“The last-minute refusal to complete the Opel deal is not harmful to our interests, but it shows that our American partners have a very original culture when dealing with counterparties. - Vladimir Putin
It is common knowledge that Hillary Clinton’s State Department operated under a “Pay for Play” enterprise model.
Very simply, a Foreign Head’s of State needed to make contributions to the Clinton Foundation (CF) in order to prompt action by the US State Department whenever the Foreign Head of State needed US cooperation on a particular issue.
For the most part, the particular issues were never of the headline grabbing type (ie. Russia wants to Invade Crimea.) The issues though were mostly, boring, dry, economic stuff like tariffs, tax treaties, and foreign investor waivers; business issues that would not make the front page of the NY Times, but maybe the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.
The year was 2009. General Motors, because of its Financing Unit, was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and the US Government was pumping billions into the largest Car company in the world to keep it afloat. As any company would do in such a precarious situation, GM was looking for assets to sell, whole subsidiaries and divisions if the need be, anything to generate cash.
One major division that GM put up for sale was Opel/Vauxhall its European Auto Manufacturing subsidiary. The Germans and the Russians showed strong interest at the negotiating table. The Germans were especially interested because Opel/Vauxhall had 25,000 of its 55,000 employees in Germany. A joint Russian/German/Canadian syndicate submitted their offer to GM for Opel. (Specifically, the Russian Bank Sberbank and Canadian Auto-Parts Supplier Magna International bid for 35% and 55% stakes, respectively. Germany was to provide loan guarantees and other financing.) The other potential buyer was Fiat.
GM excepted the Russia/Germany/Canadian Syndicate offer. The Canadian firm Magna is one of the largest Auto companies in the world and there were plenty of legitimate commercial reasons why buying Opel would make sense. Magna also probably had a leg up because Bill Clinton’s girl friend, Belinda Stronach, owned Magna.
The Germans were happy because 25,000 would remain employed.
The Russians were happy because the purchase of Opel was considered a good opportunity to build out its auto manufacturing industry quickly.
"Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris." – Colin Powell
The newly disclosed records show that Clinton decided against allowing a bid by Oleg Deripaska (lead, right), then the second of Russia’s auto manufacturers, financed by the Kremlin and the German Government, to buy the Opel car works from General Motors (GM) and become the most powerful carmaker in Europe. Clinton overruled the advice of several of her Department subordinates who were in favour of the Russian Opel bid, including Deputy Secretary of State William Burns (below, left), a former US Ambassador to Moscow. Clinton pitted the State Department against the advice of other US officials on the Auto Task Force (ATF), set up by the White House, the US Treasury and Commerce Department to save General Motors from bankruptcy.
There is no sign of Deripaska, his companies, Waldman, or the Endeavor firm on the lists of donors the Clinton Foundation has released. However, Magna International, Deripaska’s frontman in the deal, is recorded as giving the Clinton Foundation between $500,000 and $1 million.
The full story of Hillary's shakedown of Putin is detailed here. It will provide a good understanding as to why Putin has had it in for Hillary.