The proximate cause of Russia’s difficulties is, of course, the global plunge in oil prices, which, in turn, reflects factors — growing production from shale, weakening demand from China and other economies — that have nothing to do with Mr. Putin. And this was bound to inflict serious damage on an economy that, as I said, doesn’t have much besides oil that the rest of the world wants; the sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict have added to the damage.
Ukranian politician proud after her nude pics is leaked by hackers
Putin’s Bubble Bursts …
Putin’s Russia is an extreme version of crony capitalism, indeed, a kleptocracy in which loyalists get to skim off vast sums for their personal use. It all looked sustainable as long as oil prices stayed high. But now the bubble has burst, and the very corruption that sustained the Putin regime has left Russia in dire straits.
If you’re the type who finds macho posturing impressive, Vladimir Putin is your kind of guy. Sure enough, many American conservatives seem to have an embarrassing crush on the swaggering strongman. “That is what you call a leader,” enthused Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, after Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine without debate or deliberation.
But Mr. Putin never had the resources to back his swagger. Russia has an economy roughly the same size as Brazil’s. And, as we’re now seeing, it’s highly vulnerable to financial crisis — a vulnerability that has a lot to do with the nature of the Putin regime.
The Russian Crisis, Visually Speaking …
For those who haven’t been keeping track: The ruble has been sliding gradually since August, when Mr. Putin openly committed Russian troops to the conflict in Ukraine. A few weeks ago, however, the slide turned into a plunge. Extreme measures, including a huge rise in interest rates and pressure on private companies to stop holding dollars, have done no more than stabilize the ruble far below its previous level. And all indications are that the Russian economy is heading for a nasty recession.
The proximate cause of Russia’s difficulties is, of course, the global plunge in oil prices, which, in turn, reflects factors — growing production from shale, weakening demand from China and other economies — that have nothing to do with Mr. Putin. And this was bound to inflict serious damage on an economy that, as I said, doesn’t have much besides oil that the rest of the world wants; the sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict have added to the damage.
But Russia’s difficulties are disproportionate to the size of the shock: While oil has indeed plunged, the ruble has plunged even more, and the damage to the Russian economy reaches far beyond the oil sector. Why?
Actually, it’s not a puzzle — and this is, in fact, a movie currency-crisis aficionados like yours truly have seen many times before: Argentina 2002, Indonesia 1998, Mexico 1995, Chile 1982, the list goes on. The kind of crisis Russia now faces is what you get when bad things happen to an economy made vulnerable by large-scale borrowing from abroad — specifically, large-scale borrowing by the private sector, with the debts denominated in foreign currency, not the currency of the debtor country.
In that situation, an adverse shock like a fall in exports can start a vicious downward spiral. When the nation’s currency falls, the balance sheets of local businesses — which have assets in rubles (or pesos or rupiah) but debts in dollars or euros — implode. This, in turn, inflicts severe damage on the domestic economy, undermining confidence and depressing the currency even more. And Russia fits the standard playbook.
Except for one thing. Usually, the way a country ends up with a lot of foreign debt is by running trade deficits, using borrowed funds to pay for imports. But Russia hasn’t run trade deficits. On the contrary, it has consistently run large trade surpluses, thanks to high oil prices. So why did it borrow so much money, and where did the money go?Well, you can answer the second question by walking around Mayfair in London, or (to a lesser extent) Manhattan’s Upper East Side, especially in the evening, and observing the long rows of luxury residences with no lights on — residences owned, as the line goes, by Chinese princelings, Middle Eastern sheikhs, and Russian oligarchs. Basically, Russia’s elite has been accumulating assets outside the country — luxury real estate is only the most visible example — and the flip side of that accumulation has been rising debt at home.
Where does the elite get that kind of money? The answer, of course, is that Putin’s Russia is an extreme version of crony capitalism, indeed, a kleptocracy in which loyalists get to skim off vast sums for their personal use. It all looked sustainable as long as oil prices stayed high. But now the bubble has burst, and the very corruption that sustained the Putin regime has left Russia in dire straits.
How does it end? The standard response of a country in Russia’s situation is an International Monetary Fund program that includes emergency loans and forbearance from creditors in return for reform. Obviously that’s not going to happen here, and Russia will try to muddle through on its own, among other things with rules to prevent capital from fleeing the country — a classic case of locking the barn door after the oligarch is gone.
It’s quite a comedown for Mr. Putin. And his swaggering strongman act helped set the stage for the disaster. A more open, accountable regime — one that wouldn’t have impressed Mr. Giuliani so much — would have been less corrupt, would probably have run up less debt, and would have been better placed to ride out falling oil prices. Macho posturing, it turns out, makes for bad economies.
The focus of attention has been on Anna Chapman, the sultry businesswoman who has literally become the face of this international spy scandal. If there is something that Americans love more than a hot Russian spy, it is a hot Russian spy who with topless pictures. Turns out the fiery redhead Anna Chapman a.k.a. Anya Kushchenko was married to a Brit at some point and the two of them had lots of fun in the sack. And he took plenty of nude pictures of her. Including a picture of her half-naked on a bed while sucking on a sex toy. So the spy everyone has been fussing over just give us more to fuss over because now all her racy pictures are leaking online. And for a Red, she is kinda pink. Her lawyer said she was embarrassed by some of the photos that were obviously taken from her Facebook page. So these newly leaked topless and revealing lingerie pics from her former husband’s private collection should really embarrass the Russian sex pot.
Ever since glamour photos of Anna Chapman began circulating online late Tuesday, the Internet at large has been foaming, frothing, fanatic for details about the secret agent/Maxim model look-alike who specialized in sultry-eyed, pouty-lipped, come-hither stares. Anna Chapman’s real name was Anya Kushchenko. She married a British man, Alex Chapman, in 2002, only to divorce him four years later and then travel to the United States in 2007. She claimed that she had to choose between settling down and having a child with him, or to make a career for herself. She had said, “it’s never too late to be happy and succeed.” Chapman told the press that she had become “obsessed’ by several “secretive” meetings with Russians whom she referred to as “friends.” He said: “Looking back, I think she was being conditioned [by them]. She didn’t seem happy.”
But the best part, the spy vixen’s kinky sex secrets are being expose by the ex-hubby for large sums of cash. Nude photos, of the top-secret Russian weapon posing as the glamorous Russian socialite and now accused of intelligence work in the US, have been posted and published along with salacious details of her relationship with her British ex-husband. The semi-naked pictures of Anna Chapman taken by her ex-husband Alex Chapman, 30 year-old, on their honeymoon in Zimbabwe in 2002. The pair experimented with S&M, and Anna sometimes liked to pose as a KGB interrogator as she took take the role of dominatrix and wielded a whip.
Her former husband, Alex, is talking to the press and he is telling all. He is claiming Anna could have been a spy for Russia while she lived in London too. Alex added that Anna’s father, Vasily Kushchenko, was a high ranking ex-KGB officer. In interviews with newspapers in the UK, Alex Chapman said he was married to Anna Chapman between 2002 and 2006. And he confessed that he was “infatuated” with the Russian spy after meeting her at a London party in 2001. Alleged Russian secret agent Anna Chapman’s husband Alex said, “the sex was great and she had this incredible body. We were having so much fun. We also experimented with sex toys.” He added, “it was more about lust at first. I hadn’t met anybody like her before.”
Alex Chapman, artist and psychiatrist trainee, disclosed more than a few unambiguous topless photos of his former wife Anna Chapman breast. He said Anna Chapman wielded sex toys while in bed and added that the couple join the “Mile High Club.” The two were married for four years, during which there were Mile High Club “sex romps” on planes, S&M sessions (Anna “loved to wear nipple clamps and wield a WHIP like an interrogator as they were Ivan it off”), and numerous sexy pic-posing moments.
“I found her Russian accent such a turn-on,” says Alex, who had no idea she was honing her sexy spying skills on him. “She was the most beautiful person I had ever met, with an extraordinary body, and I was infatuated with her.” Alex Chapman also told newspaper reporters that he spoke to his former lover on the phone after she was arrested last week for her alleged participation in a Russian espionage ring in the United States. Alex reveals how he was grilled by an MI5 agents during a cloak-and-dagger rendezvous after Anna and ten others in the alleged U.S. espionage ring were arrested.
He said he was surprised to hear she had gone to the US because his ex-wife had always made disparaging remarks about Americans and said she did not want to go there. Reports say British intelligence is now investigating whether she had worked as a spy when she lived in Britain or was recruited when she lived there. MI5, which carries out Britain’s counter-espionage work, is understood to be helping the Americans in their investigation. It is also assessing whether there could be security implications for Britain after details emerged of Chapman long-standing connection with the country. But lets get back to the sex… Another man has come forward claiming he had a sexual relationship with Anna. A law student claims that he had a fling with Anna Chapman and gave her a “14 out of 10” for her prowess in bed. Charlie Hutchinson, 31 year-old, told reports that he was stunned when he saw the picture of Anna Chapman in the newspapers after her arrest by the FBI for spying. Hutchinson said he met her on a night out at Southampton. He claims that she jumped into his cab and they went back to the university’s residences. He claimed that she didn’t wear panties and was just incredible in bed.
“She was red hot. While we had sex she was talking in Russian. It lasted for two hours and was so sexy. She was incredible,” he was quoted as saying. “Both of us were drunk. When we got into my room she began doing a striptease while I sat on the bed.” He added, “she has a stunning figure – and had no underwear on. She really knew what she was doing.” A week later they met again for a romantic meal at an Italian restaurant which was followed up by more romps. He said he was smitten. But she dumped him soon after, he claimed.
She repeatedly hung up on him when he tried to call her before she changed her number, Mr Hutchinson told The Sun. He also said he was amazed to see she carried five mobile phones. He said: “On our first night, she got a text message and went to check it. She pulled out five mobiles and didn’t know what phone it was sent to.” He said “Also, when I wanted to take a picture of her, she always said no.” Who would ever think they would bed a Russian spy? he asked.
Anna and 10 others were arrested last week for allegedly living double lives as agents of the Russian government. Anna Chapman is by far the hottest and she lives a glamours life in Manhattan, so here comes the inevitable British tabloid story detailing her interesting sex life with an ex-husband and one of much more lovers to come. Russia trained female spies to use sex so things might get really kinky from here. Everyone is both shocked and seduced by the idea of Chapman, with her sweet and sexy good looks and American-sounding name she is alarmingly dis-alarming, and the perfect spy. She is already been compared with Angelina’s lead role in this summer’s Salt, and scores of James Bond femme fatales, but there are no doubt already an army of feverish fingers typing out the scores of books and screenplays that will be based on Chapman alone. To play the leading role Scarlett Johansson would be the obvious first choice, followed perhaps by Kirsten Dunst, or Jessica Biel. In the first pic below, Anna is seen revealing lingerie while licking a dildo. What most guys wouldn’t play to see Scarlett Johansson sucking on a fake cock?
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And here is yet another Russian Tanker …
Miss Russia 2009 Sofia Rudieva Nude Picture Scandal
This scandal has rocked the Miss Russia Pageant, and a decision was made to strip Rudeva of her crown, with the title now falling to runner-up Svetlana Stepankovskaya. Miss Stepankovskaya has plenty of erotic photos herself, posing in Maxim among other magazines, but none of the nude variety. At least not that anyone knows of. Give the tabloids some time and see what they come up with. Although the decision was made to to take the title away, but so far she has not yet been “officially” banned from the pageant pending appeal. And is to represent Russia at the international Miss Universe and Miss World beauty contests. Sofia’s father says he didn’t know anything about her photo shoot. He claimed the model’s virginity just several days ago.
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