That was me. Russian oligarch's are the "it" boys which maldives so attractive to Russians with money. And once again. They became oligarchs before Putin tightened the screws. The fact that they survived and thrived in the environment in which murder and fraud were par for the course of doing business should tell you that they are prepared for almost any contingency. Their wealth is virtually guaranteed to be impossible to connect to them or to trace in its entirety. The only real restrictions on them is that they cannot receive US visas at the moment. But 5-50 people having visa restrictions is hardly rises to the level of what is called "sanctions."

Actually, the US sanctions are currently an ongoing joke in Russia. I saw someone post a photograph showing that some local gym was advertising that they were having sanctions against McCain and Harry Reid. The sanctions cover a few (very few) individuals. They are about as much "sanctions" as Obama's administration is "the most transparent in history." The Oligarchs managed to make their money in Russia in which every business, at the time, was ran the way the narco businesses are ran in the US (in complete absence of the law). Having a few accounts frozen is hardly a contingency they haven't anticipated.

If by that you mean, that it was you talking out of your ass (the inside of it), then you are probably right.

Maldives is yielding to pressure both from the US (which probably did kidnap the guy) and from Russia. Russians see Maldives as THE PRIME DESTINATION for anyone with money. The name "Maldives" in very, very common in modern Russia. But the reason they were pressured to take responsibility is that kidnapping a direct relative of a Parliament Member makes this potentially an Act Of War. US doesn't want the possibility of such such interpretation being made. And neither does Russia. Russia is in no position to let go of even a minor act of war right now. The internal Russian media has been blaming the West for Ukraine's asserted independence and has created a war-path climate. Russia would HAVE TO respond to even a minor act of war at this point. And they don't want to be forced into this position over someone nabbed on fraud charges.

Cooperating with the US would have been (and still is) a terrible PR move for Maldives. Russian oligarchs are their main customers.

Maldives doesn't give two craps about the US. The reason it would lie (if it were to lie) would be to placate Russia. Russian tourism money is one of its main sources of revenue. Not just general tourism, but specifically Russian. Vacationing in Maldives is the considered the main indication that one "has arrived" in modern Russia. It's where the Russian Big Money go when they want to prove that they are BIg Money. If there is even a hint that they served as US lap dogs, this particular little vacation destination will be abandoned. They are gonna have to prove now that a son of an MP was on Interpol watch list. Because he almost certainly was travelling on a diplomatic passport and was most likely outside of the reach of Interpol's jurisdiction.

No argument there. But this didn't happen in Russia.

What's more interesting is that Maldives almost definitely would not have agreed with it. It depends on Russian tourist money because Russians somehow think it's the destination of those at the very top of the pecking order. There is almost no way Maldives would have agreed to piss off Russia over a mild fraud case. So this was in violation of the local laws. Given that he may have had a diplomatic passport, it could have been an act of war, too.

The more interesting part is that Maldives actually agreed to it. It's the favorite tourist destination of the the Russian money. It's one of the few places that depends on Russia much more than it does on the US.

Putin has already lost power to the murderous thugs currently running Russia. The current occupation of Ukraine is nothing but a deliberate attempt of the Russian upper military class to reassert its relevance to the level which it enjoyed during the Soviet Union and which it has long lost in the current climate of peace.

It is most definitely about burdening Russian companies. If the police raids their Russian offices they don't have the excuse "our data is stored abroad" anymore. Such an admission in itself would become and admission of guilt.

While the question is interesting, it's off topic. You may as well ask the same question about any development task. Clearly the person asking the question already decided that the advantages of Python outweigh the advantages of C,ERLANG and COBOL. He is now asking whether the advantages of R outweigh the advantages of Python. Which is an entirely different topic.

So as to fix it himself? Fear is how you negotiate down your life.

Nah, that one will be much easier to fight. NYC, for example, made segways illegal despite being the best market for it and having a lot of bike lanes which can be used by segway users. It's easy to outlaw a technology which can be visually identified (police can ticket its users). It's much harder to enforce a ban of technology based purely on information.

Interesting. So are you pro or against the AGW hypothesis? Because when I argue that AGW hypothesis is a thinly-disguised neo-Communist agenda, it seems to have a whiff of paranoia. Would you care to affirm that you a primary example of such a confluence?