Page 45 - bne magazine September 2020 russia melting

bne September 2020 Eastern Europe I 45
London-based Phillips and Bonhams,
as venues for the Rotenberg-connected deals. These companies all claimed they didn't know who the final buyer was in any of the suspected transactions, but said they were ready to co-operate with the US authorities.
“The art industry now operates under a veil of secrecy, which allows consultants to represent sellers and buyers, hiding both their identities and the source of funds. This creates the conditions for money laundering and sanctions evasion,” commented the chairman of the subcommittee, Republican Senator Rob Portman,
as cited by RusLetter.
“It is totally unacceptable that rules designed to prevent money laundering do not apply when someone purchases a multi-million-dollar work of art... Failure to close such obvious loopholes makes US sanctions – an important national security tool – far less effective than they could have been,” said Democrat Senator Tom Carper, second author of the report.
The report recommends tightening the rules and adding art to the list
of business covered by the money laundering rules as well as for more transparency of the identity of the final counterparty in things like public auctions.
In addition, the senators believe that the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department (OFAC) should issue detailed instructions to auction houses and art dealers, explaining exactly what steps they should take in order to make sure they are not dealing with a sanctioned person.
“I understand that auction houses and dealers do not always want to know who they are selling to, as it helps them earn money, but we are interested in ensuring national security, for sanctions to work,” Portman explained to the Wall Street Journal.
Balzer denied that he was representing the Rotenbergs in comments made via his lawyer to the WSJ.
A representative of Arkady Rotenberg told the Russian newspaper RBK
that the businessmen have never laundered money and have not tried to evade sanctions, including through transactions in the art market.
"All transactions with works of art, made by members of the Rotenberg family or on their behalf, have always been carried out openly, exclusively for legal and personal purposes and on market conditions," said a representative of the Rotenbergs.
Russian opposition activist Navalny hospitalised after drinking suspected poisoned tea
bne IntelliNews
Russian anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny was hospitalised on August 20 and is in intensive care after he drank a cup of poisoned tea, his staff claim.
A sharp critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny was on his way back to Moscow from Tomsk when his plane made an emergency landing at Omsk after he complained of intense stomach pains. Emergency medical workers removed the unconscious Navalny from the plane and took him to hospital by ambulance.
“This morning Navalny was returning to Moscow from Tomsk. On the flight he started feeling ill. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk. Alexei has been poisoned with a toxin. Right now we’re in an ambulance on the way to the hospital,” tweeted press secretary Kira Yarmish, who later said her boss was in the ICU. "We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into the tea. That was the only thing he drank this morning. The doctors say that the toxin was absorbed more quickly because of the hot liquid. Right now Alexei is unconscious.”
Doctors later walked back their comments and said no diagnosis has been given. Yarmish reports a change in attitude in the doctors, who had suddenly become reticent and uncommunicative a few hours after Navalny was admitted to hospital, whereas they had been friendly and cooperative shortly after Navalny arrived at hospital. According to the preliminary diagnosis shared with Navalny's people he was given a psychodisleptic, a hallucinogenic that brings on a dreamlike state.
As of midday on August 20 Navalny was still comatosed in the ICU unit on a ventilator in a serious but stable condition.
Navalny has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and organised constant rallies and protests, but has never managed to garner the popular support to seriously threaten Putin’s rule.
After two days Navalny was flown to Berlin where German doctors confirmed he had been poisoned "by a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors," which is the same family of drug as Novichok, the nerve agent to poison former spy Sergei Skripal.
The opposition activist should make a full recovery, but it will take several months, according to the German doctors.
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