08-12-2015, 05:57 PM
Apparently the reason Kirsan has been blacklisted by the US is that he is supposed to have acted as an intermediary to facilitate the sale of oil from the Islamic State to Assad's regime in Syria. If that is the case, it is both bizarre and surprising; of course both parties are meant to be enemies; but since the US has applied sanctions against both of them, then there could be some sense in such a mutually beneficial transaction. So if true it would give the US two reasons to apply such sanctions to the person responsible.
So where did this accusation come from? President Erdogan of Turkey has been hinting at this for some time but anything he says should probably be taken with a pinch of salt - he has his own agenda which involves dissing the Russians and Syrians and drumming up patriotic support for his own not universally popular regime at home. Of course, his sometimes NATO ally the US would be only too happy to jump on any such bandwagon, although they may have their own independent intelligence sources.
As predicted, both Kasparov and Short have already made capital out of the situation but they too have their own reasons for doing so. If you want to see their comments on Facebook and Twitter look them up - I'm not repeating them here.
'Gens Una Summus' and all that...
So where did this accusation come from? President Erdogan of Turkey has been hinting at this for some time but anything he says should probably be taken with a pinch of salt - he has his own agenda which involves dissing the Russians and Syrians and drumming up patriotic support for his own not universally popular regime at home. Of course, his sometimes NATO ally the US would be only too happy to jump on any such bandwagon, although they may have their own independent intelligence sources.
As predicted, both Kasparov and Short have already made capital out of the situation but they too have their own reasons for doing so. If you want to see their comments on Facebook and Twitter look them up - I'm not repeating them here.
'Gens Una Summus' and all that...