Sanctions have always been 'long term', and part of the reason RUS is relying on North Korea and Iran for weapons for the war, in addition to dragging tanks out of museums to send to the front. Of course they've once again proven they don't know how to do logistics, and their 'supply chain' was/is pretty much non-existent. Interesting that Austria has been showing their 'true colors' in this tranch too...
Exactly! Sanctions aren’t the only tool and shouldn’t be. The aid Ukraine is receiving in the form of military materiel is helping it defend itself. That, in addition to Moscow’s incompetence (they downed another one of their own aircraft today, from what I’m reading) will ultimately result in Russia’s loss.
Talking of money laundering in general and countries with shady reps. I imagine you'll get a kick out of Patrick McKenzie's writing about cryptocurrency scams (ie. the entire market)
Binance also operated in the state of Heisenbergian uncertainty, sometimes known as Malta. Malta has a substantial financial services industry, which welcomed Binance with open arms in 2018 and then pretended not to know him in 2020. This continues Malta’s proud tradition of strategic ambiguity as to whether it is an EU country or rentable skin suit for money launderers. ¿Por qué no los dos? Despite this, Binance would continue claiming to customers and other regulators for a while that it was fully authorized to do business by Malta.
(Side note, wonders why Binance did not get involved in Cyprus, which has a similar state of Heisenbergian uncertainty regarding financials services and was, as we both know, very helpful for Russians who needed to stash their loot somewhere safe)
As I’ve remarked previously, we similarly have complicated preferences with regards to Russian oligarchs. In some years, money laundering for them is, how might a gifted speaker phrase this, “[b]ringing our former adversaries, Russia and China, into the international system as open, prosperous and stable nations.” In other years, money laundering for them is described as funding Russia’s war machine.
Sanctions have always been 'long term', and part of the reason RUS is relying on North Korea and Iran for weapons for the war, in addition to dragging tanks out of museums to send to the front. Of course they've once again proven they don't know how to do logistics, and their 'supply chain' was/is pretty much non-existent. Interesting that Austria has been showing their 'true colors' in this tranch too...
Exactly! Sanctions aren’t the only tool and shouldn’t be. The aid Ukraine is receiving in the form of military materiel is helping it defend itself. That, in addition to Moscow’s incompetence (they downed another one of their own aircraft today, from what I’m reading) will ultimately result in Russia’s loss.
Talking of money laundering in general and countries with shady reps. I imagine you'll get a kick out of Patrick McKenzie's writing about cryptocurrency scams (ie. the entire market)
https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/bond-villain-compliance-strategy/
In particular:
Binance also operated in the state of Heisenbergian uncertainty, sometimes known as Malta. Malta has a substantial financial services industry, which welcomed Binance with open arms in 2018 and then pretended not to know him in 2020. This continues Malta’s proud tradition of strategic ambiguity as to whether it is an EU country or rentable skin suit for money launderers. ¿Por qué no los dos? Despite this, Binance would continue claiming to customers and other regulators for a while that it was fully authorized to do business by Malta.
(Side note, wonders why Binance did not get involved in Cyprus, which has a similar state of Heisenbergian uncertainty regarding financials services and was, as we both know, very helpful for Russians who needed to stash their loot somewhere safe)
I did an entire 8-page Expert Insight about Binance for DOLFIN. It’s amazing how horrible that company is!
Cyprus and Malta are both working to clean themselves up. Probably not going to be too friendly to these types of entities soon.
Also this line seems accuate
As I’ve remarked previously, we similarly have complicated preferences with regards to Russian oligarchs. In some years, money laundering for them is, how might a gifted speaker phrase this, “[b]ringing our former adversaries, Russia and China, into the international system as open, prosperous and stable nations.” In other years, money laundering for them is described as funding Russia’s war machine.