A massive leak of documents shines new light on the fabulous fortunes of the Russian president’s inner circle

Putin’s best friend: the cellist who holds the key to his fortune (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/sergei-roldugin-the-cellist-who-holds-the-key-to-tracing-putins-hidden-fortune)
Iceland’s PM faces snap election over revelations (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/iceland-pm-calls-snap-election-offshore-revelations)
What are the Panama Papers? (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers)
A network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth $2bn has laid a trail to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
An unprecedented leak of documents shows how this money has made members of Putin’s close circle fabulously wealthy.
Continue reading... (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore)

More... (http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore)

Ahem....

Corporate Media Gatekeepers Protect Western 1% From Panama Leak
3 Apr, 2016 in Uncategorized by craig

Whoever leaked the Mossack Fonseca papers appears motivated by a genuine desire to expose the system that enables the ultra wealthy to hide their massive stashes, often corruptly obtained and all involved in tax avoidance. These Panamanian lawyers hide the wealth of a significant proportion of the 1%, and the massive leak of their documents ought to be a wonderful thing.

Unfortunately the leaker has made the dreadful mistake of turning to the western corporate media to publicise the results. In consequence the first major story, published today by the Guardian, is all about Vladimir Putin and a cellist on the fiddle. As it happens I believe the story and have no doubt Putin is bent.

But why focus on Russia? Russian wealth is only a tiny minority of the money hidden away with the aid of Mossack Fonseca. In fact, it soon becomes obvious that the selective reporting is going to stink.

The Suddeutsche Zeitung, which received the leak, gives a detailed explanation of the methodology the corporate media used to search the files. The main search they have done is for names associated with breaking UN sanctions regimes. The Guardian reports this too and helpfully lists those countries as Zimbabwe, North Korea, Russia and Syria. The filtering of this Mossack Fonseca information by the corporate media follows a direct western governmental agenda. There is no mention at all of use of Mossack Fonseca by massive western corporations or western billionaires – the main customers. And the Guardian is quick to reassure that “much of the leaked material will remain private.”

What do you expect? The leak is being managed by the grandly but laughably named “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists”, which is funded and organised entirely by the USA’s Center for Public Integrity. Their funders include

Ford Foundation
Carnegie Endowment
Rockefeller Family Fund
W K Kellogg Foundation
Open Society Foundation (Soros)

among many others. Do not expect a genuine expose of western capitalism. The dirty secrets of western corporations will remain unpublished.

Expect hits at Russia, Iran and Syria and some tiny “balancing” western country like Iceland. A superannuated UK peer or two will be sacrificed – someone already with dementia.

The corporate media – the Guardian and BBC in the UK – have exclusive access to the database which you and I cannot see. They are protecting themselves from even seeing western corporations’ sensitive information by only looking at those documents which are brought up by specific searches such as UN sanctions busters. Never forget the Guardian smashed its copies of the Snowden files on the instruction of MI6.

What if they did Mossack Fonseca database searches on the owners of all the corporate media and their companies, and all the editors and senior corporate media journalists? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on all the most senior people at the BBC? What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every donor to the Center for Public Integrity and their companies?

What if they did Mossack Fonseca searches on every listed company in the western stock exchanges, and on every western millionaire they could trace?

That would be much more interesting. I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?

And what if you corporate lapdogs let the people see the actual data?

UPDATE

Hundreds of thousands of people have read this post in the 11 hours since it was published – despite it being overnight here in the UK. There are 235,918 “impressions” on twitter (as twitter calls them) and over 3,700 people have “shared” so far on Facebook, bringing scores of new readers each.

I would remind you that this blog is produced free for the public good and you are welcome to republish or re-use this article or any other material freely anywhere without requesting further permission.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/

That would be much more interesting. I know Russia and China are corrupt, you don’t have to tell me that. What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?

*sigh*

Well, he is right, as far as he goes - and if you delete the bourgeois induced dismissal of fundamental conditions. The idea that if it was "discovered" that the Koch Bros. and Soros and Gates and Walton (et al) were "laundering" their money and avoiding taxes and "breaking the law" that "something would be done!" is kind of sweet, in a way. Sort of like a small child who has cut her finger and thinks all she has to do is show it to Mommy and everything will be right again.

I wonder about that last sentence I quoted: "What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?" I wonder what he means. I guess he means that it is obvious Russia and China are both corrupt and lack the "freedom" for the people to do anything about it. Whereas, "here in the west" we "might be able to rise up". I don't want to sigh again, but this is just sad, pitiful. "I know Russia and China are corrupt". Really? He "knows" that these two countries are "corrupt", just on sight; but he needs some kind of proof or research or media expose in order to glean any information on "here in the west"? He is shadow boxing...and getting his ass kicked.

I wonder about that last sentence I quoted: "What if you look at things that we might, here in the west, be able to rise up and do something about?" I wonder what he means. I guess he means that it is obvious Russia and China are both corrupt and lack the "freedom" for the people to do anything about it. Whereas, "here in the west" we "might be able to rise up". I don't want to sigh again, but this is just sad, pitiful. "I know Russia and China are corrupt". Really? He "knows" that these two countries are "corrupt", just on sight; but he needs some kind of proof or research or media expose in order to glean any information on "here in the west"? He is shadow boxing...and getting his ass kicked.

Heh, best addressed by the thread I just put up in Other Discussion.

Heh, best addressed by the thread I just put up in Other Discussion.

I have been reading that post. I like VNGIAPAGANDA's stuff. Every chance I get I try to correct the mis-history that we all have been taught. The real problem is exactly what Giap says - it takes hours and hours of dedicated study to reverse the bourgeois faux history. Most people just shrug it off and go on to the next terror scare...

Everything is relative
4 April 2016 07:40 pm

The main message of the public comments on the exposure of Russian thieves sounded something like, 'Ugh, some two billion! " In itself, this formulation of the question suggests that the public at least admits the theft and theft as a norm, and is ready to be surprised only if it will be about the amount exceeding the stated order of magnitude (and even orders of magnitude). It should be understood that we have presented only a very small part of the stolen - no one in the West to fight Russian corruption gift is not necessary if Russia itself in this direction does not do anything.

Nevertheless - 2 billion stolen: it's a lot or a little? Everything is relative. In Iran in 2014 for theft amounts to about $ 2.5 billion were executed a few people , among them - one of the richest men in the country. Right now, preparing the execution of the same Iran one more representative of the highest business elite for fraud with comparable amounts - about $ 2.8 billion. It makes no sense to talk about China - Xi Jinping has already cleared out about 100 thousand officials and businessmen associated with them on corruption charges (!). Most of the imprisoned, but there are those who mercilessly shot - and again, under the penalty to bring the country's richest and most influential people. Total it comes to the amount of one and a half trillion dollars of bribes and losses for the state (ie, an average corrupt official went under the knife for the sum of $ 15 million). Again, it is clear that the fight against corruption is used to a large extent as an instrument of clan warfare. We are no exception - Komi governor or the same cast of Sakhalin under the avenging ax of justice is clearly not because the others are pure tear aki baby: in the same "Panamanian list" there and Russian governors. But Iran and China are just fighting the system, albeit with a serious bias in the police component, paying less attention to the social and economic part of this struggle. But - it is, and it systematically. This is the fundamental difference between these countries from Russia - we all struggle comes down to a formidable reminder adoption endless programs and campaigns convulsive struggle with the ordinary "werewolves". That is quite logical - if the top steal so that 2 billion is not perceived for something serious, then it is possible to require a lower level?

http://el-murid.livejournal.com/2751473.html

Google Translator

Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem
Submitted by Margaret Kimberley on Tue, 04/05/2016 - 22:35

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

The Panama tax haven leaks reveal a lot about the lawlessness of the rich, as well as the ideological bias of the western press. “Vladimir Putin’s name appears nowhere, but the corporate media used his image repeatedly to drum up interest in what is an otherwise newsworthy story.” Americans are conspicuous by their absence from the story. That’s because rich people in the U.S. can avoid taxes “legally in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada.”

Freedom Rider: The Panama Papers Problem
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“The goal of revealing secrets instead turns into a plan to keep more secrets and to tarnish certain reputations based on bias and mysterious criteria.”

The worst criminals on earth are not the poor who sit behind bars in jails and prisons. The biggest thieves are found among the rich. The 1% can buy legislation, politicians and the media to carry out and hide their dirty work. If they can’t change the laws to benefit themselves in their homelands they simply send their money elsewhere through shell holding companies. This transfer of wealth, much of it diverted from what ought to be tax payments, is an open secret. Panama, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland are known for securing the money and secrets of the rich and the well connected.

The leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panama based Mossack Fonseca law firm brings into the light of day what was long known but passively accepted. Now the facts are in the open but the way in which the revelations are reported is questionable and taints an important story.

The documents now known as the Panama Papers were leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) who then shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). ICIJ is a non-profit but with its own problematic origins. It is funded in part by the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and the Rockefeller Family Fund. ICIJ then worked with journalists around the world including from the Guardian and the McClatchy newspaper chain. They in turn will decide what will be kept secret and what will be shared with the public. The goal of revealing secrets instead turns into a plan to keep more secrets and to tarnish certain reputations based on bias and mysterious criteria.

“The way in which the revelations are reported is questionable and taints an important story.”

The Panama Papers show that the heads of state of Ukraine, Iceland, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all held shell holding company accounts in different tax haven locations. Vladimir Putin’s name appears nowhere but the corporate media used his image repeatedly to drum up interest in what is an otherwise newsworthy story. There are Russians who have used Mossack Fonseca services and three of them have close ties to Putin. Guilt by association and innuendo follow instead of disinterested reporting of pertinent facts.

While the corporate media happily do the work of imperialism, Russia is making good on its promise to kick ISIS out of Syria. The liberation of the ancient Syrian city Palmyra should have garnered Putin as much press attention as the Panama story. But the United States and NATO have still not abandoned their goal of regime change in Syria. They were ready to let ISIS fight Assad and do the job for them. While they pretend to drive ISIS out of Syria the Russians are actually getting the job done. If the corporate media want to cover Putin, that development provides an excellent opportunity for them to do so.

While news outlets ranging from the Guardian to the New York Times do their best to connect Putin to the Mossack Fonseca scandal without evidence, the prime minister of the United Kingdom and the president of Ukraine are directly involved. David Cameron’s late father is among those mentioned in the Mossack Fonseca trove. Simply put, he established an offshore account to hide the family fortune. The goal of the scheme was as simple as it is devious: keep Cameron family money and the prime minister’s inheritance from being taxed.

“U.S. law so clearly favors the rich that they have no need to go offshore to form shell corporations.”

The president of Ukraine is yet another thief. When Petro Poroshenko came to office after the 2014 anti-Russian coup he promised to cease playing any role in the operations of his confection company. That business made him a wealthy man with an estimated $800 million personal fortune. Instead he opened an offshore account in the British Virgin Islands to avoid paying taxes.

The media already knew that Poroshenko is richer than many of the Russian oligarchs they obsessively cover and they know that Ukraine is a failed state. They know that Ukraine owes Russia $3 billion and they know that the IMF violated its own rules in not making them pay up.

It is a good thing that the corruption of the world’s elites has been revealed. But as Wikileaks points out, all the documents must be released so that there is transparency available to all and an adherence to journalistic standards.

Hopefully, the proof of worldwide corruption will spur protest and opposition to a system which gives the masses nothing except more inequality. The people of Iceland didn’t wait to be told what to do. Thousands took to the streets and forced their prime minister to resign within three days of the story being published.

It is interesting but not at all mysterious that there are no Americans named in the Mossack Fonseca documents. The reason is simple. U.S. law so clearly favors the rich that they have no need to go offshore to form shell corporations. They can do so legally in Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada. Rich people everywhere know it too. No need to go to Panama or Switzerland. The U.S. is now the best tax haven on the planet. Hopefully the corporate media will decide to cover that story too.

http://blackagendareport.com/panama_papers_problem

The Panama Papers: The People Deceived

Umberto Eco in his last book, Numero Zero, in describing the reality of the manipulating and manipulated western media, has a newspaper editor say, “let’s just stick to spreading suspicion. Someone is involved in fishy business, and though we don’t know who it is, we can give him a scare. That’s enough for our purposes. Then we’ll cash in, our proprietor can cash in, when the time is right.”

And that is exactly what is happening with the appearance simultaneously in all the western media, on Sunday, April 3 of a story about what are called the Panama Papers. The story attributed to a shadowy organisation called the International Coalition of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has all the hallmarks of an operation by western secret services to attempt to subvert targeted governments. The primary target is of course President Putin in order to influence the coming elections and to further attempt to portray him in the eyes of the peoples of the west as a criminal.

But the targets also include FIFA directors, continuing the harassment of FIFA by the United States government, in order to keep Russia out of the next world cup football games, Lionel Messi one of the world’s best football players, perhaps because he refused a request by President Obama’s daughters to meet him when Obama visited Argentina, Jackie Chan, no doubt punishment for supporting the Communist Party of China, and various people blacklisted by the United States for dealing with North Korea, Iran, Hezbollah, Syria and other American designated enemies.

They include President Poroshenko of Ukraine, perhaps signalling they are tired of him, the prime minister of Iceland, since forced to resign, no doubt for jailing bankers, seizing their banks and giving the people some compensation for their losses in the financial crisis of 2008, Hosni Mubarak who has accused the United States of trying to overthrow him, the murdered Gadhafi, and Xi Jinping, president of China. No Americans or NATO leaders are named though David Cameron’s father is named, perhaps a slap at Cameron for allowing a referendum to take place on whether Britain should leave the European Union, which would reduce US influence in Europe.

Essentially these people are all considered by the United States government to be enemies or critics of the United States in one way or another, or no longer reliable partners.

The immediate positioning of President Putin as the principal target of this story, despite the fact he is not mentioned in the documents, coupled with the timing of the story make a reasonable observer conclude that this information was not released just to inform the public but to subvert and discredit chosen governments, that is, it is a propaganda operation, using information that will get the attention of the masses. The rich hiding their money is always a good way to generate anger among the people and to provoke unrest in order to destabilise governments, as we saw just happened in Iceland. It does not matter whether the information in the story is true or not. Some of the information may be but the law firm from which the information was stolen says much of what the story says is untrue. But it doesn’t really matter because the story is what is important and that’s all that people see.

This conclusion is the more inescapable when the true nature of the ICIJ is revealed. For to understand what this story is about it is important to know who put it out, with whom they are connected and who provides the money.

The key is found in the list of the members of the Advisory Board, the Board of Directors and the funders of its parent organisation, the Centre For Public Integrity (CFPI). The ICIJ states on its website that is a non-profit organisation. That technically may be true but they failed to add that they act for the profit of the people who fund them and who control their operations. Funders of the CFPI include the Democracy Fund, the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Foundations of George Soros, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Family Fund and many others of the same pedigree. Individual donors include such people as Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve and many others of the powerful US corporate and financial elite.

Its Advisory Board includes Geoffrey Cowan, who was appointed Director of Voice of America by President Clinton in 1994 and was in 1994-96 associate director of the United States Information Agency. He is now president of the Annenberg Foundation which has hosted US presidents at its retreat in California, dubbed Camp David West, including President Obama. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations which is the American think tank whose membership includes several former heads of the CIA, several US Secretaries of State, and connected media figures and which has the role of promoting globalisation, free trade and other economic and foreign policies for the benefit of the rich and powerful in America.

The Advisory Board also includes Hodding Carter III, former assistant secretary of state under President Carter and later a journalist for major western media such as BBC, ABC, CBC, CNN, NBC, PBS Wall Street

Journal, and now President of the Knight Foundation. There is Edith Everett, President of Gruntal and Company, one of the oldest and biggest investment banks in New York City, Hebert Hafif, connected establishment lawyer, Kathleen Hill Jamieson, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, an expert on the use of the media for political purposes including how to influence political campaigns and elections, and Sonia Jarvis, a lawyer who once worked with President Clinton,

It includes Harold Hongji Koh who was a legal adviser at the US Department of State from 2009 to 2013, nominated by President Obama, who in March 2010 gave a speech supporting the legality of drone assassinations. There is Charles Ogletree, Harvard law professor and a close friend of President Obama, Allen Pusey, publisher and editor of the American Bar Association Journal, Ben Sherwood, co-chair of Disney Media, former president of ABC News and also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Paul Volcker not only is an individual financial supporter but is also on the Board. Aside from his position as a former chairman of the Federal Reserve (1979-1987) he was also chair of the US Economic Advisory Board, appointed by President Obama (2009-2011) a former chair of the Trilateral Commission, worked for the Chase Manhattan Bank and is very close to the Rockefeller family.

It includes Harold Williams, former Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (1977-1981) and member of board of directors of dozens of companies, William Julius Wilson, professor of sociology at Harvard and, last but not least, Christiane Amanpour, chief war propagandist for CNN, who just a few days ago appeared on CNN acting out a charade in which she interviewed a staffer from the ICIJ about the Panama Papers while pretending not to know anything about them. She was in fact interviewing a member of her own organisation but she never informed her viewers of this. For some reason her name does not appear on the CFPI website but her name does appear in the organisation’s latest annual report for 2014-15.

The Board of Directors includes Peter Beale a former head of CNN.com, a former Reuters agent, editor at the London Times, and Microsoft editorial director, as well as Arianna Huffington, president of Post Media, and Bill Kovach, journalist for the New York Times, to name just a few of the establishment figures listed.

The point is made. This is not some independent, muckraking group dedicated to truth and democracy. This is a group of propagandists who, under the cloak of journalism, carry out the art of deception on behalf of the American government and secret services. Indeed in the annual report, they even quote President Obama approving their work. In January this same group launched an attack on the government of China with another story of “leaked” financial documents implicating the Chinese leadership and have done it again in this new story, now doubt part of the “pivot to China.”

So there you have it, the information you need to know but which CNN, The Guardian, the BBC, CBC, the New York Times and all the rest of the media refuse to provide you so that you can properly assess the story they have propagated through the world media. The role of the western media is not to inform the public but, as Umberto Eco says, “to teach people how to think,” to manipulate opinion and action. Their suppression of that information is a lie and as that other great writer, Jose Saramago, wrote, they use “the lie as a weapon, the lie as the advance guard of tanks and cannons, the lie told over the ruins, over the corpses, over humanity’s wretched and perpetually frustrated hopes.” It is time for these people to be exposed for what they are and called to account for their deception of the people they claim to serve, for what greater crime can their be than to deceive the people?

Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto, he is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and he is known for a number of high-profile cases involving human rights and war crimes, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

http://journal-neo.org/2016/04/09/the-panama-papers-the-people-deceived/

The Panama Papers Stand-Up Routine
POSTED BY BABEUF79 ⋅ APRIL 13, 2016
Original article: Politikus.ru
Translated by Alexander Fedotov

The PanamaPapers stove-piping was dealt by a former stand-up comedian who received more than $6 million from the State Department

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/main-pic.jpg?w=880

So, ‘X’ hour has come, but the ‘sensational’ denunciation that OCCRP and ISIJ made against the Russian President was so weak, and the conclusions are so far-fetched that under other circumstances they would not have been published even in some student newspaper.

However, despite the fact that 112 persons were mentioned (from the late father of David Cameron to Petro Poroshenko, from Ilham Aliyev to the King of Saudi Arabia) both the Western ‘free press’ and the media like ‘Novaya Gazeta’, collaborating with OCCRP, pretended they found something really worthwhile, giving the first columns for the strange stories about offshore accounts of Russian businessmen allegedly in friendly relations with Putin.

However, despite the fact that 112 persons were mentioned (from the late father of David Cameron to Petro Poroshenko, from Ilham Aliyev to the King of Saudi Arabia) both the Western ‘free press’ and the media like ‘Novaya Gazeta’, collaborating with OCCRP, pretended they found something really worthwhile, giving the first columns for the strange stories about offshore accounts of Russian businessmen allegedly in friendly relations with Putin.

Obviously, this is not a mere coincidence, and yet another confirmation of a planned attack on the head of our state [the Russian Federation –trans.].


Let’s talk now about who exactly is behind those ordered materials and who does the dirty work in Russia?

Meet Drew Sullivan – journalist, co-founder of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot11.jpg?w=880

At the time he worked for for the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, as well as for Associated Press. He was a structural dynamicist on the Space Shuttle project and even a stand-up comedian [see his biography in his own words].

In 2004 he founded Centre for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Among the partners and sponsors of the project are USAID ([United States Agency for International Development –trans.] government agency), NED [The National Endowment for Democracy –trans.], Transparency International and the European Union.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) started in 2006 by Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu.

In 2013, Sullivan produced a report to NED [to its project called The Centre for International Media Assistance (CIMA) –trans.], in which he described in details the mechanism of interaction of donors with investigative organizations in order to prevent any queries of the audience about for whose benefit the report was done and who its sponsor was.
http://www.cima.ned.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Drew%20Sullivan%20final%20v1.pdf

Here Sullivan reports to USAID functionary for their grants:
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pdact991.pdf

Sullivan is the founder of the organization called Journalism Development Network [see https://www.occrp.org/jdn/ and screenshot below –trans.]

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot2.png?w=880

What exactly this structure is doing is not clear as its official website does not exist. However, it is known that this organization does not only regulate the activity of OCCRP, but also acts as the financial middleman between the latter and the government of the United States.

https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=journalism%20development%20network


https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot3.jpg?w=880&h=332

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/260/260898750/260898750_201312_990.pdf

The State Department allocates funds to the Journalism Development Network for further forwarding them to OCCRP:

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot4.jpg?w=880&h=505

COLUMNISTS
MAP OF HOSTILITIES – 25/01/2015
VOLUNTEERS
MILITARY BRIEFINGS
INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS
EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS
COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS, EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE, PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA
The Panama Papers Stand-Up Routine
POSTED BY BABEUF79 ⋅ APRIL 13, 2016 ⋅ 1 COMMENT
FILED UNDER CORRUPTION, JOURNALISM, RUSSIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, VLADIMIR PUTIN
Original article: Politikus.ru
Translated by Alexander Fedotov

The PanamaPapers stove-piping was dealt by a former stand-up comedian who received more than $6 million from the State Department
main pic

So, ‘X’ hour has come, but the ‘sensational’ denunciation that OCCRP and ISIJ made against the Russian President was so weak, and the conclusions are so far-fetched that under other circumstances they would not have been published even in some student newspaper.

However, despite the fact that 112 persons were mentioned (from the late father of David Cameron to Petro Poroshenko, from Ilham Aliyev to the King of Saudi Arabia) both the Western ‘free press’ and the media like ‘Novaya Gazeta’, collaborating with OCCRP, pretended they found something really worthwhile, giving the first columns for the strange stories about offshore accounts of Russian businessmen allegedly in friendly relations with Putin.

Obviously, this is not a mere coincidence, and yet another confirmation of a planned attack on the head of our state [the Russian Federation –trans.].


Let’s talk now about who exactly is behind those ordered materials and who does the dirty work in Russia?

Meet Drew Sullivan – journalist, co-founder of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).



At the time he worked for for the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, as well as for Associated Press. He was a structural dynamicist on the Space Shuttle project and even a stand-up comedian [see his biography in his own words].

In 2004 he founded Centre for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Among the partners and sponsors of the project are USAID ([United States Agency for International Development –trans.] government agency), NED [The National Endowment for Democracy –trans.], Transparency International and the European Union.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) started in 2006 by Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu.

In 2013, Sullivan produced a report to NED [to its project called The Centre for International Media Assistance (CIMA) –trans.], in which he described in details the mechanism of interaction of donors with investigative organizations in order to prevent any queries of the audience about for whose benefit the report was done and who its sponsor was.
http://www.cima.ned.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Drew%20Sullivan%20final%20v1.pdf

Here Sullivan reports to USAID functionary for their grants:
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pdact991.pdf

Sullivan is the founder of the organization called Journalism Development Network [see https://www.occrp.org/jdn/ and screenshot below –trans.]

scrshot2

What exactly this structure is doing is not clear as its official website does not exist. However, it is known that this organization does not only regulate the activity of OCCRP, but also acts as the financial middleman between the latter and the government of the United States.

https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=journalism%20development%20network


scrshot3

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/260/260898750/260898750_201312_990.pdf

The State Department allocates funds to the Journalism Development Network for further forwarding them to OCCRP:


scrshot4

Overall organization of the Journalism Development Network, Inc. receives huge amounts of funds from USAID and the State Department.

In 2015 – $1,185,158 (https://www.usaspending.gov/transparency/Pages/RecipientProfile.aspx?DUNSNumber=809116440&FiscalYear=2015)

In 2014 – $2,581,865 (https://www.usaspending.gov/transparency/Pages/RecipientProfile.aspx?DUNSNumber=809116440&FiscalYear=2014)

In 2011 – $2,376,639 (https://www.usaspending.gov/transparency/Pages/RecipientProfile.aspx?DUNSNumber=809116440&FiscalYear=2011)

In 2013 – $200,156 (https://www.usaspending.gov/transparency/Pages/RecipientProfile.aspx?DUNSNumber=809116440&FiscalYear=2013)

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot5.jpg?w=880&h=178

https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=JOURNALISM+DEVELOPMENT+NETWORK

As we can see in front of us is a typical example of an grant-eater organization and its founder, tightly sitting on a financial needle of the State Department and USAID. Because of it, they are a tool of American foreign policy.

It is noteworthy that the Sullivan’s organizations not only spend money of American taxpayers but also direct financial flows to Russia.

According to tax returns, only in 2012-2013 years, not less than $326,000 were sent by OCCRP to support investigative journalism in Russia and the CIS countries.

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot6.jpg?w=880

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/260/260898750/260898750_201312_990.pdf

https://slavyangrad.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/scrshot7.jpg?w=880&h=673

American laws allow NGOs not to specify the final recipient of the grant for the benefit of its activities. However, on the OCCRP website there is the only media of Russian origin – ‘Novaya Gazeta’, which is stated as a partner of the Centre.

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Active cooperation OCCRP with ‘Novaya Gazeta’ is visible to the naked eye. So, in 2015, officials of OCCRP initiated in ‘Novaya Gazeta’ large number of publications highlighting the Magnitsky case, the corruption in the RF, the transfers $20 bn from Russia.

So there is nothing surprising in the fact that particularly ‘Novaya Gazeta’ became a partner of OCCRP and ISIJ in the publication materials of the “investigation” on the territory of Russia; in fact, acting as one of the “flushing cisterns” of another poor quality order on Putin.

So what we have at the “bottom line”:

1. The widely publicized investigation about Putin turned to be nothing – nothing new and nothing to prove the charges that were made. In fact, they created out of the thin air something newsworthy and promote it through media that are ‘tamed’ or simply unfriendly to Russia.

2. What we face is not journalism but the information attack. It is proved by the fact that the key publications on the primary source website (ISIJ) and in the international media (The Guardian, USA Today) exploit not withstanding any criticism stories around the Russian President (even though he, himself, would not appear in them), while much more substantiated allegations against Poroshenko, family members of the Chairman XI Jinping, the late father of Cameron and other people are interested nobody. It is laughable, isn’t it?

3. Why information blow struck just now is understandable – there are large Federal elections forthcoming and we see the attempts of brainwashing via discrediting respected people.

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4. You should already have drawn your attention to the fact that there are no Americans in the investigation? Is not it because sponsors of “investigative organizations” are located in Washington? The story as old as time: governs the one who pays.

And finally: I would advise our the Federal Tax Police [of Russian Federation –trans.] take a closer look at ‘Novaya Gazeta’. There is, of course, no direct evidence of its financing by OCCRP but the money was sent to someone. Also the cooperation of the media with the Centre is so obvious that it requires no further confirmation.

https://slavyangrad.org/2016/04/13/the-panama-papers-stand-up-routine/

Some images don't want to act right, see link.

Anti-austerity protests lack anti-capitalist leadership
Posted on 18 April 2016 by Red Youth
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Police break up the demonstration in Parliament Square

Last weekend saw spontenous demonstrations outside Downing Street and the Grand Connaught Rooms, where Cameron was apologising to the Tory party, attracting several thousand before being broken up by police. These demonstrations came in the wake of revelations that the ruling class (including Cameron) have been – shockingly! – routinely engaged in avoiding paying taxes on their assets. The leak, dubbed the Panama Papers, reveals connections between major banks, heads of state, and government officials the world over with tax avoidance vehicles and shell companies.


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#resigncameron protesters

This is of course business as usual for the capitalist ruling class as they seek to extract as much profit as possible at the expense of the workers that create all this wealth. While creating attractive conditions for businesses and wealthy individuals to make their superprofits services for the rest of us are cut or privatised. This is not due to the ‘wrong’ party being in government, but the wrong system (capitalism) being in place.

The Kill the Housing Bill demonstration saw thousands take to the streets, while the #4demands demonstration yesterday, Saturday 16 April, drew crowds of over 100,000 calling for an end to austerity and the provision of homes, healthcare, jobs, and education. While these are demands that we should and must make, the speakers invited to the march provide no clear path to enforcing those demands. The message of the day, delivered by an assortment of politicians, trade union leaders, and political activists, including Diane Abbott, John McDonnell, Owen Jones, Lindsey German, and a video message from Jeremy Corbyn was to “go out and build the movement in your communities and in trade unions.”

The question is then what kind of movement? The speakers at the demo yesterday, and at many other protests and rallies over the past few months, clearly intend for this to be a movement for the Labour party. While in opposition they are free to preach about a more “fair and just society” and an “economy that works for all” despite Labour councils across the country currently implementing cuts to services and destroying social housing.

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It is often claimed that Jeremy, despite his constant backtracking on positions since entering the leadership contest and becoming leader such as NATO membership, Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, and allowing an open vote on bombing Syria, has at the least engaged and energised left-wing movements again. However, 2011 demonstrations drew over half a million, and also saw occupations and riots across the country as a result of the recession.

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Red Youth and CPGB-ML on the #4demands demonstration

No matter the intentions of those leading the resurgence of “old Labour” the reality is that capitalism cannot be made to serve the working class, and social democracy only serves to protect the ruling class and their interests. Despite 77 years of operation with Clause IV in Labour’s constitution, declaring their commitment to “common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange,” the party has consistently shown their true allegiance to the bourgeoise, supporting predatory imperialist wars and free-market economics, while making the minimum concessions possible to workers under the pressure from the example of the USSR.

We must take the anger and the optimism present in these demonstrations and the working class at large and forge a path to revolution. Leading people from protest to petition to the next protest, with the only goal being a Labour victory, will ultimately grind down and demoralise the anti-austerity movement.

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CPGB-ML on the Kill the Housing Bill demonstration

Interestingly the spontaneous demonstration outside Downing St calling for Cameron’s resignation put across a clearer and more honest message than the Labour-dominated demonstration. Speakers on the open microphone were making the points that it’s not just Cameron, or the Tory party that need to go, that a Labour victory in 2020 will not make the difference we need, but that it is capitalism that needs to go, a moribund system that no bourgeois party can fix.


http://youtu.be/2IOWbhux_og

March with us on May 1st, and help us build a real revolutionary workers party in Britain!

https://redyouth.org/2016/04/18/anti-austerity-protests-lack-anti-capitalist-leadership/

Other videos at link.