Steve Mnuchin, Len Blavatnik, Oleg Deripaska, and sanctions that were just lifted

[MelissaB]

NEW: The billionaire donor LEN BLAVATNIK stands to make $$$$$ from @USTreasury’s move on Sunday to lift sanctions on OLEG DERIPASKA’s @UC_RUSAL. * In 2017, Blavatnik announced an investment in a film company that was owned partly by … STEVE MNUCHIN.

Link to tweet

.@USTreasury says MNUCHIN did not recuse from DERIPASKA sanctions, or request ethics guidance on his relationship with BLAVATNIK, because the two didn't do direct biz. Mnuchin did, however, attend a party on Blavatnik’s $100M yacht, Odessa, pictured here.

Link to tweet

Len Blavatnik. Len Blavatnik. Where have I heard that name? Oh! He's the oligarch that funded GOP campaigns with millions of dollars. Those campaigns included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (my senator) & Lindsey Graham.

GOP campaigns took $7.35 million from oligarch linked to Russia

Donald Trump and the political action committees for Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and John McCain accepted $7.35 million in contributions from a Ukrainian-born oligarch who is the business partner of two of Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs and a Russian government bank.

During the 2015-2016 election season, Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard "Len" Blavatnik contributed $6.35 million to leading Republican candidates and incumbent senators. Mitch McConnell was the top recipient of Blavatnik's donations, collecting $2.5 million for his GOP Senate Leadership Fund under the names of two of Blavatnik's holding companies, Access Industries and AI Altep Holdings, according to Federal Election Commission documents and OpenSecrets.org.

Marco Rubio's Conservative Solutions PAC and his Florida First Project received $1.5 million through Blavatnik's two holding companies. Other high dollar recipients of funding from Blavatnik were PACS representing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at $1.1 million, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham at $800,000, Ohio Governor John Kasich at $250,000 and Arizona Senator John McCain at $200,000.

In January, Quartz reported that Blavatnik donated another $1 million to Trump's Inaugural Committee. Ironically, the shared address of Blavatnik's companies is directly across the street from Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in New York.

More: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/03/tangled-web-connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns

This is all just a coincidence. I'm sure.

[gademocrat7]

1. Grifters and treason weasels.

[MelissaB]

2. Update to twitter thread

NOTABLE: After years of giving more to Dems, BLAVATNIK, his family & co. dramatically increased giving & shifted sharply right in 2016, donating $7.3M to GOP (vs $350k to Dems), including $2.5M to MITCH McCONNELL’S super PAC, & $1M to TRUMP’s inauguration.

Link to tweet

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. a string of coincidences

Our Senate Russiapublicans would never put Russian oligarch money ahead of country. Would they?

We need a purge.

Edit to add:

Let's go beyond "raising concerns" for a change. Let's indict.

[sarcasmo]

4. Follow the money, Mnuchin is dirty as the day is long.

[philly_bob]

5. Following politics on the GOP side is like reading a Russian novel

all those unfamiliar names.

Here's a mind-blowing thread from Reddit on the implications of the arrest of that "sex trainer" who said she had information on Deripaska and US elections:

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/al0n65/a_leaked_audio_tape_allegedly_reveals_russian/

[link:https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/al0n65/a_leaked_audio_tape_allegedly_reveals_russian/|