HUNTER BIDEN HAS MADE BIG MONEY OFF OF THE UKRAINE
Tucker: They suddenly care about borders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQxPQ87t7Do
I’d be inclined to disagree with Don except for one thing: Biden has proven to be a very adept criminal mastermind. For decades, he has funneled millions of dollars to his children and siblings and, especially, to his debauched, deviant son, Hunter.
ANDREA WIDBURG
There it is. That's the issue. To begin, you have the corrupt family Biden. They've been scamming us and our system well for almost fifty years. The man is supposedly worth over 250 million dollars. How is this possible on his salary? It's not. So where did his wealth come from? Not from being a brilliant businessman. DAVID PRENTICE
Kamala Harris Warns Vladimir Putin of ‘Serious Consequences’ if He Invades Ukraine
Vice President Kamala Harris warned Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine on Tuesday, in an interview in Wisconsin.
“If Russia and Vladimir Putin violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine there’s going to be serious consequences, and we’re very clear about that,” Harris told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.
Harris’ comment is the highest level response from the administration on the escalating tensions in Ukraine since President Joe Biden commented on the issue last week.
Biden raised the alarm in Ukraine after he suggested it was a foregone conclusion that Putin would act in some way to challenge the nation’s territorial boundaries.
“My guess is he will move in, he has to do something,” Biden said at his press conference on Wednesday.
Despite the administration’s efforts to clean up Biden’s comments, Ukrainian leaders have expressed their outrage by Biden’s handling of the crisis.
News of the State Department ordering family members of embassy staff in Ukraine to leave the country only further signaled the United States was preparing for inevitable hostilities.
A source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told Buzzfeed Americans were safe.
“Quite frankly these Americans are safer in Kyiv than they are in Los Angeles…or any other crime-ridden city in the US,” the source said.
The president refused to answer questions from reporters on Ukraine on Monday, during an event on the administration’s struggle to address inflation.
The White House said Biden participated in a video call with European leaders on the issue of Ukraine and discussed “joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
Exclusive– Sam Nunberg: Biden Abandoned Ukraine for Cutting Off Hunter
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg believes that President Joe Biden essentially gave Vladimir Putin the green light to invade Ukraine because the Ukrainian energy company Burisma stopped bribing him after the 2016 election of former President Donald Trump.
Speaking with politics editor Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday, Nunberg expanded on a tweet he posted Friday suggesting that Biden abandoned Ukraine due to Hunter Biden’s corruption.
“Hunter Biden was paid by Burisma $80,000 a month to simply sit on the board,” Nunberg told Boyle. “Fortune 500 companies don’t pay $80,000 a month to board members. They were under an investigation by an investigator who was really someone non-corruptible about all these bribery deals that Burisma was doing.”
“And you know Joe Biden says and takes credit for getting, as VP, that investigator fired in return for a loan from the U.S. government,” he continued. “Now, what happens when Donald Trump wins the election in 2016? — they cut Hunter Biden’s fee per month in half and then, eventually, they cut him off.”
Nunberg later explained that President Biden would not have essentially invited Russia to take over Ukraine had his son Hunter been paid “handsomely.”
“I am sure had Hunter Biden continued to be paid handsomely, more handsomely than he was when Joe was out of office, it would’ve been a little different,” asserted Nunberg. ” I am sure that had President Zelensky not really taken a neutral position, which he did, during that impeachment — he didn’t go out of his way to defend Joe Biden either, and Joe Biden’s actions and Hunter Biden’s actions, during that hoax impeachment against President Trump — things could’ve been different.”
Nunberg noted that former President Trump strengthened NATO and approved the sale of heavy arms to Ukraine during his tenure.
“One of his immediate intiatives vis-a-vis Europe was stopping the Russia/Putin Nordstream pipeline,” he said. “Biden has immediately given that pipeline to Putin.”
Nunberg concluded that Hunter Biden has probably had conversations with his dad about Ukraine and his dislike for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s anti-corruption stance.
U.S. President Joe Biden (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet during the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange on June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Peter Klaunzer – Pool/Keystone via Getty Images)
“One of the reasons I think that Joe Biden is willing to just give up territorial integrity like it’s candy to Russia in negotiations is because, as he said that he was talking to his terrible person of a son in Hunter Biden,” he said, “He also was probably talking to him about Ukraine, and I’m sure Hunter is not a fan of Zelensky and Ukraine’s not useful to them.”
While Nunberg emphasized that Americans should not have to spill blood to defend Ukraine, he worried that President Biden’s abandonment of the country will encourage China to invade Taiwan — a country and ally that Americans will have to defend if the time comes.
“It’s a different issue if China invades Taiwan,” Nunberg argued. “That should be something that should get hot if China invades Taiwan. If you’re looking at Afghanistan, you’re looking at Ukraine now — you’re looking that you have just had the Olympics held in Beijing after you have leaked the Wuhan virus. You’ve seen what’s in office here; you know what’s going on domestically here … I don’t know why you’re not going into Taiwan in a year and a half.”
How to Understand Joe Biden’s Ukrainian Connection
Joe Biden’s shenanigans in Ukraine need to be understood in the context of the business and political culture of Ukraine and the former Soviet bloc. We must not be naïve -- the Ukrainian company Burisma Holding Limited did not hire a druggie like Hunter Biden, the son of the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, for his expertise or business acumen. It did not hire obscure Devon Archer, a managing partner of Rosemont Seneca Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm co-owned by the stepson of John Kerry Christopher Heinz, for his administrative genius, either.
Burisma expected it was hiring the principals, Joe Biden and John Kerry. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were just bagmen.
The arrangement is called “крыша,” which translates as “roof” in Russian. It means patronage and protection in exchange for an agreed monthly payment, often payable to a third party to ensure deniability. It is important to point out that “roof” is not just criminal jargon, it is a contract. But unlike a legal document secured by a written text, criminals operate outside the law and leave no paper trail.
“Roof” has been prevalent in the post-Soviet era in the territories of the former Soviet Union, where various entities offer protection -- organized crime, police, high ranking government officials, and a few other powerful entities. The necessity for “roof” is often part of business planning. Burisma is not an exception.
In 2002, during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych, his ecology minister Mykola Zlochevsky registered Burisma Holding Limited on Cyprus. Burisma managed to secure lucrative government licenses for gas field exploration and production to become the largest private gas company in Ukraine. De jure, the licenses for the exploration of natural resources are drafted as bilateral agreements between the government entities and private enterprises, but de facto they are unilateral and revocable grants of privileges by a president and high-ranking government officials to their cronies and supporters.
As long as President Yanukovych was in power Mr. Zlochevsky’s assets were secured from a hostile takeover. President Yanukovych was his “roof,” his protector, defender, and benefactor. But, nothing under the sun is permanent.
In February 2014 Yanukovych was overthrown in a coup and fled the country. Zlochevsky followed him shortly. In a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Burisma overnight changed from one of the strongest to one of the weakest players in Ukrainian power politics. The recourse of the weakest was to find a new “roof” before newly-elected President Petro Poroshenko, who made no secret of his desire to add Burisma to his basket of assets, would be sworn in during June 2014.
It is not known when and who approached John Kerry and or Joe Biden, assuming the deal followed classic local customs, and what was offered in exchange for lobbing and political support. But on April 22, 2014, Devon Archer was put on Burisma's board. On May 13, 2014, Hunter Biden himself joined the board.
On the same day, Christopher Heinz rushed to dissociate himself and the firm from what looked like an unscrupulous endeavor. He emailed Matt Summers and David Wade, two of his stepfather’s top aides at the State Department, “I can’t speak why they decided to, but there was no investment by our firm in their company,” wrote Heinz.
The passage clearly displayed that the State Department was aware of the arrangement and revealed Christopher Heinz’s concern regarding if not the legitimacy but certainty the ethics of the undertaking.
For Burisma, the impact of having Hunter Biden and Devon Archer on its board could not be overstated. It thought that it had acquired an ultimate “roof” -- the Vice President and the Secretary of State of the United States of America. The hiring sent a subliminal message to Poroshenko that Burisma is protected by the US Government.
Poroshenko ignored the message. As soon as he was sworn in, he directed his prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to open a corruption investigation into Burisma in order to build a case to forfeit the profitable gas licenses awarded to Burisma.
In January 2015 Yarema was replaced with Poroshenko’s close associate Viktor Shokin who continued the investigation.
By 2016 the investigation was at its pinnacle and Burisma’s management panicked. They had been contacting the State Department requesting to end the investigation. In spring 2016 Joe Biden was forced to act. He stepped in to protect his client Burisma Holding and demanded Poroshenko to dismiss Shokin. Poroshenko refused.
They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the President — Poroshenko said’ … I said, 'Call him.' “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b----. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time," Biden bragged about his accomplishment.
In a process, Biden inadvertently admitted that President Obama, if not involved, at least was aware of the shady business of his Vice President.
Poroshenko couldn’t fight the President of the United States, and Shokin was fired. At this juncture, Poroshenko decided that it is better to have a percentage of something than a hundred percent of nothing. He made a deal with Zlochevsky and his trusted man Igor Kononenko joined Burisma's board. The vanquished enemies became allies.
Miraculously, there was no longer a need for investigation and a new prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, “who was solid at the time,” closed the probe. There was no longer a need for Joe Biden’s services either. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer eventually resigned from Burisma's board. Zlochevsky returned to the country. The “roof” earned its pay.
Photo credit: YouTube screengrab (cropped)
Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think hosted at King’s College, New York City, which examines national security, energy, risk-analysis and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at info@litwinms.com
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