[This analysis was written for the Unz Review]
So, finally, the suspense is over. Kind of. The US Treasury has finally released the list of Russian entities and individuals which could (conditional!) be sanctioned by the US Treasury in compliance with the H.R.3364 – Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. These two short excerpt from the report show why I say “could”:
and
Now let’s translate all this in plain English: the US took a copy of the Kremlin telephone book, then a copy of Forbes and created a new list combining both. Then the US proclaimed that these entities and individuals are not under any sanctions yet, but are candidates for such sanctions.
Does that make *any* sense to you *at all*?!
Well, if it does, stop reading and enjoy your unique gifts. If it does not, then don’t feel bad as this makes no sense whatsoever for anybody in Russia either. Oh how I wish modern technologies would make it possible for me to post here all the recent interviews, articles, talk-shows and public statements made in Russia for the past 24 hours! To say that the Russians are baffled is, really, an understatement.
Two things are noteworthy: first, this list completely ignores one of the most important realities of Russian politics: that the real, dangerous, opposition to Putin is not from the people (who support him at anywhere between 60% to 80%+) or from the Russian media (which, while often critical, does not represent a real threat to him) or even the Duma (whose opposition parties are critical of the Kremlin, but who are very careful about criticizing Putin himself lest they lose support from the people) . For years now I have been explaining that the real opposition to Putin is a) inside the ruling elites, including the Presidential Administration and the Government and b) big money: banks, oligarchs, etc. I call this (informal) opposition the “Atlantic Integrationists” because what these pro-western globalists want is for the AngloZionist Empire to accept Russia as an equal partner and to have Russia fully integrate the US-controlled international financial and security structures: WTO, NATO, EU, G7/8, etc. Very roughly speaking you could think of them as the “Medvedev people” (but you could also say that the Ministers in charge of the Russian economy all fall into this category, as do almost all the heads of Russian banks). I call the (informal) group supporting Putin the “Eurasian Sovereignists“. These are the folks who see the future of Russia in the South, East and even North, who want to pull Russia out of the AngloZionist international financial and security structures and who want a truly sovereign Russia to contribute to a new truly multi-polar world in collaboration with countries like China or the other BRICS countries. Very roughly you could call these people the “Putin people” (but you could also say that figures such as Ivanov, Rogozin, Shoigu and a few others are key personalities).
This is important because the this list of (potentially sanctioned) people makes absolutely no distinctions between these two groups. Check out this article on RT entitled “Major Russian bank will no longer service defense industry over US sanctions fears“. It quotes the Alfa Bank CEO Mikhail Fridman whose net worth is estimated at $16.2 billion by Forbes, as saying that the magazine that Alfa-Bank was cutting ties with the Russia’s defense industry, adding, “What can we do?”. Now look at the list, Appendix II, entry #23. Do you see who is there? Yup, the very same Mikhail Fridman!
Now let me add this: in the current political climate in Russia, to have bank accounts in the West is considered shameful and unpatriotic and that is something which even most dishonest and hypocritical Eurasian Sovereignists can hardly afford for political reasons (that does not mean that some don’t try, they do, but at a great political risk). In contrast, among Atlantic Integrationists, whose power and influence does not depend on public opinion, having assets abroad is much less dangerous and, therefore, much more common.
Now that the US Treasury has released this “list of marked individuals” (and their families, relatives or associated corporate entities) for potential, unspecified, future sanction, who do you think will freak out most, the Eurasian Sovereignists or the Atlantic Integrationists? Then look a step further and forget about the US for a second: Russia is trying hard to work with the Europeans in many join projects. What do you think the creation of such a list will have on joint ventures between EU and Russian businessmen? I predict two things:
- It will place a great deal of pressure on EU corporations not to do business with the Russians and, therefore, it will further place the EU and the US on a collision course.
- It will hurt the Atlantic Integrationists where it hurts them the most: in their financial interests.
Frankly, if I was paid to think long and hard about how to come up with the dumbest and most self-defeating foreign policy decision for the USA I could never do better than what the Trump Administration and Congress have just done. This is, by the way, something which all Russian analysts agree with. What they don’t agree with are the reasons for that seemingly completely and terminally stupid move. Here are the various schools of thought in Russia on that account:
Group One: “the slap in the face of Russia”:
They believe that the sole intention was to insult and humiliate Russia by basically declaring that all the top Russian people are gangsters. According to them, there ain’t much the US can do to Russia other than to continue a petty war of insults and harassment (like the expulsion of Russian diplomats and the seizure of Russian consular buildings in the USA).
Group Two: “it’s all internal US politics”:
That groups says that this has nothing to do with Russia at all. According to them, the US economy is doing well under Trump, the Democrats have nothing to use against him so all they do is continue to hammer the “Russian threat” fairytale to which Trump responds with deliberately ineffective and totally symbolic actions which make it look like he is anti-Russian when in reality he is quietly sabotaging the Democrats’ attempts at truly worsening relations with Russia and preventing the Democrats from playing the “Russian threat” card against Trump.
Group Three: “Трамп Наш” (Тrump is ours):
No, nobody in Russia seriously believes that Trump is a Russian agent or is somehow “owned” by Russia, but they say that as a joke, always laughing. But what they do mean is that deep down Trump is a friend of Russia and is actually helping Russia and Putin. How? By taking all sorts of measures which only hurt the USA while very powerfully helping Russia (for example, by forcing Russian oligarchs to bring their foreign assets back to Russia). Some even go as far as saying that this list is most damaging to the people opposed to Putin and that it gives him a pretext to fire them all after the Presidential elections in Russia. Far from considering Trump a bumbling idiot, this group sees him as a consummate politician who is actually creating the circumstances to really hurt his (real) enemies and help his (real) friends.
Group Four: “Наших бьют!” (Our people are under attack!):
This is the group which doesn’t care at all why the US is doing this or that, no matter how clumsy. All they care about is that this is yet another attack on “our people” (meaning Russian individuals or corporate entities) and that means that Russians should “circle the wagons” and come to the rescue of those thus attacked. This group most vociferously demands retaliatory steps from the Kremlin. They are a vocal minority.
Group Five: “Филькина Грамота” (Botched document produced by clueless idiots [very approximate translation!])
This is the group which basically says that it is all much more simple and no complex explanations are needed: the Trump Administration and Congress is composed of clueless idiots who have no idea what the hell they are doing and who just like to produce some policy decisions just to look like they still matter in world where they really don’t. Putin himself seems to be in this last group as he officially called this latest US document “complete stupidity“.
Frankly, in my experience the decision making process in the USA is almost never the result of the efforts of single actor. In fact, US political decisions are the “sum vector” of the effect of many different vectors acting together to produce a sum vector which sometimes looks nonsensical but which is still the logical result from the joint effect of all the vectors which determined it. In other words, all the explanations above could be right, albeit to various degrees. This being said, I strongly favor the last one as, like Putin, I have come to the conclusion that the Empire is run by stupid, ignorant ideologues who live in a world totally detached from reality.
What is absolutely certain is that this latest move by the USA is, again, a dream come true for Putin and his supporters, especially right before the elections.
First and foremost, this is clearly an attack on “our guy” and even on “all of us” and this triggers a very strong reaction of support from the people. Furthermore, it separates all Russians into basically two camps: first, Putin supporters and, second, those who are so totally sold out to the USA (like Ksenia Sobchak) that they would even hand back Crimea just in order to be friends with the West. The first group must roughly include, oh, let’s say 95%-98% of the population, the 2nd one about 2%-5%.
Second, it is now clear that every Russian oligarch (along with his family members and colleagues) has a big bullseye painted on his back and that he now should hurry to place his assets in the only location were the Empire cannot seize them: inside Russia.
Third, a lot of those oligarchs and civil servants who more or less actively opposed Putin and his policies now need to come back to him and, with hat in hand and with a groveling tone, need to make amends and beg for his pardon and mercy. They placed their bets on the AngloZionists and they lost. Now they need to come back to papa and beg for clemency (they will probably get it too). This right before the elections is very helpful indeed even if nobody doubts the outcome of these election to begin with.
To sum it all up: the latest move is a true blessing for Putin and Russia in both economic and political terms and the only ones really hurt by all this are the Atlantic Integrationists (who are really going through some very bad times anyway).
The paradox: US sanctions – a blessing in disguise?
Let’s think about what the USA has been doing over the past couple of years. Officially, the USA has been trying to “isolate” Russia. But isolate from exactly what? From Peru? Or maybe from cultural exchanges with Morocco? Hardly. When the USA says that it wants to isolate Russia it means cut Russia off from the western markets (trade), the western financial system (credit) and the western political elites (fora). These sanctions were supposed to hurt Russia precisely because Russia was, at least in part, dependent on trade with the EU, credits from western financial institution and her participation in G8 (now G7) type of events. Putin predicted that it would take 2 years for Russia to recover from these sanctions (and the concomitant drop in energy prices) and he was right: Russia not only created new trade ties, but also finally began investing in her internal market, she found credits elsewhere (China) and in terms of fora, it really turned out that the G7 without Russia was more or less like the Council of Europe or, for that matter, the UN Security Council: useless. Instead, world leaders began booking flight and visiting Moscow. Now the latest US sanctions are putting an immense amount of pressure on Russian oligarchs to bring their money back home. It sure looks to me that US sanctions made it possible for Putin to do something he might never have been able to do without them: to seriously begin reforming Russia (which badly needed such reforms). Remember, Eurasian Sovereignists are just that – sovereignists; whereas Atlantic Integrationists are just that – integrationists. By “cutting off Russia from the West” – whose agenda did the USA really hurt, the integrationists or the sovereignists? Could it be that Putin owes his immense popularity, and Russia her success, at least in part to US sanctions?
The fundamental theory of deterrence holds that “deterrence is in the eye of the beholder”. In other words, I cannot assume that what would deter me would also deter you. In order to deter you I need to understand what your goals and values are. I submit that when the US elites decided to sanction Russia (putatively to deter her from further resisting the Empire) they made a fundamentally wrong assumption: that Russia was ruled by Atlantic Integrationist types who would be horrified and deterred. Instead, these sanctions ended being a blessing for the Eurasian Sovereignists who used these sanctions to paralyze the Atlantic Integrationists, to push through much needed reforms and basically eliminate the pro-Western opposition. In so many ways Russia is still a mess and a struggling country, but thanks to US sanctions none of that will have any impact at all on the next Presidential elections in Russia and the Eurasian Sovereignists are more powerful than ever before. Thank you, Uncle Shmuel!
Possible Russian reactions:
Whatever the reasons for all this nonsense, this does beg some kind of reaction from Russia and I think that judging by all the similar situation in the recent past, the Russian reaction is fairly easy to predict.
First, there will be no grandiose gesture or loud hyperbolic statements out of the Kremlin. Putin jokingly deplored that his own name was not on the list, Peskov said that this was a hostile act, a few Russian Duma members canceled planned trip to the USA and Russian commentators expressed various degrees of dismay and disgust. But, all in all, this is very, very little. As usual, this will be completely misunderstood in the West where the culture is roughly “if your enemy slaps you in your face, you have to immediately slap him back lest you look weak“. In most of Asia (and the Middle-East, by the way), the norm is totally different: “if your enemy slaps you in the face you step back and plan how to bring him down in the long run because what matters is not the short-lived posturing, which can be even dangerous and counter-productive, but playing the long run and winning“. You could say that in the West the attention span and long-term planning is counted in days or weeks, while in Asia and the Middle-East it is counted in years and decades. So while there might not be anything particularly photogenic or quote-worthy coming out of the Kremlin, a few Russians did drop hints of what the Russian policy will be: “good luck to the Americans trying get anything major done on the planet without our support“. And just to make that point clear to those who can connect the dots, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, speaking on the Russian TV channel Rossiya One, declared that the Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, recently traveled to the USA and met with some high level US personalities (including, according to US sources, CIA Director Mike Pompeo). As Newsweek wrote, Naryshkin would be “the Russian spy chief behind 2016 election hacking campaign” which various nutcases even called an act of war. He is on the very top of all these sanctions list, but there he is, traveling inside the USA and meeting with top US officials. Why did Antonov leak this? Simply to show that for all the huffing and puffing and hyperbolic grandstanding from the USA, the reality is that the USA and Russia are still very much working together because they really cannot afford not doing so (as I write these words I got a link to a WaPo article now saying that Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and even Colonel-General Korobov, the head of the Main Directorate of the General Stuff (GU GSh), the military intelligence service (ex-GRU) also took part in this trip to the USA.)
So that is the real Russian message to the USA: you need us a heck of a lot more than we need you because you need to work with us or else you won’t get anything done, we are still willing to work with you, but if you go crazy then your global interests will suffer much more than our ours; for all your hot air, you have been working with us all along and if you go overboard with the nonsense we will first reveal the extend of our collaboration and, if that is not enough to cool you down, we will terminate it.
There is no doubt in my mind that for most inhabitants of the AngloZionist Empire the notion of the almighty USA needing the struggling (and economically comparatively small) Russia more than Russia needs the USA is laughable. These folks would say something like that: “what is the Russian share of the gross world product, how many aircraft carriers does Russia have and what is the Russian weight in international financial institutions? And how is your vodka-soaked Ruble doing anyway, buddy?!” The Russians wouldn’t reply much of anything, most would just smile in contempt and think something along the lines of “when is the last time you got anything successfully done, you dumb pompous ass“. That’s fundamentally fine since this message is really not destined to ideological drones but to those in power in the USA who are aware of the real scorecard of Uncle Sam and who realize that right now it is the Empire, not Russia, which is almost completely paralyzed, and isolated (oh irony!) on all levels.
Conclusion one: the Empire’s main export is hot air
Many of my friends and readers send me various articles with all sorts of quotes by US officials and I have a really hard time explaining to them that they should stop listening to this endless bombastic verbiage. Not only because the vast majority of officials making these statements are both stupid and ignorant, but because the main export of the AngloZionist Empire nowadays is hot air. We saw that recently with the grand statements about Kurdistan or, for that matter, the plans “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” about Syria: all delivered with the same final gravitas. This is counter-intuitive, I will admit that. After all, when the President of the nuclear superpower, a three star general or any other senior official takes the floor to make an official statement, we automatically tend to assume that what they say matters, especially if they are surrounded by flags and many exited reporters. But it really doesn’t. Especially not when the “other guy” (the Russians and the Chinese) come from a culture which frowns upon loudmouthed histrionics: “make my day, punk” is just not an (Eur-)Asian way of delivering threats.
I don’t mean to suggest that we should ignore the Empire, most definitely not, but we should look at what the Empire actually does and more or less ignore it’s constantly running narcissistic commentary. When the Empire promises to do something right, it usually lies. When it promises to do something wrong, these are usually empty threats. So what’s the point of paying so much attention to these promises?
Conclusion two: learning optimism and caution from history
If we look at world history we can always see the same phenomenon taking place: when things go well, the elites are united, but as soon as things go south, the elites turn on each other. The reason for this is quite simple: elites are never as united as they pretend to be. In reality Empires, and any big country, really, are run by a coalition of elites who all benefit from the established order. They can hate each other, sometimes even kill each other (SA vs SS, Trotskyists vs Stalinists, etc.), but they will work together just like crime families do in the mob. But when a real, profound, crisis becomes undeniably apparent, these ruling elites typically turn on each other and when that happens, nobody is really in charge until, eventually, the entire system comes tumbling down or a new main ruler/group emerges. Right now the AngloZionists elites are locked into a huge struggle which is likely to last for the foreseeable future. However, we need to be aware that such a situation can also be used by a previously less visible party to make a move and seize power. That is exactly how Putin came to power, pushed by the Russian security services even while Eltsin was still the nominal head of state. This also fully applies to the Ukraine which is also run by a group of people whose main current contribution to the world scene is hot air. But that could change very, very fast. This is why while I recommend more or less ignoring the hot air coming out of the top US (or Ukie) officials, I would keep an attentive eye on the level right below them, especially the US (or Ukie) military. Finally, we should never confuse the inability to get anything done with the inability to make things worse: the latter does not flow from the former. Nazi Germany was basically defeated in Stalingrad (Feb 1943) but that did not prevent it from murdering millions more people for another two and a half years before two Soviet soldiers placed the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag. We are still far away from such a “Reichstag flag” moment, but we sure are witnessing the AngloZionist “Stalingrad” taking place before our eyes.
The Saker
Must be a reason why Putin is not on the list. It appears to be a deliberate omission. Could it be to throw suspicion on Putin that he is colluding with Trump therefore is not targeted, that he is protected? It could also be to try and put Putin in a position where the Atlantic Integrationists and Eurasian Sovereignists become suspicious of Putin and gang up on him, become distrustful of Putin and need explanations, to explain himself.
May also explain the reason Putin is going as an Independent which allows him to choose his cabinet without having to remain loyal to a Party and abide by there directives.
By the way, a very good article, food for thought.
I’ve never seen any evidence that Putin is anything other than a civil servant?
Certainly not a billionaire.
Despite claims of $200 billion fortunes, Putin has responded:
“But Putin has consistently denied sitting on a massive fortune, claiming in April 2015 to have an income of just £95,000 made up of his Presidential salary and his ownership of two apartments and a car park.”
Accusing Putin of “corruption” just doesn’t cut it.
He personally is probably worth more than that, he is clearly the most powerful man on the planet, but i suspect most pundits could not conceive of someone achieving that without taking personal advantage of it.
Russia is not the USA or Germany. Putin has so much power that he literally does not *need* money. Neither did Stalin, or Nicholas II or Alexander III for that matter. There must be some X amount of money they all nominally possessed, but in Russia having money always puts you at the mercy of power whereas powers puts you infinitely above money. Put differently, and not to be interpreted literally, but you could say that a strong Russian leader “owns” ALL OF RUSSIA. At that point – why in the world would he need any money at all?
All this talk about money comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of Russia and the examples of *very weak* Russian leaders like, say, Khrushchev, Gorbachev or Eltsin and even they, really, never had that much money either, not as much as oligarchs anyway.
Cheers,
The Saker
Israel Shamir, a keen observer of the American-Russian relationship, and celebrated American journalist Robert Parry both think that one man deserves much of the credit for the new Cold War and that man is William Browder, a hedge fund operator who made his fortune in the corrupt 1990s world of Russian commodities trading.
Zero Hedge
Aristotle had come to that determination on power a long while ago when he wrote something to the effect, “men desire power over all else.”
Bingo, Saker! I agree with this analysis a thousand percent. Putin is not concerned with money. From what I see he is concerned for the future well being of his country. All the money in the world cannot guarantee that. A complete opposite compared with leaders here in the US. They have depleted all stability for our future generations.
Russia is similar to the Singapore model anyway. Putin is the CEO of CEO’s. And he should be worth billions.
Paulv
In what way could Putin possibly be worth billions ? Can you please elaborate your statement. Some evidence perhaps.
I don’t know. Why should he be poor ? Why wouldn’t he have some wealth set aside for his family ? Board of directors, salary plus options on some of the Russian majors like Gazprom. Stuff like that.
Nobody knows what Lee Kuan Yew’s net worth is either. But why shouldn’t he be rich ?
david
The Western media has for years been trying to vilify Putin, writing all sorts of nonsense. That claim that Putin has 200 billion dollars is an old disinformation claim, which even Western reporters have admitted is just that, disinformation; apparently Putin “embezzled” 200 billion dollars, putting it into a Swiss bank, of all places. Had he done that, it would have made front page news in a matter of days, as the Swiss would have provided all the paper work. A few years ago Putin was absent from public life for about a week. The Western media immediately went into a frenzy of speculation, with an English tabloid claiming that he went to Switzerland to see “his baby”, which apparently he had with a Russian celebrity. That piece of “news” was in circulation for about a few days, after which it stopped. I am still waiting to see a photo of the baby, which does not exist. The Western elites will do anything to vilify Putin, no matter how absurd. .
Just photoshop Putin’s head onto a baby’s body, that’s all the proof most of my countrymen will need (sadly).
The Empire has taken up The Doctrine of Asymmetric Self-Infliction or geopolitical masochism.
“If we The Empire can induce a cold within ourselves, it will be enough to spark pneumonia in Russia.”
The trouble is a pathogenic ethos takes hold. Mankind deserves better than a climate of disease. Nor is it a closed ward as Russia can bolt to the fresh air of Eurasia.
I have a hypothesis that might help explain the atrophy of long term planning and thoughtful diplomacy in the West: It’s a spillover from short-termist corporate/investment outlooks. The thing is, for investors the short term outlook can work. If you invest in a company, milk it for short-term returns so in the medium term it sinks, it doesn’t matter as long as you have insider knowledge and sell to some chump before it gets too obvious. You’ve made a return which you can invest in the next prey to pick the bones of. Similar things apply to fiddling with exotic speculative financial instruments with no attachment to real-world wealth creation, as long as you hop to the next thing you can pile up short-term gain after short-term gain. It’s a game you can keep going until the world economy collapses. Overall, with the institutions we have short-termist investment can outperform the kind of investment that actually builds useful things (this is one of the major problems with the institutions we have).
There are a LOT of rich and powerful “Western” people who think that way nowadays, investing and getting results for this quarter (even this millisecond for stock market trading), taking a quick profit over and over. That’s their hammer. And diplomacy looks like a nail. But it isn’t one–a “quick profit” from heavy-handed quick fixes does NOT give you something bigger to invest elsewhere, to the contrary it creates problems which will come back to haunt you in the future and which you cannot just “move on” from. Diplomacy calls for a very different mindset from the short-termist corporate outlook (and for that matter from the military mindset, or at least the bloody-minded American military mindset), but Western politics mostly just has short-termist corporate thinkers to draw from.
A lot of smart here but it really lacks factoring GDP numbers before making wishful thinking like Russia needs USA more than the opposite.
In term of economy Russia is dwarfed by… France. Just France alone. THIS is a big item in the mind of Russian leadership. Getting the national money pool to grow is a key matter and money has to come from other sources. China has a big pool but a lot of Chinese are living on it. The big fat income source is still, by far, from the west. Which probably explain why everyone involved with money in Ru is indeed an Atlantic integrationnist. No need to be a traitor. Just basic common sense.
I think the best way to compare economic strength is by GDP corrected for purchasing power. Here you will see that the Russian economy is at the size of Germany;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
Further it should be noted that GDP only measures what is being bought and sold and not what is being done due to the kindness of the heart. The west saw an increase in GDP when drug dealing and prostitution were included in GDP.
.
Does it mean you consider “drug dealing and prostitution” being ” done due to the kindness of the heart” ?
No, it means quite the opposite, that when “love” is turned into a business transaction it increases GDP.
I think the logic is, that prostitution and some sorts of drug dealing are legal in some countries and consequently you have to make adjustments to the size of the economy of countries where it is illegal as the activity exist everywhere. However nowhere is consensual love making between adults included in GDP.
And, a lot of very destructive and even pointless activities boost GDP.
Tearing down a house and building another on the same site boost GDP—both of these operations—but obviously, all the value that existed in the house—the labor to build it, the materials, etc.—is gone, poof. No one counted value after the building was constructed.
There are lots of examples of basically destructive activities being counted to boost GDP.
Meanwhile, a lot activities that boost the actual value of life in a community, or on earth, are not coiunted in GDP.’
I think that was Sven’s point. That GDP is pretty misleading about a lot of things.
Katherine
Yes, they add a completely arbitrary number for drugs and prostitution, which is ridiculous.
At first glance it would appear that the US economy is is a whopping 14 x bigger than that of Russia. (GDP of USA is 18 trillion.GDP of Russia is 1.28 trillion).
However, US GDP is 70% consumer spending fuelled by credit. This leaves only 30% of GDP that represents the true, wealth-generating economy. For Russia consumer spending is far lower at 50%. In order to compare the true wealth generating part for both economies, let’s remove consumer spending: USA GDP approx. 5.4 trillion and Russia GDP approx. 0.65 trillion. The difference is now only 7-8 x bigger for USA.
USA state debt is 125% of GDP and Russia’s is only 12%.. US trade deficit is 500 Billion (2016), Russia has a trade surplus of 100 Billion..
I would say the trajectory of the US economy actually looks worse than that of Russia..
Serbian girl
You forgot to mention the US foreign and domestic debt. The 20 trillion dollars which is mentioned is only foreign debt, money owed to foreign banks and governments. Even analysts are not sure what the domestic debt really is, and its many times bigger than the foreign debt. Russia has virtually payed off its foreign debt.
About two years ago estimations went from 44 trillion to over 60 trillion.
Yes its just infuriating that even people who visit blogs like this, still believe the utter nonsense about the size of Russia’s GDP.
Its lèse-majesté in my opinion, to go around, under-stating a nations GDP by over half.
The biggest business in the west is pharmaceutics and healthcare. Mind you that this part of the economy produces nothing than loss for the general economy. It’s like throwing in your own windows, than producing new glass, and repair the windows once more. Lots of money going around, raising the GDP, but really nothing created and no progress.
This is pure f’ing garbage Redford. You cannot count a non dollar economy nominally. When you do, you only get dollar value of exports. France, Germany and Japan have Federal reserve primary dealer banks. They are dollar economies.
Russia does not. So GDP by PPP is the proper way of measuring its GDP. Russia comes in at number 6. The 6th biggest economy in the world. Set to surpass Germany in the next couple years.
Russia has the 6th most foreign exchange reserves in the world. How in Gods earth could the 12th biggest economy have the 6th most reserves ? That should tell you something about the validity of GDP by PPP (#6)
Yes you are right! Russia’s GDP PPP is much higher.. ( US stays the same) So when comparing consumer spending, debt, trade etc. Russia’s number look even better than what I wtote above. Thanks for your comment !
911 Trillions — Follow the Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3xgjxJwedA
Among other snippets, Rothschild arms co Carlyle has contacts with Bin Laden family as well as the Bush crime dynasty. After the successful rape of Iraq with transfer of Iraqi assets to Rothschild companies, UK criminals BLiar and Brown were made directors of Carlyle. BLiar was also given a job with Goldman-Sachs, and a directorship in House of Rothschild.
“Love of money is the root of many evils” — Old Testament
“Make my day punk” is not a Eur – [Asian] way of making threats.
Well, I have no idea about Europe [since Eur is the stem of Europe, this must be what this refers to] since I’m not too sure what the culture of France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Greece is these days. I suspect they dont much know themselves. Given that the subject of the article is the American sanctions on Russia, I dont see what Europe has to do with this anyway. Asia, i.e. the Orient made up of Oriental peoples and culture certainly has long held a reputation for inscrutability and patience.
However, I had thought it was Russia we were discussing here – I find it odd she is not mentioned.
So – no, my readings and chats with Russian people would support the contention that Russia as a culture can be summed up in one word – subtle. Russians would find such a response coarse, rude, and the mouthings of weak bully.
Also it’s hard to work out what “Eurasian Sovereignty” means.
President Putin speaks only of Russian sovereignty, since it is Russia which is a sovereign nation. Eurasia is a concept of Russia resisting the West, outlined by the philosopher Dugin. A philosophy cannot have sovereignty, only a nation.
And America and it’s sanctions???
It’s hardly news anymore, is it. The dying insane culture and it’s schizophrenic leadership is behaving more and more insanely. It’s what we expect after all – it’s “news” of the “dog bites man” variety.
Although certainly more insane than we expected. Perhaps the end of the Evil Empire is closer than we once dared to hope.
“Although certainly more insane than we expected. Perhaps the end of the Evil Empire is closer than we once dared to hope.”
flies are biting before die. The problem of watchers of ending the empire is to survive.
Reminds me of the haunting ending of the story depicted by the film The Mission.
@Also it’s hard to work out what “Eurasian Sovereignty” means.
No wonder. Nobody spoke of “Eurasian Sovereignty” but of “Eurasian Sovereignists”. Russians who see the future as a collaboration between the fully sovereign states of the geographical space of Eurasia. And that necessarily includes Europe as well. The ‘Atlantic Integrationists’ are the ones ready to relinquish certain attributes (if not all) of a sovereign state in favor of a super national organism.
An excellent article, as always from The Saker. I would like to add a few points.
Americans traditionally have a tough time understanding foreign countries, their cultures and mentalities. When they introduced the first sanctions against Russia, they were under the impression that Russia would break, causing social and political upheaval, leading to the installment of a pro-Western puppet. It did not happen. The spirit of “Borodino” emerged, when most people rallied around Putin. Worse for the US, Russia turned to it’s infrastructure, building up industry and agriculture and establishing new trade partners. Yes, sanctions did cause some damage. However, it was the EU which by the second half of 2016 lost 100 billion euros in trade with Russia, leading to the logical conclusion that sanctions had the dual purpose of both weakening Russia and the EU and bringing the EU more closely to the US. Not even this happened to any great degree. The second set of sanctions, which also targeted EU firms who were building the Nord Stream – 2 gas pipeline were a nasty shock to Europe, as it turned EU states into Washington’s imperial puppets. European politicians were brought into the absurd position of having to prove to their own populations that they were not Americas puppets. As far as I can see, while the EU officially backs Washington, it is more and more turning to Russia and the European Economic Union and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. A few days ago Germany has officially approved the building of the Nord Stream- 2 gas pipeline.
The advantage which Russians and Chinese have over Americans is their history and culture. It’s older. Both Russians and Chinese have incredible patience, something Americans never did nor ever will have, preferring the winner take all mentality. Both Russia and China made plans, and both are on the rise, something Washington is having a tough time understanding.
Russia has in modern history been divided between “Easterners” and “Westerners”, ie. between those who placed Western culture above Russian and those who placed Russian culture above Western. “Westerners” in Russia do exist, but their numbers are minimal. Both Washington and the EU have concentrated on the “Westerners”, by giving them support through NGO’s. Kseniya Sobchak is the prime example. However, her appearance and performance was more comical than serious, reducing herself to an entertainer. She is proof that NGO’s are having a tough time finding people of quality.
When it comes to Putin, it was not just Russian security services who placed him in power. During Yeltsins reign, when Russia was plundered of some 100 billion dollars a year by Western banks, corporations and domestic oligarchs, it became apparent that it was facing a catastrophy, even dissolution. It was then that “Easterners”, patriotic forces made up of security services, the military, political leaders and academics made their move. The backed Putin. Yeltsin was given an offer: If he resigned, no criminal charges would be brought against him. He wisely resigned, and when he died, Putin went to his funeral, wisely stating that history will render the final judgement on Yeltsin. These were all smart moves.
Finally, I would like to reiterate what analysts have already written. The 18th century was the century of France, the 19th century was the century of Britain, the 20th century was the century of the US and the 21st century will be the century of Russia, backed by China. It’s going that way, and it’s inevitable. Russia’s chief advantage is it’s history and culture, which will enable it to prevail.
Interesting indeed that you mention the EU for their shizofrenic position.
Nord Stream II is a fine example. The Germans may seem to the outside world as nice boy scouts, grown in this role by decades of political correctness and imposed guilt.
This may seem on the outside, thereunder not so much. If you talk to Germans you have to wait until they know and trust you, and then you’ll get to know what they really think. They will do this not so easily in public, but they distrust their government, they know that the MSM is spitting out bullshit with a big coverup of the mess that anyone can see, and they even question the official results of elections.
Germany has a history of many centuries, and an industrial tradition. Just imagine that last year the German machine industry had a downfall of some 30% in orders, due to the precious ‘sanctions’ of angry neocons that failed to steal the Crimea port of Sewastopol. Do they really think that we don’t know?
The German industry has a powerful lobby, and in the background Merkel has to give in or she will be broken. Merkel is struggling to form a new government, in which it is plain to see that everybody is jerking, itching and bowing in any direction to help Lady Pattex for Soros’ sake on her beloved chair again. Her position has grown feeble, and so Nord Stream II will come.
We Germans are practical people, we know that the Ukrainians can’t be trusted and only the Poles are that stupid to buy American LNG for double the price.
It has struck me the last years, that US foreign policy often has just the opposite result as to what it was meant. For centuries it was ‘to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and Germany down’. For many decades the USA and UK were afraid for a cooperation between Russia and Germany (top industry and top raw materials were considered a threat), and Brzezinski warned against cooperation between Russia and China.
Well, where are we now?
I get the impression, that USA foreign policy is based on assumptions that the outside world will react in the same way that Americans would react, and that is not exactly true. As a resulting vector of many vectors, then most vectors have no realistic idea about the world outside the USA (which matches my experience with many, but not all Americans).
And thanks Saker, for -again- an excellent article with food for thought.
Cheers, Rob
“Well, where are we now?” — Indeed, something strange and sinister appears to be re-working the US fundamentals. I just finished a podcast on “Vice” (link below) and its apparent transformation and cynical use of hip memes to subvert the youth and propagate hostility. What I found worrisome was the degree of sophistication being deployed in engineering extreme outcomes using traditional counter-culture symbols.
The question is: is this a local USA phenomena, or is it more wide spread? I hope just the former.
A pocket of neonazi puss in the backwoods of the Ukraine is odious enough, but if this general rot takes hold in the centers of Europe then we are indeed heading back to dark places at a rapid speed. Where are we now? … On a dangerous cusp I’d suggest and with no way for many of knowing how to escape the emerging hostilities and conflicts. Vice? — indeed!
https://soundcloud.com/moderaterebelsradio/vice-media-us-empire-robbie-martin-episode-13
(“Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton are joined by filmmaker Robbie Martin to discuss how VICE has transformed from a nihilistic hipster magazine into an enormous media empire that propagandizes on behalf of the US empire, dutifully promoting hawkish American foreign policy with an edgy aesthetic. We address the hundreds of millions of dollars of investment Vice Media has received from the world’s largest corporate media conglomerates, including 21st Century Fox and Disney, along with the coterie of regime change trolls who have emerged from the Vice universe. We also talk about Alyssa Mastromonaco, a top Obama administration official who became Vice Media’s COO; CEO Shane Smith, who has become an influential billionaire; and co-founder Gavin McInnes, a promoter of far-right white supremacist politics.”)
A Russian-German economic partnership, backed by China, has a been a nightmare of Western bankers for more than a hundred years. Bismarck proposed it, and was removed from power because of it, leading to two unnecessary world wars. US troops are in Germany not because of any potential Russian invasion, but to prevent any Russian-German cooperation. It’s not exactly working. According to analysts, Merkel controls the bankers in Germany, but has lost control of industrialists. When the US introduced sanctions, some 500 German industrialists were in Russia, conducting negotiations. I think it’s only a matter of time before Germany joins the Eurasian Economic Union, after which others will follow.
I’m not so optimistic, B.F.
From Bismarck to Hitler, when has Germany ever chosen the Eurasian side?
In any case, for Germany to exercise it’s own free will and in the name of its own interests, it first has be released from the clutches of the the AZ empire, and by the looks of it, they will never let Germany go.
Serbian girl
As I have written, Bismarck proposed a Russian-German economic partnership, and two world wars were fought to prevent it. Bismarck was, foolishly, removed from power, because of his proposal (he was removed by the Kaiser, who was induced to do so). The famous English geographer Halford Mackinder warned of the importance of Euro-Asia and the dangers to the British empire of a Russian-German alliance. Brzezinski copied Mackinders writings, reproducing them in his book The Grand Chess Board and in the process, foolishly, warning both the Russians and Chinese, that the US will not tolerate the rise of any power which might endanger Washington’s globalist (imperial) policy. The result of that silly book is the current Russian-Chinese partnership, which Germany wants to join, something it should have done when Bismarck was alive. Поздрав.
Merkel controls the bankers?
I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.
Merkel didn’t lose many industrialists. She and the other traitors (of “we the people”) are protecting industry wherever possible. There’s hardly any resistance to the use of Glyphosat. Merkel and the other traitors do everything in their power to protect VW (Dieselgate). Customers who got screwed by VW (including Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat), Mercedes and BMW aren’t permitted to file a class action suit – Secretary of State for Transport rescued German automakers. So, no … the Berlin bunch is as corrupt as it previously had been.
Anonymous
Merkel is under foreign control, controlling domestic German bankers. Both are under control. However, according to analysts, Merkel has lost control of German industrialists, who are in Russia openly negotiating deals and who are not respecting the US imposed sanctions, as they know that they were also introduced against Germany and Europe.
Merkel may have had some control of medium-sized businesses and was able to exert some power over Siemens for a limited period of time. Other than that she doesn’t have control over them. It’s the other way around. Industrialists and banks are telling her how high she should jump. Blackrock (the US investment company) owns stock of many of Germany’s incorporated companies. (Blackrock owns 6,2% of the shares of Bayer, the company that had bought Monsanto: http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=26241). Basically US companies don’t comply with the sanctions imposed by the US government. (Check also this link and the presentation it refers to: http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=41159).
Russia and China do not only have old histories and cultures; they have also been able to sustain, above class distinctions, social cohesion and an acclaimed determination to preserve their national economic and political sovereignty. This does not seem to be true for India, though… Despite its old history and culture, India remains a backward nation (‘underdeveloped’ after the British Empire destruction of its independent economy in the 18th and 19th Centuries and beyond), dutifully serving the interests of the Transnational elite while +90% of the people linger in absolute poverty and ignorance.
We can conclude that it is the specific historical condition – that is, the stages of capitalism-imperialism and of the means to resist it –, allied to the social cohesion and the determination to preserve the nation’s economic and political sovereignty – which are determined by the nation’s history and culture – that matter. For this reason, we can believe that Russia and China will certainly win their final struggle against imperialism!
(Incidentally: I thought this was an excellent article! Thanks.)
Interesting comment re India.
Religion is so important in that country.
Of course, important in all countries, in one way or another.
But still, the Muslim-Hindu split seems to be a wedge/chasm that the couintry cannot get by and that has weakened it terribly.
And now Modi seems to be destroying the last vestiges of India’s long traditions as a spiritual pot-pouris, mosaic, and melting pot.
I am not an expert in this, but my thoughts prompted by the observation that India is an ancient civilization that seems to be losing its way politically, or is not effectively drawing on its history and traditions to forge a strong new identity and national cohesion? Maybe there are simply too many people and too much poverty? Maybe the current fanatical and politicized Hinduism is a “modernizing” stage for India?
Katherine
As far as I know Berezovsky helped getting Putin into the government. Probably he thought that he had found some puppet and didn’t suspect that Putin would serve the people instead of those who had gotten him the position.
Anonymous
Berezovsky never helped place Putin into power. That was done by Russian patriotic forces, the security services, the military, political and academic figures. Yeltsin was give an offer of resigning or facing criminal charges. He wisely resigned.
Which story is true? Several accounts say that Berezovsky played a role, others vehemently deny it.
Berezovsky the kingmaker:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/23/boris-berezovsky-kingmaker-vladimir-putin
Berezovsky never played a role:
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/us-government-documents-prove-putin-was-not-hand-picked-presidency-berezovsky-and-oligarchs
I doubt that Yeltsin suddenly discovered his patriotic feelings and permitted other Russian patriotic forces to help getting Putin into the government. Yes, Yeltsin faced criminal charges, but that doesn’t say anything about the role of Berezovsky.
Staordinary analysis, masterfully concluded.
I point on this sentence: “the Empire’s main export is hot air”.
And often with a tendency to think that mosquito bites are big shots…
I consider one of them the following: in Washington DC they want to rename the portion of Winsconsin Avenue where is the Russian Embassy to Boris Nemtsov.
Sometime, however, it can be very simple to kill the mosquitos.
Ahahah: Boris Nemtsov who?
– Find, in the immense data base of the millions of Russian soldiers (infantry, tank crews, aviators, saylors) died (both during and after WW2) in the fight against the nazis, one with the same name, and dedicate him a plaque, well visible from outside the main entrance of the Embassy, with written:
Boris Nemtsvov
Sergeant, b. 1921- d. 1944 (the rank & dates are just for example)
Fighter for the Freedom of his Country
(Or, better, wait they put their Plaque to tune it to the most similar sentence and words).
And, moreover,
rename the section of the street where the USA Embassy in Moscow is locate as:
“General Robert E. Lee Prospeckt” (both in Cyrillic and English)
and, of course, put a Plaque of him riding a horse with the flag of the CSA and the inscription (both in Cyrillic and English): “Robert E. Lee, General of the Confederate States of America, b. 1807 – d. 1870. Fighter for the Freedom of his Country”.
I am sure that a lot of Americans would rejoice…, also sending a lot of cards to the new address of the US Embassy in Moscow and, it may be, coming to put flowers under the Plaque…
Or “general George A. Custer prospekt”, “genocidal hater of genuine Americans…”.
Haha, now it’s really getting funny! Indeed, there are quite a few names that would be most appropriate for the unfortunate Moscow street hosting the offal:
a) Crimea Remains Annexed Street
b) Assad Still In Power Lane
c) Boris Nemtsov Boo-Hoo Road
d) Ramzan Kadyrov Forever Boulevard
As always, refined amusement in the form of thinly veiled contempt is a sure recipe for success!
@two Soviet soldiers placed the Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag
The story of the hoisting of the Red flag on the Reichstag is quite interesting. Wikipedia has different variants.
Apparently there were three in the official photo:
Meliton Varlamis dze Kantaria (Мелитон Варламович Кантария) – Georgian.
Mikhail Alekseevich Yegorov (Михаил Алексеевич Егоров) – Russian.
Alexei Prokopievich Berest (Олексій Прокопович Берест) – Ukrainian, political officer.
The photo was taken by Yevgeny Anan’evich Khaldei – Jew
But:
“The celebrated image is a re-enactment of an earlier flag-raising of which no photograph was taken, as it happened at 10:40 p.m. on 30 April 1945 while the building was actually still held by German troops. A group of four Soviet soldiers (G. Zagitov, A. Lisimenko, A. Bobrov, and M. Minin) fought their way to the roof, where 23-year-old private Mikhail Minin climbed up on an equestrian statue representing Germany, to fasten an improvised flagpole to its crown. As that occurred at night and under fire, no photo could be taken. The next day German snipers shot down the flag. The surrender of the Reichstag came on 2 May 1945, and only after that did Khaldei scale the building along with the three soldiers which he had picked up randomly on his way. He was carrying with him a large flag sewn from three tablecloths by his uncle for this very purpose. The seams are indeed visible on the picture”.
“Minin was recognized for his feat, but was not rewarded as one would expect: even though the brigade’s commanders requested that all soldiers in Minin’s platoon be awarded the Hero of Soviet Union decoration, they only received a lower-ranking decoration, the Order of the Red Banner. As there were no photos taken when the flag was put on the roof on 10 p.m., other photos were taken afterwards to recreate the event for the camera”.
“On 2 May 1945, Khaldei scaled the now pacified Reichstag to take his picture. He was carrying with him a large flag, sewn from three tablecloths for this very purpose, by his uncle. The official story would later be that two hand-picked soldiers, Meliton Kantaria (Georgian) and Mikhail Yegorov (Russian), raised the Soviet flag over the Reichstag, and the photograph would often be used as depicting the event. Some authors state that for political reasons the subjects of the photograph were changed and the actual man to hoist the flag was Alexei Kovalyov, (also known as Alyosha Kovalyov) a Ukrainian, who was told by the NKVD to keep quiet about it.
However, according to Khaldei himself, when he arrived at the Reichstag, he simply asked the soldiers who happened to be passing by to help with the staging of the photoshoot; there were only four of them, including Khaldei, on the roof: the one who was attaching the flag was 18-year-old Private Alexei Kovalyov from Kiev, the two others were Abdulkhakim Ismailov from Dagestan and Leonid Gorychev (also mentioned as Aleksei Goryachev) from Minsk.The photograph was taken with a Leica III rangefinder camera with a 35mm f3.5 lens”.
“After taking the symbolic photo, Khaldei quickly returned to Moscow. He further edited the image at the request of the editor-in-chief of the Ogonyok, who noticed that Sen. Sgt. Abdulkhakim Ismailov, who is supporting the flag-bearer was wearing two watches, which could imply he had looted one of them. Using a needle, he was able to remove the watch from the right wrist. He also copied the smoke in the background from another picture to make the scene more dramatic”. The unedited copy found its way in publications outside USSR (that’s the one we saw all the time).
The question is why was Minin ‘edited’ out the story? Was it too Russian, evocative of a history (1612) that was ‘rediscovered’ only recently?
Great and important share! Thank you!
The truth is that we live in a world of make-believe.
The legendary Iwo Jima photo was also a second take of an earlier raising of a smaller flag. Same symbolic value, made into one of the most important monuments in Washington, right next to Arlington Cemetery.
Hey, and thank you for another great article. I liked it very much.
Just wanted to ask – in this sentence here: “Instead, these sanctions ended being a blessing for the Eurasian Sovereignists who used these sanctions to paralyze the Atlantic Sovereignists…”
shouldn’t it be “Atlantic Integrationists?”
Thank you very much
yes, it should, and I corrected that
thanks a lot!
The Saker
Group 7 / Hypothesis 7: a desperate intent to blackmail Sicilian threat style, Russian Oligarchs + Atlanicists into overthrowing (or at least trying to) Putin within 6-7 weeks before presidential elections
Group 8 / Hypothesis 8 : Trump is bolstered by the Nunez memo and defies the swamp full frontal with not enforcing those sanctions
-…the head of the Main Directorate of the General Stuff (GU GSh)
obviously a typo, you surely meant ‘Staff’ (I have no intention of nitpicking, as ‘nitpicking is for nitwits’, however, ‘Stuff’ sounds amusing indeed), that is, Supreme Headquarters ?
Other than this small remark, a most interesting article indeed
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2018/01/untying-propornot-look-2017s-biggest-fake-news-story.html
very good article re ukrainian intelligence influences to make up “lists”…………….
Very interesting story and links, there, thanks.
The linked article is very good indeed; well-researched and to the point. Demented Ukronazi propaganda forming the basis of Western slander and disinformation once again just as in Robert Conquest’s fiction about Stalin’s USSR.
Couldn’t resist this little gem in the article where Wikipedia comes a cropper (emphasis added):
“Who are the BBG? According to Wikipedia — ‘The Broadcasting Board of Governors’ is an independent agency of the United States government.”
That’s some “independence” ! About as convincing as saying “Alexis Tsipras is an ‘independent’ bootlicker of the European Union”.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2018/02/pro-ukrainian-internet-bots-soon-on.html?m=1
Ukraine says going to develop cyber attacks in partnership with foreign intelligence agancies…..watch out folks.
They don’t have to develop bots, they already possess some. Soon after the coup in Kiev many forums (especially critical ones) were flooded with pro-Ukrainian comments.
I wish to believe that this is indeed so, Saker, but i fear the following may be the case. This “list” is a signal to the right people that it’s time they made their choice: betray Putin (and Russia) or lose their fortunes. Those are just a few people on the list, the rest are so much ballast. These are the people who have real power, can make things happen, and they know what is required of them in order to preserve their fortunes. They are urged to get rid of Putin, in any way they can come up with, or face the music. An invitation to treason, an ultimatum to surrender the country and save their hides
Good point. The Liberals have their money in the West where it is subject to being held hostage if they don’t act against Putin. This could very well be a warning of what will happen to their purloined riches. The Thief will have his goods stolen by the US.
They are urged to get rid of Putin, in any way they can come up with, or face the music. An invitation to treason, an ultimatum to surrender the country and save their hides
Do the AngloZionists ever keep their word? What if the weak oligarches betray Russia and they lose their fortunes anyway? And risk being charged with treason to boot? What is the Russian penalty for treason?
Again a well argued summary of current events…..
Living in the EU I also observe the following….. (which deepens the sakers strong points of – watch the lower ranks of policy decision makers – and ignore the rants from the upper levels of entrenched suits of unelected, but for variety of reasons do hold office of influence.)
I share with you A summary of where I live in europe plus I observe daily the negative trends cited below….
What is happening on the ground is not what media portray… europe is collapsing slowly…. by following Washington s rants Examples below.
1/ Europe in or out of the EU is represented by mostly elected suits of little intelligence who, as has already been argued, promote freak shows for minorities and ignore the majorities wishes and views …. with loads of childish Russia bashing – which is boring and dangerous ie NATO.
2/ The EU Commission plus other institutions are full of unelected (Exception EU Parliament) but appointed has-beens from 28 nations… These are mostly folk who the electorates voted out of office as they ALL are pass their use by date….. Thus the EU today is managed by a bunch of has-beens. (they werent in the past as bad as this group.) Thus very poor policy is implemented – which is heavily influenced by the most powerful of global corporate lobbyists. So little policy favours EU citizens. The EU has become all about money
3/ The negotiations between Ireland EU and Britain re political economic and social issues plus border issues are managed by morans…. and media get it all so wrong. Debates are subjective ignoring citizens inpute s.
4/ Flooding europe with mostly males 90 + % who have little skills cant speak our array of languages with too many steeped in a sexist culture is seriously problematic. (Solution is for europe to stop participating in the smashing up of the middle east/north africa – militarily, political and economicly.
5/ These migrants cant be easily assimilated for a variety of reasons which are not permitted to be debated in the main stream media. But they are an unaffordable drain on national budgets housing welfare…. Even failed applicants just end up on streets not easily deported. So gangs have formed …. social chaos in areas where this is occurring placing policing under enormous strain….. Poor policy little planning and the future is bleak for all. We are talking millions in 2 years with more on the way. Europe is being invaded and media lie about this…
6/ Solution 1/: Stop participating in Washington s wars …. Stop financially raping their economies….
7/ Under current mis – management by the Commission many EU member states citizens are immensly unhappy with their elected and some nations are publicly debating to leave. Reality for many nations are high unemployment all round and in particular amongst youth.
8/ The Euro will collapse and widely argued …. within 5 years under its current structure.
Europe wide nations are undergoing an identity crisis …… who are we …… Unless major major reforms ocurr the future looks bleak for all people in europe.
Solution 2/:
Russia is our neighbour and we need Russia China and Iran and many others to do business with in order to survive. The world s future is east of where i live and observe.
Washington s war mongering via NATO and its proxies must have no part of our combined global future…. Washington must change its way or implode … slowly as it is doing….
As the Saker writes …. so well …. and so often now ….. Washington is shooting itself in the foot before it gets the gun out of the holster …… but is still capable of bringing down the planet in a nuclear exchange.
Everything washington is doing today is pushing Europe away …. slowly and building Russia China Iran up slowly ….. Plus ….
“rename the section of the street where the USA Embassy in Moscow is locate as:
“General Robert E. Lee Prospeckt” (both in Cyrillic and English)”
If we are heading in this direction (though my guess is that Russians will just shrug their shoulders), I have a few more suggestions:
-Julian Assange Avenue
-Ho Chi Minh Lane
-Hezbollah Boulevard
-Gulf of Tonkin Alley
-Sesame Street
Cheers, Rob
If it doesn’t kill and destroy more than today, this Stalingrad is OK for me.
And at the end Russians always win(I know that, I’m french and we still have pain from 1812) :).
Alas, I’m afraid that it will become more and more awfull before being better.
“…and we still have pain from 1812”
We didn’t invite you. Did we? Same to Germans, Swedish and others.
“And at the end Russians always win”
We have to if it was just an old style war, but in a nuk one, I’m afraid, not many could see who at the end won.
So only alltogether we can win and seems that now it’s right time to begin. As to Russians, we as always will fight up to the end whatevet it’ll be.
What many forget is over half of Napoleon’s army invading Russia was not French, they were either willing allies of France or press ganged in to service one way or another. Less than 20% of them made it back to the starting point of the Nieman River. In Hitler’s armies invading Russia were tens of thousands of volunteers from most countries in Europe. They didn’t fare well, either.
Auslander
Don’t forget the massive armies of Romania, Italy, and Hungary. They finished badly as well. Truly a multinational coalition of the willing!
Stalingrad-capitulation on 2. 2. 1943, 75 years ago saved Europe from the German Empire.
Here is a short astrological background, how it came to that, and a parallel to a recent capitulation
on the same constellation, still waiting for other bunches of demons:
http://astromundanediary.blogspot.de/2018/02/via-stalingrad-from-barbarossa-to.html
Auslander
Napoleon invaded Russia with 500.000 men. Only 1/3 were French, the others being from other European countries. Only 1.000 returned. Hitler invaded Russia with 3 million men. Not all were German. What both Napoleon and Hitler have in common is that both were financed by private bankers, who gave them the money for the invasions, a point historians like to ignore, either by accident or by intent. This says plenty, especially in the context of NATO being close to Russia’s borders. And who controls NATO ? Bankers, who else.
If there’s not other way than war, then destroy / nuke locations of the financial “industry” first. Finally each and every conflict can be traced to the bankers. Since they’re not the ones lying in the trenches, doing the fighting and dying it would be nice and fair to change the rules of engagement.
“Second, it is now clear that every Russian oligarch (along with his family members and colleagues) has a big bullseye painted on his back and that he now should hurry to place his assets in the only location were the Empire cannot seize them: inside Russia.”
Not to ‘dual’ citizens.
Former ticket tout Mikhail Friedman (Alpha Bank) is one.
Israel is the redoubt for Kosher Nostra.
Remember, the Trump White House opposed the passage of this congressional act. He could not veto the act because of the overwhelming votes in favor in the Congress. Trump could have officially veto’d the act, but he’d have quickly have lost the veto over-ride vote that would follow. Thus, he’d take a political hit in the US Deep State media, and for no real advantage as the act would have become law anyways.
Thus, I see two things in this discussion. First, that the US treasury dept didn’t really want to devote much time to enforcing this act. They didn’t see any benefit in devoting a large amount of time and resources to the required report. Thus, the appearence of a rather sloppy report quickly thrown together from a Krelim phone book and a Forbes list.
Secondly, perhaps they realized exactly what The Saker is pointing out here. That this quickly thrown together list would hurt the people who are opposing the Trump agenda within Russia. IE, if Trump feels he’s got a decent personal relationship with Putin, and that at some point they might be able to make the sort of peace/de-escalation deal that Trump has always said that he wanted, then it also makes sense that weakening Putin’s internal enemies would be to Trump’s eventual benefit.
Again, remember the first point. Trump did not support this congressional act, and was forced to sign it into law. That his administration doesn’t seem enthusiastic in enforcing the act, and is finding ways to enforce it such that it doesn’t match the aims of the ‘We-want-nuclear-war-and-we-want-it now” crowd isn’t surprising.
Well, I don’t consider this so mysterious. It is plainly a threat (or an attempted threat) to high-rank and deep-pocket Putin supporters, a threat to hit them where it may hurt. And for the minority on the list who already opposed Putin, you could view it as an extra incentive to intensify their opposition.
PC Roberts talks about it in more detail:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/02/01/kremlin-list-bullet-aimed-putins-heart/
On January 30, I explained four of the main reasons for the list. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/01/30/washington-reaches-new-heights-insanity-kremlin-report/
Here are two more important reasons for the list:
1) The list is an implicit threat against the business interests of Russian oligarchs, and they understand that. Reports are that many lobbied Washington to get off the list. By suggesting that Washington could curtail the oligarchs’ travel to the West, seize their Western-based assets, and prevent Americans and Europeans from doing business with their companies, Washington is telling them to remove their support from President Putin. Washington intends to use the Western-funded NGOs and media in Russia to interfere in the upcoming Russian elections. Washington does not want Putin to have the smashing victory that is expected. It is difficult to make a monster out of a person who has higher public support than any American president in history.
2) The list is an intended insult to Russia and to President Putin. As a result of Putin’s low-key response to past provocations, Washington anticipated, correctly, no response from Putin to Washington’s insult to the entire political and economic leadership of Russia. The unanswered insult thus becomes Washington’s way of displaying its hegemony over Putin and Russia.
The lack of a meaningful Russian response will encourage more insults and actual sanctions against Putin’s supporters, which will cause some of them to separate from Putin in order to protect their own economic and career interests. In the past Washington has used sanctions in efforts to deprive leaders of public support. With the Kremlin list, Washington has changed its tactics and is targeting the reputations and economic interests of the leadership class. The list is Washington’s attempt to deprive Putin of the support of the top echelon of government and business leaders..
Pelosi & Waters .. clueless idiots? They may be on to something :)
Senile old hags would be another way to look at it.
A Member of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy of Russia, Major-General of the Federal Security Service, Alexander Mikhailov, has made a sharp statement in relation to the new anti-Russian sanctions planned by the United States (“The Kremlin List”)
“The latest sanctions list indicates that they have run out of arguments against us.
After this, we have an impasse. The sanctioning of top political leaders is borderline to a break in diplomatic relations.
Our relations with the IOC, the Baltics and even Eurovision etc have become so ridiculous, that we have nothing left to lose.
It’s time to bring the Donbass home.” Mikhailov stated.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2018/02/fsb-reacts-to-kremlin-list-by-calling.html
Saker
If you look at an ameba underneath a microscope you will see that there is a logic to it’s action even though it has no intelligence.
When the US was economically preeminent than it gain influence around the world simply by allowing access to it’s markets, and did so quit deliberately as a strategy during the Cold War. This is the starting point of our current global system. But over time the US became depleted, both of natural resources (especially energy) and in terms productive capacity. (factory-closings) Most Americans became big losers while a tiny financial elite and a few government insiders became big gainers. This contradiction reached an inflection point in 2007, precisely speaking, with the insolvency of Lehman Brothers and the breaking of the buck on the money markets.
Since then the global system has survived through accounting fraud and the use of military force. But what is really needed is more energy sources. Russia’s. But instead of a few oligarchs depositing all the proceeds properly into Western banks like the Saudis, that son-of-a-bitch Putin set up state companies that are actually paying taxes. Outrageous! This is authoritarianism at it’s worst and must be stopped. And the Russian people are defending themselves somehow by voting for him.
So Saker, if you want to understand the actions of the Empire, peer closely at a starving ameba. The show will be just as brainless but much more sad.
Very intriguing. “If we look at world history we can always see the same phenomenon taking place: when things go well, the elites are united, but as soon as things go south, the elites turn on each other. The reason for this is quite simple: elites are never as united as they pretend to be.”
How are things “going south” for the elites? The billionaires I know seem to be doing quite well, indeed. Do you mean the AngloZionist quest for a global Empire is failing?
Beautiful essay with much truth in it; but there is one very real possibility not mentioned in all the analysis and predictions: the dying dinosaur of Empire may violently lash it’s nuclear armed tail, and knock all the carefully placed pieces off the world chessboard, in the process of destroying said world. How do we prevent that? Prayer?
Dogs are barking and Caravan is moving on
tanto
Link to “the memo” just published
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/read-the-gop-memo/2746/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_memolink-1219pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
“Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.”
Despite the fact that we’re dealing with totally rotten, reactionary garbage here, I have to say that there is something subtle and genuinely beautiful about these lofty names. They resemble the ancient Chinese and their renowned sense of harmony — think “Square of Heavenly Peace” , “Garden of Humble Servants” , etc.
Wouldn’t be the slightest surprised to hear about something like “Crimean Liberation and NATO’s Commitment to Democracy in the Ukraine Act”. Seems to be a demented, ideological hobby among the Zionazis. Quite impressive achievements, LOL.
Dear Saker.
It cannot be over-stated how utterly unhelpful China has been to Russia and the multi polar project over the years and how much China actually keeps the Anglozionist empire on the tracks.
China is the worlds biggest legitimate creditor to the US. We have to draw the line somewhere. Being the biggest sucker for US treasury trash is simply unacceptable. And it is totally unnecessary. Russia grew its economy more in real terms from 2000-2008 than China, with minuscule trade with the US. The US isn’t even China’s biggest trade partner. The EU is.
And China is the worlds biggest creditor. Period. China is on the clock as the worlds biggest creditor just like Britain and the US were in times past. Its time for them to make a move and QUIT mamby pambying it.
The main point of the article is that “Russian” Chinese” plan decades ahead. Especially the Chinese, they plan 100 years ahead and have a “one party” state that makes it possible.
Every minute, hour, day week counts towards decoupling. They will extract themselves from the house of cards with minim loss.
Their deposits allow creation of credit (USD – reserve curcency) in US which recycles back into Chinese economy. Foolish to wind this up overnight and then have to deal with huge unemployment back home, rather milk the system dry , or for every cent to buy “gold” to back its own currency, which will slowly rise and become unassailable. Patience!
I am English, in England, and I am not surprised, that you don’t know what is going on in the USA.
I am Male, I normally give my accolades to The Best Journalists irrespective of Nationaily, Creed, Race, Religion or Colour (though of course like everyone else – I am biased) or what they look like. Now I have to try to be politically correct (and no I do not fancy The Saker)
The Trump Memo won’t make the slightest difference. The Americans are too brainwashed to understand it.
I don’t like to intrude on your Russian space – but you seem quite sensible compared to the Americans…
Just goes to show that the Female Journalists Have Got More Balls Than The Men
To Investigate and Write The Truth
Eva Bartlett (Canadian)
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2018/01/20/a-personal-reply-to-the-fact-challenged-smears-of-terrorist-whitewashing-channel-4-snopes-and-la-presse/
Vanessa Beeley (English)
http://21stcenturywire.com/2018/02/01/white-helmets-channel-4-bbc-guardian-architects-war/
Caitlin Johnstone (Australian)
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone
I’m in Awe
Three Girls VS The Rest
The Girls win 3-0
No serious male competition.
Tony
MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. The US Treasury Department cautioned that extension of sanctions against the Russian sovereign debt and Russian derivative securities may lead to adverse consequences not merely for the Russian but also for the global financial market and for US investors. Such statement is made in the report sent by the US Treasury to the US Congress, Bloomberg reports on Friday.
READ ALSO
Kremlin: US sanctions unpredictability forces Moscow to ‘be constantly on guard’
“Given the size of Russia’s economy, its interconnectedness and prevalence in global asset markets, and the likely over-compliance by global firms to U.S. sanctions, the magnitude and scope of consequences from expanding sanctions to sovereign debt and derivatives is uncertain and the effects could be borne by both the Russian Federation and U.S. investors and businesses,” the report says.
According to the report, “introduction of sanctions against the Russian debt “could hinder the competitiveness of large US asset managers and potentially have negative spillover effects into global financial markets and businesses.”
The reports also says that the extension of US sanctions without support of the European Union and other US partners may undermine unity on the issue of sanctions against Russia.
“Expanding US sanctions to include dealings in new Russian sovereign debt without corresponding measures by the EU and other US partners could undermine efforts to maintain unity on Russia sanctions,” the document says.
A potential future ban on purchase of Russian sovereign debt securities within the framework of US sanctions may cause certain volatility on the market but the effect will be of short term, chief of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said earlier.
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More:
http://tass.com/economy/988310
Does this mean they are thinking of doing this?????
Which sanctions?
Russian LNG is being delivered to Boston.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/26/russia-gas-sanctions-american-homes-312866
https://www.rt.com/business/417237-russian-lng-tanker-gas-arrived-us/
Comedia del’arte or circus? Really don’t know..
“This is the group which basically says that it is all much more simple and no complex explanations are needed: the Trump Administration and Congress is composed of clueless idiots who have no idea what the hell they are doing and who just like to produce some policy decisions just to look like they still matter in world where they really don’t.”
That seems plausible. Looking back, the American political class hasn’t changed much in 100 years’ time, forever stuck in their false consciousness and dogma about the world. What brings their utter incompetence and stupidity out in the open especially with regard to contemporary Russia is that, unlike the USSR, Russia isn’t promoting ideology very much. It was easier to win hearts and minds attacking the Enemy State’s ideology, especially when you could “make a statement” by being generous with other peoples’ natural resources and labour output. The American political class is blinded by its own ideology/hubris and really doesn’t seem to care about what works and what does not. The rot speaks for itself.
He hath placed his tents twixt the holy mountain and the sea and he will go up without allies against the king of the north and will be destroyed.
Re: “Well, if it does, stop reading and enjoy your unique gifts.” LOL!
I also love “Uncle Shmuel.”
Saker has a good sense of humor. Thanks!
Many assert that the FBI was against Trump. That the security services colluded with the Obama administration to stymie Trump’s prospects in the election.
Why then did Comey shaft Hillary two weeks out from polling day with his reopening of the email and server case.? Did Comey calculate Hillary needed a public rewash and certification to close out doubts about her trustworthiness in the voter’s mind in the last few moments prior to election day.? Did Comey attempt instead to firewall any post election revision of the FBI and Justice Department cover up of her crimes.? Was Comey attempting both of the above but actually ended up shafting her as an unforeseen consequence of otherwise sincere set of efforts to heal a bruise made by the FBI on Hillary with its handling of these matters when they first came to light.? Was Comey’s hit on Hillary what Hillary’s team asked for.? Did they agree to resurface the issue to deal with it in public so it could be dismissed with authoritive voices resounding it voter’s ear as pen toucheth the ballot paper.? The Steele Dossier, the actors and actions surrounding it, in some respects is chump change compared to likely conspiracy between FBI and Hillary to relaunder her in the voter’s mind a few days out from the election.
The Saker says: “I have come to the conclusion that the Empire is run by stupid, ignorant ideologues who live in a world totally detached from reality.”
Yeah, I hear ya Saker, except I call them crazy, (Edited language,MOD) dumbasses with an inaccurate conceptual map of reality.
I know psychological projection isolates the ego from the environment and I wonder if we’re witnessing the psychological defeat of the empire on the moral and mental levels of warfare.
If the AZ Empires failure in Syria represents it’s Stalingrad defeat on the operational level. Then I’d guess Operation Barbarossa was the 911 false flag attack ongon the WTC and Pentagon.
I
Washington targeting the super-rich in Russia is a clear attempt to do what the US successfully does in many weak, Latin American countries: conduct oligarchical-backed coups against popular governments independent or partially independent from the US. However, I think Washington’s coup attempt will totally fail. The memories of the traitors being in power in the 1990s are too recent in most Russians’ minds. Hopefully Washington’s aggressive moves will only further undermine its own puppets inside Russia.
”the “Atlantic Integrationists” because what these pro-western globalists want is for the AngloZionist Empire to accept Russia as an equal partner and to have Russia fully integrate the US-controlled international financial and security structures: WTO, NATO, EU, G7/8, etc.”
There was never any serious intention of the AZ-Empire of accepting Russia as an ”equal partner” to the imperial juggernaut. You should know that the US doesn’t do Partnerships, other than of the ‘Me Tarzan, You Jane’ variety.
Moreover, this no longer just about Russia. A eurasian anti-hegemonic bloc is beginning to coalesce around the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS. Russia has been in the vanguard of this movement having pivoted to the East after fruitless attempts to form a working relationship with the EU,fell on deaf ears and was met with NATO enlargement. The Chinese behemoth is is the economic powerhouse in this Eurasian geopolitical configuration along with Iran, the central Asian ‘Stans’ and now India and Pakistan, there are others waiting to join.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has evolved in a number of areas: regional security, economy and culture but is still very much a work in progress. The SCO has been supplemented by the BRICS alliance, the first summit of which took place in Yetakerinburg in 2009. The BRICS encompass 30% of the earths landmass, 43% of the global population, 46% of the global labour force and 30% of global GDP. An anti-hegemonic alliance was beginning to crystallise. China in particular with a growth rate 3 times that of the US is now in purchasing parity power the largest economy in the world.
Yes, Russia and Putin really look isolated. (sarcasm BTW)
Good analysis Saker. Thought experiment , what if Russia had become EU member, say 5- 10- 15 years ago? I know its just thought experiment, but you know as well as I, EU gives a shit for Nato. Yes Poland and Baltics are trembling , but they have done that since Valdemar leveled Tallin in 1212, so stuff them.
This is actually not that far out as a thought experiment, the OBOR initiative makes less sense without the EU as the end destination, so naturally there must have been talks we are not directly privy to, and that must include Russia. The general consensus in Europe is that Russia is not an enemy, but not quite a friend. Europe is not bothered much about the Ukraine mess, (Fuck the EU, V. Nuland), but clearly the US wants a war there. We dont and we cant really get rid of the Candy King, we dont deal in this sort of thing. The Nazi trait in Ukraine is a strong one , which they must shed, like Poland must shed their Fascist tendencies, Hungary too. I am digressing.
The US of course sees the EUAsian trade relationship as a major threat to its hegemony, they will be left with South America, Africa mostly slipped through their hands.
Very good article indeed, as always when comes from The Saker. From an outsider, it is very hard indeed to have a proper image of Russia’s internal state of politics, not knowing Russian, one is dependent on Russian newspapers or sites in English, German, French or other language, many of which are biased “atlaticists”. So, is hard to make a good evaluation from a Russian perspective. Anyway, I have already learned in the past to read between the lines and take out what is worth attention. The eastern mentality is different form that in the west, moreover the Russian mentality, which so wide and deep as Russia itself, that’s why I agree with Saker when he said that to understand Russia with western glasses (or binoculars) is useless work or at least a very hard endeavor. This is also very well known by the Empire, who has build a large armada of propagandists, backed by a large armada of media of all kinds, not just outside Russia, but inside as well. Lessons have to be learned, as quick as possible, and applied in full force, after Putin will be reelected, otherwise, the slowly but surely replacement of truth inside Russia will be a fact. For Putin haters : indeed, thy want Putin out of office, but what if it may come come someone else who will be totally different, being fed-up with all this ugly play from Empire and will “solve” the problem with force ? …then, they will cry for Putin.
Saker,
Thanks as always for the interesting and penetrating analysis. I seek your wisdom in another area, though. And I hope that I will not be considered out of bounds for posing the request in this manner.
To me, one of the great mysteries of recent modern history is the Fall of the Soviet Union. I rather suspect the pablum fed to uneducated Americans that it was all due to Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts fomenting the uprising in Afghanistan is rather far from the truth. But I would dearly love to be exposed to a reasoned and clearly articulated explanation for this event. Could you kindly point in the right direction at least? Sadly, it must be in English, for my consumption. My dear Lithuanian wife says quite rightly that there are only three kinds of people in the World: bilingual, multi-lingual,and American. Of course, I am one of the latter.
Cheers!
Swan
Constancy of Evil Empires policy is so assuring like a Swiss watch. Great. That make one have feeling of no disappointment. On the other hand RusoZionists’ camp wishy-washy responses are predictable too, so the play is continue . How long to be seen. Have comfortable seat and enjoy.
Hi Saker. Slightly off topic. Did you ever send the Letter to a Friend, to the people you discussed in one of your articles? I know very few of my “friends” from the west understand what the heck is going down. It was such a scathing, honest, factual article, and I assume that maybe one or perhaps two are still your friends. It would be interesting to know the results, of course in detail :) but probably isn’t a good idea.
Referring to the present article, it sure is bizarre what these inbred psychopaths can pull out of their collective ar$e$.
Also, why do you live where you live? It kinda seems your heart isn’t there. Best wishes to you, your family and your crew here on the Saker.
Although the anti-Russian campaign probably started long before, for me the signs of it really hotting up came just before the Ukrainian coup in a speech Christine Lagarde gave to the Press Club in Washington on January 15th 2014, in which she referred to the ‘G7’ meeting planned for July that year. But it wasn’t a G7 meeting in the pipeline on January 15th but a G8 meeting, as Russia was not expelled from the G8 until a few weeks later. A point the corporate media seemed to ignore. I wrote about this in more detail on my blog later that year. https://bryanhemming.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/numerology-g7-or-g8-the-unwitting-prediction-of-christine-lagarde/
Nice catch…
I had one of those moments when Obama, in Mexicos G20 said something like:
“The EU, for now, is comprised of independent countries…”
Tried to get a reference but didnt manage… CYS YMMV
I love the article.
I was wonder what your thoughts are concerning these latest sanctions and the market movements (downwards) in the past week; do you think there could be a relationship?
If there really was the big money involved, and the markets are ridiculously ‘peaked-out’, and appropriately reflected in the automated trading programs, the possibility of some kind of organized pull-out, within a specific timeframe, seems like it conceivably could initiate a ‘correction’.
Personally, I already consolidated my investments about a month ago, to ultra-secure domestic (Can), but I am seeking a method to diversify to Yuan and Rouble denominated instruments, Russian: defense and energy, China: BRI infrastructure development and (well-diversified) business development in participating route locations.
Perhaps an expert article?
Contrary to any noise on the subject that gets to the MSM, I am not so certain that the petro-dollar … decline, will be smooth over an extended period of time; rather, I am of the opinion of a rapid spiraling down and wide-spread opportunistic jumping on the convertible yuan junk (I see the pun, but at the time intended the reference to chinese sailing technology, i.e. ‘boat’, as in ‘rats’ leaving the sinking ship of the hegemony’s gravity-defying fiat currency).