News Factoid Report: Trump Owns 19% of Russian Oil Company?

On Wednesday, Reuters reported (in great detail) how 19.5% of Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, has been sold to parties unknown. This was done through a dizzying array of Cayman Islands shell companies, so that the most that can be said with certainty now is that the money in play was originally loaned out to the shell layers by V.T.B., the Russian government’s official bank.

Why is this interesting or important to Americans? Let's connect a few dots here.

The much-maligned recent 35-page Steele Dossier included at least three topics of concern: damaging sexual allegations that, if true, would be potential cause of blackmail against President Trump; financial allegations that, if true, would also be possible cause for blackmail against President Trump; and allegations of treasonous communication and payments between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The document's contents have enough veracity that U.S. intelligence officials delivered a 2-page analysis brief on the matter last Summer to then-candidate Trump, VP Biden, and President Obama.

James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence (2010-2017), described the leaks as damaging to U.S. national security but said that the intelligence community had as yet made no judgment on the truth or falsity of the information.

The Steele Dossier reports that Vladimir Putin offered Donald Trump 19% of Rosneft if Trump became America's president and removed sanctions. The dossier said this in July, and the sale didn’t happen until early December. And 19.5% surely is a match for '19% plus a brokerage commission'.

So Emperor Trump is in a bind: if he removes or reduces the sanctions against Putin and other Russian oligarchs, then he proves the allegations of the Steele Dossier true; and NOT reducing those sanctions is likely to make Putin very, very mad.

Copyright 2017 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved