A senior US treasury official has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "picture of corruption" who uses state assets for his own personal gain.

Adam Szubin, acting treasury secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, said in an interview with the BBC's Panorama programme that the Russian president has been amassing secret wealth for years.

"We've seen him enriching his friends, his close allies and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends using state assets. Whether that's Russia's energy wealth, whether it's other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don't. To me, that is a picture of corruption," Szubin was quoted as saying.

Szubin declined to comment on a 2007 Central Intelligence Agency report that estimated Putin's wealth at $40bn, but he said the Russian leader's stated wealth is an underestimation.

"He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year," Szubin said. "That is not an accurate statement of the man's wealth, and he has longtime training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth."

The Kremlin has denied such allegations. For his part, Putin has repeatedly said he has read press reports about his immense wealth - including that he was even the world's richest man - but he has denied those as nonsense.

The report came just days after a British inquiry concluded that Putin likely approved a 2006 Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in London.

Source

We know this game,
It's called Operation mockingbird 2.0,
Use the western press to tarnish Putin and Russia's image,
Bring whatever little vice that is going on in Russia to your frontpages,
The next step could have been Opposition Protests, an Invasion and regime change, but that game won't work with a nuclear armed and alert Russia,
It worked in Libya,
It worked in Iraq,
It almost worked in Syria if not for Putin,
And that's the reason for all this bad press.

lol.. u.s and britain got no clue anymore. . Now playing the corruption card lol.. this type of card can only affect those 3rd class graduates in Nigeria and other african countries. But sorry not Russia that has nearly 90% of its population well educated.. Unlike the U.S less educated crooks..How do you expect them to even be educated when Education is luxury.. I only shake head for many African american hoods...

U.S is on a time bomb and that time bomb is set to explode in Syria... Its recent moves are checkmated already... Just let the bear rest or enter an all out war with the bear... Counting the time bomb...

Russia's offensive in syria is decapacitating their first tier and second tier terrorists.. Sad the next tool on Washinton's table is to re-use failed corruoption tactitcs..

The person that came up with this idea should be sacked and that judge that said Probably after 10years murder case..

See them, how they are doing like pure Abgero without common sense and education.. Bad combo.. Even our Agbero get sense more than these crooks

Dick Cheney & his Haliburton wealth gotten off the blood of American service men that died in Iraq; the Bush family and their Bin a Laden family/ Carlyle Group ties, the Clintons and their Wall Street connections; the ties between Big Pharma, the tobacco industry, etc with The Capitol and so on......but it's Putin that's the epitome of corruption.....And Putin is worth $40bn they say? Is this verifiable fact or the CIAs wet dream presented as fact? LOL

Only a nicompoop wouldn't see the coordinated media smear campaign that has been directed at Putin just because of Russia's intervention in Syria and the greater desire of the US to make Russia a vassal state...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAHHAAAAHHHHHAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAQAAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAHQHAHHAH

PUTIN GIVING THE ANGLO-ZIONIST EMPIRE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS SINCE 1999!

NairaMinted:
Dick Cheney & his Haliburton wealth gotten off the blood of American service men that died in Iraq; the Bush family and their Bin a Laden family/ Carlyle Group ties, the Clintons and their Wall Street connections; the ties between Big Pharma, the tobacco industry, etc with The Capitol and so on......but it's Putin that's the epitome of corruption.....And Putin is worth $40bn they say? Is this verifiable fact or the CIAs wet dream presented as fact? LOL

Only a nicompoop wouldn't see the coordinated media smear campaign that has been directed at Putin just because of Russia's intervention in Syria and the greater desire of the US to make Russia a vassal state...

So where is your own verifiable facts against the Clintons and the Bushes?

Missy89:


So where is your own verifiable facts against the Clintons and the Bushes?

Missy89 - My Luv a.k.a The Spy Who Loves Me

Do you know Y I so much despise America & her allies? It is because, to them, nothing can be good or acceptable unless it has the American stamp on it.

Let us not forget that the Sultan of Brunei (Hassanal Bolkiah) is also guilty of the same atrocious offense for which Saddam Hussein & Muammar Gaddafi were brutally killed like helpless guinea-fowls while the Sultan of Brunei is being pampered & treated like the reincarnation of Arch-angel Metatron simply because Brunei is America's East Pacific Cash-Cow & Military Base.

www.globalresearch.ca/brunei-is-americas-east-pacific-cash-cow-and-military-base/5353972

Now, let us read an insightful article about the America's holiest & infallible Angel - George Bush. I am sure you're already familiar with the Bush's money making machine - The Carlyle Group.


***

War Is Sell - Washington's Power Elite Are the Beneficiaries of War



The Bush family is getting financially fat off the "war on terrorism."



War has always been a profitable money machine for shrewd investors with foresight, but the extremely close connections of the Carlyle Group, a Washington-based private equity investment firm and major war profiteer, to the Bush and bin Laden families-and the current occupant of the White House-raise unavoidable questions of waging war for profit.

Established in 1987 the Carlyle Group was founded by David Rubenstein, a former staff member in the Jimmy Carter White House, and his two partners, Dan D'Aniello and Bill Conway. Today there are 18 partners in the firm and one outside investor. The Washington Post has described Carlyle as a "merchant banking firm" set up "to serve corporations and wealthy families." From the beginning the founders of Carlyle have recruited former politicians as consultants: former President George H. W. Bush is among them-along with a host of other Bush family cronies.

The Bush connection to the Carlyle Group is nothing short of a scandal, according to Larry Klayman, a notable government watchdog best known for pursuing the scandals of former President Bill Clinton.

Now that the United States is bombing Afghanistan and allocating huge sums of money for defense, including $40 billion for the "war on terrorism" and more than $200 billion [1994 dollars] for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the conflict of interest is "direct," Klayman says. "President Bush should not ask but demand that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group."
Carlyle owns many of the companies that will share in the $200 billion JSF deal.

"Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, said. "George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that. To me, that's a jaw-dropper."

The Carlyle Group, which claims to be the largest U.S. private-equity fund with some $14 billion in assets, makes money by investing in undervalued companies and reselling them at a profit, employing a host of former top-level government officials from the Bush and Reagan administrations, including former President Bush, in a global "money machine." The Washington Business Journal said in May that the Carlyle Group "seems to play by a different set of rules."

Carlyle is a high-end business open only to the very rich. The Carlyle empire has investments around the world, owns numerous defense related companies outright, and has considerable business with the U.S. government. It owns so many companies that it is now one of the biggest U.S. defense contractors-and a major force in global telecommunications. Carlyle also serves as financial adviser to the Saudi government.

Carlyle's directory reads like a Who's Who of high-profile Republicans going back to the Reagan administration. The chairman is Ronald Reagan's former defense secretary, Frank Carlucci. Former Secretary of State James Baker III, former Budget Director Richard Darman, and Arthur Levitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission through most of the Clinton administration, are all senior advisers to the firm.

"Nothing in recent history, however, seems to approach the success this group has had in the wholesale conversion of former high government rank to gigantic profits," Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of Scripps Howard News Service wrote in March 2001. "To use that influence at the highest levels to garner such enormous wealth and power presents an undeniably unsavory appearance.

"One of the underlying themes of the last election, rarely spoken but always present, was the need to restore dignity to the presidency. Now we discover that at the same time he was being held up as an example of how to be presidential, Bush senior was using his stature and entree everywhere to push the interests of himself and his cronies," Thomasson wrote.

The success of the relatively young Carlyle Group is hardly surprising given that it primarily buys companies that are regulated by government. Nearly two-thirds of its investments are in defense and telecommunications companies, which are affected by shifts in government spending and policy. Financial experts say the Carlyle Group's most profitable niche is buying military and aerospace supplies at discount prices and selling them for a lot more.

With Carlucci as chairman, it's no surprise that Carlyle is drawn to defense firms. Carlyle owns numerous defense and aerospace firms such as United Defense Industries, which makes tanks, guided missiles, space vehicles, and weapons delivery systems. United States Marine Repair (USMR) is America's largest non-nuclear ship repair, modernization and conversion company and is another Carlyle company.

Carlucci's knowledge of the Pentagon's inner workings gives Carlyle an advantage when buying defense companies that have fallen in market value. "Because they have a good sense of the defense and aerospace business, they have an ability to project future earnings so they can calculate the true value," Philip Finnegan, a senior analyst with the Teal Group said.

Carlucci, who is seen as largely responsible for Carlyle's success, said he met in February with his old college classmate, Donald Rumsfeld, the new secretary of defense. He also met with Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a defense secretary under former President Bush, to talk about military matters-at a time when Carlyle has several billion-dollar defense projects under consideration.

Defense-related companies make up about 30 percent of the firm's portfolio, which also includes information technology, Internet companies, health care, real estate, and bottling companies. The French newspaper, Le Figaro, is another Carlyle asset.

"Carlyle has averaged annual gross returns of 34 percent since inception, par for the course among similar buyout firms. By comparison, funds offered by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. returned 30 percent. By the end of 2000 Carlyle had raised a total of $12.5 billion, which made it the fifth-largest private buyout firm in the U.S.," Bloomberg reported.

PUBLIC MONEY-PRIVATE EQUITY

Although the Carlyle Group is a "private equity fund" it has enriched itself using public and state pension funds from California, Texas and Connecticut. The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CAL PERS) has invested hundreds of millions with Carlyle and has at least a 5 percent stake in the firm.

The Texas teachers' pension fund-whose board was appointed when George W. Bush was governor-gave Carlyle $100 million to invest. In Connecticut, a scandal resulted when Wayne Berman, a Washington consultant and fund-raiser for George W. Bush's presidential campaign, received "a kickback" of more than $900,000 after the state treasurer, Paul J. Silvester, steered tens of millions of state pension fund dollars into a Carlyle Group investment fund.

BIN LADEN CUTS CARLYLE TIES

On Oct. 26, it was reported that Osama bin Laden's family was cutting its financial ties with the Carlyle Group. The bin Laden family reportedly sold its investment worth $2.02 million because of criticism in Saudi Arabia that the bin Laden family, whose construction company is one of the largest in the Middle East, would profit from increased military spending in the U.S.-led war against terrorism.

The fact that President Bush's father and his former secretary of state, James Baker, serve as senior advisers to the company has raised red flags in Washington. Bush the Elder and Baker reportedly use their extensive government contacts to further their business interests as Carlyle Group representatives. From Carlyle's point of view, the involvement of Baker and the former president is invaluable.

"It punches up the brand awareness for us globally," said Carlyle partner Dan D'Aniello. "We are greatly assisted by Baker and Bush. It shows that we are associated with people of the highest ethical standards."

Baker's stake was estimated to be worth more than $180 million when the fund was valued at $3.5 billion; today it is worth much more.

Unlike Baker, Bush the Elder has no ownership stake in Carlyle. As an adviser and an investor, however, Bush is allowed to put the money he earns giving speeches, between $80,000 and $100,000 per speech, into Carlyle's investment funds.

In July 2000, Carlyle Group bought Northrop Grumman's aerostructures business group in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. The business was renamed Vought Aircraft Industries and remains based in Dallas. On Aug. 20, Vought announced that it had been selected by Northrop Grumman to manufacture the wing for the Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance system's air vehicle.

The corporate overlap between Carlyle and leading defense contractors can be seen in B. Edward Ewing, managing director and CEO of Dallas-based Carlyle Management Group (CMG). Ewing is also chairman and CEO of The Aerostructures Corporation (TAC), a leading worldwide designer and manufacturer of major components for commercial and military aircraft, and is CEO of USMR. Prior to joining Carlyle and leading USMR, Ewing served five years as vice president of operations for Lockheed Martin, the leading company on the JSF project.

The current White House occupant was himself di rector of a Carlyle company, Caterair.

From the beginning the founders have recruited former politicians as consultants. George Bush the Elder visited Saudi Arabia, home of the bin Laden family, to open doors for Carlyle's fund-raisers. Carlyle won't disclose how much senior advisers like Bush earn but industry experts estimate their fees average about $1 million per year.

"Mr. Bush gives us no advice on what do with the federal government. We've gone over backwards to make sure that we do no lobbying," Carlyle senior partner David Rubenstein said. "President Bush is not asking anybody for money. He speaks at lunches, dinners, and events on non-Carlyle matters and expresses his views on world events."

Rubenstein, who attended Barbara Bush's surprise 75th birthday party last summer in Kennebunkport, Me., says: "We don't do lobbying. We don't give to any politicians. We don't have a PAC [political action committee]. We try to be cleaner than Caesar's wife."

Rubenstein may not know it, but Caesar's wife was not "above suspicion," either. He divorced her over allegations of infidelity.

Missy89:


So where is your own verifiable facts against the Clintons and the Bushes?

Google it. It's readily available. Enjoy the sojourn into the rabbit hole while you are at it

Russians are definitely not complaining

ValerianSteel:
Russians are definitely not complaining

Govt corruption is not their priority as long as the country is seen as strong and the middle class have more money to spend. Time is running out for him.

Putin himself is now cracking down on his thieving allies since there is little revenue coming in from oil to steal. The only useful people to him right now are those that can bring in more funds from their regions

Missy89:



Govt corruption is not their priority as long as the country is seen as strong and the middle class have more money to spend. Time is running out for him.

Putin himself is now cracking down on his thieving allies since there is little revenue coming in from oil to steal. The only useful people to him right now are those that can bring in more funds from their regions

Very right,corruption is embedded in their system so deep.Russian oligarchs bribing their way in and out of shady dirty deals,yet nothing happens to them because they are mostly at his mercy.

Look at the scandalous athletics mass doping by Russian athletes,no backlash or sanctions to athletes by the Russian athletics board.It just goes to prove that Russians are in support of corruption as long as it keeps them strong.

To see firsthand what corruption in Russia looks like,the book 'Government Inspector' by Nikolai Gorgol gives a very chilling detail.

To see first hand what corruption looks like in the US, access Richard Grove's portal, Tragedy & Hope, where he dishes the dirt on the jaw dropping fraud and insider trading in Wall Street, most especially in the days leading up to America's greatest false flag - September 911

Did I forget to mention that Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son is on the board of a company drilling for shale gas in eastern Ukraine?

Gotta love American style democracy