A new US military doctrine, war games, and ASEAN troops in Afghanistan have stirred up an oriental hornet’s nest, says Eric Walberg
“From a historical perspective, the US has continuously found enemies and waged wars. Without enemies the US cannot hold the will of the whole nation,” concluded Chinese Air Force Colonel Dai Xu, after perusing the 2010 US defense report. He points to the attempt to turn the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) into an Asian NATO — Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand already have troops in Afghanistan, and the ongoing military games in the South China Sea with Vietnam and in the Yellow Sea with Korea — employing enough firepower for a full-scale war.
The US and South Korea said their “exercises” are aimed at deterring North Korea, which they blame — without any solid evidence — for torpedoing the Cheonan, a South Korean navy ship, during earlier joint US-Korean “exercises” in March. Vietnam was less disingenuous, heaping praise on the US after its own “games” for its willingness to confront China over the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea. Vietnam has, since 1995, been an enthusiastic member of ASEAN, created at US prompting in 1967 during the height of the Vietnam war. This year, it hosted both the ASEAN Summit in April and an ASEAN Regional Forum in July, and will host yet another “East Asia” ASEAN mini-summit in October.
In addition to getting ASEANs to send troops to Afghanistan, US arms producers have $12 billion worth of arms deals with Taiwan, while the US military is transforming Guam into its new strategic strike centre to patrol the Asian Pacific, consolidating its bases in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, expanding its military ties with India, and making up with former pariahs such as Myanmar. United States President Barack Obama claimed in Tokyo last year that he was the first US president with an “Asia-Pacific orientation”. Watch out when Washington “orients” itself towards you. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Hawaii early this year that the future of America is closely linked to the Asian Pacific. Watch out when you are “linked” to America.
Why China, which has never, ever threatened the US? In a word, China is the new rising world power and must be put in its place. In addition to cutting all military ties, the Chinese have reacted with a torrent of words. Major General Luo Yuan, deputy secretary generalChina Military Sciences, attacks American pretences to “manifest destiny” and world hegemony. of the Society of
He points to the new “Naval Operations Concept 2010: A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower”, approved by Obama in May, outlining six core competencies: forward presence, deterrence, maritime security, sea control, power projection and humanitarian assistance. There is in fact precious little sign of its “cooperative” nature. Translated into plain English, the “competencies” mean: provocation, bullying, world policing, world policing, war (sorry, “peace”) and US crumbs for those who obey. Luo Yuan translates it into Chinese as “gunboat diplomacy: If you do not obey me, I will flex my muscles first. Then, if you do not behave better, I will teach you a lesson with my fists.”
The reasons behind this very Bush-like “cooperative” sabre-rattling are just as much economic as geopolitical. First there is the long-standing massive trade deficit the US nurses with the Eastern giant and China’s $2 trillion reserves, though this is hardly China’s fault. The US answer is to demand that China revalue its yuan, effectively transferring billions of dollars to the US trade account and forcing China to deflate its economy, as happened in Japan in the 1980s. China’s answer is to resist US pressure, demand a seat at the world monetary table and the establishment of a new international reserve currency ASAP.
China is already moving away from US treasury bonds as a way to absorb the trade surplus, investing overseas, lending to other countries, and using the yuan in cross-border trade. This will spur demand for yuan-denominated assets overseas and speed up the opening of China’s capital account, Li Ruogu, chairman of China’s Export-Import Bank, predicts. More worrying yet to the US are Chinese plans to dispense with the dollar altogether in its oil trade with Iran, much like Saddam Hussein did in 2000. Iran has been trying to do this with its oil bourse since 2008 but so far has been able to trade only in oil derivatives.
How does the US respond to such moves? Threaten, subvert, boycott, and when all else fails, invade, of course. The US empire is nothing without the US dollar as world reserve currency. And the US dollar is nothing without oil backing. The twists and turns in US policy reflect precisely this logic, right up to embracing the legendary US nemesis Vietnam.
Clinton arrived in comradely Vietnam following a visit to Georgia. Clearly addressing both Russian and Chinese leaders, Clinton insisted first in Georgia and then in Vietnam that the US recognises no “spheres of influence” by any other nation anywhere in the world, and that Washington reserves the exclusive right to intervene in regional conflicts around the world and to “internationalise” them when and how it sees fit. “The Asian ‘NATO’ must stand-up [sic] a credible, united effort against China’s intimidation and hegemonic actions much as NATO formed the backbone of our defence against the former Soviet Union,” malapropped neocon commentator Robert Maginnis approvingly in “Winning the New Cold War” following Clinton’s trip.
“The US is capitalising on the contradictions among East Asian countries to form a front against China,” stated analyst Shih Yongming glumly. The ability of the US empire to change its public face and charm erstwhile foes is truly remarkable. Though it killed three million Vietnamese and never paid a penny of reparations, the US is now Vietnam’s largest trade partner and investor. More naval visits and ASEAN meetings are in the offing, as well as cultural exchanges, training exercises and — Iran take note — a civilian nuclear fuel and technology deal that would allow Vietnam to enrich uranium on its own soil.
Beijing would do well to learn some statecraft from its sometime enemy, sometime friend. US strategists don’t rest a moment as this flurry of activity shows. Get hopping! Say things that your listeners want to hear. Kiss some babies.
Beijing would also do well to reflect on its own sorry diplomatic history as the people’s republic. After supporting Vietnam for a quarter century first against the French and then the US, China proceeded to invade Vietnam in 1979 to curry favour with China’s new “friend” the US. (Vietnam had just put an end to the bloodbath of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.) It thereby abandoned its principled anti-US pro-Vietnam position for an unprincipled pro-US anti-Vietnam one. Is it any surprise that this has so quickly degenerated into an anti-US anti-Vietnam one? Is it any wonder that Vietnam, once anti-US pro-China, is now pro-US anti-China?
Beijing has two options: turn itself into a military monster, a mirror image of the US, and terrify and estrange its neighbours. Or launch its own charm offensive, make some gestures of conciliation over its maritime claims. Instead of using its phenomenal resources to build deadly military hardware, use a fraction of them to shower its neighbours with generosity, all the time ignoring or rather deflecting US barbs and shafts.
Kick the US out, but do it politely with the help of friendly neighbours who don’t operate according to “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Luo Yuan argues that if the US is really all that democratic, it should “listen to the public opinions of other countries, using wisdom but not gunboats to solve problems.” Over to you, Hu.
***
Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/. You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com/
Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/. You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com/
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/why-not-to-bomb-iran/?hp
was on the front page of the NYT today… He openly deconstructs a certain degree of zionist propaganda in a way that would have been unheard of in the mainstream press only recently: Indeed, the author speaks of “Israeli propaganda”… openly in a front-page NYT article (!!)”
Behind the scenes there is massive resistance amongst some American zionists — such as this author — and others within the power structure to an attack on Iran as well, and I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion just yet that it will indeed happen… and least not for quite some time. And the longer it takes the less likelihood that it will happen at all, at least not for the current proclaimed justifications.
I hope this is a trend and you start posting more articles and videos of developments io Eurasia.
The China Sea area was referenced in Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard.
Someone did a YouTube video referencing it put it seems to have been taken down.
Don’t know if I already posted this in a previous comment, I think I did, of Rick Rozoff on RT talking about latest developments regarding Central Asia and NATO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0wMCjOMN1I
Also Kasparov clown and his NED toadies are in Gori, Georgia protesting against Russia.
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/114639-0/
@jack:I hope this is a trend and you start posting more articles and videos of developments io Eurasia.
I will try. You made a very good point about this and I will endeavor to follow your advice.
Cheers!
The Saker
Very interesting article about Kasparov and the Russian opposition, Jack. They go to Georgia to criticize Russia’s action in the South Ossetian war, which was one of the fairest things that Russia has done in the last decades, calling it “aggression” and “occupation” – all the rubbish that even Western corporate media is afraid of using, as Georgia’s aggression is fully demonstrated.
The opposition in Russia is usually a bunch of sold-off people to NATO and the US. So Russia has only two alternatives: to elect one of these clowns, with all the consequences it will bring, that is, destruction of Russia’ sovereignity and the return to the chaos of the 1990’s; or keep Putin and United Russia in quasi-absolute power, with the consequences of huge privileges to some officials, limited freedom of protest and restricted independence of the media. The second option is the smallest evil, in my opinion. I wish there were independent opposition parties in Russia, who would question abuses and mistakes of the current government without betraying their country for foreign interests. But the biggest majority of parties are either offsprings of or closely linked to United Russia (like A Just Russia, Right Cause, or the Liberal-Democratic Party), or NED-funded parties (all those united under the Other Russia movement, like Kasparov’s United Civil Front), who serve foreing (US and NATO) interests. Perhaps only the Communist Party is truely independent, but its influence is dwindling.
@Carlo
They already somewhat are steering Russian policy with Medvedev following the advice of these Gorbachev era trained Soro economic reforms lead by Kudrin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud8gz-z4_HI
Medvedev is Gorbachev 2.0.
So far he is setting up Russia and other states into the BRIC trap devised by Goldman Sachs in the mid 70’s, spoiling relations with Belarus and put the modernisation project into the hands of these same economic advisors.
Limited freedoms, media, etc is not a thing Russia should be concerned about as the western media is not free anyway it is controlled by companies aligned with running the government and off course firmly under Jewish media control.
Look at Serbia the media like everything else has been carved up and bought by German, Soros, US companies that were complicit in the destruction of Yugoslavia.
Agree about the need for a new political party in Russia that has to address and be aggressive on the issues from the 90’s to the present of Russian of the colonisation of Russian like:
Reclaiming a trillion dollars worth of money taken out of the country into offshore tax havens and
Shutting them down, western and Mid East support for international terrorism investigating those involved and shutting down this network, the same with drugs and sex trafficking which is off course linked the terrorist organisations.
The establishment and research committee of the genocide of Russia during the 90’s to the present starting with theses Oligarchs.
Another committee examining and researching the individuals, states, banks, countries, organisations, etc that supported Marxist terrorism for decades and supported the coup of 1917 as well as transfer of Russia wealth abroad overseas by the Bolsheviks to the same banks that financed them as well as investigating claims that forged archive material was inserted in the archive to fit the western propaganda line and any possible connections to those directing Gorbachevs openness campaign dealing with Soviet archive material.
And the most important thing and the most frustrating things about Russia is the total lack of information on any level with the biased anti-Russian viewpoint as the only reference.
As the number 1 priority they should publish research, analysis, statistical data, etc of academic quality which debunks western press propaganda and institutions which are usually affiliated with organisations with an anti-Russian agenda financing research, institutions, historian’s and journalists.
I think I have good ideas for starting a political party in Russia addressing the most crucial issues which his totally been neglected by the Putin government.
As the way things are going it does not look good for Russia with this big push in Afghanistan to destabilise the entire Eurasian sphere and if Putin goes then the state will collapse and the country like 1917 will be engulf in a massive civil war with western backed Islamic militants carving states in energy rich areas of Russia.
No doubt about it that this is there objective which has been written although not in such a stark manor by major policy makers.
@Carlo
They already somewhat are steering Russian policy with Medvedev following the advice of these Gorbachev era trained Soro economic reforms lead by Kudrin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud8gz-z4_HI
Medvedev is Gorbachev 2.0.
So far he is setting up Russia and other states into the BRIC trap devised by Goldman Sachs in the mid 70’s, spoiling relations with Belarus and put the modernisation project into the hands of these same economic advisors.
Limited freedoms, media, etc is not a thing Russia should be concerned about as the western media is not free anyway it is controlled by companies aligned with running the government and off course firmly under Jewish media control.
Look at Serbia the media like everything else has been carved up and bought by German, Soros, US companies that were complicit in the destruction of Yugoslavia.
@Carlo
Agree about the need for a new political party in Russia that has to address and be aggressive on the issues from the 90’s to the present of Russian of the colonisation of Russian like:
Reclaiming a trillion dollars worth of money taken out of the country into offshore tax havens and
Shutting them down, western and Mid East support for international terrorism investigating those involved and shutting down this network, the same with drugs and sex trafficking which is off course linked the terrorist organisations.
The establishment and research committee of the genocide of Russia during the 90’s to the present starting with theses Oligarchs.
Another committee examining and researching the individuals, states, banks, countries, organisations, etc that supported Marxist terrorism for decades and supported the coup of 1917 as well as transfer of Russia wealth abroad overseas by the Bolsheviks to the same banks that financed them as well as investigating claims that forged archive material was inserted in the archive to fit the western propaganda line and any possible connections to those directing Gorbachevs openness campaign dealing with Soviet archive material.
And the most important thing and the most frustrating things about Russia is the total lack of information on any level with the biased anti-Russian viewpoint as the only reference.
As the number 1 priority they should publish research, analysis, statistical data, etc of academic quality which debunks western press propaganda and institutions which are usually affiliated with organisations with an anti-Russian agenda financing research, institutions, historian’s and journalists.
I think I have good ideas for starting a political party in Russia addressing the most crucial issues which his totally been neglected by the Putin government.
As the way things are going it does not look good for Russia with this big push in Afghanistan to destabilise the entire Eurasian sphere and if Putin goes then the state will collapse and the country like 1917 will be engulf in a massive civil war with western backed Islamic militants carving states in energy rich areas of Russia.
No doubt about it that this is there objective which has been written although not in such a stark manor by major policy makers.
Well, Jack, I can’t comment on much topics which you wrote. I will focus on two of them.
First, I wouldn’t agree with your Apocalyptic forecast of Russia. The country is stable, the economy is doing well (despite the crisis), the population is reasonably satisfied (despite the huge fires). And I wouldn’t fully agree that Medvedev is “Gorbachev 2.0”: yes, he is willing to trade some Russian interests (like an alliance with Iran) to improve relations with the West, but he would never trade Abkhazia and South Ossetia, for example, as oppositions clowns like Gasparov and Kasyanov would if they ever get to power. But it is very, very unlikely that this will ever happen. Even though Putin and Medvedev’s popularity are in a historical low (around 40% of approval, mainly due to the fires), they are still much above any other public figure.
Second, about spoiling relations with Belarus, I think Lukashenko is mostly to blame. He played a game with both Russia and the West after the South Ossetian war: he wanted to see who would give him more for recognizing (or not) Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But the game didn’t work: the unexpected recognition of both breakaway regions by Nicaragua and Venezuela gave some international support for their cause, and made the Russians less desperate to seek Belarus’ recognition at any cost. In the end, the Russians got fed up and they lost all trust in Lukashenko, while the US, EU and NATO still consider him the “last dictator in Europe”.
Jack: “I think I have good ideas for starting a political party in Russia”
You may end up with some cash shortage for your campaign here. Since you will oppose Putin there will be no money from Gasprom for you, by taking on the oligarchs you’re cutting yourself off that source as well, and your committee investigating foreign banks and organisations will leave you with no friends there either. So how is your party going to fund your move for the parliament seats then? Well I’ve got a few ideas here for you.
Firstly you will have to change your “Putin is bad” motto for “Putin is good” and that will bring you plenty of friends and support, money too. To make more friends and money then you will have to drop off the “oligarch investigation” part of your program. Well since you will become pretty wealthy and popular by then there will be no point in keeping pressure on the foreign banks too as you more likely will become tightly affiliated with quite a few of them moving your newly made money from Russia to some safe places just in case.
Sorry if I’ve discouraged you from becoming a Russian opposition leader.
Cheers
alibi
Alibi: sad but true. I think Putin, with all his defects, is the best Russia can get for now.
@VINEYARDSAKER:
Sorry for the double posts but with blogger comments and not just this site when I post quite lengthily comments it comes up as both it is posted with the waiting comment approval from blog owner message and a message that comes up about losing info which usually happens when you navigate away from the blog section without submitting a comment. So I wasn’t sure if my comment was to long or not.
@Anonymous
Sorry if I gave the impression that I’m Russian, I’m actually British and reside in Russia which I don’t so it would be impossible for me to run a political party.
But I meant is that we could start a political party on the net with ideas and info which people in Russia could use as a resource to get the ball rolling and have a much need information bridge between Russia and Europe.
The main concern as a start should be exposing this international terrorist and organised crime network starting in 87 in Vienna with TWRA and 89 in Russia which is part of this post WW2 network incorporated into the KGB, mafia, banks and international crime of the London-Tel Aviv-Washington axis established in the 70’s.
Then try to get some of the trillion dollars transferred abroad by the Oligarchs into offshore British tax haven bank accounts.
If think you could get military, police and intelligence personal on board and anti Yeltsin/IMF economists.
At least there would be a second tier in case something goes wrong like an assassination or bombing.
In 2007 there was a Carnegie Endowment scholar a notorious Rothschild aligned group who wrote hypothetical outcomes if Putin was assassinated that Russia would delve into chaos amid a civil war and people would be put into concentration (geez just like Stalin) with the country run by an ultra-nationalist leader(Tom Clancy influence there).
Sites like Exile put a comic tone to it but dismissing the serious nature of it a what it was advocating and planning.
@jack:Sorry for the double posts
Forget it! This is a consequence of the still VERY buggy blogspot comments moderation software. And me not wanting to delete a post unless I really have to. Besides, this is just a modest blog, so we don’t need to keep it nicely edited and all. We are here to freely interact, exchange views, and, hopefully, have a good time meeting good folks. The rest really don’t matter one bit (at least to me).
Thanks for always posting very interesting comments here! Please keep posting and don’t worry about double posts :-)
@Jack
On the subject of tax havens here’s an anti tax haven resource.
http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/
Jack: “Then try to get some of the trillion dollars transferred abroad by the Oligarchs into offshore British tax haven bank accounts”
This money is gone, no need to worry about it. Oligarchs need a safety cushion in case there is a change of heart towards them. There is nothing one can do about that. Putin actually started a sort of expropriation beginning with Berezovski, Gusinski, Khodorkovski and a few more. He managed to get so far when it become clear that if taken further it will cause more damage then give benefits. To go after oligarchs now is suicidal for Russia. There is just way too many angry people here. Putin chose a smart way to keep the country in check – he introduced new rules for oligarchs – since the state can’t take back what’s been stolen from it without falling in a civil war then the oligarchs will have to become milking cows for the state. Where else all the money comes from to support all the national projects that Putin runs for a few years. I’ll give you just one example – Telman Ismailov had to flee Russia after he was caught investing tonnes of money in Turkish hotels. He was allowed back though on a condition that his holding would invest a few hundred million dollars into Chechnya tourist infrastructure. It all seems very twisted though and sure gives plenty opportunities for abuse, but I agree with Putin on one thing here that the Russians will need some more time to go by before there will be a chance to judge about what happened back in the 90s.
BTW: Jack I thought that you were Serbian.
alibi
Carlo: “I wish there were independent opposition parties in Russia, who would question abuses and mistakes of the current government without betraying their country for foreign interests”
Absolutely. I have a feeling that Putin has that sort of a paranoia that was experienced by Stalin. Other than that I can’t explain his fear of any sort of opposition even the one he is facing now. If he lets the bunch of this weird people to have their say it would only work for him.
forgot to sign my last post for Carlo.
alibi
“Absolutely. I have a feeling that Putin has that sort of a paranoia that was experienced by Stalin. Other than that I can’t explain his fear of any sort of opposition even the one he is facing now. If he lets the bunch of this weird people to have their say it would only work for him.”
I don’t agree with you. I am convinced that Putin’s intentions are good: he wants Russia to be strong, thriving, and also free. If he didn’t want this, he would have changed the Constitution so he could stay indefinitely in power, instead of running the risk (which seems to be materializing) of having a nominated succesor turning into a rival.
The problem is that unquestioned power inevitably brings privileges and abuses. That is why every powerful person, no matter how good-intentioned and successful (and I consider Putin to be both) needs to be questioned and checked. But the main fault is on the opposition: they weren’t able to attract the Russian people, they rely too much on Western funding, and many of them just don’t represent the interests of their own country, but foreign ones. And no politician in Russia has so much charism as Putin.
@Anonymous
Great! I will look over the blog to see if there is any good info.
“This money is gone, no need to worry about it.”
Doesn’t matter they have committed criminal enterprise and illegal holdings of Russian money which is stored in offshore bank accounts nd if they ave transferred it inside hard assets like property or football stadium, etc they should be seized and put up at auction to pay of the money owed to the state. This could be done through a UN investigation and mass public pressure.
I know off course that they would try to make it a farce like the Hariri investigation.
There is enougth solid evidence to convict Lord Rothschild and Khoderkovsky of money laundering and tax evasion through the Menetep bank based in the Isle of Man.
“I have a feeling that Putin has that sort of a paranoia that was experienced by Stalin. Other than that I can’t explain his fear of any sort of opposition even the one he is facing now.”
Probably because there are over 600,000 NGO’s operating in Russia trying to subvert Russian society and overthrow his government with every and all potential opposition figures trained and financed by intelligence front NGO’s.
Not to mention jihadists and organised crime in every major Russian city who have been trained to use and develop chemical, radioactive and biological weapons
Why don’t you just post under the name alibi instead of using Anonymous?
@VINEYARDSAKER:
At least in this blog you don’t need to sign in with your Google account.
Jack: “…illegal holdings of Russian money which is stored in offshore bank accounts…
…should be seized and put up at auction to pay of the money owed to the state. This could be done through a UN investigation and mass public pressure”
You can’t be serious here. What UN investigation? Beresovsky got a polital refugee status and a British citizenship, Gusinski got a couple of citizenships on his own, Khodorkovski got a status of an oppressed freedom fighter and eternal saint that’s how your mass public pressure works.
“Probably because there are over 600,000 NGO’s operating in Russia trying to subvert Russian society and overthrow his government with every and all potential opposition figures trained and financed by intelligence front NGO’s”
I don’t know, I think that the NGO law introduced back in 2005 is pretty effective no wonder it was called “anti NGO law”. You can’t just shut all of them up they will go underground, but you can keep them around and under thorough check including their finances.
alibi
Carlo: “I am convinced that Putin’s intentions are good: he wants Russia to be strong, thriving, and also free”
Agree, by the way Stalin too wanted same for Russia/USSR. I don’t think Putin equals Stalin of course and I support him in many things. What I don’t like though is his pathological fear of any opposition even when he could use a good part of the current freak show for his benefit. Russia has plenty of problems for sure but there are two fatal problems that Russia faces – selective use of the laws and total corruption. Both problems of course embedded in each other. There is no way to fight either of them without freedom of speech. Opposition is the answer. Any sort of opposition will generate more good then bad for a state and a smart opposition will keep the system work more efficiently. By putting a plug on any display of dissent Putin actually dragging Russia deeper and deeper back in a hole from which the Russians just managed to pull themselves out at a very dear cost.
alibi
Alibi, is there any opposition party that is really independent (not linked to United Russia like the Liberal-Democratic, Right Cause or Just Russia), is not foreign-funded (not like all those united under the Other Russia banner) and can attract votes from a considerable number of people? I can think only of the Communist party, but as it is strongly identified with the Soviet Union, its popularity is decreasing fastly. To the right there is Yabloko (one of the very few rightist parties that refused to join Other Russia), but they had very few votes in the last elections.
Carlo. That’s exactly why I call Putin’s fear of opposition is pathological. There is no not only any sort of a real force behind what’s called opposition now in Russia but it’s hard to see any of it coming unless people will really get mad at the current government due to it’s incompetence corruption, and abuse of the law. So if there is a force driving Putin’s regime into a dead end it would be Putin himself by angering more and more people with his lack of willingness to fight the problems. And what about these cheap restrictions on any sort of protests about anything, anything at all, even about excessive abuse of using flashing lights by the government servants? That’s just pathetic display of fear.
alibi
@Carlo
Yabloko is a left wing not a right wing political party and like all political opposition and parties receives funds from the west and where involved in Yeltsin’s rule during the 90’s.
The only independent part was Rodina a nationalist party which was banned after a political add critical of Azeri’s living in Russia.
@Anonymous
Opposition marches are usually organised by NED backed Other Russia coalition with their National Bolshevik anarchists and others hold illegal rallies or ones permitted purposely break cordons and attack police speaking and holding signs in English to a compliant western mass media.
It is for show off course for their western audience and put international public pressure on Russia like they did with Belarus with illegal US sanctions with the passage of the “Belarus Democracy Act”.