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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This article is from the website “ NAKED CAPITALISM “. Most of the info in the article was posted way back in 2014 immediately after the CIA backed coup against the democratically elected government of Ukraine. Shortly thereafter Hunter Biden, the former VP Joe Biden’s son is appointed to the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy company that pays him $ 50,000 U.S. per month. Hunter Biden invested no money, had no background in the gas and energy industry or related studies / expertise, and has absolutely no knowledge of the Ukrainian language. It is a long article including some excellent reader comments, but worth the read. Unfortunately this website has no links to share on Facebook.<o:p></o:p></span></p><ul type=disc><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3'><span style='font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>NAKED CAPITALISM</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html">From 2014: R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Posted on <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html" title="From 2014: R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings">September 30, 2019</a> by <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/yves-smith" title="Yves Smith">Yves Smith</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Yves here. This 2014 post by our house Sherlock Holmes of international scammers, Richard Smith, is a classic example of Naked Capitalism not simply being onto a story early, but even more than five years later, demonstrably providing depth and detail you won’t find anywhere else.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Richard did a deep dive into the dodgy appointment of Hunter Biden and then Secretary of State John Kerry’s long-standing bundler, Devon Archer, to the board of Burisma Holdings. Richard quickly got past the noteworthy fact that Biden Jr. was being paid quite a lot for no relevant expertise and no investment in the company…so what was he being paid for, exactly? Oh, and Richard also describes how Hunter’s and his uncle James Biden’s past financial rides were with con artists. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But the real puzzlement is that from everything that can be inferred, Burisma is either tiny or just a shell company. So who is behind these big director <s>payoffs</s> payouts? Richard found some bread crumbs that pointed to Burisma being owned by Privat Group, a conglomerate controlled by the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. We’ll turn the mike over to Mark Ames:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Kolomoyskiy is the Berezovsky of current Ukrainian oligarchs. The dirtiest of the bunch, absolutely loathed by the IMF/creditor crowd especially for his theft of billions through the collapse of Privat Bank a few years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Yet Kolomoyskiy also was one of the main funders of the Maidan revolution and of many of the neo-Nazi paramilitary death squads (and yes, he’s Jewish and Israeli–just business, Fredo). Kolomoyskiy had to flee Ukraine to Switzerland for a couple of years in a classic intra-oligarch war with Poroshenko, IMF and others. He backed [recently elected Ukrainian president Volodymyr] Zelensky’s rise to power, and returned to Ukraine soon as Zelensky won. None of this will make for an easy narrative about Biden Jr. except to show what a dirty cesspool he’s profiting off amid all that mass poverty in Ukraine, of and what a shitshow his dad helped make of that cursed country.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Before you wonder if Trump was also trying to get to Kolomoyskiy, say that he had delusions of making a deal between Russia and Ukraine via the power behind the throne, Kolomoyskiy, Ames cautions:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I don’t think anyone knows what the fuck they’re doing or what’s going on. Even Russians never figured out Ukraine politics. Hunter got to wet his beak for reasons he never quite grasped, used by forces he never understood, just like our whole Maidan project.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>And Lambert noted:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Chaos, ideal to project onto.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>And both sides have had since August 12 to buy whatever evidence and witnesses they want, in a country that will sell whatever they want. Pass the popcorn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/r-hunter-biden-declare-owns-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html">This post first ran on May 21, 2014</a></span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Here’s last week’s big announcement, adorned by a photograph of an American with a faintly alarming rictus; oh yes, oh dear me, yes: <a href="http://burisma.com/hunter-biden-joins-the-team-of-burisma-holdings/" target="_blank">Hunter Biden joins the team of Burisma Holdings</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, has expanded its Board of Directors by bringing on Mr. R Hunter Biden as a new director.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2014/may/14/hunter-biden-job-board-ukraine-biggest-gas-producer-burisma" target="_blank">Wholehearted approval was not universally forthcoming</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <b>Isn’t that a bit fishy?</b> Why do you say that?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Because he’s the vice-president’s son!</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> That’s a coincidence. “This is totally based on merit,” said Burisma’s chairman, Alan Apter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>He doesn’t sound very Ukrainian.</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> He’s American, as is the other new board member, Devon Archer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Who?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Devon Archer, who works with Hunter Biden at Rosemont Seneca partners, which is half owned by Rosemont Capital, a private equity firm founded by Archer and Christopher Heinz.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Who?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Christopher Heinz … John Kerry’s stepson.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I think Putin’s propaganda people can take a long weekend; their work is being done for them.</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> What do you mean?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Hasn’t Joe Biden pledged to help Ukraine become more energy independent in the wake of its troubles with Russia?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Well, yes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>And isn’t Burisma, as a domestic producer, well positioned to profit from rising gas prices caused by the conflict?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> Possibly, but Hunter Biden is a salaried board member, not an investor. According to anonymous sources in the Wall Street Journal, neither Rosemont Seneca nor Rosemont Capital has made any financial investment in Burisma.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>So it’s not fishy at all?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> No one’s saying that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Do say:</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> “Somebody needs to get involved in Ukraine’s corporate governance, and it might as well be a clutch of rich, well-connected American dudes with weird first names.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Don’t say:</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> “Thanks, Dad.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The White House <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-joes-son-ukraine-gas-company-burisma-holdings-2014-5" target="_blank">did the best they could</a> with the optics…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The White House shot down any notion of a conflict of interest with Hunter Biden’s appointment. In a statement provided to Business Insider, Joe Biden spokesperson Kendra Barkoff said Hunter’s appointment did not constitute an endorsement by the vice president.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer. The Vice President does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company,” Barkoff said. “For any additional questions, I refer you to Hunter’s office.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Commenters at Daily Kos affirm pugnaciously that there’s <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1299027/53392663#c14" target="_blank">nothing to see here</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>So the Vice President’s son who has been a high powered lawyer for years who has passed the Bar in DC, CT and the Supreme Court with a speciality in international law and relations shouldn’t sit on company boards? Is this what you are trying to say?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>For me, that’s final confirmation that there’s something to see here. But what?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2014/05/13/9-questions-to-ask-about-bidens-work-with-a-gas-company-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">nails it</a>. >From her list of nine questions, numbers 7 and 9 are worth particular emphasis:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>7. Why would a Ukrainian energy company want Devon Archer or Hunter Biden to serve on its board?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Assuming that they have been appointed to the board, the most innocent explanation is that the company wants to increase foreign direct investment and views Archer and Biden as having the experience to make that happen. Archer, for example, is a long-time investor and financier.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The most disturbing explanation is that the company is attempting to curry favor with the U.S. government by enlisting the services of the close family friend and campaign bundler of the Secretary of the State and the son of the vice president.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>9. This has to be a hoax, right?</span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It’s so bizarre that you almost have to assume it’s a hoax. It sounds more like a cliched movie plot — a shady foreign oil company co-opts the vice president’s son in order to capture lucrative foreign investment contracts — than something that would actually happen in real life. But the indications as of this afternoon are that the board appointments actually happened, and that a Ukrainian energy company has retained the counsel of the vice president’s son and the Secretary of State’s close family friend and top campaign bundler.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Take question 9 first. The answer could indeed be “yes”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>However, it is not R. Hunter Biden’s appointment that is a hoax, nor Devon Archer’s; nor is it, for that matter, the appointment of the ex-President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who is <a href="http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/170948,Former-Polish-president-in-ambiguous-relationship-with-Ukraine-gas-company" target="_blank">also on Burisma’s board, as of January</a>. No, it’s Burisma itself that looks flaky, even on a casual inspection.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But surely, that would be a failure of due diligence on the part of messrs Biden, Archer and Kwasniewski? Indeed it would, but there is a most unfortunate precedent for such a failure, which you can read about <a href="https://brontecapital.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/paradigm-global-bidens-and-allegedly.html" target="_blank">here</a>, at some length. To sum it up: in 2006 or so, two Bidens, James Biden (future VP’s brother) and our R. Hunter Biden (future VP’s son), wildly overpaid a drug-addicted <a href="http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2009/05/01/55288/the-politics-of-paradigm/" target="_blank">very senior Moonie</a> for a hedge fund marketing operation that was hugely exaggerating its size and success, and turned out to be distributing ponzis, including the giant <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/allen-stanford-ponzi-scheme/" target="_blank">Allen Stanford ponzi</a>, second only to Madoff, and other eyecatching frauds, such as <a href="https://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr21012.htm" target="_blank">Ponta Negra</a>, via a sales network that included brokers with visibly very terrible FINRA records.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>None of this makes the Bidens look particularly astute. Much of it would have been very easy to pick up with proper due diligence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By 2009, Hempton, FT Alphaville and <a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/04/30/when-bloggers-uncover-ponzis/" target="_blank">Felix Salmon</a> (linkfest) were all over the story. Bits of it even crept out into the print media.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Final point from Hempton:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Paradigm rejects that the notion that they actively participated in the alleged Ponta Negra scam. That is an accusation I do not make. I only make the suggestion that – through clumsiness and the failure to perform even the simplest due diligence – they lend their name to alleged scammers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Which brings us, five years after the Paradigm scandal blew up, to R. Hunter Biden’s new job at Burisma Holdings, a company that has a mysterious past.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By way of due diligence, we need to make a little dive into some old SEC filings of a US OTC Stock, Sunrise Energy Resources (now called Green Technology Solutions). In their filing for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003, filed 3 Dec 2004, we find the following in the <a href="http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=3323229-25089-31691&type=sect&tabindex=2&CompanyID=76202" target="_blank">notes to the financial statements</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Effective October 4, 2004, the Company and certain stockholders entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement and Plan of Reorganization (the “Agreement”) with the stockholders of Esko Pivnich (“EP”), an oil and gas production and development company incorporated and operating in the Republic of Ukraine, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of EP. The Company is to issue that number of shares which, when added to the 5 million shares sold to the EP stockholders in connection with this transaction by five of the Company’s foreign institutional stockholders, will result in the Company’s current stockholders retaining, in the aggregate, 9% of the enlarged company, which will then have 17 million shares issued and outstanding. There are a series of conditions precedent to closing of the transaction, including listing of the Company’s shares for trading on OTC “Pink Sheets”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There is also a handy list of <a href="http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=3592685-185281-196952&type=sect&tabindex=2&CompanyID=76202" target="_blank">directors and executive officers of the company</a>, including a youngster called Taras Burdeniy who, ten years later, is part of the team at Burisma.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In the filings for year end 2006, section “<a href="http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=4316393-7001-44066&type=sect&TabIndex=2&companyid=76202&ppu=%252fDefault.aspx%253fcompanyid%253d76202%2526amp%253bformtypeID%253d17" target="_blank">description of business</a>” we find another deal:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On January 20, 2006, Sunrise Energy Resources, Inc. executed a share purchase agreement with the shareholders of Pari, Ltd. The board of directors of Sunrise Energy Resources, Inc. approved the transaction on February 9, 2006.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>…and an address I’d like you to remember, EP’s offices in Ukraine, at 10a Ryleeva St., Kiev, Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Sunrise chugs along producing a bit of oil and gas for a few years. But we are talking thousands of barrels, not millions: it is not some hydrocarbon Eldorado. At its peak, the operation is capitalized at about $20Mn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But alas, a series of catastrophes is related in the 10-K filed on <a href="http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=6515839-238133-241159&type=sect&tabindex=2&CompanyID=76202" target="_blank">31<sup>st</sup> March 2009</a>: according to the geologist, Sunrise has zero proven reserves, which finishes them as an investment proposition. One of their funders, Millington Solutions, has called in its debt. Oh, and Sunrise has changed accountants.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In the same 10-K Burisma Holdings Limited, of 17 Gr Xenopolou Street, 3106, Limassol, Cyprus, puts in an appearance as the holder of just shy of 70% of Sunrise’s common stock.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It’s all recapped again in a preliminary info filing, <a href="http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?FilingID=6788152-1042-43526&type=sect&TabIndex=2&companyid=76202&ppu=%252fdefault.aspx%253fcompanyid%253d76202" target="_blank">Sept 4 2009</a>. Upshot:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo5'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Sunrise’s equity holders are wiped out. Since Burisma paid only a nominal fee for the privilege of holding 70% of the Sunrise equity, they probably don’t mind too much. As for the other 30%, who knows what they think; they have put no comments on the record.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l3 level1 lfo5'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Millington Solutions waltz off with Sunrise’s wholly owned subsidiaries Esko Pivnich and Pari, both with the address 10a Ryleeva St., Kiev, Ukraine. Now debt-free, EP and Pari might at best have some underdeveloped mining assets to pick over.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Millington Solutions LLC (properly Millington Solutions Limited), formerly of Suite 401, 302 Regent Street, London, was deregistered in August 2009, mere months after the above shenanigans. Millington was rather an opaque entity, of a particularly English style. English company law allows companies to be directors of companies, which, while pleasingly recursive, doesn’t do much for transparency. Thus we find that the <a href="https://opencorporates.com/companies/gb/04866531" target="_blank">directors</a> of Millington Solutions are:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Terthur Trading Limited, a <a href="https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/173" target="_blank">BVI company</a> which Opencorporates can’t tell me anything about, except that it directs or acts as secretary for another <a href="https://opencorporates.com/officers/gb?button=&q=Terthur+Trading+Limited&utf8=%25E2%259C%2593" target="_blank">1,065</a> companies just as opaque as Millington Solutions…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Lambert Investments Limited, which says it’s British, (although I couldn’t actually find a live British company called Lambert Investments Limited), directs <a href="https://opencorporates.com/officers?q=LAMBERT+INVESTMENTS+LIMITED" target="_blank">384</a> companies just as opaque as Millington Solutions, many still registered, and sometimes has a Cypriot co-director, Georgios Amerikanos, a director of <a href="https://opencorporates.com/officers?q=GEORGIOS+AMERIKANOS" target="_blank">122</a> UK companies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In other words, it’s a big shell company network of a classic British kind, with ownership and control completely obfuscated. The Companies Act 2006 introduced a requirement that at least one company director should be a flesh-and-blood human being (“<a href="http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/companiesAct/implementations/oct2008.shtml" target="_blank">natural person</a>“), but as we can see, Millington Solutions got its work done just before that loophole was closed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There’s another question. How is it that, 5 years after the utterly opaque Millington rode off into the sunset with Esko Pivnich and Pari, and Burisma Holdings was left empty-handed, it’s now Burisma Holdings who <a href="https://themoscowtimes.com/business/article/son-of-us-vice-president-biden-joins-ukraine-gas-company/500062.html" target="_blank">say they own Esko Pivnich and Pari</a>? It’s all as murky as hell. If I were R. Hunter Biden, I wouldn’t touch it; but as we saw from the Paradigm saga, R. Hunter doesn’t look before he leaps.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Another thought: could it be that Millington, Burisma, Esko Pivnich and Pari were owned by the same one person all along? All this calling in of loans would then just be corporate kabuki: a tax dodge, say, or some sort of favour to an oligarch or politician…or just the final public move of a good old-fashioned penny stock scam.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This is what one careful Ukrainian journalist <a href="http://antac.org.ua/en/2012/08/kings-of-ukrainian-gas/" target="_blank">dug up</a> in 2012:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>…Burisma changed owners last year: instead of Zlochevsky and Lisin, the company was taken over by a Cypriot off-shore enterprise called Brociti Investments Ltd. Pari and Esko-Pivnich also changed their address: they moved from Kateryny Bilokur Street to 10a Rylyeyeva Street in Kyiv. A third company was already waiting for them in the same building – the above-mentioned Ukrnaftoburinnya.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The owners of Ukrnaftoburinnya, Pari, and Esko-Pivnich were finally confirmed through first-hand sources. Oleh Kanivets worked as CEO of Ukrnaftoburinnya for two years. He confirmed who actually controlled the above-mentioned companies to “Slidstvo.Info”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>”The Privat Group is the immediate owner. This company was founded by Mykola Zlochevsky some time ago, but he later sold his shares to the Privat Group”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There’s that address again: 10a Ryleeva St., Kiev, Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The identification of Privat Group as the owner of Burisma, though unconfirmed, is logical enough. Privat Group is a conglomerate controlled by the ferocious Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Kolomoisky is one of the oligarchs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/world/europe/ukraine-turns-to-its-oligarchs-for-political-help.html?_r=1" target="_blank">charged with holding down the Eastern provinces of Ukraine</a>, and recently mocked Putin, reputedly sensitive about his height, as a “schizophrenic shortarse” (apologies for the English intonation: American alternatives are invited); definitely a bridge-burning moment. Putin, meanwhile, shut down as much of Kolomoisky’s bank as he could, in <a href="http://www.nasdaq.com/article/russia-central-bank-halts-ukraine-privatbank-3-more-banks-operations-in-crimea-20140421-00535" target="_blank">Crimea</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/ukraine-crisis-privatbank-idUSL6N0M326S20140306" target="_blank">Moscow</a>. I’m not sure who started it, but we can certainly mark it down as a first-rate spat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>While that was brewing up, Kolomoisky might well have wanted something that looked an American protector, and got it, in the form of the VP’s son. This line of thinking would neatly answer “The Federalist”’s other question: why would a Ukrainian energy company want Devon Archer or Hunter Biden to serve on its board?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Another guess: Kolomoisky is far too ebulliently Jewish to look like a neo-Nazi. A US connection with Kolomoisky might play well in circles keen to counter Russian complaints that the interim Kiev regime is dominated by “Fascists”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>One also still wonders how oil- and gas-rich those Burisma Holdings assets really are; they never amounted to much in the years 2003-2009; why are they so much better after another roll of the dice? R. Hunter Biden could always get the boss to call in a geologist, I suppose, in the name of transparency, and all. Is there new capital, provenance unknown? Or are there new permits, acquired under the deliriously corrupt Yanukovych regime? Or is there still nothing much to Burisma Holdings at all?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>That’s far too many questions and guesses. What we can tell, from Forbes, is that our Ihor <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/melikkaylan/2013/07/15/an-injection-of-rule-of-law-for-ukrainian-business-oligarchs-lawsuit-could-help-improve-the-culture-of-business-dealings-in-the-post-soviet-space/" target="_blank">isn’t necessarily the most salubrious business partner</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>An independent lawsuit between powerful players will not only be fascinating, because it sheds light on how Ukrainian business empires were created. It can also set a powerful precedent for solving corporate conflicts fairly and transparently.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pinchuk’s suit, currently in English High Court, stems from an alleged breach of contract and breach of trust by the duo, Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The nature of Pinchuk’s claim is simple: Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky are holding Pinchuk’s property illegally. Pinchuk’s suit asserts that they sold him a shell company, Alcross Commercial Ltd., for $143 million in 2005. They told Pinchuk that Alcross owned Krivorozhskiy Zhelezorudnyy Kombinat (KZhRK), a Ukrainian ore-mining company. In reality, Alcross was worthless. They have continuously promised to transfer the assets of KZhRK to Pinchuk but failed to do so—and then, in 2007, they turned around and sold about 50 percent of KZhRK to a third party. They thus sold a stake in a business they did not own.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Written evidence in the case is by no means extensive, it being common practice in the post Soviet time to do business in that way. The prima facie arguments in the claim look coherent enough to go to court. Bogolyubov’s lawyer declared that his client regards the claim “as misconceived and will be vigorously defending it.” The truth will come out only during the court proceedings. This will surely be fascinating to watch because, as I made clear earlier, there are colorful people involved in the dispute.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky fostered strong reputations as corporate raiders in the mid-2000s, becoming notorious for a series of hostile takeovers. Hostile takeovers Ukrainian style, that is, which often included the active involvement of Privat’s quasi-military teams. These schemes included, among others, a literal raid on the Kremenchuk steel plant in 2006, in which hundreds of hired rowdies armed with baseball bats, iron bars, gas and rubber bullet pistols and chainsaws forcibly took over the plant. More recently, Aerosvit Airlines, which according to the media was controlled by Mr. Kolomoisky, declared bankruptcy in 2012, stranding thousands of Ukrainians in Ukraine and abroad. The Financial Times, when reporting on Kolomoisky’s recent conflict with UK company JKX Oil & Gas, stated in no uncertain terms, that “in Ukraine they [Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov] are called ‘The Raiders’”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Privat Group has been involved in several court cases and arbitration proceedings in the US, UK, and Sweden. In 2009, a US court made clear its distrust of Privat representatives: “the Court has become increasingly skeptical of these gentleman [at Privat] and the credibility of their statements.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Back to R. Hunter Biden:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I suspect R. Hunter Biden, in his new role, will have as much impact as a fart in a thunderstorm, but let’s give him a chance. One modest way in which R. Hunter Biden could follow through on his job description would be to identify and declare who controls the apparently large and important company that he now works for. Assuming his boss’s boss allows him to tell us, let’s all see what R. Hunter’s bumbled into this time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+NakedCapitalism+(naked+capitalism)" title=""Printer Friendly, PDF & Email" "><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=66 height=24 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D57830.F4924E50" alt="Print Friendly, PDF & Email"></span></a><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This entry was posted in <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/banana-republic">Banana republic</a>, <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/energy-markets">Energy markets</a>, <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/guest-post">Guest Post</a>, <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/politics">Politics</a>, <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/category/ridiculously-obvious-scams">Ridiculously obvious scams</a> on <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html" title="4:41 am">September 30, 2019</a> by <a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/yves-smith" title="View all posts by Yves Smith">Yves Smith</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html/feed">Subscribe to Post Comments</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;text-align:left'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>19 comments <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Watt4Bob</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217791">September 30, 2019 at 8:07 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I don’t think anyone knows what the fuck they’re doing or what’s going on. Even Russians never figured out Ukraine politics. Hunter got to wet his beak for reasons he never quite grasped, used by forces he never understood, just like our whole Maidan project.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Here, hold my beer…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>…and this bag.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The whole thing resembles one of those cheap plastic illusions you’d get in a Cracker-Jack box, where the picture changes as you wiggle the thing back and forth, sometimes it’s HRC, sometimes the Donald, but the face is always vicious, bloody fangs and bloodshot eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Can anyone sympathize with the perspective of an average Trump supporter who thinks that the Donald is fighting the good fight, looking to root out the insanely corrupt, and for his efforts being threatened with impeachment?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It’s certainly no more insane than to believe the counter narrative.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>How in hell, and in what sort of world, is it accepted as settled fact that “there’s nothing to see here” and everything involved in the looting of Ukraine by the forces of the neoliberal west, starring Obama, Clinton, and Biden is “perfectly legal” and on the up-and-up?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217791">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level2 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>DJG</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217811">September 30, 2019 at 9:08 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Watt4Bob: I am glad that Yves Smith reposted this article, in which several experts explain just how wide the corruption is. I keep wondering how it is that Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic / liberal-ish elite think that they have articles of impeachment. Trump’s defense is going to be to have information like this splashed all over the country. The Democrats made a mess in Ukraine, and it may sink in just how horrible foreign policy has been these last twenty years (killing Arabs obviously doesn’t register among the populace as “problematic”).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The up side may be that the elites have fractured so badly that they are on the verge of collapse. Not likely, though. Further, if the U.S. elites collapse, it is going to be like the financial crisis of 2008-09, with even more looting and pillaging. This time, they’ll privatize the Army. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The down side is more fighting among the U.S. elites over their territory with no policy results that will benefit the rest of the citizenry. In short, a swarm of maggots on the corpse of the U.S. body politic.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>And yet I am already (and this is a sign of how deluded our betters are) seeing liberals tittering over Bill Clinton’s impeachment. “Well at least this time it isn’t over a b.j.” The reasoning being, I suppose, that Monica Lewinsky and other young women are collateral damage when it comes to looting and pillage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>If only this all would be good theater. Instead, it will pay out as melodrama of the worst kind… The Brent Kavanaugh show but even louder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217811">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level3 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Watt4Bob</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217820">September 30, 2019 at 9:38 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The army is already privatized.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I have a friend who has spent time entertaining in Iraq with USO shows, he tells me there are more private ‘<i>contractors</i>‘ than regular military there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I can’t see how regular military can stand to rub elbows with guys making 5 or 10 times their pay for doing similar work?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217820">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level3 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Skip Intro</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217895">September 30, 2019 at 12:19 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>That’s why I am increasingly feeling like this whole think is Trump trolling the Dems. He orchestrated the ‘whistle blower’, or assumed it the story would leak. When you read the transcript, it sounds like he is trying to put the Burisma and Crowdstrike stories back in play… and he has succeeded, while tricking the dems back into a suicidal delusion of impeachment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217895">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.0in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level4 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Leif</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3218000">September 30, 2019 at 3:51 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“A suicidal delusion of impeachment?” Are we suggesting an equivalency between Hunter Biden’s opportunism and Donald trump’s subornation?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3218000">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level5 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Watt4Bob</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3218043">September 30, 2019 at 5:17 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pardon me for butting in, but it seems to bear repeating;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>How in hell, and in what sort of world, is it accepted as settled fact that “there’s nothing to see here” and everything involved in the looting of Ukraine by the forces of the neoliberal west, starring Obama, Clinton, and Biden is “perfectly legal” and on the up-and-up?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This is not about <i>‘equivalency’</i>, or ‘<i>Whataboutism’</i> it’s plain to see that Trumps actions are well, actionable, but it is also plain to see that the top of the democrat party are opportunistic scum-bags with no moral compass.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Hunter Biden’s <i>‘opportunism’</i> would not have existed but for the Maidan Revolution (CIA/State Dept. backed coup) .<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Are you saying you’re alright with violent meddling in another nation’s politics for the benefit of Wall $treet, Big Oil and the MIC, as long as it’s ‘<i>our guys</i>‘ doing the meddling ?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3218043">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level5 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Skip Intro</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3218122">September 30, 2019 at 7:23 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>We are suggesting that drawing attention to Burisma and Crowdstrike and the Obama regime’s Nazi coup in Ukraine will not help the Democrat establishment damage Trump, but will hobble the presumed Dem. frontrunner, and suck the oxygen away from all the other campaigns. It is no part of defeating Trump.<br>It is unclear to what your mention of subornation refers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:2.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3218122">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Rev Kev</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217802">September 30, 2019 at 8:47 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This is all part of a pattern and for the political elites, it is just how you do business – and make a little money along the way. Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz’s name came up again together in a “business” deal in China about the same time period through a Chinese-backed, billion-dollar investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST. You can read the sordid details in the link below – and its security implications – but the point is how Hunter Biden went to China.<br>He didn’t take a United airliner nor did he take a Delta airline. He didn’t even take an American airliner. He flew over with his dad – aboard Air Force Two. And that could only be interpreted by the Chinese that not only did Hunter Biden’s activities have the stamp of approval of the Vice-President of the United States but also that of the President of the United States – Barack Obama. So if you go after Hunter Biden that very quickly leads you to Obama so no wonder the Ukrainian episode has stung the Democrat establishment like a broken tooth-<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/sep/28/hunter-biden-china-business-drawing-new-scrutiny/">https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/sep/28/hunter-biden-china-business-drawing-new-scrutiny/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217802">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level2 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Ford Prefect</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217812">September 30, 2019 at 9:09 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Democrats are trying to figure out why the American public isn’t up in arms about Ukraine, Russian meddling etc. What they have failed to grasp is that the Democrats and Republicans have colluded over the past 30 years to have a system for the 1% and a separate system for the 99%. This Ukraine stuff with the Bidens and Trump is classic 1% system stuff where the average person would never have a chance of being on a board of a Ukrainian firm. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>So asking the average American to split hairs on “what is corruption” is very difficult because most of it is operating in a world that they can’t fathom ever entering. so how do you differentiate between nuances? The whole thing gives an appearance of sleaze on all sides. As a result, the average American has no way of knowing if Trump’s phone call asking for a “favor” is unusual business or business as usual. They have to take the word of people leaking things or talking heads babbling talking points.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Nixon blew the lid off things because people had a hard time fathoming that a US president would personally order a cover up of a break-in. The release of the Pentagon papers and other documents similarly undermined the credibility of governing figures when it became clear that the Administrations had lied about the Vietnam War just to save face. The various recent Wikileaks e-mail releases etc. further compound it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>So the issue with impeaching Trump is that they themselves are in the mud wrestling the pig. The big problem the Dems have is the pig enjoys it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217812">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>3.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>chuck roast</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217827">September 30, 2019 at 9:49 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>More on “Bennie” here…<br><a href="http://johnhelmer.net/the-kolomoisky-pyramid-started-with-hillary-clinton-and-victoria-nuland-of-the-state-department-plus-christine-lagarde-of-the-imf/">http://johnhelmer.net/the-kolomoisky-pyramid-started-with-hillary-clinton-and-victoria-nuland-of-the-state-department-plus-christine-lagarde-of-the-imf/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217827">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>4.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>JohnH</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217855">September 30, 2019 at 11:15 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Hunter Biden also served on the Chairman’s Advisory Board for the National Democratic Institute, a subsidiary of the National Endowment for Democracy, the organization that is chartered with promoting democracy and is implicated in several color revolutions.<br><a href="https://www.energysecurityforum.org/speakers/186-hunter-biden-s">https://www.energysecurityforum.org/speakers/186-hunter-biden-s</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>After the coup it is only natural that the US would want to have its assets firmly implanted into the crown jewels of Ukraine’s energy sector: “Burisma is the largest private natural gas producer in Ukraine.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Biden was appointed immediately after the February coup: “On 18 April 2014, Hunter Biden, the son of then-US vice president Joe Biden, was appointed to the board of Burisma Holdings. He left the company in April 2019.At the same time, one of the board members was Devon Archer, a former senior adviser to John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign.”<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burisma_Holdings">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burisma_Holdings</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>If the made gobs of money in the process, it could have been just an additional benefit…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217855">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>5.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>JohnH</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217860">September 30, 2019 at 11:22 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>It should be noted that Aleksandr Kwaśniewski, former President of Poland, was also appointed to the board just before the revolution. Kwaśniewski approved the CIA’s black sites in Poland.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217860">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>6.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Thomas P</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217863">September 30, 2019 at 11:31 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I found it amusing how Kolomoyskyi when confronted with the fact that he has three citizenships and Ukraine doesn’t even allow dual citizenship replied: “The constitution prohibits double citizenship but triple citizenship is not forbidden.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217863">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level2 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>ChrisPacific</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3218028">September 30, 2019 at 4:54 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Haha. Technically triple citizenship represents three different instances of double citizenship (one of each of the three pairs).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3218028">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>7.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pavel</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217865">September 30, 2019 at 11:35 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I noted with interest but not surprise that the NYT’s latest editorial (30 Sept) re this Ukraine matter posed a series of Very Serious Questions to various players e.g. Rudy, Barr, Pence, Bolton, Pompeo…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Missing from the list? Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I read through tens of thousands of words (or so it seemed) in the Sunday NYT on Ukrainegate and while there were a handful of brief mentions of Hunter’s role as a board member not once was it stated that he was getting $50k per month and putting that in perspective given that he had zero expertise in gas or the Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Old Grey Lady has lost all its credibilityfor this reader of more than 50 years. I started reading it as a kid in high school.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217865">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>8.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Susan the other`</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217877">September 30, 2019 at 11:51 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>I do get the feeling that the debt that is getting dumped on “tax bases” (tax payers) is going to amount to all the money spent on equity for the last 70 years, and including its “appreciation”. It’s the never ending restructuring of capitalism. Ukraine is as egregious as it gets just because it is so blatant. But it’s everywhere; everywhere governments have chosen to have no regulations or not to enforce weak ones. The only good thing about all this squirming is that capitalism is proven to be a very useful tool. Adaptable to say the least. Kolomoisky and Biden are birds of a feather. Making their own temporary rules as they go along. The big mistake that politicians make, like the entire democrat party, is thinking their positions won’t change. Like the once beatified Barack Obama won’t get dragged through the mud? It’s going to be very ugly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217877">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>9.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Brent</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217879">September 30, 2019 at 11:55 am</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Looks like Trump will have to burn the swamp down </span><img border=0 width=32 height=32 id="AutoShape_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.png@01D57830.F4924E50" alt="😜"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217879">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level2 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>JEHR</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217888">September 30, 2019 at 12:10 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Of course, in realistic terms “burning a swamp” cannot happen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:1.0in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29#comment-3217888">Reply</a> ↓ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo7'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>10.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Dan</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> </span></i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/09/from-2014-r-hunter-biden-should-declare-who-really-owns-his-new-ukrainian-employer-burisma-holdings.html#comment-3217918">September 30, 2019 at 12:52 pm</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A deeper background read on Why Ukraine?:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/russian-gas-transit-across-ukraine-post-2019-pipeline-scenarios-gas-flow-consequences-and-regulatory-constraints/">https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/russian-gas-transit-across-ukraine-post-2019-pipeline-scenarios-gas-flow-consequences-and-regulatory-constraints/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=left style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175935/tomgram%3A_pepe_escobar%2C_eurasian_integration_vs._the_empire_of_chaos/">http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175935/tomgram%3A_pepe_escobar%2C_eurasian_integration_vs._the_empire_of_chaos/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>