Yukos oil
oddly? blank 1119<div>
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">desmog 12129</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="font-size: small;"><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Ukrainian connection</font></strong></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three members of Offshore Group Newcastle, a company that fabricates steel for oil platforms, have also been members of the Leader's Group. The company has <a href="http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/?currentPage=5&rows=10&query=Offshore%20Group%20Newcastle&sort=AcceptedDate&order=desc&tab=1&et=pp&et=ppm&et=tp&et=perpar&et=rd&isIrishSourceYes=true&isIrishSourceNo=true&prePoll=false&postPoll=true®ister=gb®ister=ni®ister=none&optCols=CampaigningName&optCols=AccountingUnitsAsCentralParty&optCols=IsSponsorship&optCols=RegulatedDoneeType&optCols=CompanyRegistrationNumber&optCols=Postcode&optCols=NatureOfDonation&optCols=PurposeOfVisit&optCols=DonationAction&optCols=ReportedDate&optCols=IsReportedPrePoll&optCols=ReportingPeriodName&optCols=IsBequest&optCols=IsAggregation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">donated almost £500,000</a> to the Conservative Party since 2012. </font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps">OGN</span> is now in liquidation, but one of its former directors, <strong>Alexander Temerko</strong>, remains very politically active. He has given the Conservative Party and Tory <span class="caps">MP</span>s <a href="http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/?currentPage=7&rows=10&query=Alexander%20Temerko&sort=AcceptedDate&order=desc&tab=1&et=pp&et=ppm&et=tp&et=perpar&et=rd&isIrishSourceYes=true&isIrishSourceNo=true&prePoll=false&postPoll=true®ister=gb®ister=ni®ister=none&optCols=CampaigningName&optCols=AccountingUnitsAsCentralParty&optCols=IsSponsorship&optCols=RegulatedDoneeType&optCols=CompanyRegistrationNumber&optCols=Postcode&optCols=NatureOfDonation&optCols=PurposeOfVisit&optCols=DonationAction&optCols=ReportedDate&optCols=IsReportedPrePoll&optCols=ReportingPeriodName&optCols=IsBequest&optCols=IsAggregation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">over £600,000</a> as an individual since 2012.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ukrainian-born Temerko became a British citizen in 2011, describes himself as <a href="https://archive.fo/e6unj" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a “vocal champion of <span class="caps">UK</span> energy security and independence.”</a> He is the<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20181212005849/http:/www.alexandertemerko.co.uk/en/about/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> former deputy chairman</a> of Russia’s Yukos Oil Company. He is currently director of <span class="caps">AQUIND</span> Limited, which is building an electricity interconnector between the <span class="caps">UK</span> and mainland Europe.</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-russian-donors-have-stepped-tory-funding/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">openDemocracy reports</a> that Temerko is said to be particularly close to Boris Johnson,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> with the two men sometimes calling each other “Sasha”, the Russian diminutive for Alexander, which is Johnson’s real first name. Temerko was reportedly involved in an unsuccessful attempt led by members of a group of hardline Conservative </span><span class="caps" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MP</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">s, the European Research Group, to remove Theresa May as leader in December 2018.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps">OGN</span> directors David Edwards and Dennis Clarke were also members of the Leader's Group, but Edwards <a href="https://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/tributes-paid-to-industry-stalwart-david-edwards-1-5002426" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">deceased in May 2017</a> and Clarke <a href="https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business/business-news/ogn-boss-dennis-clark-retires-12436657" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">retired</a> the same year.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Conservative Party and all the donors named here have been contacted for comment.</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/books/review/blowout-rachel-maddow.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/books/review/blowout-rachel-maddow.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rachel Maddow Takes On the Oil Industry</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Fareed Zakaria</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oct. 30, 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BLOWOUT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Rachel Maddow</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For those who have watched Rachel Maddow’s television show, the opening scene of her book will feel familiar in its eye for a compelling anecdote. She tells the 2003 story of a small new business in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood that is about to be inaugurated by a head of state, in fact, “one of the most powerful men on the planet.” We’re intrigued. It turns out the business is a gas station. What’s going on? Four paragraphs later, we learn that the mystery man is Vladimir Putin, who is publicizing one of a string of American gas stations acquired by the Russian oil giant Lukoil. Having piqued your interest, Maddow now broadens her narrative and explains why this anecdote is an apt illustration of the book’s larger point — the centrality and influence of the oil and gas industry.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Blowout” is a rollickingly well-written book, filled with fascinating, exciting and alarming stories about the impact of the oil and gas industry on the world today. While she is clearly animated by a concern about climate change, Maddow mostly describes the political consequences of an industry that has empowered some of the strangest people in the United States and the most unsavory ones abroad. It is “essentially a big casino,” she writes, “that can produce both power and triumphant great gobs of cash, often with little regard for merit.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">How much cash? Maddow tells the incredible, depressing story of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of the long-serving dictator of <b>Equatorial Guinea,</b> a country that saw its oil revenues grow from $2.1 million in 1993 to a staggering $3.9 billion in 2007. Despite these billions pouring into state coffers, an NGO observed in 2009, “77 percent of the population lives in poverty, 35 percent die before the age of 40 and 57 percent lack access to safe water.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But life at that time is good for Teodoro, who owns a $100 million house in Paris, a $30 million beach house in Malibu, a $7 million vacation home in South Africa, one of the world’s largest yachts and dozens of racecars. When his drivers take one of Teodoro’s many girlfriends shopping, they are given a shoe box filled with up to $80,000 in cash for a single outing. His bill for one spree at an auction house in 2010, Maddow notes, would have paid the entire annual wages of 3,300 of his countrymen, since three-quarters of them live on $2 a day. (Teodoro does now face international investigations and pressure on various fronts.)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>While there are many colorful tales about villains, scoundrels and adventurers, the through-line of this book is the story of the rise of Vladimir Putin.</b> The most important geopolitical consequence of the oil and gas boom of the last 20 years has been Russia’s development into a full-blown petrostate, Putin’s consolidation of power and his determination to use this capacity to protect himself and disrupt the West.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Maddow carefully takes us through the manner in which Putin asserted greater and greater control over Russia’s vast oil and gas resources. The key move was the takeover of what was then Russia’s largest oil company, Yukos, run by a brilliant entrepreneur, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. By 2003, Khodorkovsky had built Yukos into a $36 billion company, providing an estimated 5 percent of the total tax revenues of the Russian government, and was planning to acquire a competitor, Sibneft, which would make the conglomerate the world’s fourth largest oil producer.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This was not to be. By the end of 2003, Khodorkovsky had been jailed for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement. The Russian government charged that Yukos owed $27.5 billion in taxes and penalties. In 2004, the company was sold in an auction that lasted six minutes. The winning bid — at the firesale price of $9.3 billion — was from an unknown company with an initial capitalization of $300. That company quickly sold Yukos to the state-owned oil giant, Rosneft, at cost. Putin now controlled some of Russia’s largest and most productive oil assets.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>As oil prices rose, so did Putin’s ambitions, </b>which reached a symbolic height with his decision to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, a Russian resort town with little snow and lousy facilities. No matter, that seemed part of the plan, because what ensued was an orgy of construction and corruption. In a detailed, thorough analysis of the project, the Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov concluded that the Sochi Olympics had cost more than the previous 21 Winter Olympics combined, because Putin’s favored builders had lined their pockets with $25-$30 billion. A year later, Nemtsov was dead, assassinated just outside the Kremlin’s walls.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of the book’s themes is the degree to which Western capitalists — bankers and oilmen — abetted Putin’s rise to power, cheered on his capture of resources and partnered with him no matter what he was doing to Russia’s democratic and capitalist experiment.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Chief among them was Exxon’s C.E.O. Rex Tillerson (</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">later the secretary of state), who was so cooperative that in 2013 Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship, one of the country’s highest honors bestowed on a foreigner. And Tillerson was a fast friend indeed. Maddow quotes from a 2016 conversation in which T</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">illerson explained that after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and <b>annexation of Crimea,</b> he visited Russia and was surprised by his interactions with Putin and his aides. “The first question they asked me was … ‘Are you O.K.?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?’ They said, ‘Well, we just wondered whether your government was coming after you because you’ve been doing business with us.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">’” Tillerson marveled that “they were more worried about me.” What amazing concern and consideration! For him, Putin’s aggression seemed far less noteworthy than his empathy.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ukraine features prominently in Maddow’s account because it has become the central struggle between Putin and the West, and America in particular. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">She describes how Putin was outraged by American support for the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> ouster of the corrupt and pro-Russian Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovych, which happened in the midst of his triumphant Sochi Olympics.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Putin was already deeply hostile toward the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton in particular, for having given verbal support to pro—democracy protests in Moscow. For Putin, Western efforts at regime change could only be countered by his own attacks on Western democracies.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">...</span></div></div></div>