Putin's People By Catherine Belton Flashcards
How did the Kremlin begin to learn how to navigate through the UK’s court system?
The kRemlin began practicing navigating through the rules and regulations of the UK court system with their victory against Boris Berezovsky, a victory which seemed to turn Russian history on its head.
How did the Kremlin use its knowledge of the UK’s court system to pursue its first “inner circle” victim, Sergei Pugachev?
It was able to track down Pugachev and pursue litigation against him for not obeying the account freeze placed upon him when he escaped to the UK in 2015.
Why was Sergei Pugachev being prosecuted and sought after by the Kremlin?
Originally one of the founding oligarchs of modern Russia, Sergei Pugachev was always working behind the scenes to bring Putin to power and did backdoor deals, known as the KRemlin;s bancker. This put him in a position of great liability, and as his assets were slowly seized from him by the Kremlin at low prices (2 three billion dollar shipyards and one large 4 billion dollar coal company), an unprecedented power grab which led to the collapse of Mezhprombank. He was subsequently criminalized for being “responsible for this”.
What happened to insider and critic Boris Berezovsky when he sought to sue Kremlin ally Roman Abramovich?
Berezovsky claimed he had joinly owned Sibneft (a big oil corporation in Russia) and Rusal (Russia’s biggest aluminum producer) with Abramovich. He sued Abromovich for forcing him to sell his stakes at knockdown prices. Berezovsky lost the case, but afterwards it was found that judge Gloster’s stepson had recieved 500,000 euros to represent Abramovich in the early stages of the case.
Who is Mukhar Ablyazov and how is he related to Russian UK operations?
Mukhar was a Kazakh billionare who was a strong opponent of the Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, a key Russian ally. The Kremlin had chased him for supposedly siphoning 4 billion dollars from the Kazakh BTA bank, of which he was chairman. BTA Bank had branches all over russia. Russian agents hired the best lawyers from london and did 11 lawsuits, also ordering a freeze on his assets.
Who is Sergei Zheleznyak?
Deputy speaker of the state Duma, an outspoken patriot and critcizer of the west.
What was scary about london for Sergei Pugachev?
Theere were many officialk of the Russian governmebnt in lonon at the time.
What was special about london in regards to russians?
There had long been an influx of russian money into london, raising prices and making it ratherr dependent on this ibflyx of russuians.
What is the evening standard and what has it to do with Russian influence in london
Big banker Alexander Lebedev, had acquired the most read daily paper in london (evening thandard).
Who is Dmitri Firtash?
A Ukranian gas tycoon whose main cusomer is the Kremlin, depsite his having connections with the CIA-wanted mobser Semyon Mogilevich. Mogilevich was a billionare donor to Cambridge university.
What were the KGB looking at during the early 80s and late 70s that signaled impending doom for the Soviet Union?
The KGB began looking into ways in which they could enter the market economy, for example holding stocks and shares, and selling oil to constituents at prices 10x lower the average price and having them sell it at market price so that their profit could be invested in an “invisible economy”.
What were black marketeers known by in the Soviet Union?
Tsekhoviki.
What did people do to avoid becoming a victim to food shortages?
They would scour hotels for tourists and take their dollars for their soviet currency. Rubles? This benefitted both the tourist and the Soviet. The Soviet would gain access to Bereyozki shops whoch held western products and the tourist would recieve money at a higher exchange rate that was far better than the soviet fixed rate.
What was especially harmful from black marketeering for the economy overall?
Already terrorized by fixed prices, quotas, lack of industry, and controlled earnings, the short term benefits for individuals in the black market (as well as the economy overall), would lead to the long term cost of a further lack of incentive to improve the economic system.
Who was Mikhael Milshtein?
A legendary soviet military intelligence chief who was witness to the rapid blossoming of the Western economy. he forged a good relationship with U.S Secretary Henry Kissinger to “stop the vicious cycle of conflict”
Who is Andrei Akimov?
A Soviet foreign intelligence operative who was assigned to the Societ Union’s bank in Vienna, consequently becoming a major financier behind Putin’s regime.
Who is Alexander Yakovlev?
In 1983 he was a newly appointed director IMEMO (an institute responsible for the world economy and international relations) and helped pass policy which chipped away at the Soviet monopoly of the domestic economy. He would become a mentor to Gorbachev and the godfather of the perestroika reforms.
What was IMEMO?
Institute for World Economy and International Relations. Became the engine room for perestroika reforms.
Who were Yegor Gaidar and Pyotr Aven?
Working under Andropov, who succeeded Brezhnev in 1982, Yegor Gaidar and Pyotr Aven were major think tanks for the Soviet perestroika reforms.
Who is Andropov?
Andropov was intitially a KGB chief who worked to undermine the west nd israel through influential work in the middle east. But he supported the Palestenian “terrorists” so I dont mind. Andropov later succeeded Brezhnev in 1982. Under his control, the KGB began to prepeare for reforms which would loosen the control of the Soviet economy. He created institutions which encouraged the opening up of the soviet economy.
What did Andropov’s initial reforms begin to aim at?
He aimed at creating a new class of entrepeneurs which would operate outside of the confines of the soviet planned economy, therein turning a blind eye at tp the black market. He really started perestroika. He saw that the coutnry was heading for starvation if the perestroika reforms were not enacted. The beginning of friendly firms policy began what is now known as the KGB’s looting of the Soviet economy.
Hwo did the link between organized crime and the KGB begin?
With reforms and actions by KGB elite which fueled the black market with incentive and support, at first beginning as ameans of survival but slowly becoming a mutualistic relationship to withold power. They moved money all over the world, ranging from New York to Switzeralnd or Vienna.
Who are Mikhail Cherney and Sam Kislin?
They were KGB funded metal traders in New York, who, looting the Soviet Union into America, indirectly supplied money to the business empire of Donald Trump.
What were NTTMs?
They were “scientific youth centers” which would work as intermediaries for Moscow’s top reserch institutes, finding ways to turn research into cash and providing computer programming. They were given access to beznalichiye, a form of currency which was valued as far less than hard currency, something given to companies rather than hard cash which would be used to give just the right amount for wages. It was illegal to exchange this for real money until Gorbachev allowed it by simply transferring between accounts. This reform by Gorbachev brung massive profits and capital.
Who was Khordokovsky?
A driven young muscovite in the 80s who was the top of his local communist youth league (komsomol). He joined an NTTM and began working on the first privately owned business under Gorbachev’s worker cooperatives. Working under a research insittute which tried to compete with the star wars program proposed by Raegan, he was unable to get computerss under the emabargo by the West so had to recieve help form teh KGB to access western technology in this boom of capital and money after Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms (specifically when Gorbachev allowed entrepeneurs into the Soviet Union’s trade of raw materials).
What severely weakened the KGB’s control of the raw materials trade?
The fact that after Gorbachev passed the 1988 law, which allowed coops to trade, many directors of the state began privatising extremely early before anyone else and had vast access to natural resources.
What were the three main posts Boris Yeltsin held in order?
Member of the politburo
Russia’s Supreme Soviet (1990)
President of the Russian Federation (1991)
Who was Yevgeny Primakov?
Yevgey Primakov was a leading force behind the reform drive who had once been the head of the Institute for World Economy. He was leading the coverup of many of the Communist Party’s “lost money”. He was later appointed foreign-intelligence chief by Boris Yeltsin.
What succeeded the KGB?
The SVP, the foreign intelligence service.
What was Yegar Gaidar’s new post in Russia?
Prime minister who funneled 200 million to the cstro regime when the state budget for the soviet union was 148 million in 1992.
What happened when Yeltsin freed prices in 1992?
All of the new Komsomol elite youth tycoons began to reap serious profits while people starved and struggled under the transitionary phase. This unleashed great hyperinflation but the tycoons were safe by converting their roubles into dollars.
