https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/coinbase-ceo-ordinary-russians-are-using-crypto-lifeline

Coinbase CEO: "Ordinary Russians Are Using Crypto As A Lifeline"

As we reported earlier this week, most popular crypto exchanges have declined requests by western officials to cut off all Russian customers, as crypto trading volume soared as investors appeared to front-run expectations for massive capital outflows as sanctions bite.

While most trading denominated in Russia rubles has been taken place on Hong Kong-based Binance, even popular US exchanges like the publicly traded Coinbase have refused to cut off all Russian users - at least, for the moment.

And for the first time since this "controversy" first emerged, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has spoken up to offer an explanation. And that explanation is that millions of ordinary Russians are now using crypto "as a lifeline" to preserve their hard-won assets during a time when the Russian ruble, and other Russian assets, are being mercilessly devalued.

"Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too," Armstrong said.

As Armstrong pointed out, Coinbase is obligated to comply with US sanctions, like any other US-based business. But until sanctions stipulate otherwise, the exchange will continue providing services to the Russian people (excluding those whose names have wound up on the US Treasury's sanctions list).

And bitcoin's public blockchain, a feature of most cryptocurrencies, makes it an ill-suited avenue for Russian oligarchs looking to protect their billions, he added.

See the full thread below:

5/ That being said, we don’t think there’s a high risk of Russian oligarchs using crypto to avoid sanctions. Because it is an open ledger, trying to sneak lots of money through crypto would be more traceable than using U.S. dollars cash, art, gold, or other assets.

— Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) March 4, 2022

Armstrong's Twitter comments reflect those from Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who said on Wednesday that it would be "unethical" for his exchange to restrict all Russians. "It's not our decision to make whether to ban Russians…we just follow rules, we don't make them. Also, just from an ethical point of view, many Russians don't support this war."

Does this leave crypto on the "wrong side" of the norms? Not necessarily, CZ said.

"We're doing exactly what their recommendations are."

Just like all major banks and any other financial institutions.

And as strategists from Citi explained earlier this week, while the potential for capital flight from Russia remains high, trading volumes (although impressive-looking on the chart) have been relatively small in absolute terms so far (around 210 bitcoin per day on average).

This suggests that the price action is more due to investors positioning for an expected uptick in demand from Russia, rather than Russian demand itself, and furthermore, it underlines the reality that bitcoin and crypto more broadly are being treated like a 'boogeyman' by Western officials.

All while Americans as unable to get ammunition.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/596939-trump-lashes-out-at-barr-he-was-weak-ineffective

Trump lashes out at Barr: 'He was weak, ineffective' | TheHill

Former President TrumpDonald TrumpMcCarthy-backed Republican wins contested Texas House primary DHS grants temporary immigration status to all Ukrainians in the US Senate GOP shrugs off latest Trump revelation MORE lashed out at his former Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday, calling him “weak” and “ineffective” and accusing Barr of failing to do more to tackle Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

“Former Attorney General Bill Barr wouldn’t know voter fraud if it was staring him in the face – and it was,” Trump said in a statement. “The fact is, he was weak, ineffective, and totally scared of being impeached, which the Democrats were constantly threatening to do. They ‘broke’ him.”

Trump also accused Barr of refusing to act on Trump’s allegations of election fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election out of a desire to “save his own hide.”

Trump’s comments came after Barr told NBC News in an interview that the former president had become enraged when he told him that there was no evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. Barr's opinion has been backed up by officials from both parties nationally and in key swing states.

“I told him that all this stuff was bullshit … about election fraud. And, you know, it was wrong to be shoveling it out the way his team was,” Barr said, recounting how Trump became “very angry” about the remarks.

Barr also said that he offered to resign from his post and that Trump accepted that offer. The former attorney general’s account is at odds with Trump’s claim that he was one who asked for Barr’s resignation.

More than 13 months after leaving the White House, Trump has continued to spread the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that he was the rightful winner of the presidential race.

He has also repeatedly defended many of his supporters who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, accusing Democrats and so-called “RINOs” — Republicans in name only — of targeting those individuals for political gain.

The House select committee responsible for investigating the Jan. 6 riot said in a court filing this week that it had uncovered evidence showing that Trump and his campaign tried to illegally obstruct Congress’s certification of electoral votes and “engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/us/politics/madison-cawthorn-north-carolina-insurrectionist.html

Judge Blocks Effort to Disqualify Cawthorn from Ballot as ‘Insurrectionist’

A district judge ruled that the Amnesty Act of 1872, which forgave confederates, overruled a clause in the 14th Amendment barring “insurrectionists” from Congress.

March 4, 2022Updated 5:49 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — A judge on Friday blocked a novel electoral challenge that sought to disqualify Representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina from running for re-election by labeling him an insurrectionist, issuing an equally novel order that invoked a post-Civil War law that forgave confederate soldiers and sympathizers.

U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II, an appointee of President Donald J. Trump, stepped in to squelch an effort by lawyers and voters in North Carolina who had filed a motion before the state’s Board of Elections declaring Mr. Cawthorn, 26, ineligible for re-election under the Constitution. They had contended that the first-term Republican’s support for rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, made him an “insurrectionist,” and therefore barred him from office under the little-known third section of the 14th Amendment, adopted during Reconstruction to punish members of the Confederacy.

That section declares that “no person shall” hold “any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath” to “support the Constitution,” had then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Judge Myers sided with the argument of James Bopp Jr., a prominent conservative campaign lawyer, who noted that section three concluded with a caveat: “Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” The Amnesty Act of 1872 did just that when it declared that “all political disabilities imposed by the third section” of the 14th amendment were “hereby removed from all persons whomsoever.”

The ruling angered lawyers in the case who argued that the 1872 law applied only to Civil War confederates, not any insurrectionist in the future, and that a law could not usurp a constitutional amendment.

“According to this court ruling, the 1872 amnesty law, by a trick of wording that — although no one noticed it at the time, or in the 150 years since — completely undermined Congress’s careful decision to write the insurrectionist disqualification clause to apply to future insurrections,” said Ron Fein, the legal director of Free Speech For People, an organization that helped with the case. “This is patently absurd.”

But Mr. Bopp said on Friday that, because the 14th Amendment applied to past and future insurrections, so did the subsequent amnesty. Judge Myers, a former law professor at the University of North Carolina and clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, agreed.

Mr. Fein called for the ruling to be appealed, but the activists who brought the challenge cannot do that. Since the injunction was aimed at the state, only the North Carolina State Board of Elections or the state attorney general can appeal, and it is not clear that either will get involved.

The challengers had hoped to at least get to question Mr. Cawthorn under oath for his role in stoking the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and sympathizing with those who carried it out. Mr. Cawthorn had encouraged conservatives to gather in Washington on that day for a “Save America” rally behind the White House. He had urged Mr. Trump’s supporters to “call your congressman” to protest Congress’s official count of electoral votes to finalize the 2020 election results, adding, “you can lightly threaten them.” And after the riot, Mr. Cawthorn asserted that those jailed for storming the Capitol were “political hostages” that he would like to “bust” out of prison.

Mr. Cawthorn turned to the federal courts to intervene before the Board of Elections could set a hearing to determine his eligibility for the ballot.

The effort to block Mr. Cawthorn from running for re-election could now be over.

But, Mr. Bopp said, “I never underestimate the willingness of lawyers to keep fighting.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/4/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-list-of-key-events-from-day-nine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: List of key events from day nine

We take a look at the major developments in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

These are the key events so far from Friday, March 4.

Nuclear power plant fire

Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces have seized control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. A fire that broke out at the complex in the southeastern city of Enerhodar when it came under attack from Russian forces in the early hours of Friday has now been extinguished.

Western powers condemn ‘reckless’ attack

Several Western leaders have strongly condemned Russia’s alleged attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing Moscow of a “reckless” assault.

UN’s Chernobyl offer

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has offered to travel to the site of the 1986 disaster in Chernobyl to ensure the security of Ukraine’s nuclear sites.

Putin denial

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denied that Russian troops are bombing Ukrainian cities, dismissing such information as fake, the Kremlin said.

New talks

Ukraine plans to hold a third round of talks this weekend with Russian officials to try to end the fighting.

NATO rejects no-fly zone

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says the alliance will not impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine after Kyiv calls for one to help stop Russia’s bombing of its cities.

47 killed in the northern city

Forty-seven people have been killed following a Russian air attack in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, regional authorities said.

Belarusian forces will not take part in Ukraine war

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country’s troops are not currently taking part in the invasion, adding they will not participate in the offensive in the future either.

City of Mariupol has no water, heating

The eastern Black Sea port of Mariupol is without water and heating and food is scarce, its mayor said, appealing for military help: “We are simply being destroyed.”

More than 1.2 million flee

More than 1.2 million people have fled Ukraine into neighbouring countries since Russia invaded last week, the UN said.

Moscow media blackout

Russia admitted to “limiting” access to news websites including the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, independent Russian site Meduza and Germany’s Deutsche Welle, with Facebook also blocked.

Jail terms for ‘fake news’

Russian legislators approved a law imposing up to 15-year jail sentences for fake news about the Russian armed forces, which many fear could severely curtail reporting.

BBC, Novaya Gazeta react

The BBC said it has suspended its coverage in Russia as new legislation passed “appears to criminalise independent journalism”. Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said it is deleting content over the new law.

Lukoil calls for halt

Sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil called for an immediate halt to fighting in Ukraine, one of the first major domestic firms to speak out against Moscow’s invasion.

China-led development bank halts business in Russia

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank said it has put all activities related to Russia and Belarus on hold in light of “the evolving economic and financial situation”.

Asian markets dip

Asian shares sank to a 16-month low and oil prices continued to climb, as the reports of the fire at Zaporizhzhia power plant shook markets in the region.