RBS helped bankroll Europe's last dictator

[dipsydoodle]

Source: The Independent

The Royal Bank of Scotland faces more damaging revelations about its ethical record after it emerged that the bank was part of a deal to issue more than $800m (£489m) in Belarusian government bonds earlier this year, a month after the country's leader, Alexander Lukashenko, ordered the brutal repression of pro-democracy campaigners.

The majority state-owned bank has now agreed to abandon doing any more deals with Mr Lukashenko after it was shamed by dissidents over its role in organising the bond issue, The Independent can reveal.

While many international enterprises refuse to invest in the country and its repressive regime, RBS became involved in January this year, alongside the Russian bank Sberbank, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. At the time, hundreds of people had just been arrested by Mr Lukashenko's KGB secret police and allegations of torture were widespread and credible.

RBS has also recently come under fire for continuing to invest in American arms manufacturers that make cluster bombs.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/rbs-helped-bankroll-europes-last-dictator-2345509.html

[indurancevile]

1. lukashenko was elected after the fall of the ussr. hardly "europe's last dictator".

[dipsydoodle]

2. We do not change headlines in LBN

That's the rule. The Independent has picked up on an expression which Condolezza Rice used in 2008.

Some details of Belarus here : Belarus: Dictatorship or Democracy? http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=20754 and here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/09/belarus-lukashenko-turning-point

I cannot really comment on the fairness of their elections but do consider they may have been akin to those in Georgia and Ajerbaijan which in both case were undoubtedly bent but suited the USA for the usual reason - gas and oil supplies.

[indurancevile]

3. & i can comment on the headline.

[Posteritatis]

4. Read any newspapers since 1991? (nt)

[indurancevile]

6. obviously, since lukashenko's first term started in 1994.

[naaman fletcher]

5. huh?

Are you saying there are other dictators, or are you saying that he is not a dictator because he was once elected?

[Diclotican]

7. indurancevile

indurancevile

He might have been "elected" in 1994.. but he have hold on to power, using all the tools of a dictatorship, ever since. And even are using the tools of the old Soviet government to repress sivilians rightfully need/posibilites to protest if the government are not doing their part of the deal... And mr Lukashenko also have a frightfull secret Police, who still use the acronym KGB.. The standing Komitee of the State Security. And the Belorurisan prisons are no hollyday to be in, rather its is more or less in the same shape as it was, before 1988, when Gorbatshew desided it was time for the Gulag Prison complex to retire...

Mr Lukashenko is a dictor, by all means of the trade.. Some supporters and apologies would, and do claim him to be a good leader, who have the support of the pepole, but the fact is, that if he EVER had serious competition, he would be out of his offices as fast as the woters was able to cast their ballots.. He is one of the few remaining dictaors in Europe for the moment.. It dosen't look like he wil leaving anytime soon.. But it is boiling under the feet, and even tho he might belive he is safe and secure, it might end in more trouble than he hoped for, in time when enough pepole is tired of his stupidity and dicatorship.. Few Dictators live to die in their beds of old age this days...

Diclotcian

[indurancevile]

8. the implication of "the last dictator" is that lukashenko is some kind of soviet holdover.

it's not the case.

and if being a 'strongman' or not strictly observing legal niceties or having nasty prisons = dictator, i think he's not the only one in europe.

and lots of dictators die in their beds these days.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/17/juan-maria-bordaberry-dead-dies_n_900904.html

(one of ours)

[Diclotican]

10. indurancevile

indurancevile

He IS a soviet Holdover.. Do you know what type of person he was, before USSR broke up?.. Do you know that he had a pretty high position inside the Soviet comunist party and was the party boss in his native country.. So yes, he IS a holdover from the old Soviet days, and grasped the power, alleready in early 1990s, even tho he was "elected" as president in the country, first in 1994.. If he had been like a democratic president (or a sorts of it) at least he would not have shapened, and reshapened the constitution so it fits into his own will.. He is a Dictator, maybe not at bad as Stalin was, but dam close, to some of belorusians I have talked to true the years.. And all what they wanted was free and fair elections.. And for that, they had to flee the country, and ended up as refugees looooooong away from their native country...

And even tho some country do have nasty prisons, specially in the eastern part of europe (where they also is pretty poor) The Bellorusian prisons is in a class of their own, even by the standards of the former Soviet Union..

Diclotican

[izquierdista]

9. And you've been there, have you?

When I saw "Europe's last dictator", I immediately knew which country and who they were referring to. If you go there, it is the one remaining outpost of the old Soviet Union, as little changed from 1970 as possible.

[Diclotican]

11. izquierdista

izquierdista

Or at least, verry similar to what a country inside the USSR was before the breake up in the 1990s.. Even the police have the same uniforms, and the government rule in most of the same way as they did when they was part of the USSR..

Even maybe worse, becouse they have non to have sheck and balances this days.. When they was inside the USSR, at least the leadership in Kreml could told the leaders to calm down or behave in a better way than they do.. Today few, or any can tell the government in Bellorusia to calm down and behave as a sivilized nation..

If Bellorusia had been a democracy, then the country would have been welcome into the different organizations in Europe, today That country is one of the few that are not welcome into the fold.. Even Russia are part of the different organizations, who is shaping the future in Europe..

Diclotican

[supernova]

12. Is RBS the new BCCI?

:shrug: