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Russia Secretly Helped Venezuela Launch a Cryptocurrency To Evade US Sanctions (time.com)
According to an exclusive report by Time, Russia helped Venezuelan officials create the world's first state-backed cryptocurrency to skirt U.S. sanctions. The cryptocurrency was launched in late February and was banned by the Trump administration earlier this week. From the report: The new cryptocurrency, a form of digital cash that is supposedly linked to the value of Venezuela's oil reserves, was launched on Feb. 20 during a ceremony in the presidential palace in Caracas. Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader of Venezuela, declared that it would serve as a kind of "kryptonite" against the power of the U.S government, which he sarcastically referred to as "Superman." Sitting in the front row at that ceremony were two of Maduro's Russian advisers, Denis Druzhkov and Fyodor Bogorodsky, whom the President thanked for aiding his fight against American "imperialism." Both men have ties to major Russian banks and billionaires close to the Kremlin. But they were not the most senior Russians involved. According to an executive at a Russian state bank who deals with cryptocurrencies, senior advisers to the Kremlin have overseen the effort in Venezuela, and President Vladimir Putin signed off on it last year. "People close to Putin, they told him this is how to avoid the sanctions," says the executive, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity. "This is how the whole thing started."
a bit after a russian shill promotes the idea
But... but... but... Hillary Clinton lost the election and the only people who care about Putin's involvement in Venezuela's cryptocurrency are butt-hurt snowflakes who can't accept that their candidate lost.
They seem to be doing a great job of getting them to hook up with Russia. They're also keeping food and medicine out of the country. I'd like to say that at least we're not supporting a dictatorship, but that ship kinda sailed when Trump congratulated Putin on his victory. Helping the Saudis bomb Yemen isn't helping either. We don't have a lot of moral ground to stand on in that theater.
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You know its not the government that will suffer, I hope it helped some people there. Why cant people just fucking get along...
[($)]
If the goal was just to evade US sanctions based on dollar, why not just trade oil in ruble or yuan?
Where would journalism be without them?
Their citizens have suffered enough already. Why focus on one dictator when the world is full of them?
I'm glad Putin did it, even though he's an asshole in general, just like I'm glad Trump reduced H-1B "body-shop" application approvals even though I disagree with most his other stances. I'll give kudos to jerks when they accidentally do right.
Table-ized A.I.
or make a lot of bankers really pissed off, if all the nations that dont want to use the US petro-dollar for trade it could put a HUGE dent in the value of the dollar, which is not worth much nowadays anyway, i bet all those central banks around the world tied to the Rothschild bank and the Federal Reserve would be ready to start WW3 over it
I don't think that's actually true because if it was then we would probably see burgeoning cryptocurrencies being absolutely demolished by 51% attacks. The banks could easily afford to commission their own ASIC chips and begin slaughtering cryptocurrencies en mass. That fact that they are not doing this means they don't see it as a true threat.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
OK, so why did Trump's lawyer pay her $130,000 then?
It's not slander if it's true.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Lol, you sure sound like one.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
You seem a bit obsessed with Hilliary Clinton.
I must say, this latest bout of inane hysteria in mainstream media has been funniest to date. "He did the exact same thing that pretty much every European leader did, must be collusion/treason".
Never seen such a direct admission that European leaders are also colluding/treasonous if narrative spun has any semblance of reality. Literally, everyone is guilty. Can it even be termed collusion if everyone does it? The proper name for universally accepted standard is usually "cooperation".
value of the dollar, which is not worth much nowadays anyway
What are you on about? About 10 years ago, 1 USD was worth e.g. 0.6 EUR and 5 NOK, but now it's 0.81 EUR and 7.69 NOK. Are you just complaining about general inflation?
I too am American and hate antirussia stories. I will definitely unsubscribe from Slashdot.ORG because of it!
he asked for sex and exposed himself in 1991 (there was no assault)
Actually exposing yourself to an unwilling person is Sexual Assault. The worst kind of assault.
To start an alternative way to trade oil - currently it's done exclusively in America dollars. It's part of what keeps the currency so strong. Take that away and all of a sudden the dollar is going to be worth a lot less. So I suppose in a way it is a form of financial warfare, but one that America started years ago and Russia and China have been trying to break for decades, which is why mainstream media are casting it in such a negative light, without actually saying why it will be a problem.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
The Russians secretly helped Venezuela by sitting in the front row at the launch ceremony. Good catch TIME
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It was garbage at Clinton's time too.
Agreed, so can we let this thing go?
Not on your life will the media let something like this go. Not when there is PROFIT to be made. Who cares about the president, or his wife? Who cares about the country? No, the major media outlets have gone tabloid news on us for money...
And by the way... Clinton was impeached for lying under oath in the Paula Jones civil suit... Not for the inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky. But the media didn't care all that much then and didn't drag their darling president though the various wallowing hog pits of his past diligences with multiple women, willing and unwilling who where making claims of abuse dating back to Arkansas.
Clinton was obviously no choir boy and apparently his is an open marriage of political convenience, but I personally don't really care about any of it, as far as the media wants to be even handed about things.... Which is to say, I have to care about the hypocrisy here and will point it out when I see it. I don't care what the Clinton's or the Trump's do or don't do or even who they do it with, as long as we are fair about this..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Obama is a professional liar like every lawyer, it was not habitual nor was he gifted at lying.
After being elected to office, any politician trying to be popular MUST lie and since they are paid and maintain their job hinging upon that skill; therefore, politicians are professional liars.
National Security is the last resort excuse to justify anything and to the paranoid people with wild imaginations anything is honestly possible. Multiple cogent arguments can be made against Venezuela's threat... I disagree with most the premises upon which all of those are based but some people DO believe those. So to assume they lie when some batshit crazy decisions come out-- you underestimate the power of the dark side of the force.
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that's why. They thumbed their noses at global oligarchy by giving a lot of their oil money to the people at large. Chavez also seized land that was being left fallow for no reason (and did it in spectacular fashion, the well to do were declaring the land was worthless to avoid property taxes. He went to them and demanded they sell them the land at the value they'd declared or pay the back property taxes and fines from lying to the tax man).
Tl;DR: We're making an example out of them to support a political narrative.
This is not to say they're a bunch of knights in shining armor. As usual it's more complex than that. Venezuela is rife with corruption. But an unusually high amount of money made it to their working class. But their biggest problem was the price of oil collapsed before they could build an economy that isn't dependent on it. That and a drought that rendered their hydo electric plant useless. That's another thing, folks forget that Venezuela is only about 20 million people. It's small enough that one hydoelectric plant going down is a major economic issue. Add to that international sanctions that kept them from re-financing debt and they're screwed.
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So what does that make the CIA....
The difference between assault and battery. Assault is the real threat of harm, battery is the actual physical act of harm. So sexual assault is the threat of sexual battery; sexual battery is when the criminal finishes up and says you should put some ice on that...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
As I said, if your position requires essentially everyone around you to be "knownothing trolls and tools", have you ever considered that it's not the world around you that is wrong, but you?
Consider that it's very beneficial for you to be wrong in that scenario. Because if you are wrong, you can fix it. If the world is wrong, you're fucked. Because world owes you nothing. It was here first.