Vladimir Putin’s Hidden Money Is Being Quietly Tracked by Financial Sleuths Hot on ‘Kremlin Ration’ Trail

As Ukrainian men and women fight to protect their homeland from The Brutal Invasion of Vladimir Putinanother army fought on a very different front.

Western governments have quietly contracted several teams of “tactical accountants” to secure an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars. sanctioned assets of the president of Russia and his oligarchs have spent the past 22 years legally laundering money through international capital markets.

The task of these private sector financial supervisors, who have provided their services at far below market rates and in some cases professionally employed, is to detect , pricing, processing and then distributing the proceeds of what is known as the Kremlin Ration.

Now operating behind closed doors to protect themselves from becoming collateral damage in Putin’s war against Ukraine, these semi-secret groups, in consultation with global organizations such as the Foundation International Currencies, the World Bank and the G7 Group of Nations, are being rolled out around the world, according to a Wall Street executive who manages one such group.

“It is an exaggeration to say that we are hunting the assets of a nuclear-armed Al Capone,” said an independent investigator who is currently scouring his market portfolio.

Individuals tapped to aid in thwarting Putin’s blow and help bring a swift end to his war against Ukraine are spearheads of a newly created region of Russian law enforcement agencies. slow-moving government with Hollywood-friendly names like Russian Elites, Proxy, and Task Force Oligarchs (REPO), and the Kleptocurrency Task Force.

One of the Putin money investigators gives advice training videos for those employed.

An investigator said: “There are a lot of rumours, a lot of misinformation. “I’m living in the world of reality, and right now we know $200 billion in Russian assets is frozen and Russia’s GDP is $1.4 trillion.”

Investigators agree that they are far from knowing the amount involved. “The job is to stop the pain of default,” said one Wall Street veteran, an expert on foreign financial instruments. complex and unclear financial instruments.

Some want to lift the curtain on Putin and his regime that has spent decades running the multibillion-dollar financial operations of entities operating inside the Kremlin Ration.

Their role reversal has little to do with redemption, but is deliberately calculated to support the dangerous business that undermines Putin’s democracy, minimizing the contamination of Russian money into the country. the global financial system and the rebirth of the Ukrainian economy after the war.

“We are also interested in helping our foreign clients find a way to recover lost assets,” said a member of one unit, drawing a line between past and present activities.

Another investigator added: “Before the war, many of those involved in the process worked for legitimate and legally registered Russian companies.

While many may see such differences as meaningless almost a month after Putin’s brutal war with the Ukrainian people, they do pose a legal conundrum in the event of any lawsuits. any post-war litigation against Putin and Russian corporations; specifically, is a Russian company an independent entity or merely a subsidiary of Putin Inc. and be held liable for participating in war crimes against Ukraine?

For now, at least, those involved say the question is under debate.

“Our only job right now is to help Ukraine,” said another Russian asset hunter who lives on a Caribbean island known for its heavily guarded offshore facilities. “Nothing else is more important than that.”

One stalker said that his company in August 2021 conducted game theories about the various outcomes of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia overtakes Ukraine; Ukrainian resistance; sanctions are still in place; Russia gradually reduced its status as a country; Western resolve has been galvanized,” he mumbled in front of a glass of grapefruit juice. “Second: The oligarchs and the people suffer; they get rid of Putin, it’s a great opportunity to grow and Russia is great again. Three: Upgrade for a wider European war. ”

The priority outcome was, “We work with the G7 to rebuild Ukraine. We start with schools, hospitals, roads and rebuild the entire economy,” added the systemic risk analyst. “I want that job.”

No one could have guessed how much of Putin’s nefarious money was flowing through global financial arteries. Regardless of the final number, however, those committed to pursuing and dispersing wealth to rebuild Ukraine say the playbook to make it happen is already there: Lehman Redux.

With the collapse of financial services company Lehman Brothers in 2008, global financial markets entered a period of severe uncertainty. Lehman has more than $650 billion in consolidated assets and more than $1.3 trillion in claims, including derivatives contracts. Systemic shock is related to the uncertainty of loss and asset recovery. So the courts stepped in and with outside help, maximum recoverable value in the largest bankruptcy ever made.

Lehman coin rebates and distributions are conducted legally in a completely transparent manner. Such clarity is so far not possible for the Kremlin Ration.