Officially, Putin collects a modest salary, though a financier alleged to Congress in 2017 that the Russian president “has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains” through corruption and criminal activity
He’s been running Russia for decades, I would highly doubt that his net worth is less than a trillion dollars. He is in that rare atmosphere of wealth that travels ABOVE mere billionaires like Musk. He’s up there with the people that are NOT included in the Forbes list, those who are so wealthy and powerful that Forbes knows not to mention their names in some gauche rich guy competition. That includes certain monarchs, Sheikhs, the Rothschilds, etc. Usually long generational wealth that is so large, there almost isn’t even a category for it. Putin is in THAT club. Musk WISHES he could get in that club.
We still haven’t figured out exactly what Epstein was up to. We don’t know if he was working for Israel, Russia, somebody else, or was a free agent, collecting material.amd selling to any and all buyers. We think about politics, but he was probably selling info to corporate interests as well.
We know something was up, the smoke is as thick and choking as any political tire fire in recent world history, but we just don’t know the source. Blackmail is the usual assumption, but as far as I know, nothing has ever turned up in the files that indicates any hint of a blackmail plot from either side.
Perhaps they were just careful? SOMEBODY would have slipped, somewhere in all those years. Perhaps MAGA is keeping them all hidden? Plausible, but MAGA is notorious for being virtuosically incompetent, and they would have accidentally let slip a few clues and hints, or even downright proof.
So, perhaps Putin was somewhat “forced” to use Epstein in some way, through some currently unknown mechanism, but Putin would have kept him fairly quarantined.
And Epstein was known to play up his connections to influential people he barely knew, portraying them as close friends, if he thought it would ingratiate himself to a new prospect.
He’s been running Russia for decades, I would highly doubt that his net worth is less than a trillion dollars. He is in that rare atmosphere of wealth that travels ABOVE mere billionaires like Musk. He’s up there with the people that are NOT included in the Forbes list, those who are so wealthy and powerful that Forbes knows not to mention their names in some gauche rich guy competition. That includes certain monarchs, Sheikhs, the Rothschilds, etc. Usually long generational wealth that is so large, there almost isn’t even a category for it. Putin is in THAT club. Musk WISHES he could get in that club.
Valid. Good perspective.
We still haven’t figured out exactly what Epstein was up to. We don’t know if he was working for Israel, Russia, somebody else, or was a free agent, collecting material.amd selling to any and all buyers. We think about politics, but he was probably selling info to corporate interests as well.
We know something was up, the smoke is as thick and choking as any political tire fire in recent world history, but we just don’t know the source. Blackmail is the usual assumption, but as far as I know, nothing has ever turned up in the files that indicates any hint of a blackmail plot from either side.
Perhaps they were just careful? SOMEBODY would have slipped, somewhere in all those years. Perhaps MAGA is keeping them all hidden? Plausible, but MAGA is notorious for being virtuosically incompetent, and they would have accidentally let slip a few clues and hints, or even downright proof.
So, perhaps Putin was somewhat “forced” to use Epstein in some way, through some currently unknown mechanism, but Putin would have kept him fairly quarantined.
And Epstein was known to play up his connections to influential people he barely knew, portraying them as close friends, if he thought it would ingratiate himself to a new prospect.