[HN Gopher] Authorizing transactions involving certain blocked e...
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       Authorizing transactions involving certain blocked entities owned
       by Usmanov
        
       Author : java-man
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2022-03-04 20:44 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (home.treasury.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (home.treasury.gov)
        
       | dang wrote:
       | It's against the site guidelines to editorialize titles like
       | this. (Edit: submitted title was "Why is the U.S. lifting
       | sanctions on one specific oligarch?")
       | 
       | If you want to say what you think is important about an article,
       | that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then
       | your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's:
       | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
       | 
       | Another option is to find (or write) an article on the specific
       | point you think is important, and post that instead. Then you can
       | link to the more general article (the one you submitted here)
       | from the comments, for extra background.
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
         | babelfish wrote:
         | (Not OP) I'd be interested in discourse on this memo - rather
         | than flagging it, would it be possible to change the title to
         | "Authorizing Transactions Involving Certain Blocked Entities
         | Owned by Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov" and keeping it up for
         | discussion?
        
           | dang wrote:
           | The submitter did that, module HN's 80 char limit, so yes,
           | I've unflagged the post now.
        
             | java-man wrote:
             | thank you.
        
         | Overtonwindow wrote:
         | So maybe the title should be "treasury lift sanctions on
         | Russian oligarch" ? It's a pretty difficult document to try to
         | summarize in the limited characters of hacker news.
        
         | java-man wrote:
         | sorry. can I fix the title and resubmit?
         | 
         | edit: title updated.
        
           | dang wrote:
           | Ok, that's close enough, given that it's a subtitle of the
           | OP. I've unflagged the post.
        
             | java-man wrote:
             | thank you.
        
       | vmception wrote:
       | That's amazing, I wish to have that much power and leverage
       | within nation states.
       | 
       | No explanation exemptions just rubber/digitally stamped.
       | 
       | What kind of shareholdings do you think gave this leverage?
       | Assuming it was the ownership or value of something critical and
       | not some other externality.
        
       | notananthem wrote:
       | Usmanov is a crook who has evaded sanctions for quite a while.
       | Curious why this administration is letting him off the hook.
        
         | vkou wrote:
         | Probably the same reason that not all Russian banks have been
         | cut off from SWIFT.
         | 
         | Because this lets the West pick and choose to only enforce
         | sanctions that hurt Russia, without enforcing sanctions that
         | would hurt itself.
        
           | rcMgD2BwE72F wrote:
           | Russia's government gets half of its revenues from oil and
           | gas exports, and the West can't afford not to buy it. The
           | West can't speed the transition to renewables, because it's
           | too costly (but all expenses for war and defense will be paid
           | at all cost, that goes without saying).
        
             | thanatos519 wrote:
             | The "leadership" of the West can't afford not to buy it for
             | political reasons, but the people can deal with the
             | consequences. I hope that all of those pipelines are
             | destroyed. That will force us to take the transition to
             | renewables seriously. Lots of people will die ... but cold
             | turkey means fewer people will die in the long run.
        
           | thanatos519 wrote:
           | "without enforcing sanctions that would hurt itself" => as
           | spineless as Putin.
        
           | Overtonwindow wrote:
           | It also allows the west to speak out of both sides of its
           | mouth. If leaders were serious the sanctions would affect ALL
           | Russian banks, businesses, and assets.
        
         | stevespang wrote:
        
         | java-man wrote:
         | Especially now. Did he made a deal? Or is he being set up?
        
       | java-man wrote:
       | Original title: Why is the U.S. lifting sanctions on one specific
       | Russian oligarch? [pdf] (treasury.gov)
       | 
       | Changing the title to that of the original document.
        
       | dragonwriter wrote:
       | (In response to original headline questioning why the US was
       | removing a single oligarch from sanctions.)
       | 
       | It isn't. The license applies to majority Usmanov-owned entities
       | that aren't otherwise explicitly sanctioned; Usmanov himself is
       | still sanctioned, as are other entities tied to him.
       | 
       | It's still weird, though; I suspect to really understand it
       | (absent a public explanation) would require going through a list
       | of Usmanov-owned entities and the specific sanctions list to find
       | which of the former aren't on the latter and thus are unblocked,
       | and reasoning from there.
        
         | octo_t wrote:
         | This has more context in: https://intellinews.com/us-oligarch-
         | sanctions-list-exempts-u...
         | 
         | > A few other oligarchs, and their companies, have been
         | exempted because of their importance to the global commodities
         | market, most notably Oleg Deripaska and his aluminium producer
         | Rusal.
         | 
         | > When very harsh sanctions were imposed on Deripaska in 2018
         | that effectively banned doing any business with the company,
         | prices for aluminium on the London Metals Exchange (LME) soared
         | by 40% overnight potentially causing a price shock for the
         | consumers of the metal. The implementation of those sanctions
         | were at first delayed and eventually withdrawn completely
        
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       (page generated 2022-03-04 23:01 UTC)