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Putin himself is hardly uninvolved. Evidence suggests that he also pillages the state, on an even grander scale. Some of Russia’s wealthiest men are Putin’s personal friends, including Gennady Timchenko, the head of the Gunvor oil trading company, who is believed to be worth $15.3 billion; Yuri Kovalchuk, an owner of the Rossiya Bank ($1.4 billion); and the Rotenberg brothers, Arkady and Boris, whose combined wealth is estimated at $5.6 billion. All of these men made fortunes on the assets of the state. Gazfund, the largest nongovernment pension fund, Gazprombank, Russia’s second–most important bank, and Gazprom-media were all removed from state-run Gazprom and put under the control of the Rossiya Bank. Gunvor, little known in 2000, has since become the world’s third-largest oil trader, and the Rotenberg brothers, besides owning intermediary firms that sold pipes to Gazprom, received approximately $7 billion in contracts for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.23 According to Boris Nemtsov, the former first deputy prime minister who was murdered in Moscow on February 27, 2015, and Vladimir Milov, the former deputy minister of energy, “There is reason to assume that all of these Timchenkos, Kovalchuks, Rotenbergs—are nothing more than nominal owners of big property and that the real beneficiary is Putin himself.”24 Stanislav Belkovsky, a Russian political analyst who once worked as a speechwriter for Berezovsky, told the German newspaper Die Welt in 2007 that Putin’s secret assets were worth $40 billion, which would make him the richest man in Europe. Citing senior figures in the president’s own administration as his sources, Belkovsky said that Putin was the beneficial owner of 75 percent of Gunvor, 37 percent of Surgutneftegaz (a principal supplier of oil for Gunvor), and 4.5 percent of Gazprom. This ownership structure was concealed behind a “non-transparent network of offshore companies,” with the final points in Zug, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. When asked whether he could prove his claims, Belkovsky said that Putin’s wealth is no secret among the elites. “And you should note that Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] has never sued me.”25 Belkovsky’s estimates of Putin’s private wealth track closely with those of Western intelligence.
The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep
David Satter
Naturally, the WCRF/AICR then wondered what types of foods people could eat to maintain a healthy, disease-resistant body weight. So they analyzed the dietary data of tens of thousands of people. “I read the report,” said Kashey. “The number they tabulated was food that has about five hundred sixty-seven calories per pound. The exactitude of the number is meaningless. But the practical takeaway is important: A person should mostly be eating unprocessed whole grains*7 and tubers, fruits and vegetables, and lowish-fat animal protein.” These foods lead us to the sweet spot where we find a healthy weight and keep meal satisfaction high, he said. “An average plate could be a quarter animal protein, a quarter whole grains or tubers, and half vegetables or fruit. Highly active people might want to do half whole grains or tubers and a quarter vegetables or fruit.” (A number of Kashey’s clients said they’ll also add calorie-light foods like cabbage or spinach to their meals, to make them even more filling.)
The Comfort Crisis
Michael Easter
It is still a fairly astounding notion to consider that atoms are mostly empty space, and that the solidity we experience all around us is an illusion. When two objects come together in the real world—billiard balls are most often used for illustration—they don't actually strike each other. “Rather,” as Timothy Ferris explains, “the negatively charged fields of the two balls repel each other . . . were it not for their electrical charges they could, like galaxies, pass right through each other unscathed.” When you sit in a chair, you are not actually sitting there, but levitating above it at a height of one angstrom (a hundred millionth of a centimeter),
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
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