State Expectations
March 2, 2022
Last week, we asked how long our readers think the Russia/Ukraine conflict will last. You can view the results of that survey here.
“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” – Henry David Thoreau
Game, Jet, Match
Jack Sweeney, 19, is a college student and an aviation enthusiast who’s created automated Twitter accounts to follow the comings and goings of private jets owned by rich and famous people, like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Cuban. Sweeney said he tracks either “really prominent” or just “really interesting” people; he’s also added people requested by some of his tens of thousands of followers. “People have been asking me about Putin for a while. They wanted to know if they could track him,” Sweeney said.
The isolated Russian president isn’t much of a jet-setter, but after he started a war with Ukraine, the whereabouts of other powerful Russian elites have come under intense scrutiny. Western leaders are trying to pressure Putin into withdrawing his armies from Ukraine by ratcheting up sanctions against the Russian economy as a whole, and by taking the highly unusual step of attacking the personal fortunes of Putin and other rich Russian businessmen. As their movements by air are easily-accessible public information, Sweeney began shadowing wealthy oligarchs. He admitted starting little knowledge of the Russian power structure, and says the instant popularity of his bot has “been crazy.”
As of Monday afternoon, Sweeney’s new account @RuOligarchJets had already amassed almost 162,000 followers and was tracking the flight habits of at least 21 Russian billionaires and tycoons. Private jets and helicopters belonging to Roman Abramovich, owner of the British soccer team Chelsea Football Club, have been taking off and touching down in various destinations including Moscow, Baku, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Dubai. Jets and helicopters belonging to steel magnate Alexander Abramov have been tracked at locales worldwide, including London, Seychelles, Antigua and Barbuda, and Abu Dhabi.
Academic and Russia expert Howard Stoffer said he welcomed any sunlight shined on powerful Russians, even if all it illuminates is the travel habits of these affluent men. “These are the glitterati of Russia. They should be exposed, and they should be paying whatever price a country can extract from them,” Stoffer said Monday. “Get these [airplane] tail numbers out. Tell the governments these are the people, this is where they’re located and let them take whatever action they feel is appropriate.” (Guardian, NBC)
A Vlad State Of Affairs
- Chris Bryant, Britain’s Labor MP and head of the parliamentary standards committee, warned Tuesday that the government is moving too slowly on imposing sanctions on individuals with alleged ties to Vladimir Putin. Bryant claims Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich is hastily selling his U.K. properties to avoid potential financial sanctions.
- The 55-year-old is among Russia’s, and Britain’s, richest people and thought to be close to Putin. Abramovich maintains he is a non-political person and not linked to Putin or the Russian state. But a number of reporters gathered outside Abramovich’s 15-bedroom, £90 million mansion in West London after rumors that a potential buyer was due for a lunchtime tour of the property.
- The Russian Embassy is located at the top of the street, nicknamed “Billionaires Row” as it has the most expensive houses in the U.K. After Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the embassy was defaced with graffiti reading “stop killing our future.” (Guardian)
Speech To A Halt
- On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council remotely, after canceling his in-person visit due to what the Russian mission said were E.U. states blocking his flight path. In his speech, Lavrov accused the E.U. of engaging in a “Russophobic frenzy” by supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine during what Moscow called a strategic military action.
- At that point, over 100 diplomats from some 40 Western countries and allies – including Japan, the E.U., the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Denmark – got up and walked out. Those who remained included a former deputy to Lavrov, and envoys from Syria, China, and Venezuela.
- Russia has denied targeting any civilian sites, but Ukraine’s ambassador said there had been “massive destruction to civilian infrastructure” in Kharkiv, adding: “The maternity wards are being attacked, civilian residential buildings are being bombed.” The Canadian ambassador said Lavrov’s version of events was false, and that Canada would be petitioning the International Criminal Court over Russia’s “crimes against humanity and war crimes.” (Reuters)
Additional World News
- In move to sanction Russia, Switzerland breaks from long tradition (WaPo, $)
- Hong Kong considers lockdown as daily infections top 34,000 (AP)
- Chef José Andrés is on the ground feeding refugees at Ukraine-Poland border (NBC)
- After Burning for Days, a Ship Carrying Thousands of Luxury Cars Sinks (NYT, $)
- Ukraine conflict: Nigeria condemns treatment of Africans (BBC)
- As the Tanks Rolled into Ukraine, So Did Malware. Then Microsoft Entered the War. (NYT, $)
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State Expectations
- President Biden’s first State of the Union address Tuesday night was before a mostly maskless audience, many wearing blue and yellow to show support for Ukraine. Biden noted that countries are unifying to isolate President Putin and punish him for his aggression, with collective sanctions destroying the value of Putin’s huge war chest. Biden also welcomed the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., a guest of the First Lady, who received a standing ovation – one of many during the speech.
- He assured Americans worried about inflation and gas prices at home that “we are going to be OK,” and talked about progress made under his leadership, including tamping down Covid, ratcheting up job growth and wages, big infrastructure projects already in the works, and the new focus on American manufacturing. Biden pushed his domestic policy agenda (not calling it ‘Build Back Better’), imploring Congress to pass key pieces like lowering the cost of prescription medications and child care and making the tax code fairer. (CBS News)
A Suit Point
- The ACLU has filed suit against Texas’s Department for Family and Protective Services and Governor Greg Abbott for implementing a directive to investigate parents that provide gender-affirming care to transgender children. On February 22 Abbott ordered DFPS to investigate gender-affirming care among youths in the state, after Attorney General Ken Paxton called such care “child abuse.”
- Plaintiffs are “Jane and John Doe,” parents of a transgender child, 16-year-old “Mary Doe.” According to the complaint, Jane Doe, a DFPS employee, asked her supervisor for clarification about how the Abbott letter would affect DFPS policy. Two days later she was “placed on leave from her employment” and informed her family was under investigation.
- A Child Protective Services investigator who interviewed the family said the sole allegation against them was that their transgender daughter “may have been provided with medically necessary gender-affirming health care and is ‘currently transitioning from male to female.’” The complaint alleges Abbott’s directive caused “some doctors and other providers [to discontinue] prescribing medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria to transgender youth.” (ABC News, WFAA)
Additional USA News
- Pfizer vaccine significantly less effective in children ages five to 11, study shows (Guardian)
- Americans should not be concerned about potential nuclear war, Biden says – as it happened (Guardian)
- Trump appeals ruling forcing him to testify in NY probe (AP)
- Virginia GOP pushes legal recreational marijuana sales timeline (WaPo, $)
- Boston mayor proposes limits on protests at private homes (AP)
- Some Texas Hispanics Drawn to Republicans Share Immigration Grievances (NYT, $)
Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend
- A much different type of legal battle is percolating between high-end jewelers with very famous names. On Monday, Cartier sued Tiffany & Co. for allegedly stealing trade secrets from a former Cartier employee that Tiffany lured away in December. According to the complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Tiffany hired Megan Marino, an under-qualified junior manager, to learn more about Cartier’s “high jewelry” collection, which has pieces typically costing $50,000 to $10 million.
- Cartier called Tiffany’s hiring of Marino a desperate bid to revive its own high-end jewelry unit that had been left in disarray after several employees quit. Cartier claimed what Tiffany did was a reflection of its “disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information.” Tiffany appeared to pin ultimate blame on Marino by firing her after just five weeks. In an affidavit accompanying the complaint, Marino said Tiffany was “more interested in hiring me as a source of information than as a High Jewelry manager.”
- Cartier also accused Tiffany of letting a recently hired former Cartier executive work on a high jewelry project called the “Blue Book” despite her six-month non-compete agreement. The lawsuit seeks an injunction requiring that Tiffany return and not use stolen trade secrets, plus unspecified damages. (Guardian)
Additional Reads
- Astronomers Find Two Supermassive Black Holes Spiraling Toward a Cataclysmic Collision (SciTechDaily)
- Muscle strengthening lowers risk of death from all causes, study shows (Guardian)
- Do birds have language? It depends on how you define it. (Ars Technica)
- Folk, harlequins part of Venezuela’s German town carnival (AP)
- Tyrannosaurus rex may have been three species, scientists say (Guardian)
- Europe’s Mars rover ‘very unlikely’ to launch in 2022 due to Ukraine invasion (CNN)