I imagine things weren't much better in Tunisia, and people put up with the dictatorship there until they didn't. You just never know what and when the hinge factor will be. Yes, there is that. So whatever the catalyst for change may be, it won't likely happen any time soon.
@Frederick Foresight, You need to take into account that for decades, anyone in Russia who rebelled too much simply disappeared/was murdered. So there's genetic selection of people who tend to not protest. Same for other ex-Soviet satellites.
"Genetic selection." That almost gave me pause. You would think that some of the democracy lovers here at ET would then appreciate Soros a bit more, what with his Open Society initiative to circumvent state-controlled media. And now for a bit of comic relief -- Putin cares and empathizes: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...-pain-over-economic-hardship/article29628397/
Putin Sees U.S., Goldman Sachs Behind Leak of Panama Papers http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-s-goldman-sachs-behind-leak-of-panama-papers
The biggest disinforming and manipulating person in the world is called Putin. So what he tells is by definition a lie. How can a KGB agent, who never could climb the hierarchy in the KGB, become the richest man in the world? There are books that explain how he did it.
G-20 Threatens Penalties on Tax Havens After Panama Papers Finance chiefs call on jurisdictions to adopt transparency G-20 strikes less alarmed tone on growth as markets rebound Share on FacebookShare on Twitter Group of 20 economies threatened to penalize havens that don’t share information on their banking clients after the leak of the Panama Papers provoked a global uproar over tax evasion. The G-20 will consider “defensive measures” against financial centers and jurisdictions that don’t commit to an international standard requiring the exchange of information about account holders, the group’s finance ministers and central bankers said Friday in a statement after meeting in Washington. The group said it would work with the OECD to come up with criteria for identifying “non-cooperative jurisdictions” by July, adding that improving the transparency on who controls legal tax entities is vital to the international financial system. The leak this month of offshore financial records, known as the Panama Papers, exposing billions of dollars in assets hidden in tax havens around the world, has set off a global furor. Seeking to contain the fallout from the scandal -- implicating everyone from world leaders to prominent business people -- some governments have pledged to crack down on tax evasion and money laundering to help regain public trust. “We welcome some kind of enforcement integrated into the multilateral framework for information exchange,” said Clark Gascoigne, deputy director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, which includes the AFL-CIO and Oxfam America. “Without a stick, it’s not going to work. You need some sort of enforcement mechanism, so this will encourage other countries to comply. So this is a positive step.” Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau told reporters that “I have a high level of confidence that we won’t need to get there” in imposing actual penalties..." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ainst-tax-havens-after-panama-papers-in1zhqaf
Were the Panama Papers Planted? Who Cares. "Last week, a respected Russia scholar in the U.S. speculated that the Kremlin might be behind the so-called Panama Papers, the big dump of data about offshore accounts that has implicated several countries' officials in shady dealings. And on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin of Russia blamed the U.S. for the leak. So far, the Panama Papers have caused the resignation of Iceland's prime minister (whose wife owned some bank debt that the government was trying to restructure) and Spain's industry minister (who had denied, falsely, that he'd had any offshore dealings). There probably will be further fallout: The millions of documents haven't been fully investigated. Still, it's probably safe to say that there will be no resignations, firings or criminal inquiries in Russia. The Russian portion of the Panama Papers is not actionable. It details the offshore activities of Bank Rossiya, a financial institution that belongs to Putin's close friends. Companies linked to the bank, and to Putin's friends, appear to have profited from spurious stock deals and huge, artificially created breach of contract fines. The companies also received inordinately big amounts of money for consulting and lobbying services. Yet the transactions appear legal, and at least in Russia, no one is going to investigate them. All Putin's friends can do is roll their eyes: Most of them -- and Bank Rossiya -- are targeted by Western sanctions and could be subject to property seizure. And Putin's name doesn't appear anywhere in the papers. Putin, who doesn't deny the authenticity of the papers, made a point of noting the absence of names. "They are not accusing anyone specifically," he said during his annual call-in show on Thursday. "That's the thing, they are just muddying the waters."..." http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-04-15/were-the-panama-papers-planted-who-cares
Inside Panama Papers: Multiple Clinton connections "WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton recently blasted the hidden financial dealings exposed in the Panama Papers, but she and her husband have multiple connections with people who have used the besieged law firm Mossack Fonseca to establish offshore entities. Among them are Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton’s first campaign for the U.S. Senate; Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has traveled the globe with Bill Clinton; the Chagoury family, which pledged $1 billion in projects to the Clinton Global Initiative; and Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was at the center of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president. Also using the Panamanian law firm was the company founded by the late billionaire investor Marc Rich, an international fugitive when Bill Clinton pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency..." Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article72215012.html#storylink=cpy
Probably not. But even Putin is taking precautions before the upcoming parliamentary elections in September: http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-russian-security-force-will-answer-to-vladimir-putin-1461541590 You can never be sure what the hinge factor might be and, evidently, Putin isn't taking any chances.
Are you talking about the George Soros who built a twenty billion dollar fortune while escaping federal income taxes through the use of offshore companies? Is that the George Soros you're referring to? This is a very curious thread to promote him, but as long as you're going off the rails with your neocon hatred of Russia, I guess anything goes, right?