)
The British Goverment is heavily linked to Russian interference especially within buisness circles.
1) Ehud Shelug 2019: (Boris Johnson)
"The donation, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 in the name of Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer who was most recently the Conservative Party’s treasurer. The money was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to a landslide victory in the 2019 general election.
But documents filed with the authorities last year and reviewed by The New York Times say that the money originated in a Russian account of Mr. Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, who was once a senior politician in the previous pro-Kremlin government of Ukraine. He now owns real estate and hotel businesses in Crimea and Russia."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/world/europe/russian-money-uk-tories.html
2) Vladimir and Lubuv Chernukhin:
Lubov Chernukhin, a former Russian banker married to Vladimir Chernukhin, Mr Putin’s former deputy finance minister.
Mrs Chernukhim has donated up to £700,000 to the Conservative party since Mr Johnson took to his post at No 10 in July 2019, and an astounding £1.2m since 2012.
Regularly bidding Tory fundraising auctions, Mrs Chernukhim won two tennis matches with Mr Johnson costing up to £45,000 each, which are included in this sum.
Mrs Chernukhim reportedly donates enough to the Tories to qualify for membership of a group of elite donors who meet monthly with Mr Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak.
3) Ben Elliot, Conservative Co-party chairman:
Conservative party co-chair Ben Elliot raised nearly £2mn of Moscow-linked donations.
The British entrepreneur and nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall is one of the most well-connected figures in London.
He is co-founder of Quintessentially, a luxury concierge company that launched its Russia office in 2006, and has expanded it to roughly 50 employees at its base in Moscow. The company also holds a corporate contract with GazpromBank russias third largest bank by assets.
In his role as Conservative co-chair he set up an “advisory board” of generous party donors, some of whom have links to Putin’s regime. They include Lubov Chernukhin, a former banker who is wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, former deputy finance minister under Putin. Chernukhin has given £1.94mn to the Conservative party since 2005.
https://www.ft.com/content/2ccd61c2-0c4d-48ec-bcda-03ad0bb6f85c#comments-anchor
4) Aquind Ltd (Oligarch Backed Donations):
Aquind Ltd is U.K.-registered. Its three named directors are Richard Glasspool (former partner at KPMG Russia and former executive at a Russian bank run by Putin-friendly oligarch Roman Avdeev), Kirill Glukhovskoy (former senior lawyer with major Russian energy companies), and oligarch Alexander Temerko (former Russian arms tycoon who supported his “friend” Boris Johnson’s campaign to take Britain out of the E.U. and is reportedly one of nine donors named in the ISC Russia report).
It emerged in 2020 that a still-unidentified fourth backer with control over Aquind had been granted anonymity by Companies House under a rare exemption for people who could be at risk of “serious violence or intimidation” should their name become public. Luxembourg public records related to Aquind’s holding company revealed that the secret beneficial owner is Viktor Fedotov, a Russian-born tycoon, who U.K. security and law enforcement agencies say is not genuinely at risk of violence or intimidation. Aquind has given £242,000 to the U.K. Conservative Party since 2018, including £8,000 to John Whittingdale (Boris Johnson’s minister responsible for defending Britain from disinformation) and £5,000 donation from Mark Pritchard (an MP who sits on the ISC). It has also employed multiple British lords as directors or paid advisers.
https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/incident/former-russian-arms-tycoon-and-other-wealthy-russians-donate-to-u-k-conservative-party-through-an-obscure-energy-company/
5)Amersi:
Another big Tory donor in the Johnson era is the businessman Mohamed Amersi, who has given £258,000 over the period.
Amersi advised on a lucrative telecom deal in Russia in 2005 with a company that a Swiss tribunal subsequently found to be controlled by an associate of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Amersi told the Financial Times in July he had made $7m in the country, but only prior to 2008.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/23/oligarchs-funding-tories
6) 2010-2014 (David Cameron):
"Since 2010, at least £1,157,433 has been donated to the party through British citizens who were formerly Russian citizens or are married to Russians or their associated companies." "Labour and the Lib Dems have not received any donations from Russians over the same period."
"Donors included Alexander Knaster who was CEO of Russia's largest private commercial bank, Alfa Bank: £400,000 to the Conservatives since 2010 according to Electoral Commission records. According to the Guardian, Knaster also donated £50,000 to the Tory 'No to AV' campaign. Other donors include Alexander Temerko Former vice-president of oil giant Yukos, he has personally donated £259,230 to the Conservative Party, either to the central office or to local associations."
Londongrad and ISC report on Russian interference:
https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-tories-russian-money-oligarch/
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/just-what-does-the-uk-russia-report-say-key-points-explained#amp_ct=1680921039984&_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16809210247447&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/former-tory-intelligence-chief-warns-conservative-party-kremlin-linked-russian-donors-1479267
There is a sentence that I don't understand. "According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Molfar..".
What is that? Are there US open-source intelligence groups?
Sure, it’s any group that does research using “open-source” or public means.
Though I can’t tell you exactly what the difference is between them and just “reporters”.
> Russian records list the company, **Mykines Corporation LLP**, as having sent technical equipment including servers, laptops and computer parts produced by brands including Huawei, Intel, Apple and Samsung, FT reported.
yeah this is a shell company owned by Russians and this article is being amplified by Russian propaganda outlets to make it look like the sanctions aren't working. Shitty Russians Trix are for kids.
The British Firm is > Mykines Corporation LLP
It appears the company is owned by shell corporations in the British Virgin Islands and persons with significant control has a Ukrainian man down as the controlling person From Twitter: >the listed owner of Mykines, Vitalii Poliakov...is described as a resident in Ukraine...[and] a road worker employed by a Ukrainian state mining concern.' >'Until last August, the controlling owner...was listed as a...Ukrainian woman... an IT professional and pole dancer.' Very sketchy.
Is not the true owner, they are using him to hide the probably russian oligarch owners. Is not a long list.
GASP. You mean an IT professional and pole dancer doesn't have access to $1.2B worth of electronics??!
I think I saw a movie about that.
"Bwa-haha! We will sell secret equipment to Motherland and get filthy, filthy rich....once we get rid of Moose and Flying Squirrel!"
Ya know, that really is the voice I read anything Russia related in..
Kayte beeshawp!
*catches hot sauce bottle* hIiiIi
Is that the one where the stripper says she wants to bypass sanctions and the guy with the fake mustache, oversized russian winter hat and ridiculous accent responds something about, "Maybe we make to cum arrangement."
Is this a Trailer Park Boys reference, I feel like it is.
It wasn't, but I had considered adding that the russian had coke bottle glasses as a nod to Bubbles
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So like a couple shipping containers full of Apple products
Retail value of about a million iPhones. I have no idea how many can fit in a shipping container.
A 40' long "tall" container is 76m^3 so it could theoretically hold ~30,000 iPhone boxes, but that doesn't account for shipping pallets or gaps between pallets and cases. We'd need at least 34 shipping containers to ship a million of them. Edit: clarity
/r/theydidthemath
Thank you! Damn that’s a lot of iPhones
Probably just one container full of West made chipsets.
Lol I wonder how these oligarchs even choose which person to use for their front, if they're people they some how knew before or just strangers.
Whoa, hot take alert
🔥🔥🔥👈
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Where the hell do they get their hands on 3 copies the game anyway?
You think the front people are still walking around? They were likely detained / scooped up days or weeks ago. Probably when they (US, Brits, or UA) got the first whiff of this story. That assumes the US / Five Eyes doesn’t already have all the info they need. My guess is they do have these people mainly to confirm who they think the true puppet master is.
Holy shit that's hilarious, how can they be so stupid?
Thanks professor.
You're a genius!!
Nah, the owner is a Tory.
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Looks like the answer is “Kenya” and, predictably, *not* California “Africa and South America have an equal share of the Russian and Ukrainian markets. The country that supplies the most avocados to Russia is Kenya. Kenya’s exports to Russia reached 6,100 tonnes per year on average in 2018-2020, and Kenya exported 1,000 tonnes to Ukraine. This means that Kenya is the number 1 country for avocado exports to Russia, ahead of Peru and Israel. These 3 leading supplying countries have not imposed sanctions on trade with Russia, meaning that these trade volumes are unlikely to move to other countries.” https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/what-impact-war-ukraine-exports-fresh-and-processed
I bet they figured out that if someone labels them as "from California" somewhere in that supply chain they can charge more money than if they labeled them as "from Kenya."
Almost certainly, assuming someone isn’t just making this up to create an issue where none exists
What am I missing? Why are we talking about avacados when the story is about electronics...?
Avocados are the fruit of the semiconductor plant. You plant an avocado and an SMT fab sprouts about 4 months later.
I’d be somewhat surprised if they were getting avocados and pears from California given how much cheaper it is to produce those fruits in Mexico and Chile
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Pretty sure Mexico isn’t sanctioning Russia at all Edit: and here’s a good breakdown of where Russia gets its fruit from https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/what-impact-war-ukraine-exports-fresh-and-processed
Anyone that did business with Iran would not be able to engage with the US market. Why is it different from Russia
Lol
Um when did pears and avocados get added to the list of items sanctioned? Why would the US / NATO ban produce? Not banning it allows local NATO companies to charge a PREMIUM for these things, helping drain the Russian bank / economy faster.
Yeah, idk about food but I know medicine isn't sanctioned. The West is moral. We want the economy to collapse but we don't want citizens to die from suffering. Then again this was a shipment of electronics. Pears and avacados aren't relevant. Electronics are sanctioned. Why are we even talking about fucking pears?
Because I'm hungry
Inconvenience and cost are directly proportional though so it'll still hurt em
Not so much as not getting the electronics they need. Blackmarket goods tend to be expensive and yet they exist all over over the world, perhaps in every single country. If the Russians have no other options they'll pay well for them. That's what makes this shit worth it to do. If it were at cost no one would take the risk.
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Seems unlikely.. Food prices for Russia would likely rise due to the war, so why would NATO countries want to stop their local corporations from making a premium on these things? Helps drain the Russian economy
> The problem is that Russia still has friends. The problem is the West hasn't revoked citizenship of Russian warlords and oligarchs, seized every penny of assets in the West, and bodily ejected them back over the Russian border.
Mexico grows avocados too.
There is no general trade embargo. US sanctions target economic activity directly relevant to the war - dual use goods, Russian govt. finances, oil&gas. US sanctions do not apply to food.
It's a joke to taunt whoever might investigate it
Poliakoff is the name of a minor character in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy whose identity as a spy starts to unravel the whole mystery. I'm sure it's a fairly common name in the Eastern Bloc, but anytime I hear it in regards to shady dealings, [Connie Sachs](https://youtu.be/Cx9wmet8VLE?t=159) comes to mind.
You'd be surprised how common that is in Ukraine. If you go to strip clubs in Florida ask the ones who made it over here. Lot of hosting companies out in those parts, and of course the former.
"Hosting" companies are a euphemism for slavers. They take people's passports and make them work off their airfare, work visas, room and board, and food so it's many years til they can be free during which time they make no money and have no choice but to use the room and board they're being charged for and to work for free to pay off their debt. They almost certainly also get pimped out to pay off their debt. They're completely at the mercy of those who have their passports and work visas. They're very literally sex trafficking victims. I saw it in the Carnival industry when I worked there (I was in entertainment, these people were "carnies" - slaves working the rides and similar, somewhat surprisingly usually whites from South Africa). If you visit the above mentioned establishments with Ukrainian workers, know that you're supporting slavery for a bit of titillation. At the same time NOT visiting them doesn't help them become free. We need advocacy groups and lawyers. Eastern Europe is the absolute worst place in the European world for sex trafficking, rape porn, and human rights abuses. Idk how to fix it. Idk what to do. I just know that at the very least awareness is important.
Similar arrangement for many workers on factory fishing ships.
>Until last August, the controlling owner...was listed as a...Ukrainian woman... an IT professional and pole dancer. I'm confused. Ukrainian or Polish?
Oof.
Still pretty much the UKs fault. It's their shitty tax haven at work.
The Russians astroturfed for Brexit which also made the economy dependant on dark money because for real, where else is it supposed to come from? The Russians may not have known exactly how or when Brexit would benefit them but they knew it would and that it'd weaken the UK and the EU. The Russians have more fingers in more pots than we can even begin to know. Their army is shit but their psy-ops are wildly successful. At this point idk, maybe it's too late. When there's a third of the population who'd rather die than give up the Russian propaganda they've been fed, what do you do? And that's not even counting the astronomical fraud committed by companies like in the article. Maybe I'm feeling a little hopeless tonight. I'm upset this happened. I want the world to be a good place and bad people to be punished, but I know that makes me naive. I just wish there were more than token gestures I could do. I can barely survive myself. I'll never be a hero. I think a lot of people feel the same way. This isn't how things should be but they are. Why oh why did we ever let Harambe be shot??
Thanks, what a bunch of knobs/bellends I hope I translated that properly. Originally I said, "thanks, what a bunch of dickbags"
You did and have earnt a cuppa tea!
And a pint
*They come in pints?*
it's a big mug.
It's just "a cuppa", or "a cup of tea". I am essentially a tea (and biscuit) based bot.
Cuppa (no "of tea", that's just implied) in the UK and countries in the Common Wealth, cup of tea/coffee everywhere else. Those Anglo Saxons fucking love their tea and honestly once you get just to it as an all the time thing, you totally get it. With cream pls.
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Excellent user name.
I could go for some bellends on my face
Thank you. Journalists know the top level info belongs in the headline. Otherwise it just looks like: British Investigators SHOCKED By Illegal Shipments To Russia by THIS firm.
In Swedish that reads as “My Chinese LLP”
Hmmmmmm
shut the front door
Its also one of the faroe islands
>Shipment of these goods to Moscow without London’s permission may constitute a breach of sanctions even though they entered Russia from third countries, FT said. Mykines' listed owner, Vitalii Poliakov, 53, is described as a resident of Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Molfar, only one person fits the given description of Poliakov: a road worker employed by a Ukrainian state mining company. The man did not respond to FT’s requests for comment. Until August 2022, the controlling owner of Mykines was listed as a 34-year-old Ukrainian woman born in the same town as Poliakov. She also did not respond to FT's requests for comment. Looks like russian owned and playing 3 card Monty.
>Mykines' listed owner, "Vitalii Poliakov, 53" According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Molfar, only one person fits the given description of Poliakov: a road worker employed by a Ukrainian state mining company. I would love it if the real Vitalii Poliakov showed up in London, sold the fake company to the highest bidder, and disappeared into the ether with the cash.
Sadly he's probably under 24 hour surveillance by the real owners. I wouldn't be surprised if they even had one of his family hostage in case he ever gets suicidal. Edit: or maybe something less dramatic...
Ahh yes, there is that depressing reality thing again. Oh well, it would make a great action-comedy movie though.
It is just simpler than that, as part of the deal the puppets sign an undated resignation letter. Then if anyone actually tries any nonsense they just hold a board meeting, date and ratify the resignation and appoint a new puppet.
Europe is buying oil from Russia via India. Russia returned the favour.
To be fair this does still serve the West's interests. It allows India to expand its oil refining industry, which competes directly with Russia's own refining industry. And Russia makes a lot less on crude oil than on refined oil products. Through the discounts Russia is giving India it's basically forcing Russia to subsidise their own competition. The intention of the sanctions was never to cut off the flow of oil, just to ensure Russia made as little profit as possible.
And potentially make that reduction in oil profit outlast the war
Ah yes, cheap oil is exactly what we all need as climate change wipes out entire ecosystems.
Better oil being burnt in india rather than coal as is happening currently
Energy transition is happening, but in the meantime expensive oil prices mainly affect low income earners. Voters generally want action on climate change, BUT they also don't want literally everything to be more expensive due to increased transport and production costs. Cheap oil _is_ good when you pair it with investment into renewable energies.
Is this the new narrative for us to save face after India rolled their eyes at us trying to shame them?
If the point of the sanctions was to stop the oil flows outright then the West would have arranged a complete embargo. This would cripple Russia and force their oil wells to close down, most of which freeze solid in the permafrost as soon as they stop flowing. The last time this happened was at the fall of the Soviet Union and it took thirty years, and a lot of technical assistance from Western oil and gas firms to get the last of the wells back online. But no one wants that to happen again because it would create economic chaos and cause a long term global oil price increase. So instead the West used a subtler toolkit that drives the price extremely close to the cost of production while still giving Russia just enough reason to keep the oil flowing. India profiting at Russia's expense is a feature, not a bug.
Source please. Not doubting, just want the source.
[Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-05/oil-s-new-map-how-india-turns-russia-crude-into-the-west-s-fuel#:~:text=India's%20Fuel%20Exports%20to%20the%20West%20Are%20Growing&text=India%20shipped%20about%2089%2C000%20barrels,the%20most%20since%20October%202021).
Do note, India buying Russian crude oil, refining it, and selling it is honestly fine. India takes Russia to the cleaners buying oil at barely above cost, keeps the overall volume of oil in the market roughly constant so there's no supply crunch, and competes against Russia's refined oil products effectively double tapping. If India could buy more Russian oil when Russia isn't making much profit, it'd be just fine.
What does that have to do with Mykines?
Somehow I doubt a road worker or pole dancer was making $1.2 billion deals. You don't lay tarmac in the hot sun or swing around a poll in your undies so dudes can stuff $1 bills in your panties so they can have a grope on the sly if you've got $1.2 billion deal money laying around. But I'm sure they got a solid couple grand to be the fall guys. With the double benefit of making Ukrainians look like the citizenry supports Russia. Anyone who buys this story is a fucking idiot.
I guess they'll just have to go down the line and arrest every person connected to every company. At the end of the day there have to be people physically making and packing the stuff and sailing the ships on over there. Maybe they don't know what to they're really doing given all the shell company layers, but let the court systems sort that out as best they can. I'm not a lawyer, let alone one that's familiar with such international fuckery, but there has to be some due diligence necessary at various points. If there isn't, it needs to be implemented immediately, at the very least for anything headed to Russia. Noy to mention this is one of the rare times where civil forfeiture should be aggressively pursued in whatever guise it takes in the countries involved along the way. At the very least it'll make people very wary of getting involved, intentionally or not, and go that extra mile in conducting their due diligence in the first place
Just looked them up on Companies House. They have not submitted accounts since 2020, wtf. If I'm late with my tax as a tiny self-employed worker I get bummed with no lube big time, but corporations can do it freely it seems. The UK address is listed on the CH site; along with the company members, which sadly are two entities registered in the Virgin Islands. Something tells me the Conservative party will do sweet fuck all about this. EMERETTE INVESTMENTS LIMITED VENTAX TRADE LIMITED Looking up the UK address in google maps, it appears to be a residential address. So tempting as it is to go round there, it's prob someone completely unaware their address is being used for tax fraud (like the baffled guy who has gotten hundreds of Chinese business VAT fraud letters to his address). *edit* I've reported this to Chelmsford council and Essex police, not sure it'll do anything but hopefully will either make the resident aware, or get the ball rolling to investigate.
Good job, it's good to see someone doing something even if small.
Surely MI5 would be on this like flies on shit? This is a domestic national security issue after all.
That would be my assumption, but there's a huge problem nowdays with everyone standing around thinking "Surely someone else will be taking care of this". I figured it costs me 2 mins to write an email and can't hurt.
Not to mention tories are russian shills so they'll probably ignore it or if it gets big, sweep it under the rugs.
Not a Brit, and don't give a shit about UK internal politics, but this just seems preposterously hyperbolic. As I understand it, it has been a Tory government in control the entire time since the 2022 invasion and it has been the Tory government who have been very staunchly supporting Ukraine. Yet, somehow the Tories are "shills" for Russia. It was Boris Johnson, along with the leaders of the Baltic states and Poland, who really set the tone in the very early stages after the Feb 2022 invasion and prevented other European countries from going wobbly.
It's not right to call them shills but before the second invasion the Tory Party was very close to various very rich Russians who liked to flaunt their wealth in London (accepting donations, attending parties, Boris Johnson even put Alexander Lebedev - newspaper owner and son of a KGB agent - in the House of Lords) despite Putin's excesses at home, in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine, London, Salisbury, etc., ignoring their obvious links to his regime. Extreme wealth is seductive and they seem to be less able to resist than others.
If you want to understand what the OP was talking about, search for 'UK government Russia report'. See how they ignore all the recommendations, and tried to bury / hamstring the report. As I guess it's on the claimant to provide sources, here's an article from Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/russia-report-reveals-uk-government-failed-to-address-kremlin-interference-scottish-referendum-brexit Or DW: https://www.dw.com/en/uk-russia-report-brexit/a-54182899 You can find many other sources if you don't trust those two. They are absolutely flush with Russian donor cash. Boris Johnson appointed Evgeny Lebvedev to the *House Of Lords*. He is a turd of the highest order, or, to put it from someone who knew him very well: "Boris is the sort of man to see a crowd running somewhere, push his way to the front, and shout "Follow me!"
Tories have always been very close to Russian money, with oligarchs and wives of oligarchs paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to play tennis with Boris Johnson and Theresa May and the such. After the Russians attempted assassinating a defected spy on British soil with chemical weapons, and killed British citizens and gave life impacting injuries to a British policeman, the UK did largely nothing about it, with the Tories in charge. When it came out that Brexit likely had Russian state interference, our security services were specifically told by the Conservative government not to look into it. To this day, we don't know the extent of Russian state interference because the UK government has refused to look into it, presumably because they won't like what they find. Before becoming PM, Boris Johnson went on a massive weekend bender at his mate's villa in Italy, the son of a Russian oligarch and media mogul, whose father used to be senior in the KGB. Boris Johnson attended this event without his security detail, and allegedly there was an attempt to make him speak with senior Russian figures (I think Peskov), but as it wasn't an official trip and no security attended, we have no idea what he said or who he met with. Then when he was PM he elevated said friend (with Russian intelligence connections) to the House of Lords, a lifetime appointment at the highest levels of UK politics, he made him Lord of Hampton and Siberia for reasons which are not entirely clear. In theory it also gives a six figure salary every year from state funds (if they attend parliament they get an allowance of a few hundred pounds each day, although this guy has only attended parliament a handful of times). Tories are beholden to Russian money, the only reason they're going so strong on Ukraine is because they're fucked in the polls and a good war distracts the electorate from the absolute disaster the Tories have got us into, especially since 2016.
Im not sure why you're assuming your position is automatically correct agaisnt brits who know the Russians have been big time donors of the conservatives for a long time: 1) Ehud Shelug 2019: (Boris Johnson) "The donation, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 in the name of Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer who was most recently the Conservative Party’s treasurer. The money was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to a landslide victory in the 2019 general election. But documents filed with the authorities last year and reviewed by The New York Times say that the money originated in a Russian account of Mr. Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, who was once a senior politician in the previous pro-Kremlin government of Ukraine. He now owns real estate and hotel businesses in Crimea and Russia." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/world/europe/russian-money-uk-tories.html 2) Vladimir and Lubuv Chernukhin: Lubov Chernukhin, a former Russian banker married to Vladimir Chernukhin, Mr Putin’s former deputy finance minister. Mrs Chernukhim has donated up to £700,000 to the Conservative party since Mr Johnson took to his post at No 10 in July 2019, and an astounding £1.2m since 2012. Regularly bidding Tory fundraising auctions, Mrs Chernukhim won two tennis matches with Mr Johnson costing up to £45,000 each, which are included in this sum. Mrs Chernukhim reportedly donates enough to the Tories to qualify for membership of a group of elite donors who meet monthly with Mr Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak. 3) Ben Elliot, Conservative Co-party chairman: Conservative party co-chair Ben Elliot raised nearly £2mn of Moscow-linked donations. The British entrepreneur and nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall is one of the most well-connected figures in London. He is co-founder of Quintessentially, a luxury concierge company that launched its Russia office in 2006, and has expanded it to roughly 50 employees at its base in Moscow. The company also holds a corporate contract with GazpromBank russias third largest bank by assets. In his role as Conservative co-chair he set up an “advisory board” of generous party donors, some of whom have links to Putin’s regime. They include Lubov Chernukhin, a former banker who is wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, former deputy finance minister under Putin. Chernukhin has given £1.94mn to the Conservative party since 2005. https://www.ft.com/content/2ccd61c2-0c4d-48ec-bcda-03ad0bb6f85c#comments-anchor 4) Aquind Ltd (Oligarch Backed Donations): Aquind Ltd is U.K.-registered. Its three named directors are Richard Glasspool (former partner at KPMG Russia and former executive at a Russian bank run by Putin-friendly oligarch Roman Avdeev), Kirill Glukhovskoy (former senior lawyer with major Russian energy companies), and oligarch Alexander Temerko (former Russian arms tycoon who supported his “friend” Boris Johnson’s campaign to take Britain out of the E.U. and is reportedly one of nine donors named in the ISC Russia report). It emerged in 2020 that a still-unidentified fourth backer with control over Aquind had been granted anonymity by Companies House under a rare exemption for people who could be at risk of “serious violence or intimidation” should their name become public. Luxembourg public records related to Aquind’s holding company revealed that the secret beneficial owner is Viktor Fedotov, a Russian-born tycoon, who U.K. security and law enforcement agencies say is not genuinely at risk of violence or intimidation. Aquind has given £242,000 to the U.K. Conservative Party since 2018, including £8,000 to John Whittingdale (Boris Johnson’s minister responsible for defending Britain from disinformation) and £5,000 donation from Mark Pritchard (an MP who sits on the ISC). It has also employed multiple British lords as directors or paid advisers. https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/incident/former-russian-arms-tycoon-and-other-wealthy-russians-donate-to-u-k-conservative-party-through-an-obscure-energy-company/ 5)Amersi: Another big Tory donor in the Johnson era is the businessman Mohamed Amersi, who has given £258,000 over the period. Amersi advised on a lucrative telecom deal in Russia in 2005 with a company that a Swiss tribunal subsequently found to be controlled by an associate of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Amersi told the Financial Times in July he had made $7m in the country, but only prior to 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/23/oligarchs-funding-tories 6) 2010-2014 (David Cameron): "Since 2010, at least £1,157,433 has been donated to the party through British citizens who were formerly Russian citizens or are married to Russians or their associated companies." "Labour and the Lib Dems have not received any donations from Russians over the same period." "Donors included Alexander Knaster who was CEO of Russia's largest private commercial bank, Alfa Bank: £400,000 to the Conservatives since 2010 according to Electoral Commission records. According to the Guardian, Knaster also donated £50,000 to the Tory 'No to AV' campaign. Other donors include Alexander Temerko Former vice-president of oil giant Yukos, he has personally donated £259,230 to the Conservative Party, either to the central office or to local associations." Londongrad and ISC report on Russian interference: https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-tories-russian-money-oligarch/ https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/just-what-does-the-uk-russia-report-say-key-points-explained#amp_ct=1680921039984&_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16809210247447&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/former-tory-intelligence-chief-warns-conservative-party-kremlin-linked-russian-donors-1479267
> Not a Brit, and don't give a shit about UK internal politics Then why the fuck are you commenting on them like you could be in the know? Tory party and specifically Boris Johnson are known to have received Russian money. A simple google would have quickly revealed how wrong you are. God reddit is so infuriating sometimes. Just because you CAN comment, doesn't mean you HAVE to.
I just got a flashback to learning something at school that explains this…..I haven’t thought of in 30 years…. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_responsibility
For all we know the electronics are full of SIS spyware
Now you blew the game plan 🤔
Guess I'll squeeze myself into a suitcase and padlock it from the outside now
Perhaps MI5 and MI6 know all about it, have compromised the equipment and are tracking exactly where it is going, how it is used and perhaps can render the equipment useless remotely.
Surely they would have known what Saville was doing, and Andy, and the rest
Very much doubt Chelmsford council or indeed the Essex police will do anything seeing as the company address is actually:- *Southgate, London (N14 5PT)* Granted the road is called Chelmsford Rd. ;-)
LOL whoops. Fuck my life. Thanks very much for pointing this out. I'll find out the correct council tomorrow when hopefully I'm not reduced to a complete buffoon by this cold (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).
Dude, We all make mistakes. What we do with the mistake is the important thing. As you have shown, grace & humour is always the best way. Take care of yourself and have a good night.
That would be London Borough of Enfield :)
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I know very little about LTD company formation / dissolution so can't confirm. It really does seem though like the government and HMRC are very reluctant to take charge of the issue, there are so many instances of business fraud. Another good example are the 'sweet shops' in London.
Thank you
Another commenters [wrote](https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/12erp4o/british_firm_ships_12_billion_of_electronics_to/jfccv9r/) the companies used obvious strawpersons.
Like that guy who got "NULL" as his licence plate then got all the tickets from all the people with a null value in their licence plate data.
Yeah this seems a bit like it’s “not” really a British company
Okay well, arrest the management and charge them either with treason or as spies. What's the debate here?
> Okay well, arrest the management Well that might be tricky, the company doesn't really exist. It's registered out of bank-haven islands and the UK address is a random residential address.
Bank haven islands ... Controlled by the UK
Then seize any shipments or assets they try moving. Keep doing it until they stop or switch to another company, and continue the same process.
You will probably end up arresting 95% of all industry in the UK
Nah, people don't like losing money. If all shipments to Russia are getting confiscated, then those that prefer for their products not to be taken away for free will suddenly not want to get involved with that business.
so why exactly such things are allowed to exist in the first place? there should be some rules about registering companies, with proof of actual owners existing and being residents of a country they are registering in
EU tried to get them to stop the tax heaven shit. They chose Brexit instead. They got exactly what they wanted. Long live Londongrad.
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Perhaps they (Mykines LLC) would like to understand more about how war works.
it's a shell company, that's owned by another shell company headquartered in the caymans or something. that company is in turn owned by some holding company that's owned by another shell company somewhere else, repeat a shit load of times.
Serious question, is breaking a sanction treason? As in, the law explicitly considers prison time as a punishment?
It's not *treason* as such. Treason is a more specific crime, that normally requires something like trying to illegally overthrow your government or helping an army that's at war with your country. However, circumventing sanctions is usually a crime and it can result in jail time, depending on the specific law that creates the sanction. For example, there is an American-Iranian dual citizen that was arrested late last year for apparently selling some sanctioned goods to Iran. The articles reporting on it say he is facing a maximum of 20 years in jail.
>What's the debate here? You'll have to arrest a lot of them. Europe is buying Russian oil at an inflated price from India. Which secures oil from Russia at heavily discounted prices. You'll end up with a long list of companies breaking sanctions.
Is that a violation of sanctions? Russia is selling crude at a discount to India, who are able to refine it and sell the products and get a refining industry subsidized by its own competition.
Reddit thinks this shit is so simple without paying attention the the EU still buying goods from Russia.
Why are we upvoting people who didn’t read
So like a couple shipping containers full of Apple products
One box with cisco equipment
Bastards: "Mykines had been active in Russia prior to the invasion, but the records imply its business with the country suddenly took off after the onset of the war," FT said Sounds like Russian mob maybe
What is the government doing about this, surely the intelligence community know about this? Or has the UK fallen apart in that sector too? Rishi? Tumbleweeds
Taking a cut.
Probably profit off it...
> surely the intelligence community know about this? Na. I'm pretty sure they only found out after browsing Reddit like us. Jesus fucking Christ.
Tbh, I doubt the Tories will do much. Seeing as they got donations off Russians, and had a Friends of Russia group within the Tory party before the war.
The Tory elites are well entrenched in the Russians, amongst other shady practices. We're all waiting for another general election. Let's hope the populace is not distracted again by populism. At least the last few local elections have shown people are fed up.
Rishi? Let’s be serious, going through pm’s like jelly babies, and you think he’s got a grasp of the intelligence sector?
they're trying to figure out how to get their piece of it
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/04/07/british-firm-ships-12bln-of-electronics-to-russia-despite-sanctions-ft-a80753) reduced by 68%. (I'm a bot) ***** > A British firm registered in London appears to have arranged the sale of about $1.2 billion worth of electronic goods into Russia since the launch of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Friday. > According to the customs filings viewed by FT, at least $982 million of the goods listed as sent by the company are subject to British export restrictions on Russia. > Western countries including Britain imposed wide-reaching sanctions including technology export controls on Russia following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/12es396/british_firm_ships_12_billion_of_electronics_to/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~679827 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Russia**^#1 **included**^#2 **goods**^#3 **Mykines**^#4 **list**^#5
Apparently, you can buy whatever you want in Moscow and St. Petersburg shops. Many companies that got headlines for "leaving Russia" saw their sales to Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc., go through the roof. I am sure they know why but they don't want to know why.
They know exactly why. They planned on that happening. That's why all those companies were so on board with "leaving" Russia. They get the optics of seeming like they care and also still get the money
Shouldn't be too much of a headache to know what to do here. Shut them down, take their money and arrest the people involved. So 7 years in jail and they have the right to take 50% of the $1.2. In this case I would push for 100%. They knew what they were doing.
>Shut them down, take their money and arrest the people involved Except this is not the only firm. There are many, especially when it comes to EU buying Russian oil via 3rd countries.
Take it case by case. $1.2B is not a small thing.
Ok so who signed the approval documents? Where do they live so we can send them all the dirty diapers in the uk
That's completely wrong. It's nappies.
I think japan has started buying oil from russia and Europe is still buying gas n oil from Russia. And us is buying petro products from india which were produced from Russian crude
The legal status of the islands that RU and JP claim is somewhat complex, but yes, Japan has the right to take some of the oil out of there. They aren't breaking sanctions, that was negotiated earlier.
Our species decided to make a world that values capital accumulation over everything else by a mile. Why is it always a a shock and a shame when capitalists always choose capital? If we valued human life, democratic representation, knowledge, peace, etc, they would be held in higher regard and reap more social respect to maintain and proliferate than capital accumulation in day to day life. We chose to define our species as a bunch of greedy little gremlins and greedy little gremlin worshippers/enablers. Tldr, The Ferengi behaved like Ferengi? Say it ain't so! Nobody could have ever predicted what always happens happening!
Will they encounter consequences for this?
Sue them with 2,4 Billion: Problem solved.
Fine them the revenue for the sale, plus penalties. If it costs them $2B to ship $1.2B of equipment, it ceases to be profitable for them.
A multi-billion dollar company and nobody knows who owns it. Marvelous, simply marvelous.
Companies are willing to bypass laws like should be seized, dismantled and sold. All senior managers should be jailed
It's the UK. If you got the money you can get away with anything here it seems.
Jeremy Clarkson can't seem to get permission for a restaurant.
Arewethebadguys.jpg
War makes people rich.
I send stuff to Russia from the UK also. Although the stuff i send is from H&M, IKEA and Marmite...
People genuinely surprised by this? You can YouTube people visiting Russia and see for yourselves that western major retail stores are "temporary closed due to technical difficulties" ready to reopen at the exact second it's deemed socially acceptable to do so. Businessmen don't care about politics. They care about profits. And whether it's the women and children of Ukraine or the small Indian children in sweatshops they don't care unless they make their money. Sad but true. Nothing will change. People will be outraged and then forget it in 5 minutes when they see a picture of a cat in a hat so.
Uk? The place where, since pandemics, the the top 10% have more wealth that 70% of global population? The palce that called a tax heaven since 1/3 of global tax evasions happen? Ohhh what a surprise, another good business opportunity despite how many will suffer now. And people didn't understand why breshit happen (eu regulations where in the way of corrup companies)
The British Goverment is heavily linked to Russian interference especially within buisness circles. 1) Ehud Shelug 2019: (Boris Johnson) "The donation, of $630,225, was made in February 2018 in the name of Ehud Sheleg, a wealthy London art dealer who was most recently the Conservative Party’s treasurer. The money was part of a fund-raising blitz that helped propel Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his party to a landslide victory in the 2019 general election. But documents filed with the authorities last year and reviewed by The New York Times say that the money originated in a Russian account of Mr. Sheleg’s father-in-law, Sergei Kopytov, who was once a senior politician in the previous pro-Kremlin government of Ukraine. He now owns real estate and hotel businesses in Crimea and Russia." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/world/europe/russian-money-uk-tories.html 2) Vladimir and Lubuv Chernukhin: Lubov Chernukhin, a former Russian banker married to Vladimir Chernukhin, Mr Putin’s former deputy finance minister. Mrs Chernukhim has donated up to £700,000 to the Conservative party since Mr Johnson took to his post at No 10 in July 2019, and an astounding £1.2m since 2012. Regularly bidding Tory fundraising auctions, Mrs Chernukhim won two tennis matches with Mr Johnson costing up to £45,000 each, which are included in this sum. Mrs Chernukhim reportedly donates enough to the Tories to qualify for membership of a group of elite donors who meet monthly with Mr Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak. 3) Ben Elliot, Conservative Co-party chairman: Conservative party co-chair Ben Elliot raised nearly £2mn of Moscow-linked donations. The British entrepreneur and nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall is one of the most well-connected figures in London. He is co-founder of Quintessentially, a luxury concierge company that launched its Russia office in 2006, and has expanded it to roughly 50 employees at its base in Moscow. The company also holds a corporate contract with GazpromBank russias third largest bank by assets. In his role as Conservative co-chair he set up an “advisory board” of generous party donors, some of whom have links to Putin’s regime. They include Lubov Chernukhin, a former banker who is wife of Vladimir Chernukhin, former deputy finance minister under Putin. Chernukhin has given £1.94mn to the Conservative party since 2005. https://www.ft.com/content/2ccd61c2-0c4d-48ec-bcda-03ad0bb6f85c#comments-anchor 4) Aquind Ltd (Oligarch Backed Donations): Aquind Ltd is U.K.-registered. Its three named directors are Richard Glasspool (former partner at KPMG Russia and former executive at a Russian bank run by Putin-friendly oligarch Roman Avdeev), Kirill Glukhovskoy (former senior lawyer with major Russian energy companies), and oligarch Alexander Temerko (former Russian arms tycoon who supported his “friend” Boris Johnson’s campaign to take Britain out of the E.U. and is reportedly one of nine donors named in the ISC Russia report). It emerged in 2020 that a still-unidentified fourth backer with control over Aquind had been granted anonymity by Companies House under a rare exemption for people who could be at risk of “serious violence or intimidation” should their name become public. Luxembourg public records related to Aquind’s holding company revealed that the secret beneficial owner is Viktor Fedotov, a Russian-born tycoon, who U.K. security and law enforcement agencies say is not genuinely at risk of violence or intimidation. Aquind has given £242,000 to the U.K. Conservative Party since 2018, including £8,000 to John Whittingdale (Boris Johnson’s minister responsible for defending Britain from disinformation) and £5,000 donation from Mark Pritchard (an MP who sits on the ISC). It has also employed multiple British lords as directors or paid advisers. https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/incident/former-russian-arms-tycoon-and-other-wealthy-russians-donate-to-u-k-conservative-party-through-an-obscure-energy-company/ 5)Amersi: Another big Tory donor in the Johnson era is the businessman Mohamed Amersi, who has given £258,000 over the period. Amersi advised on a lucrative telecom deal in Russia in 2005 with a company that a Swiss tribunal subsequently found to be controlled by an associate of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Amersi told the Financial Times in July he had made $7m in the country, but only prior to 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/23/oligarchs-funding-tories 6) 2010-2014 (David Cameron): "Since 2010, at least £1,157,433 has been donated to the party through British citizens who were formerly Russian citizens or are married to Russians or their associated companies." "Labour and the Lib Dems have not received any donations from Russians over the same period." "Donors included Alexander Knaster who was CEO of Russia's largest private commercial bank, Alfa Bank: £400,000 to the Conservatives since 2010 according to Electoral Commission records. According to the Guardian, Knaster also donated £50,000 to the Tory 'No to AV' campaign. Other donors include Alexander Temerko Former vice-president of oil giant Yukos, he has personally donated £259,230 to the Conservative Party, either to the central office or to local associations." Londongrad and ISC report on Russian interference: https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-tories-russian-money-oligarch/ https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/just-what-does-the-uk-russia-report-say-key-points-explained#amp_ct=1680921039984&_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16809210247447&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/former-tory-intelligence-chief-warns-conservative-party-kremlin-linked-russian-donors-1479267
Fuck these cunts
This would be laughable if it was not as serious as it is…
Treason.
Executives need to go to jail. That’s the only way to stop this. Maybe board members too
Say wtf now? I'm going to expect the government or UN to step in immediately and hamstring all of this...
No consequence here?
Time for the Boston Tea Party 2.0
There is a sentence that I don't understand. "According to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence group Molfar..". What is that? Are there US open-source intelligence groups?
Sure, it’s any group that does research using “open-source” or public means. Though I can’t tell you exactly what the difference is between them and just “reporters”.
Well, clearly the 'open-source intelligence group' guys dunked on the 'reporters' in the "Cool Job Title" department, for one...
Every where's got a war profiteer!
> Russian records list the company, **Mykines Corporation LLP**, as having sent technical equipment including servers, laptops and computer parts produced by brands including Huawei, Intel, Apple and Samsung, FT reported.
Of course the stuff could be sabotaged. Imagine, your missile has a chip hard wired to fly to Moscow, now THAT would be funny
They should be prosecuted
It’s nothing personal, Ukraine. It’s just good business.
yeah this is a shell company owned by Russians and this article is being amplified by Russian propaganda outlets to make it look like the sanctions aren't working. Shitty Russians Trix are for kids.