comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 15 seconds ago
One of my friends on Twitter has suggested we all club together to buy the Glazers an Ancestry DNA kit to see if they have any Russian in them!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 1 minute ago
One of my friends on Twitter has suggested we all club together to buy the Glazers an Ancestry DNA kit to see if they have any Russian in them!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

comment by Robbb Kanchelskis 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 RIP Warney 🏏 (U22716)
posted 30 seconds ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 4 minutes ago
I have a substantial amount of money now stuck in a company suspended on LSE, I'm not happy.

If people really believe the oligarchs are going to have any influence on Russia pulling out of Ukraine they're deluded. They wouldn't have wanted an invasion in the first place.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Rich and powerful people in Russia have connections and eventually Putin will be drinking some special tea. Or someone would walk past him with a pointy umbrella and send him to that big bareback horse ride in the sky
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dunno, Putin is careful and has avoided any assassination attempts until now.

Besides the point, the oligarchs handle business from an economical standpoint, it's in their interest for Putin to be in power.

The people who influence politics, especially geopolitical affairs aren't the billionaires but the strongmen around him.

It's all for show on NATO and EU's part. Putin clearly doesn't give a damn about the economy at this point in time. Russia are still bombing Ukraine, and will continue to do so until an agreement is reached.

Don't forget our governments and media have their own agenda too.

comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 2 minutes ago
One of my friends on Twitter has suggested we all club together to buy the Glazers an Ancestry DNA kit to see if they have any Russian in them!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Come to think of it we should send these kits to most of the players too.

comment by Anthony The King Elanga (U10026)
posted 22 minutes ago
Most chelsea fans on this board have condemned any wrong doing from abramovich.
———

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone is shooting their load way too prematurely. Nothing will happen to Chelsea and everyone, apart from a few skidmark creating Spurs fans, probably already know that a solution will be found. Enjoy the "bantz" of course, but Chelsea will be sold, keep their squad and continue to be a force in world football.

comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Rude Van Nist (U22799)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 42 seconds ago
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Mr Abramovich and the other Russian oligarchs sanctioned are "complicit" in Putin's aggression.

"The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame," she said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Indeed, but so should she for being in the most corrupt government I can think we’ve had for many a year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

True.

Those in glass houses.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Does that mean she is wrong
----------------------------------------------------------------------

No but it means an awful fecking person who should shut the f up about others morality.

Until relatively recently I had assumed that the relationship between Abramovich and Putin was not especially amicable, and this was why Abramovich sought to live in the west, build a high profile and why he has such an extreme attitude towards personal security. Having read the sanction document (at least the section pertaining directly to RA) I can now appreciate that there has been at least what could be called a mutually beneficial arrangement between the private enterprise of RA and the Russian state.

However what really sprung out to me was RAs stake in Evraz who we are told have directly contributed to the Russian war effort. That alone provides reasonable grounds for sanction.

With respect to football, it is unfortunate that we (Chelsea) are now a piece in a larger game beyond our control. I hope that a solution can be found to conduct some sort of orderly sale so that the club does not undergo years of fallout, doubtless with further reaching repercussions

The Magninsky act could really have some teeth with what’s happening now.

comment by Rude Van Nist (U22799)
posted 8 minutes ago
comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by Rude Van Nist (U22799)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 42 seconds ago
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Mr Abramovich and the other Russian oligarchs sanctioned are "complicit" in Putin's aggression.

"The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame," she said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Indeed, but so should she for being in the most corrupt government I can think we’ve had for many a year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

True.

Those in glass houses.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Does that mean she is wrong
----------------------------------------------------------------------

No but it means an awful fecking person who should shut the f up about others morality.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes the message is more important than the messenger

comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
Russiangood stuff mate. I guess it’s who you surround yourself with, most my mates, including the chelsea supporting ones are logical and likeminded.

Thing is most of us don’t know the depth of the politics and corruption but if Romans firm have been providing steel for the Russian war effort he should rightfully be punished and gone.

Having said that, I’ve been falling out of love with football and it’s exension of capitalism for years now. What makes it so high end and so competitive is the money for sure but where most thst money comes from is through unethical means. Standard chartered, nike, Roman, Saudi Arabia, where does it end
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I totally relate to that. Had the Super League not collapsed (in such an enjoyably humiliating manner) I would have been unable to follow United any longer. As it is, I feel a lot of ambivalence about what the club has become.

not when the messenger is someone of her ilk.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 15 seconds ago
comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
Russiangood stuff mate. I guess it’s who you surround yourself with, most my mates, including the chelsea supporting ones are logical and likeminded.

Thing is most of us don’t know the depth of the politics and corruption but if Romans firm have been providing steel for the Russian war effort he should rightfully be punished and gone.

Having said that, I’ve been falling out of love with football and it’s exension of capitalism for years now. What makes it so high end and so competitive is the money for sure but where most thst money comes from is through unethical means. Standard chartered, nike, Roman, Saudi Arabia, where does it end
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I totally relate to that. Had the Super League not collapsed (in such an enjoyably humiliating manner) I would have been unable to follow United any longer. As it is, I feel a lot of ambivalence about what the club has become.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I was having this same conversation with my mate earlier, who is a Leeds fan. I would say that there is a closer link between Leeds and their fans than there is with United, and even he was saying how football is no longer for the working man.

comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 57 minutes ago
comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Roy's Keane (U11635)
posted 42 seconds ago
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Mr Abramovich and the other Russian oligarchs sanctioned are "complicit" in Putin's aggression.

"The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame," she said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Indeed, but so should she for being in the most corrupt government I can think we’ve had for many a year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Liz Truss should keep her mouth shut, she's handled the whole build up to the invasion terribly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That's a bit unfair. She has engineered some really impressive photo-shoots cosplaying Maggie Thatcher since day one of this crisis. I particularly enjoyed the fur-hat-despite-unseasonably-warm-temperatures-in-Moscow pictures.

comment by Champers - Pow! Right in the kisser (U6859)
posted 50 minutes ago
Everyone is shooting their load way too prematurely. Nothing will happen to Chelsea and everyone, apart from a few skidmark creating Spurs fans, probably already know that a solution will be found. Enjoy the "bantz" of course, but Chelsea will be sold, keep their squad and continue to be a force in world football.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrong thread

United should be onto Tuchel

comment by Elvis: King of Cult (U7425)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 15 seconds ago
comment by Nickasaurus (U9257)
posted 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
Russiangood stuff mate. I guess it’s who you surround yourself with, most my mates, including the chelsea supporting ones are logical and likeminded.

Thing is most of us don’t know the depth of the politics and corruption but if Romans firm have been providing steel for the Russian war effort he should rightfully be punished and gone.

Having said that, I’ve been falling out of love with football and it’s exension of capitalism for years now. What makes it so high end and so competitive is the money for sure but where most thst money comes from is through unethical means. Standard chartered, nike, Roman, Saudi Arabia, where does it end
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I totally relate to that. Had the Super League not collapsed (in such an enjoyably humiliating manner) I would have been unable to follow United any longer. As it is, I feel a lot of ambivalence about what the club has become.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I was having this same conversation with my mate earlier, who is a Leeds fan. I would say that there is a closer link between Leeds and their fans than there is with United, and even he was saying how football is no longer for the working man.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
At present I probably can relate to my national team a lot more. That's never been the case in the past. Perhaps it's because most of them are not top class footballers so work a bit harder for the shirt.

comment by Anthony The King Elanga (U10026)
posted 59 minutes ago
It’s a way of sanctioning Putin. It’s pretty well known that a lot of the assets owned by the Russians connected to Putin, are doing so on behalf of Putin. It’s estimated he’s actually a trillionaire.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS! Putin doesn't have *that* much wealth in his own name. But he controls hundreds of billions of dollars of assets that are registered in the names of lackeys. The big oligarchs like Abramovich did make fortunes independently (mostly in very dodgy circumstances) and the ones whose money and personal welfare have survived the Putin era did so because they were willing to back him politically and in terms of investments.

We're seeing now the bitter irony of how Putin's personal control, exerted through a political / economic system that's reliant on kickbacks for loyalty (in addition to brutal repression), ultimately results in weakening Russia's power as a country. The military effort has been shambolic because equipment was poorly maintained and new systems didn't work properly - because generals and officials all needed to take their cut on expenditure.

Here's an enlightening tweet thread from one of Navalny's team illuminating just one example of the way money derived from corruption of the Russian state finds its way into the UK: https://twitter.com/pevchikh/status/1501878715709632518

it's intolerable that we are a money laundering haven for authoritarian regimes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
That ship has sailed.

Can recommend Kleptopia as a decent read for anyone wanting to know more about dirty money.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Anthony The King Elanga (U10026)
posted 59 minutes ago
It’s a way of sanctioning Putin. It’s pretty well known that a lot of the assets owned by the Russians connected to Putin, are doing so on behalf of Putin. It’s estimated he’s actually a trillionaire.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS! Putin doesn't have *that* much wealth in his own name. But he controls hundreds of billions of dollars of assets that are registered in the names of lackeys. The big oligarchs like Abramovich did make fortunes independently (mostly in very dodgy circumstances) and the ones whose money and personal welfare have survived the Putin era did so because they were willing to back him politically and in terms of investments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was lead to believe Putin personally owned Gasprom, mate?

That must be worth a few quid.

RR, yeah as I mentioned the Magnitsky act was set up to try and sanction Putin but didn’t have any teeth until now.

It’s hard to know just what is Putin’s, and whether any of the oligarchs can apply political pressure, but by going after all of them they are going after Putin’s money and that isn’t a good thing for Putin.

comment by (U22816)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Anthony The King Elanga (U10026)
posted 59 minutes ago
It’s a way of sanctioning Putin. It’s pretty well known that a lot of the assets owned by the Russians connected to Putin, are doing so on behalf of Putin. It’s estimated he’s actually a trillionaire.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS! Putin doesn't have *that* much wealth in his own name. But he controls hundreds of billions of dollars of assets that are registered in the names of lackeys. The big oligarchs like Abramovich did make fortunes independently (mostly in very dodgy circumstances) and the ones whose money and personal welfare have survived the Putin era did so because they were willing to back him politically and in terms of investments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I was lead to believe Putin personally owned Gasprom, mate?

That must be worth a few quid.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Putin doesn't personally own Gazprom. The Russian state has majority ownership through different entities and I don't doubt that Putin is in effective control of a massive chunk of the wealth but it's not in his name.

It's the same with countless other assets. Probably some valuable context for why Putin is desperate to maintain a personal grip on power. Once he doesn't command the security services, you could see that control of assets slipping away very quickly.

comment by Silver (U6112)
posted 24 minutes ago
it's intolerable that we are a money laundering haven for authoritarian regimes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
That ship has sailed.

Can recommend Kleptopia as a decent read for anyone wanting to know more about dirty money.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I should definitely read that.

You're right that it's late to be bolting the stable doors now. A lot of looted wealth is no longer recoverable, and a lot of damage has been done to UK society using that wealth. However, we could easily have made the same argument a decade ago. Tighter laws and stricter application of regulations is about stopping the same mistakes been repeated in the future.