by Pepe Escobar, first published at The Cradle and posted with the author’s permission
The SCO summit of Asian power players delineated a road map for strengthening the multipolar world
Amidst serious tremors in the world of geopolitics, it is so fitting that this year’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) heads of state summit should have taken place in Samarkand – the ultimate Silk Road crossroads for 2,500 years.
When in 329 BC Alexander the Great reached the then Sogdian city of Marakanda, part of the Achaemenid empire, he was stunned: “Everything I have heard about Samarkand it’s true, except it is even more beautiful than I had imagined.”
Fast forward to an Op-Ed by Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev published ahead of the SCO summit, where he stresses how Samarkand now “can become a platform that is able to unite and reconcile states with various foreign policy priorities.”
After all, historically, the world from the point of view of the Silk Road landmark has always been “perceived as one and indivisible, not divided. This is the essence of a unique phenomenon – the ‘Samarkand spirit’.”
And here Mirziyoyev ties the “Samarkand Spirit” to the original SCO “Shanghai Spirit” established in early 2001, a few months before the events of September 11, when the world was forced into strife and endless war, almost overnight.
All these years, the culture of the SCO has been evolving in a distinctive Chinese way. Initially, the Shanghai Five were focused on fighting terrorism – months before the US war of terror (italics mine) metastasized from Afghanistan to Iraq and beyond.
Over the years, the initial “three no’s” – no alliance, no confrontation, no targeting any third party – ended up equipping a fast, hybrid vehicle whose ‘four wheels’ are ‘politics, security, economy, and humanities,’ complete with a Global Development Initiative, all of which contrast sharply with the priorities of a hegemonic, confrontational west.
Arguably the biggest takeaway of this week’s Samarkand summit is that Chinese President Xi Jinping presented China and Russia, together, as “responsible global powers” bent on securing the emergence of multipolarity, and refusing the arbitrary “order” imposed by the United States and its unipolar worldview.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pronounced Xi’s bilateral conversation with President Vladimir Putin as “excellent.” Xi Jinping, previous to their meeting, and addressing Putin directly, had already stressed the common Russia-China objectives:
“In the face of the colossal changes of our time on a global scale, unprecedented in history, we are ready with our Russian colleagues to set an example of a responsible world power and play a leading role in order to put such a rapidly changing world on the trajectory of sustainable and positive development.”
Later, in the preamble to the heads of state meeting, Xi went straight to the point: it is important to “prevent attempts by external forces to organize ‘color revolutions’ in the SCO countries.” Well, Europe wouldn’t be able to tell, because it has been color-revolutionized non-stop since 1945.
Putin, for his part, sent a message that will be ringing all across the Global South: “Fundamental transformations have been outlined in world politics and economics, and they are irreversible.” (italics mine)
Iran: it’s showtime
Iran was the guest star of the Samarkand show, officially embraced as the 9th member of the SCO. President Ebrahim Raisi, significantly, stressed before meeting Putin that “Iran does not recognize sanctions against Russia.” Their strategic partnership will be enhanced. On the business front, a hefty delegation comprising leaders of 80 large Russian companies will be visiting Tehran next week.
The increasing Russia-China-Iran interpolation – the three top drivers of Eurasia integration – scares the hell out of the usual suspects, who may be starting to grasp how the SCO represents, in the long run, a serious challenge to their geoeconomic game. So, as every grain of sand in every Heartland desert is already aware, the geopolitical pressure against the trio will increase exponentially.
And then there was the mega-crucial Samarkand trilateral: Russia-China-Mongolia. There were no official leaks, but this trio arguably discussed the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline – the interconnector to be built across Mongolia; and Mongolia’s enhanced role in a crucial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) connectivity corridor, now that China is not using the Trans-Siberian route for exports to Europe because of sanctions.
Putin briefed Xi on all aspects of Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine, and arguably answered some really tough questions, many of them circulating wildly on the Chinese web for months now.
Which brings us to Putin’s presser at the end of the summit – with virtually all questions predictably revolving around the military theater in Ukraine.
The key takeaway from the Russian president: “There are no changes on the SMO plan. The main tasks are being implemented.” On peace prospects, it is Ukraine that “is not ready to talk to Russia.” And overall, “it is regrettable that the west had the idea to use Ukraine to try to collapse Russia.”
On the fertilizer soap opera, Putin remarked, “food supply, energy supply, they (the west) created these problems, and now are trying to resolve them at the expense of someone else” – meaning the poorest nations. “European countries are former colonial powers and they still have this paradigm of colonial philosophy. The time has come to change their behavior, to become more civilized.”
On his meeting with Xi Jinping: “It was just a regular meeting, it’s been quite some time we haven’t had a meeting face to face.” They talked about how to “expand trade turnover” and circumvent the “trade wars caused by our so-called partners,” with “expansion of settlements in national currencies not progressing as fast as we want.”
Strenghtening multipolarity
Putin’s bilateral with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not have been more cordial – on a “very special friendship” register – with Modi calling for serious solutions to the food and fuel crises, actually addressing the west. Meanwhile, the State Bank of India will be opening special rupee accounts to handle Russia-related trade.
This is Xi’s first foreign trip since the Covid pandemic. He could do it because he’s totally confident of being awarded a third term during the Communist Party Congress next month in Beijing. Xi now controls and/or has allies placed in at least 90 percent of the Politburo.
The other serious reason was to recharge the appeal of BRI in close connection to the SCO. China’s ambitious BRI project was officially launched by Xi in Astana (now Nur-Sultan) nine years ago. It will remain the overarching Chinese foreign policy concept for decades ahead.
BRI’s emphasis on trade and connectivity ties in with the SCO’s evolving multilateral cooperation mechanisms, congregating nations focusing on economic development independent from the hazy, hegemonic “rules-based order.” Even India under Modi is having second thoughts about relying on western blocs, where New Delhi is at best a neo-colonized “partner.”
So Xi and Putin, in Samarkand, for all practical purposes delineated a road map for strengthening multipolarity – as stressed by the final Samarkand declaration signed by all SCO members.
The Kazakh puzzle
There will be bumps on the road aplenty. It’s no accident that Xi started his trip in Kazakhstan – China’s mega-strategic western rear, sharing a very long border with Xinjiang. The tri-border at the dry port of Khorgos – for lorries, buses and trains, separately – is quite something, an absolutely key BRI node.
The administration of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Nur-Sultan (soon to be re-named Astana again) is quite tricky, swinging between eastern and western political orientations, and infiltrated by Americans as much as during the era of predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s first post-USSR president.
Earlier this month, for instance, Nur-Sultan, in partnership with Ankara and British Petroleum (BP) – which virtually rules Azerbaijan – agreed to increase the volume of oil on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to up to 4 million tons a month by the end of this year. Chevron and ExxonMobil, very active in Kazakhstan, are part of the deal.
The avowed agenda of the usual suspects is to “ultimately disconnect the economies of Central Asian countries from the Russian economy.” As Kazakhstan is a member not only of the Russian-led Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), but also the BRI, it is fair to assume that Xi – as well as Putin – discussed some pretty serious issues with Tokayev, told him to grasp which way the wind is blowing, and advised him to keep the internal political situation under control (see the aborted coup in January, when Tokayev was de facto saved by the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization [CSTO]).
There’s no question Central Asia, historically known as a “box of gems” at the center of the Heartland, striding the Ancient Silk Roads and blessed with immense natural wealth – fossil fuels, rare earth metals, fertile agrarian lands – will be used by the usual suspects as a Pandora’s box, releasing all manner of toxic tricks against legitimate Eurasian integration.
That’s in sharp contrast with West Asia, where Iran in the SCO will turbo-charge its key role of crossroads connectivity between Eurasia and Africa, in connection with the BRI and the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).
So it’s no wonder that the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, all in West Asia, do recognize which way the wind is blowing. The three Persian Gulf states received official SCO ‘partner status’ in Samarkand, alongside the Maldives and Myanmar.
A cohesion of goals
Samarkand also gave an extra impulse to integration along the Russian-conceptualized Greater Eurasia Partnership – which includes the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – and that, just two weeks after the game-changing Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) held in Vladivostok, on Russia’s strategic Pacific coast.
Moscow’s priority at the EAEU is to implement a union-state with Belarus (which looks bound to become a new SCO member before 2024), side-by-side with closer integration with the BRI. Serbia, Singapore and Iran have trade agreements with the EAEU too.
The Greater Eurasian Partnership was proposed by Putin in 2015 – and it’s getting sharper as the EAEU commission, led by Sergey Glazyev, actively designs a new financial system, based on gold and natural resources and counter-acting the Bretton Woods system. Once the new framework is ready to be tested, the key disseminator is likely to be the SCO.
So here we see in play the full cohesion of goals – and the interaction mechanisms – deployed by the Greater Eurasia Partnership, BRI, EAEU, SCO, BRICS+ and the INSTC. It’s a titanic struggle to unite all these organizations and take into account the geoeconomic priorities of each member and associate partner, but that’s exactly what’s happening, at breakneck speed.
In this connectivity feast, practical imperatives range from fighting local bottlenecks to setting up complex multi-party corridors – from the Caucasus to Central Asia, from Iran to India, everything discussed in multiple roundtables.
Successes are already notable: from Russia and Iran introducing direct settlements in rubles and rials, to Russia and China increasing their trade in rubles and yuan to 20 percent – and counting. An Eastern Commodity Exchange may be soon established in Vladivostok to facilitate trade in futures and derivatives with the Asia-Pacific.
China is the undisputed primary creditor/investor in infrastructure across Central Asia. Beijing’s priorities may be importing gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and oil from Kazakhstan, but connectivity is not far behind.
The $5 billion construction of the 600 km-long Pakistan-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan (Pakafuz) railway will deliver cargo from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean in only three days instead of 30. And that railway will be linked to Kazakhstan and the already in progress 4,380 km-long Chinese-built railway from Lanzhou to Tashkent, a BRI project.
Nur-Sultan is also interested in a Turkmenistan-Iran-Türkiye railway, which would connect its port of Aktau on the Caspian Sea with the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.
Türkiye, meanwhile, still a SCO observer and constantly hedging its bets, slowly but surely is trying to strategically advance its own Pax Turcica, from technological development to defense cooperation, all that under a sort of politico-economic-security package. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did discuss it in Samarkand with Putin, as the latter later announced that 25 percent of Russian gas bought by Ankara will be paid in rubles.
Welcome to Great Game 2.0
Russia, even more than China, knows that the usual suspects are going for broke. In 2022 alone, there was a failed coup in Kazakhstan in January; troubles in Badakhshan, in Tajikistan, in May; troubles in Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan in June; the non-stop border clashes between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (both presidents, in Samarkand, at least agreed on a ceasefire and to remove troops from their borders).
And then there is recently-liberated Afghanistan – with no less than 11 provinces crisscrossed by ISIS-Khorasan and its Tajik and Uzbek associates. Thousands of would-be Heartland jihadis have made the trip to Idlib in Syria and then back to Afghanistan – ‘encouraged’ by the usual suspects, who will use every trick under the sun to harass and ‘isolate’ Russia from Central Asia.
So Russia and China should be ready to be involved in a sort of immensely complex, rolling Great Game 2.0 on steroids, with the US/NATO fighting united Eurasia and Turkiye in the middle.
On a brighter note, Samarkand proved that at least consensus exists among all the players at different institutional organizations that: technological sovereignty will determine sovereignty; and that regionalization – in this case Eurasian – is bound to replace US-ruled globalization.
These players also understand that the Mackinder and Spykman era is coming to a close – when Eurasia was ‘contained’ in a semi-disassembled shape so western maritime powers could exercise total domination, contrary to the national interests of Global South actors.
It’s now a completely different ball game. As much as the Greater Eurasia Partnership is fully supported by China, both favor the interconnection of BRI and EAEU projects, while the SCO shapes a common environment.
Yes, this is an Eurasian civilizational project for the 21st century and beyond. Under the aegis of the ‘Spirit of Samarkand.’
“refusing the arbitrary “order” imposed by the United States and its unipolar worldview”
This is an interesting opinion piece in Newsweek:
Nearly 90 Percent of the World Isn’t Following Us on Ukraine
“…the West is rapidly losing the rest [of the world] and thus undermining the very rules-based international order it has sought to create.”
https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-90-percent-world-isnt-following-us-ukraine-opinion-1743061
Perhaps the most telling thing is that it is being published in a MSM (read: CIA) magazine. That means that there is someone high up in the Ministry of Truth who is letting it be known that the idiots running our foreign policy are shooting us all in the head (as if we didn’t notice).
The longer the Ukraine conflict drags on the worse it’s going to get for Europe, especially. We’ll have to see what a crushing winter without heat brings in terms of political upheaval. Scott Ritter thinks that this might possibly sweep out the current crop of Euro politicians who are presently gung ho for arming and sending money to Ukraine and cutting off Russian energy supplies.
Time will tell.
Thanks for that Topcat
Have to say I am really shocked that got published in the MSM. WE all know that 85% of the world wants to move away from the Unipolar neo-colonial and exploitive economic model currently in place. To have a CIA mouthpiece admit it is quite frankly shocking.
And if God decides to cure the Global Warming crowd of its madness this winter, it will be even more fitting.
Pepe, thank you as ever for your masterful analysis. It occurs to me that the main danger is that Central Asia might still choose to align with the West. Arguing against this are their residual close ethnic, linguistic, cultural and economic ties with the USSR (for example, 7% of Central Asia is still Russian), and now also the People’s Republic of China. The correlation of forces would seem to indicate their participation in a loose eastern alliance. Nevertheless, the focus of western diplomacy cannot be underestimated. Set against this is the demonstrable professionalism of the Russian diplomatic corps, who have proven themselves adept at marshalling latent resentment of western hegemony to forge a global consensus, encompassing countries as diverse as Brazil and Pakistan. However, the index of their success will be the extent to which Russia succeeds in the Ukraine; and this now depends on a certain degree of determination- ruthlessness- that Moscow has yet to demonstrate.
Not so sure defeating Ukraine is the purpose behind the SMO. More about defeating the EU and NATO and that requires a slow steadily increasing grind and not a flash in the pan.
So true, since 1999 in fact, when Putin took up the reins (and knowing what we do of VVP sometime before putting the right pieces/cogs in place).
2 decades of kowtowing and meticulous planning shall not be undone by an ailing west.
@ Percy
I concur with your thought’s
I think Putin’s plan is to have the winter and the policies of the Nazi leader’s provoke a European mass revolt
and this way he can avoid an Nuclear War with Europe and especially the Ksa they both will have problems
dealing with their own Population’s all of 850,000,000 .
That will keep them busy !! < for added problems China should sell of their one trillion US Bonds holding's
This winter at the peak of all the protest and mayhem.
TOM
That doesn’t take into account the capacity of many of the populations of the EU for total stupidity as they sit there freezing.
What is the Climate Change agenda really but keeping Russia, Iran, and other countries with oil resources in check, including the MAGA US?
If hydrocarbons are restricted only the wealthy high tech powers will have access to affordable energy, all others will be stunted, including the annoying middle class of the West.
It’s actually quite ingenious.
The climate change agenda is about reassuring Western countries that they are right about global warming (which is not the case). As a result, the West, dependent on uncertain green energy, will be easier to overcome. It will be easier for them to give an ultimatum, either war or warmth in their homes.
The phenological data of the seasons from several dozen years ago do not show an increase in temperature. For the past two years, you can rather observe that it is getting colder.
It is impossible to provide the current population in the West with a normal standard of living by using only green energy. For Europe, green energy means cold, hunger and industrial decline.
@Janek…I don’t trust ecofascists either. I don’t want ecofascism either.
I wonder though. Look, you can’t be here on Earth right now and not notice 1. The climate is changing 2. That human activity is leading to ecological collapse and environmental destruction.
Where are you getting your figures?
I know that a system needs redundancy to transition to better forms of industry – types of processes that are less destructive. (ie we need to utilize what we have, like fossil fuels to ensure an energy transition, not just go cold turkey).
I agree the way green energy has been developed is bound to fail. It’s been very much influenced by lobbies that have no interest in seeing green technology succeed.
Until recently all of us in Europe looked admiringly to Germany that has made huge leaps forward in implementing solar and wind energy through community led cooperation. But this turns out to be yet more feel good projects, perhaps only meeting a small level of demand. Not offering any real alternative to Germanys industrial energy needs.
But I think we can have a discussion about ecofacism without having to erase the environmental crisis that has emerged due to the way we exploit the Earth. Call it what you will…
Green energy suffers from the same problem as perpetual motion machines: you have to hide the energy input in order to make them “work” and fool people into buying them. “Green energy” is nothing but the latest get-rich-quick-and-hurry-off-to-the-Bahamas scheme. The shame is taxpayers are footing much of the bill.
Sideshow Bob: renewables are now (in most latitudes at least) cheaper than fossil fuels, AND deliver more net energy:
https://bylinetimes.com/2022/08/31/solar-and-wind-power-now-deliver-more-than-double-the-energy-produced-by-oil-new-study-finds/
Brilliant summary again, Pepe. Thankyou so much.
Some appreciative color commentary, thanks to Pepe TG etc.:
One of the zaniest and out-of-this-world geopolitical family photos! Easily rivals the famous boot on the brass Russian breakfast between Obama and Putin way back when. (Was that boot the Chef used Marshal Zhukov’s?) Tractor Farmer Lukashenko and VVP were grinning like innocent Cherubim in the midst of the Sultan’s Turanic Court too.. We see the Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev, prim as a freshly-groomed Peacock — was the Armenenian Pashinyan glowering on the other side, tweeting and updating Little Blinkie on DeathStar Galactica? We need a panoramic. This will go down in the Books, if we all survive the Spiteful Saxons, nemeses of Mirziyoyev’s “Samarkand Spirit.”
How many XXL- (and XS-sized) diapers were unable to keep up with absorption capacity in Whitehall?? And dentists recieving streams of patients for loss of molar surfaces? Crazy in Oceania! 🤣😂😁👍🏼
Even the Kyrgyz and Tajik leaders were seen snacking sheepishly side-by-side on Turkish Delight and Baklava. All of us have a weakness for Turkish delicacies — they boost sugar essential for the brain.. My favorite Dictator-for-Life, the Tajik Emomali Rahmon sat snug and Buddha-like between VVP and the spread eagled wannabe mini-me sultan Aliyev. (Note a small “s” sultan) Along with the 200-year-old Portuguese President de Sousa, Rahmon taught Trump his manners about pulling the power handshake on people. Long live satanist-tormenting Russians and wily ex-Soviet apparatchiks!
Notes:
▪︎ Re: “China is not using the Trans-Siberian route for exports to Europe because of sanctions.” Could the real reason be the seppuku of Europe leaves it now a Black Hole? Wherefore connectivity to Europe? China anticipated all this and reoriented its economy to internal, Asian and non-western markets.. Quite soon Europe’s crashing economy and currency, and lack of industry, will see the traditional return of Chinese disdain for superfluous Euro goods, except to trade what European elites will buy hand over fist in hard currency..
▪︎ Re: “the State Bank of India will be opening special rupee accounts to handle Russia-related trade..” Good! And we pray the crazies immediately sanction them as currently with Turkish banks. This would help insouciant Indian elites full of nostalgia for the Raj better focus on working towards multipolarity..
▪︎ Re: “The demon-infested capital of Kazakhstan…” Chinese business and political visits may be unsatisfactory motivators. May I remind again of the utility of Russian nutcrackers? Or energetic Exorcists, readily available throughout the Steppes or among Shoigu’s Tuvans.
And buy European real estate, companies, and everything for pennies on the microdollar. Is this good for “israel”?
For me the most relevant news of the past week was the SCO conference. Putin was in attendance and Armenia’s head was not, because of that country’s conflict. Methinks it’s unsettling for the army of PR propagandists that it’s “business as usual.” If one needs a pithy quip: “Vengeance is best served cold.”
Reading about all of this makes one yearn to be young again, and free. The amazing, vast opportunities put forward here could change anyone’s boring life into a roadside institution along the Silk Road. A restaurant, a BnB … anything you could think of. Cattle ranch. You name it.
But we are saddled by a western claque of rogue idiots who want us to be poor. Gelatinous yet villainous cretins who want to stop us from any chance at having a decent quality of life. All because they don’t play well with others.
These opportunities being created are meant to be for all of us, everywhere. Us, we have our pResident, our BS democracy, lots of ‘citizens’ have an inbred hostility towards anything but Trailer Camp America and everyone is terrified the adult diapers may run out. They’d rather keep that than join with the rest of the planet, in a spirit of cooperation, and help solve our collective problems, improve our world, our relationships with it and with each other.
What a mind-numbing bunch of elected ‘officials’ and their sycophants and minions. I am happy future generations will get a chance to experience life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we are denied in the US and also their western lapdogs and lackeys in Nato-stan.
Thanks Pepe. It is fun to scent a dream sometimes, even if we know we personally won’t live to see it. The hunter gets trapped by the game.
Don’t worry about being young…just follow your dream. I’m 75 and I left the USA for the sanity of Russia a year ago. Do a restaurant in Samarkand! I was there last February. It’s a beautiful city and the food is great!!
China is not a responsible power. It threatens its neighbours and claims the lands and seas of other countries as its own. There is no difference between the Evil West and Evil China. They are Evil Twins.
Yeah, and Leyton Orient are as big as Arsenal, ffs…
This is why RUS did not respond to the recent losses at Kkov: the diplomatic / economic global front is equally important, if not more important.
The SMO will only end when UKR realizes that they have agency: they have to wake up and take a stand.
TO: Sakabato
To agree to become a vassal state logically entails a concurrent and willful relinquishing of agency. The fault here cannot be placed on the shoulders of the ruled (and thereby disempowered) people.
now that China is not using the Trans-Siberian route for exports to Europe because of sanctions.
What is the issue here, it makes no sense to me? What do illegitimate sanctions have to do with trade between Russia and China directly across their shared border?
They use it, just not to export to Europe because the latter will not allow goods coming from/through Russia.
Strange that Pepe hasn’t been paying attention to the meeting between the new prime minister of Pakistan (who arrived in Samarkand with a big delegation) and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Alexander Mercouris in his latest video was reading aloud the flowery very soothing speech of the Pakistan PM, who very much wants to join the multipolar sovereignty honoring world created by Russia & China. The more curious this event in Samarkand was, because the present PM was expected to be a US vassal.
From the Pakistan example one may learn how easy it is to change sides now in ‘the global south’, because the US has degraded itself to a ghost (analogue to the Ghost of Kiev). So don’t be surprised when Tokayev, the Kazach leader, kicks out BP, Chevron & Exxon from his country. The ghost of the US is still trying to create havoc, but the new reality of Samarkand is dawning.
Propaganda or just plain old misinformation! SBS news published an incident involving President Putin and PM Modi where Modi chastised Putin over Ukraine at the SCO summit. Has Modi turned or is this a staged performance to please the West?
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/not-the-time-indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi-chides-vladimir-putin-over-ukraine-war/yhtul8ddt
What is concerning is that Russia seems to be reluctant, unwilling or unable to confront the western rhetoric.
I am posting this to show how the west is brainwashing its citizens using a subtle but effective form of public control through deception and repetitive unsubstantiated statements.
SBS, ABC they’re pathetic but I suppose a reflection of the country
The EAEU led by Sergei Glazyev, is taking shape. Glazyev explains quite precisely what it is all about :
Russian Economist Sergei Glazyev Praises the Thinking of Lyndon LaRouche, on the Centenary of His Birth
https://larouchepub.com/pr/2022/20220916_glazyev_praises_larouche_on_centenary.html
As Glazyev says, no one is a prophet in his own country.
“Lyndon LaRouche saw the totality of world history through the prism of the struggle between the Good – national interests, the interests of improving the general welfare – and the forces of Evil – the world financial oligarchy, which hinders countries’ development, which strives to extract speculative super-profits from trade and economic cooperation, and which deceives the entire world by inflating speculative bubbles, and abuses its positions of power in the countries where it dominates the political system. We see how today’s U.S. financial oligarchy is unleashing hybrid world war, up to and including the risk of a nuclear catastrophe, for the purpose of holding on to its global hegemony.”
Good must prevail, that evil has no place in the beckoning future.
in relation to LaRouche you might like what is found here in these paragraphs and link:
JEWISH ENGLAND
Steinberg belongs to a group of historians associated with economist Lyndon Larouche. They have traced this scourge to the migration of the Venetian mercantile oligarchy to England more than 300 years ago.
Although the Larouche historians do not say so, it appears that many members of this oligarchy were Jews. Cecil Roth writes: “The trade of Venice was overwhelmingly concentrated in the hands of the Jews, the wealthiest of the mercantile class.” (The History of the Jews in Venice, 1930)
Historian Jeffrey Steinberg could be referring to the West in general when he writes, “England, Scotland, Wales, and, especially, Northern Ireland, are today little more than slave plantations and social engineering laboratories, serving the needs of …the City of London…”
These families constitute a financier oligarchy; they are the power behind the Windsor throne. They view themselves as the heirs to the Venetian oligarchy, which infiltrated and subverted England from the period 1509-1715, and established a new, more virulent, Anglo-Dutch-Swiss strain of the oligarchic system of imperial Babylon, Persia, Rome, and Byzantium….
The City of London dominates the world’s speculative markets. A tightly interlocking group of corporations, involved in raw materials extraction, finance, insurance, transportation, and food production, controls the lion’s share of the world market, and exerts virtual “choke point” control over world industry.”
https://www.henrymakow.com/000447.html
Cheers
The beauty of the present situation is that the evil has left a good trail of its Playbook. There are good and bad apples in every community. It is better to focus on the mechanisms of corruption and control. This way we can prevent any future empires.
To understand a nation, comprehend its monetary and banking history, particularly its Central Bank history. Most revolutions are financial revolutions.
Here are a few questions that will expose the presence of the Private Financial Empire in a nation:
– Why is the first central bank in democracies private?
It is private so that the Private Imperialist Financial Oligarchy (PIFO) can use the private money that it creates, to bribe individuals and lay the foundation for the control of the nation. A private central bank enables it to control who get the banking license and control the kleptocrats and oligarchs. Through them they control the political parties, media and corporations. Voila, now they have the control architect in place.
The Bank of England was private, when founded in 1694. It was private all through the era of the British Empire. It was nationalized in 1946. The First Bank of the United States (1791-1811) was private. Who were its owners?
Any nation with a private central bank in the last four centuries is a suzerainty of the Private Financial Empire. Some nations like Russia are working towards gaining sovereignty. It doesn’t matter if the central bank has been nationalized later or become autonomous, like the Fed. Bank of Japan is private and listed on the stock market. The central bank of South Africa is private.
– Who creates majority of the money in the nation (U$A, UK & EU) at the present time? Private Banks.
In the U$A, majority (95+%) of money $ is created by private banks and is private money. In the UK, it 97+% of money creation by private banks. The Financial sector enables the Private Financial Empire to maintain its control and dominance. The UK plays the arbitrage of regulations, is lenient, let the financial bubble to expand. The U$A has better regulations, to work around it the American financial sector and the Empire created the Eurodollar market. The Euro$ market enables the Empire to control $, £, and €, and is bigger than the internal dollar market.
– Who has been driving the stratagem of the creation of private central banks, democracies/republics, private money, privatization, financialization,… all over the world?
If most democracies have an identical fractal then it is obvious to ask the question, who has been driving this stratagem.
– Central-Private Banking System have enabled major wars and creation of an Empire.
Most big wars have happened after a creation of a major private central bank. In 1609, a central bank was created in Netherlands. The Thirty year war happened in Europe after this creation. Also, the civil war in the UK happened following this development. The French Revolution happened after the First Bank of the United States was founded. The WWI happened after the Fed was created in 1913. The WWII happened after the founding of BIS.
The attached paper exposes the propaganda about wars , which are mainly financial revolutions.
“By 1713, Britain had fought twenty years of wars against Louis XIV, and built a substantial fiscal-military state that had overtaken Amsterdam as the center of European finance and commerce –- all made possible largely by William’s financial innovations. Britain’s enhanced military capability no longer served merely defensive purposes but now would be used to support strategic foreign and imperial policies designed to weaken rival commercial empires. Central to this fiscal-military state was the foundation of “credit” or a national debt, which served as both a safe haven investment for consumers and an instrument of increased government spending. Also critical in this era was the development of a more mature financial sector from the humble goldsmith-bankers. Credit provided for government spending to increase threefold in the decade and a half of William III’s reign to fight wars abroad, and the steady interest that the Bank of England’s bonds provided formed the basis of a financial sector. This financial sector was not only important economically, but also socially because they saw themselves a distinct socioeconomic group.” Yes, this paper isn’t perfect but shows how the game was played.
With these facts, one can expose the facade of democracies, free markets, capitalism,… Any politician or government administrator, and anyone that doesn’t expose this reality, is an accompli in the crimes of this Empire.
https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=hum_sci_history_research
I think you are absolutely right that current events give us a valuable new opportunity to analyse how democratic systems falter and then turn, once again, into tyrannies, and what you are pointing out is a vitally important part of that. How never to let this happen again, though, is another matter. I think fooling the masses and building up a kleptocracy, along with allowing oneself to be fooled, are such an intrinsic part of human nature that we will never be immune to these forces. They are driven by biological imperatives. The best a rational, non-pathological person can do is recognize the symptoms of pathocracy, the stages of the disease, and seek as much distance as possible, because engaging with it never helps. You see how the formerly humanitarian left in the West has become such a caricature of itself, and just as toxic as the upper echelon of the business-oriented conservatives, who themselves once had liberating ideas.
The first lesson of Ponerology 101 should be “Today’s ponerology will be tomorrow’s paramoralisms,” a handy cover for clever power-seekers and a tool for suppressing challengers. Watch the Western left and right yell at each other about who the new Hitler is. Both sides bring up what happened in Germany as a way to attempt to knock some sense into the dumb-asses on the other side, whom they see as complicit. This could be called “The theory of universal Hitlerhood” (I think John Michael Greer was the one who coined this), because it is possible to pick out a few notable traits of that very human man and find similarities to just about anyone living on the planet. When I pointed out to one relative that Putin had substantially helped my friends in Russia, who had suffered terrible deprivations after the Soviet collapse, he told me that this was exactly what Hitler had done in Germany and that populism was thus very dangerous. Another example is people talking about someone or other being psychopathic based on media reports and superficial knowledge of the phenomenon. Any test that could be devised to detect psychopathy could also be tweaked to have a go at one’s challengers. Also I think that the rise of psychopaths to power is not the cause but merely a symptom of the disease, and that what is at the center is a group of very normal people who find psychopathy a useful trait, as such folks are at ease with doing all the dirty work that these people deem essential for very compelling reasons.
Andrej Lobaczewski undertook heroic efforts to study and inform the world of the mechanisms of pathocracies. Reportedly, he was broken-hearted upon learning shortly before his death that the US along with all of its allies, in whom he’d put so much faith (along with the Vatican–he was that naive) was showing unmistakable signs of becoming the next bloodied victim.
Given the limits imposed by biology, some people put their hopes in transhumanism. Assuming that is even possible, I think we would discover the natural hysteroidal cycle (4th turning) to have been much gentler (machines require non-renewable resources).
BTW, the end stage of the hysteroidal cycle is when the pathocracy becomes so top heavy with boot-lickers and greedy cronies that it becomes completely blind to its own weaknesses. Typically, a stronger, healthier enemy shows up and whomps the tar out of them. Too early to tell in the present case, but we shall see. No enemy showed up in the Soviet Union’s case, so they just sort of split open like an overripe watermelon. I think it’s getting to that point in the US and Europe. Russia is best off playing for time.
Patricia, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Appreciate it!
A question opens the mind, a statement closes the mind. Richard Feynman encouraged asking questions to unravel our world’s mysteries. It is unfortunate that people don’t question many things and ask good questions.
“Look and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.”
– Sophocles
Power corrupts. The Private Financial Empire started around 17th century and has been capturing and enslaving nations. However, its end has arrived. All things have a beginning, a middle and an end. It served its purpose. Its history will be told one day.
China, Russia, America,… all nations need to work towards their sovereignty and create sovereign money to serve their people and build a good infrastructure and society. Everyone will have economic security.
Our challenge is not only to end this empire and imperialism, but also end humanity’s enslavement. Hopefully, humanity will learn from this experience and be empowered with knowledge, so it won’t repeat the mistakes. All the pillars of power will be dismantled and it won’t rise again. It could have been taken down in 2010 but it would have re-emerged again. Not now. We’re living through an epoch in the history of humanity!
@ Pepe
Obrigado, Pepe, as always.
Special thanks for the expansive elaboration on what you aptly call “releasing all manner of toxic tricks against legitimate Eurasian integration,” about which I commented heavily in your previous article. The Greater Eurasia Partnership is a complex and delicate woven tapestry, like a giant Iranian carpet. The challenge to the domination of the empire is total, a stake aimed at the empire’s heart, the dollar.
The integration of Iran into what would be a quadrangulation with China/Russia/India is a punch to the solar plexus of the US/NATO/Israel designs on Iran. Israel’s Lapid released a toxic (that word again) video this week, after the demise of the JCPOA Israel worked so hard to kill, announcing the US green-lighted their plans to bomb Iran. Israel has been rehearsing the bombing of Iran, practicing aerial refueling with tanker planes provided by the US.
Israelis can have all the training, the tankers, and the bombing of Iran’s rehearsals, regardless, they don’t have the element of surprise anymore needed to get there in secrecy. Russia’s over-the-horizon radars in Syria cover the region, Iran won’t be blind to an attack from Israel and/or the US. Plus, Iran is now under the umbrella of the SCO, whatever that means for practical purposes.
The complexity of the Samarkand carpet was made even more poignant by the conflict Tajikistan/Kyrgystan, whose heads of state were present at the SCO meeting, same with those of Armenia and Azerbaijan, plus Kazakhstan announcement their CSTO withdrawal. The “toxic tricks” are becoming a land mined territory, with Russia and China playing the role of firefighters, while they themselves struggle with conflicts at their borders.
Thanks again for all the information you send our way.
Amazingly, you foresaw what’s happening decades ago, it is now unfolding before your eyes.
Lone Wolf
Forgot to add to the complexity, Iran is moving 45,000 men and military hardware to the border with Armenia/Azerbaijan, confirmed. There is an unconfirmed rumor Turkey is also moving its military to the border with Armenia, at the same time Erdogan announced Turkey wants to join the SCO.
Turkey and Iran have very good relations, and their trade is skyrocketing.
SCO would have to deal with all these fires, real and potential, plus the “toxic tricks” fires, if it wants to have a possibility of succeeding as a viable multipolar platform.
Lone Wolf
Where do international digital systems fit into these tectonic changes? Will the internet be Balkanized into regional ‘nets? Doesn’t the Empire of Chaos, destruction and murder hold a dominant position in international digital systems?
“Multipolar World”
I do not think the average reader understands how inflammatory the concept of “Multipolar” is.
The Club of Rome, who originally decided that besides an immense drop in population, world “Sustainability” demanded a single-polar government, preferably run by sophisticated elitists now requires a reset – and destruction of Constitutions demanding sovereignty.
The current Great Reset, with Davos as the driving force, and the graduates of the W.E.F. Young Professionals graduates as soldiers, depends on getting rid of Russia. One can presume that China, with a bastardized Communism, is not a worry. It should be (to them). The Chinese Century is at hand.
@ Enginner01
lol, You of all people will no doubt remember these words:
When asked if the UN hoped to end all wars, international lawyer Ambassador J. Reuben Clark Jr. said:
“There seems no reason to doubt that such real approval as the Charter has among the people is based upon the belief that if the Charter is put into effect, wars will end…The Charter will not certainly end war. The Charter provides for force to bring peace, but such use of force is itself war… The Charter does take from us the power to declare war and to choose the side on which one must fight.”
On August 10, 1962, Herbert Hoover said,
“I urged the ratification of the United Nations by the Senate, but now we must realize the United Nations has failed to give us a remote hope of lasting peace. Instead it adds to the dangers of wars, that now surround us.”
and here a history lesson about why a unipolar world hasn’t come into fruition as envisioned by the Club of Rome:
“On August23, 1970, U Thant addressed the Fourteenth World congress of World Association of World Federalists in Ottawa, Canada, and said:
A world under law is realistic and obtainable. The ultimate crisis before the UN is the crisis of authority.
The convention conducted by the lawyers and judges of the world was a solemn sight indeed. there were 263 judges from every continent, Africans in red robes, sitting by Indians and Pakistanis, and Israelis, and 5 justices from the US Supreme Court. Even a copy of the Magna Carta was on hand. And banners across the platform read “Pax Orbis ex Jure,” meaning “World Peace by World Law.”
There were 119 countries represented. the main decision was to recommend that the UN Charter be amended to provide compulsory jurisdiction for individuals, as well as nations. Joseph Clark called for,
an executive with substantially greater powers than those now exercised by the Secretary-General of the UN. A judiciary system modeled after the world court. Decisions enforced by a world police force, under the command of a world executive.
Would man be willing to resign such power to the United Nations, knowing it was under communistic domination? For many the answer was yes. One person said,
If the price of avoiding all out thermal nuclear wars should prove to be acquiescence in the communistic domination of the world, it seems probable the such a price would be paid.
And if the question was asked “why?” perhaps the answer would be best expressed by Adlai Stevenson, who in a speech to the United Nations corresponsdence Association said,
Interpret us… as puzzled yet aspiring men, struggling on the possible brink of Armageddon.
Why would men who are members of a strong and free democracy vote in favor of a world organization which would include the explosive characteristics of South America, the turbulence of the Middle East, the tyranny of Russia, and the violence of Asia? One speaker answered the question by saying sadly,
No it is not desirable: but we have no alternative. there is no other way out.
taken from Dr. Cantelon book the Day the Dollar Dies 1973 Logos
Crisis of Authority?
Yes and imagine this from a Senior Canadian Statesman Paul Hellyer talking about the arrival of such a person / savior. Watch and listen 10:34 mark of this video https://youtu.be/dL4NbokoVtY
An alien? I guess I should quote the words of Julian Huxley who had served as Director of UNESCO:
“While a faint trace of God still broods over the world like the smile of a Cheshire cat, science and knowledge will soon rub that trace away.”
Welcome to an alien instead? lol
So do you remember all of this engineer01?
And the beautiful simile of a Qom carpet bringing Iran in their midst.
@ Aurelia on September 17, 2022 · at 12:56 pm EST/EDT
And the beautiful simile of a Qom carpet bringing Iran in their midst.
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Well, Aurelia, it seems you were not the only one who liked the simile, Pepe liked it too.
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https://t.me/rocknrollgeopolitics/4773
/samarkand-spirit-to-be-driven-by-responsible-powers-russia-and-china/
Borrowing from one of my readers, the progression of the SCO, the Samarkand Spirit and the work of responsible powers Russia and China is like weaving a giant silk Qom carpet.
It takes time, patience, skill – and vision.
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Lone Wolf
« Putin … answered tough questions … circulating wildly on Chinese web for months »
WTF ???
Can I be informed of other than opinions ?
What are those questions ?
As always, Pepe, your articles are so informative. Thanks to the Saker to host you here. You’re definitely a strong light in a very long dark tunnel.
I learned a lot from your excellent articles and have a much better appreciation on what true journalism is about.
Most of the subjects that you cover find no one to cover them in the “Collective West”.
Thanks to Saker to post so many talents in this blog, including his own talent.
‘That’s in sharp contrast with West Asia, where Iran in the SCO will turbo-charge its key role of crossroads connectivity between Eurasia and Africa, in connection with the BRI and the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).’
I’m not totally convinced that there is a ‘natural crossroads’ in Iran between Eurasia and Africa.
Of course, Iran may be the best crossroads available right now for the SCO, since places like Saudi Arabia have been in bed with the USA ever since the oil economy dominated that part of the world.
But one does have to ask whether either Pakistan or India would be a more natural cross-roads for Eurasian-African linkages by sea??