by Tura Kurkinen. Propaganda, or more precisely, manipulation of minds is one of the most important elements in modern warfare. One aspect of it is creating enemies, where there are no real enemies. Good example of it was 9/11, a moment that changed our world permanently. After what happened in New York, we saw how new kind of a warfare rapidly took place, the war against terrorism. Very flexible,
by Jonathan Revusky When I first saw the news about Charlie Hebdo, I concluded very quickly that it was some sort of staged event, a “false flag”. The basic story, that disgruntled Muslims had shown up in the middle of Paris with Kalashnikovs and a rocket propelled grenade launcher to settle their grievances towards some cartoonists struck me as something out of fantastical fiction. Once I saw the cheesy
by Aleksei Kettunen GAZPROM–EU: 6–0 Yesterday on Wednesday the EU negotiated with Gazprom in Moscow. The EU negotiators had three aims: Pressure Russia into extending the special winter pricing on gas supplies to Ukrainian due to end in March, Force Russia to further unilateral concessions by forcing all European energy purchases to happen through a new “European Energy Union”, Pressure Russia to resurrect the canceled South Stream gas pipeline
by Jiwan Kshetry It goes without saying that the new set of iconoclasts condemning the unjustified bravado of Charlie Hebdo, including this author, loathe the terrorists as much as anyone else and there is no question of justifying their grisly deeds. It is merely to remind the triumphant supporters of absolute ‘freedom of expression’ that if you sow poison, you cannot expect to harvest otherwise. …………………….. Journalists using
by MJ On New Year’s Eve, a true story of “babes in the woods” appeared in the news: two sweet, innocent-looking, and very young Italian women, had disappeared into Darkest Syria, and had reappeared, as prisoners of the al-Nusra Front, humbled, eyes turned to the ground, wrapped-up in black shrouds. It all started when Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo, 20 and 21-year-old university students, discovered Syria’s humanitarian crisis. They become
By Nikolai Starikov Translated by Val from Osa http://www.vz.ru/opinions/2014/12/25/722171.html How long the West is willing to pay for the crumbling economy of Ukraine without guarantees of the beginning of its war with Russia? The Western strategy rule says: lost control over the territory – create the Antithesis. It is possible to understand what is happening in Ukraine, it is much more difficult to evaluate and forecast the development of events.
by Jiwan Kshetry Corporations wiping out large chunks of biodiversity and killing people with impunity in Honduras and Brazil in collusion with the corrupt state machinery, are being rewarded for their contribution to ‘clean development’ as are those throwing hundreds into abject poverty and total unemployment in India. At the end, however, their projects are not ‘clean’ with no net gain for environment in terms of carbon emission. In its
by Peter Koenig Washington is hell-bent on a war with Russia. It is part of the PNAC (Plan for a New American Century) to take over the world. After Russia, China would follow. That’s the plan. China is being encircled as we speak. Never mind that Russia and China have recently concluded a pact, a close financial and military alliance – which to defeat will be next to impossible. Unless
by Mikhail Khazin Translated by Roobit Or an attempt to describe how US problems correlate with international security. On several past occasions I have written that the United States is deliberately destroying the entire system of international security, the same system that they had built together with the USSR. Why did they start dismantling the international security system is also understandable, in the 1990s the generation of “victors” came to
Dear friends, Today I am posting a first article in what I hope will become a series about “re-thinking politics”. By that I mean the following: we are told that communism is dead. I am not so sure at all, but maybe. I would argue that what we think of as “European social-democracy” has died this year after a long and painful agony. The US is only a republic or
by Dagmar Henn ‘Taint evry day we have a war, I got to get stirring‘ Most people look at geopolitical interests and at the military-industrial complex, when they think about the economy of war. This might be right for the small ones, but it underestimates the impact of the big ones. Whole industrial empires rose from the profits of war, and not necessary in the areas of weapons production. The
by Federico PieracciniThere are two central issues related to the devaluation of the ruble and the dollar depreciation to keep in mind: the preservation of American hegemony and the speculative bubble of derivatives linked to industry of Shale Gas. Without these elements, it is impossible to understand what are the reasons and the consequences of these artificial economic actions. This case must therefore necessarily be addressed from different perspectives, a
Dear friends, Today I sharing with you a document which I personally consider as absolutely crucial: an in-depth analysis of the China-Russia Strategic Alliance (RCSA) written by somebody who looks at it from the “Chinese side”. I want to tell you a few words about how this document came into existence.I was talking with Larchmonter 445 about the development in Russia when I realized that a lot of his arguments
by Peter Koenig The lame duck, Obama, extending a conciliatory hand to Cuba by opening an embassy in Havana, by reopening, after 54 years of a criminal and crippling embargo, diplomatic relations? – At the same time Obama is making not a single concession in terms of lifting the blockade. This smells like a trap. Cuba beware! Imagine – a US Embassy in Havana – it would open the floodgates
by Lev Igorevich Dollars for borsch There is a lot of speculation about the economic health of Russia in the light of tougher sanctions, falling oil prices and tumbling ruble. Concerns are raised whether Russia can afford it’s existence. However, those concerns are paper thin and are presented in more of a mocking spirit, because in most prediction acrobatics, actual revenues of Russian state are not considered at all. Many
by Peter Koenig The world is still hell-bent for hydrocarbon-based energy. Russia is the world’s largest producer of energy. Russia has recently announced that in the future she will no longer trade energy in US dollars, but in rubles and currencies of the trading partners. In fact, this rule will apply to all trading. Russia and China are detaching their economies from that of the West. To confirm this decision,
by Mark Hackard Geopolitical analysis, the art of explaining power relationships through the prism of impersonal geography, can be a helpful tool for observers of the Great Game – but it also has its limitations. A case in point is the renewed US-Russia confrontation. Think tanks and policy insiders easily sell the narrative that from the dark days of the Cold War to our own time, Russia and the United
by LeonardoOn December 15, 2014 the Italian reporter Giulietto Chiesa, who had been invited to take part in a conference in Tallinn on Russian-European relations, was detained by the Estonian authorities for a few hours after being declared “persona non grata“. Facts appear to point to a deliberate move on the part of the Estonian authorities meant to prevent the journalist from attending the conference, thus censoring the speech he
by “Diogenes” Preamble: First of all, when I heard of Central Bank decision to increase the rate, I have to admit that number looks suspiciously familiar to me. Yes, I knew Central Bankers manual. If you wish I can send you this That number 17% was used by my professor of macroeconomics who was lectured Central Bank staff consequently. It was in all American books on Macroeconomics, from 80s –
by Aleksei Kettunen Translation to English: Petri Krohn Russian ruble exchange rate changes have all the ingredients of success detective story. On Monday, 15.12. 2014 ruble weakened to a record low since 1998: the dollar cost 64 rubles and 79 rubles to the euro. In recent years, the price of an euro has been hanging around 50 rubles, or 5 000 rubles withdrawn from an ATM for a night of
