{"id":46613,"date":"2017-05-15T05:15:44","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T09:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=46613"},"modified":"2017-05-15T09:31:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-15T13:31:53","slug":"russian-oil-russian-billions-trump-world-russian-hacking-fbi-director-firing-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/russian-oil-russian-billions-trump-world-russian-hacking-fbi-director-firing-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Oil, Russian Billions, Trump World, Russian Hacking, FBI Director Firing, & Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think of healthy democracies, you definitely think of petrostates<\/a>, right?<\/p>\n

Some would like to characterize Russia as a more varied and robust economy \u2014 not quite a petrostate \u2014 but the US Energy Information Administration has pegged<\/a> 50% of Russia’s government income as coming from oil & gas<\/a> (for some reason, that link is broken for me at the moment, but hopefully it will come back online). If half of the government’s cash would disappear without oil & gas, I think it’s pretty clear what role that industry plays in the government and society. Our own Susan Kraemer laid out the story well \u2014 and how it seems to relate to Donald Trump’s presidency \u2014 here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Susan also dove into the link between undemocratic autocracies and dependence on oil<\/a>. Here’s a quote\u00a0from that article that originally comes from a Bloomberg<\/em> story<\/a>\u00a0announcing that Russia had become the world’s largest oil producer:<\/p>\n

By now, Russia\u2019s reputation for corruption is a clich\u00e9, but it is impossible to overstate how it defines public life at every level, all the way to the Kremlin. Russia is one of the few countries in the world to slip steadily in Transparency International\u2019s annual rankings. Out of a hundred and seventy-eight countries surveyed in 2010, Russia ranks a hundred and fifty-fourth, a spot it shares with Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau, and the Central African Republic.<\/i><\/p>\n

Corruption has reached such extremes that businesses involved in preparing the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the Winter Olympics of 2014 report having to pay kickbacks of more than fifty per cent. The Russian edition of Esquire recently calculated that one road in Sochi cost so much that it could just as well have been paved with, say, nine inches of foie gras or three and a half inches of Louis Vuitton handbags. In October, President Dmitry Medvedev announced that a trillion rubles\u2014thirty-three billion dollars\u2014disappears annually on government contracts. This is three per cent of the country\u2019s G.D.P.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before I keep going, let’s take one break to recognize the power of the free-market consumer here. Each of us \u2014 if we decide to bicycle for transportation<\/a>, drive an electric car<\/a>, or use mass transit<\/a> \u2014 can cut into oil-soaked kleptocracies<\/a> and autocracies<\/a>. Want to do something to protest these corrupt, murderous, thieving mafia-like governments?\u00a0Drop gasoline and diesel.<\/p>\n

Anyway, let’s move on to the connection between Russian billions and “Trump World” (Trump private business and associated investors\/collaborators\/supporters). It’s still not clear if Trump’s presidential campaign coordinated with Russians in order to “hack” the US election and get Trump elected to the White House (or “Southern White House<\/a>,” as it may be). There are a\u00a0LOT<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0of odd connections, but we are not aware of any conclusive evidence of collusion. However, Trump’s family\u00a0business has reportedly taken a ton of cash from Russians in recent years\/decades. That info essentially comes right from Donald Trump’s sons.<\/p>\n

Golf reporter and author James Dodson has shared a conversation<\/a> he had with Eric Trump<\/a>\u00a0in 2014, after being surprised to discover that the Trumps had $100 million to fund renovations at the\u00a0new Trump golf course they were visiting:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we were setting off, I said, \u2018Eric, who\u2019s funding? I know no banks\u200a\u2014\u200abecause of the recession, the Great Recession\u200a\u2014\u200ahave touched a golf course. You know, no one\u2019s funding any kind of golf construction. It\u2019s dead in the water the last four or five years.\u2019 And this is what he said. He said, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.\u2019 I said, \u2018Really?\u2019 And he said, \u2018Oh, yeah. We\u2019ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they\u2019re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.\u2019 Now that was three years ago, so it was pretty interesting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n