The US President’s signing of the package of new sanctions against Russia will have a few consequences. First, it ends hopes for improving our relations with the new US administration. Second, it is a declaration of a full-fledged economic war on Russia. Third, the Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way. This changes the power balance in US political circles.
What does it mean for them? The US establishment fully outwitted Trump; the President is not happy about the new sanctions, yet he could not but sign the bill. The issue of new sanctions came about, primarily, as another way to knock Trump down a peg. New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power. A non-systemic player has to be removed. Meanwhile, the interests of the US business community are all but ignored, with politics chosen over a pragmatic approach. Anti-Russian hysteria has become a key part of both US foreign policy (which has occurred many times) and domestic policy (which is a novelty).
The sanctions regime has been codified and will remain in effect for decades unless a miracle happens. This legislation is going to be harsher than the Jackson-Vanik amendment as it is overarching and cannot be lifted by a special presidential order without Congress’ approval. Thus, relations between Russia and the United States are going to be extremely tense regardless of Congress’ makeup and regardless of who is president. Lengthy arguments in international bodies and courts are ahead, as well as rising international tensions and refusal to settle major international issues.
What does it mean for us? We will steadily continue our work on developing the economy and social sector, take efforts to substitute imports, and solve major national tasks, relying mostly on ourselves. We have learned to do so in the past few years, in conditions of almost closed financial markets as well as foreign investors’ and creditors’ fear of investing in Russia upon penalty of sanctions against third parties and countries. To some extent, this has even been to our advantage, although sanctions are meaningless overall. We will cope.
source: https://www.facebook.com/Dmitry.Medvedev/posts/10154587161801851
Cynthia McKinney analyses the internal US conundrum and states (as to why the phoney targetting through sanctions and other absurd “punishments” of Russian hallucinatory “aggression”) :
“It is Russia, not because it really is Russia but because Russia has always been the End Game.” ….i.e blocking “World Government” by the Cabal.
https://youtu.be/Bk2KqQJvESA?t=668
Russia must do what Russia must do.
And we must do what we must do here. And are still able to do largely because Russia refused to die.
bro 93: “And we must do what we must do here. And are still able to do largely because Russia refused to die.”
——
thanks for your astute observation bro93.
russia remainsTHE hope of/for humanity. i never thought so many large, formerly glorious nations would stoop as low
Those sanctions are an act of war indeed, and Russia still incapable to retaliate in any front against US overt actions (neither economically, militarily, diplomatically, etc)…let’s wait for further explanation as to why the Russian Federation is exercising too much restraint (while as always, cheerleading Vladimir Putin).
Russia and Vladimir Putin actually deserve cheerleading — Western garbage cannot even be troubled to compare Russia’s achievements with its own. Simple as that.
Russia is more than capable of retaliation. On the other hand rushing towards emotional acts is not in Russia’s best interests. Russia’s government has time and is playing for time.
“And we must do what we must do here. And are still able to do largely because Russia refused to die.”
YES. That’s a powerful and concise statement, and deserves to be read and discussed more broadly! If Russia had remained under US control through Soros and Sachs, there would be NO OBSTACLE to total tyranny. Putin’s restoration of Russia started the disintegration of the Empire.
Could it be that medvediev has seen the error of his ways?
“What does it mean for them? The US establishment fully outwitted Trump; the President is not happy about the new sanctions, yet he could not but sign the bill. The issue of new sanctions came about, primarily, as another way to knock Trump down a peg. New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power. A non-systemic player has to be removed.”
Medvedev parroting the DNC party line : )
A President can let a bill become law without his signature if he does nothing for 10 days (Sundays excepted), which would have been the case with the sanctions bill, since Congress won’t adjourn until August 11. Mr. Trump would have been wise to have done so, giving him a better argument against the constitutionality of the provision forbidding him to undo by executive action what his predecessor had done by executive action. By signing it even though it would have become law anyway, he can be construed legally as having endorsed it all, even that provision. He and his advisors are not very astute or clever.
Oops: Congress adjourned on yesterday, not Aug. 11 as originally planned. (My bad.) If POTUS, therefore, had simply done nothing, the sanctions bill would have lapsed, not become law, 10 days after both houses passed it (excluding Sundays), Monday, Aug. 7, by my reckoning: a pocket veto, per Article I, Section 7, 2nd paragraph, last sentence, of the U.S. Constitution. My reading of the next paragraph is that a 2/3 override wouldn’t apply, since POTUS hadn’t actually disapproved the bill, merely ignored it. He could still have enunciated the same constitutional argument, above, which might have given the congressmen food for thought on their summer vacation.
Right. He never should have done it.
According to Alexander Mercouris’s analysis at The Duran (god, I wish the adverts there were not so aggressive! it was a real job to get to the end of an article that was not that long)–any AM reckons Trump’s signing statement was the best move he could make.
Katherine
“Relations” can be improve regardless of “sanctions.” Sanctions don’t mean they can’t talk with each other and make progress in areas that Congress opposes like the fight against jihadist terrorists.
After all, Russia at least gives the impression that the country is thriving under “sanctions.” Its forcing more internal production and trade. Russia is rather obviously not asking for sanctions to be removed.
If anyone in DC knew US history, this would be very understandable. The evil tyrant King George III of England tried economic warfare against his American colonies. Americans gave up fancy European textiles and it became a mark of pride to wear “homespun” clothing. And one night a bunch of tea ended up at the bottom of Boston harbor. Generally, the whole thing didn’t work out so well for the English bully who thought he could use economic blackmail to force his colonies to obedience.
The tea-party story has been BS from the very beginning. Opposite to the history they want us to believe, it was when king George removed trade tax on tea from England causing it to become more affordable than the black market tea from the smugglers and black marketeers in the colony, who would then have had to look for other business. So these criminals did what they still do today, make legal business impossible by criminal acts and lie about it.
The descendants of these criminals are still running matters in the US, whether business, politics or diplomacy, and in the same ugly manner…
http://mtwsfh.blogspot.fr/2007/12/lie-number-two-american-revolution.html
Russia in a nutshell:
“To some extent, this has even been to our advantage, although sanctions are meaningless overall. We will cope.”
Auslander
So mr Medvedev, what ever happened to your “we’re one big G8 family”? And how about: “Trust me Vladimir, the West will not use the Libya Security resolution to bomb Libya and do a regime change! They’re my peeps, and they got our backs… I got this covered, we’re one big European family and Anglo-Americans are our friends too! You won’t regret it!”
Shouldn’t PM Medvedev show outright contrition and humility at this point?
Yes, but he is a politician and politicians rarely do contrition or humility. But the fact that he is changing his tune shows one thing: he knows that there is no future in defending the US actions, so he better join in a also express disgust. However, as we say in Russia, “you can change your face, but not your soul” – Medvedev is and will remain an Atlantic Integrationist and a “liberal” (in the modern Russian sense of the word). Don’t trust him.
Cheers,
The Saker
Good point regarding politicians, I did not consider that, and I totally agree with your point about not trusting him.
Good advice to apply to most politicians for that matter.
RC
Thank you for remembering the fall of Libya.
Indeed, Medvedev made a farreaching mistake back in 2011.
Tens of thousands died in Libya.
On the bright side, I am conviced it was not premidiated.
So sad.
Yes, finally. For those who harbor delusions of having good relations with the hegemon, “abandon all hope”.
Britain could never cope on its own, and it would take the USA two solid decades of work to eliminate reliance on engineering (especially hi-tech) that has been shipped to the Far East. So the claim that Russia could cope on its own is utterly laughable.
For sure, the hi-tech that Russia needs (just as every nation needs) comes mostly from China, but things are not that easy. Chinese hi-tech is a result of patents and inventions mostly from the UK, USA, Japan and Korea. And each of these four is solidly in the Empire of the West. While China most certainly makes things- it has yet to escape the yoke of Intellectual Property from the West, and won’t for decades to come.
So China is highly vulnerable to pressure from the USA over who it sells certain key items to. For sure, America doesn’t have the direct leverage over China that it holds over S Korea and Japn, but behind the scenes America has the whip-hand.
If China plays up, the USA moves the West’s hi-tech manufacturing to Vietnam- increases production in Taiwan etc- and China would formally become a ‘pirate’ nation. America can still play the Far East nations off one another. America could even re-unify Korea, and make Korea a direct economic enemy of China. Though getting Japan to accept this would be very very very difficult.
So what does Russia do when no company will do business with it? What does Russia do when its own companies are forced to close because they currently partner with Germany etc?
The answer is not to try to take sanctions on the chin, but to end the sanctions full stop by finally standing up to the USA. How many Crimes against Humanity has America carried out in the last one hundred years- more than can be counted. And how many sanctions fall upon America because of these crimes? ***Zero***. And why? Cos America won’t stand for being disrespected.
Indeed America has excellent trade relations with nations America carried out sickening war crimes, including Vietnam. America is an example of having your cake and eating it too. But Russia, we are told, obviously must learn to do without cake altogether. What!
I I were Putin. I’d roll into East Ukraine tomorrow on humanatarian grounds. I’d immediately set about arranging the peaceful partition. And then I’d strongly imply to all those nasty ex-soviet East European states on Russia’s borders that are filling with NATO forces and missile systems that I consider their actions a direct threat to the lawful security of the Russian Federation. Of course I’d have no intent of invading these nations- but the implied threat would mean Russia would be immediately feared and respected like the USA is feared and respected.
I’d issue a world wide press release stating that Russia and the USA are on level footing, and if the USA never faces trade sanctions because of the crimes carried out by the US government, then the same rules will now apply to Russia too.
This isn’t ‘escalation’ as some naively claim. It is actually the opposite. Escalation is Putin encouraging the West to beat on Russia until eventually things break and Russia has to respond. De-escalation is enforcing rules that ensure equals are treated equally.
Do your History. When Empire power one started beating on Empire power two it indicted a coming war. When Empire power one was forced to treat Empire power two as an equal, it indicated peace.
Pretending serious sanctions don’t matter is like stating when someone punches you in the face that it doesn’t matter. And what do by-standers think if someone comes up to you and punches you in the face and you do ***nothing***. Anyway the most significant and terrifying aspect of all this is how US Congress now votes as a unified bloc over Russian issues, and how that bloc seeks to conflate Russia with Iran and N Korea.
Normally bloc voting in US Congress is reserved for supporting Israeli wars of holocaust. The US Congress bloc vote is an ***Israeli*** entity. And it just acted to crucify Russia. Yet Putin still gives Israel everything it wants. Notice a ‘tiny’ issue here.
Sanctions this, sanctions that.
When the USSR embarked on the gargantuan task of rebuilding the country after the Western fascist onslaught 1941-1945, she was greeted by sanctions that were to include nearly everything made in the West. At that time, the West was still the world’s undisputed industrial powerhouse and with the US industry completely unscathed by war at that. Stalin and the USSR that he led didn’t kow-tow to the West; they did what had to be done in the teeth of Western sanctions.
Today, the impact of Western sanctions is appreciably less severe. Russia hasn’t been physically destroyed by military warfare, and today’s ‘post-industrial’ West has ever less useful merchandise to sell. Russia can do without faggot parades and colour revolutions.
twilight believes in Western invincibility; Putin and Russia not so.
Quoting, “it (China) has yet to escape the yoke of Intellectual Property from the West, and won’t for decades to come”.
Have you even been there to do business? ‘Cause if you had you’d not have made that assertion.
Mercouris has an interesting take on the affair. Apparently, Medvedev wrote just a bit too hastily or didn’t digest all the facts related to the signing of the bill, http://theduran.com/trump-sidesteps-impeachment-trap-sanctions-law-prepares-challenge-supreme-court/
Come on, scotus is completely compromised. Has been for decades.
It could wait years to hear the case, or more likely stall and decline to rule.
Constitutional questions of the sort envisioned by Mercouris get fast-tracked and do not languish.
Mercouris has written another essay and brings forth a very strong argument:
“Beyond this however is what must be for the Russians the shocking revelation of both the extent and the pathological quality of the hostility to them within the US political elite.
“To understand this it is merely necessary to review what has happened in the US over the last year. The American people in their election constitutionally elected the one candidate who campaigned for better relations with Russia. That outcome has been set aside, and the very right to hold office of that candidate who was constitutionally elected is being threatened, ostensibly because he won the election on that very platform.
“In other words the US political elite is prepared to set aside its own long cherished constitutional mechanisms in order to prevent a rapprochement between the US and Russia. As Medvedev says:
‘Anti-Russian hysteria has become a key part of both US foreign policy (which has occurred many times) and domestic policy (which is a novelty).'”
http://theduran.com/russia-giving-up-on-us-and-trump-administration/
Now I didn’t vote for Trump or HRC, but argued that Trump was the lesser of two evils because of his announced willingness to improve US-Russian relations; and I agree with Mercouris that Trump was elected primarily because of that one big difference.
Now, if we’re to believe the recent revelations by Seymour Hersh, the entire Russophobia campaign was instigated by CIA with connivance by Obama and HRC, proving CIA is an elite tool primarily used to destroy aspirations by commonfolk everywhere just as envisioned during the composing of the 1947 National Security Act that created it. Thus, beyond doubt, the CIA and its Deep State directors fit the definition of a Domestic Enemy of the Constitution.
Now I don’t give a damn about Trump or Congress or the 1%, but I do give a damn about the state of our nation and swore to defend it from the sort of Domestic Enemies just described. As a historian, I know gross duplicity and other falsities are used to accomplish particular elite goals, especially since 1898; even more so since 1938, with the Pearl Harbor episode doubled down on in 2001.
The question that ought to be in every genuine patriot’s mind is: How do we overthrow the Deep State, oust the 1% from their positions of power, and fix the system so they never have another opportunity.
Start w repealing 17th amendment.
If Medvedev is sincere, he has ditched Russian Liberalism; at least the outright treasonous parts of it which of course is a good thing. Obviously, unless totally blinded by greed and nihilism, any citizen in the Russian Federation will have to answer the question if the joys of “Western partners” and “European values” trump the nation’s very survival, including the very physical survival of its citizens.
I understand that many of us are so offended by the pompous, illegal, and cavalier way the US approaches foreign policy (essentially, “do what I say or else”), and particularly when it comes to a nation we know to be capable of striking back, like Russia, that it is easy to become impatient with Putin and wonder if he lacks nerve. I think this is because we often overlook that he has very real and insidious opponents within Russia planted during the pillaging of the ’90s with whom he has to deal. In many respects, his internal maneuvering is more complex, and has required more patience on his part, than his foreign challenges.
My understanding is that essentially a “deal” was struck upon Yeltsin’s exit, a power sharing arrangement between the two most powerful factions remaining in Russia at that time, the intelligence/security community and the oligarchs. The former, in an utterly brilliant move, named the unknown, quiet, unassuming bureaucrat Putin to represent their interests, and the Atlanticist/Oligarchs Medviedev. Initially Putin was able to make great strides in strengthening Russia and his camp because he had been so underestimated, and he was careful to never take on the Western camp directly because he frankly lacked the domestic political power to take them down without another civil war. Of course Putin was always laying snares, and was quick to capitalize on any mis-step by individual Oligarchs or others in important governmental positions, always managing to put someone more loyal, and less Western leaning in the vacancy.
The idiotic saber rattling by the US has been another godsend which Putin has not failed to use to his advantage. Internationally it has allowed him to make hay with China, Iran, Turkey, and others much more quickly than otherwise, but I believe the sanctions have also been fantastic for solidifying his popularity at home, which gives him the political capital to not only force through domestic industry and agriculture revitalization (import substitution), but also get much more serious and forceful with efforts to reorient the financial sectors, traditionally an arena on which the Atlanticists/oligarchs were too powerful to challenge. But by the “threat” coming from the outside (from the US), and not as simply some domestic policy failure on Putin’s part, it has greatly strengthened his hand. I suspect that’s why, when it looks like he is sitting and passively taking these Western tantrums, he is actually working furiously behind the scenes on the domestic front, and thanking the US daily. I think the proof that the financial camp is losing ground to Putin is demonstrated no more clearly than in Medviedev’s comments.
A deficit of nerve is definitely not a quality of Putin, but playing the long and smart game is. He will strike back, but only when US actions have ceased to be a net windfall for him and his plans.
Isn’t that the theory of judo, of which Putin is a master?
You use the adversary’s thrust and momentum to floor him?
You just “help him along the way” in the direction he was already flying, or charging, but just nudge him off course so he makes contact with the floor, or the wall, and not with YOU?
Katherine
It was not Trump who was ‘outwitted.’ but the Zionist Atlantic Integrationists and fellow collaborators from within Russia, and especially those residing in London and New York, where they feel safest, next to bank accounts brimming with their pilferings.
This group, officially fronted by the bafoon and collaborator Mevedev, has the power to speak for Russia internationally, via Putin’s press secretary and Turcologist Dmitry Peskov, and the worldwide alt media network of Zionists he unofficially controls.
Putin has followed the Atlanticist line with respect to Syria, Ukraine and the US election, and for this Russia has been humiliated, yet again, no less than it was in Libya when Medvedev was primary Zionist collaborator in chief. Nothwithstanding denials by obstensibly pro Russian sources, Russian oligarchs and their money have been deeply involved in every aspect of the Zionist (dis)information war, both before, during and after the US election. It is they who guide the editorial line at ‘newsites’ such as Sputnik, Russia Insider or Alexander Dugin’s Katehon, and collaborate most closely with British Zionist Tavistock controlled media outlet Russia Today. Remember how Dugin was in Instanbul just as the supoosed fake coup against Erdogan got underway? He of the Fourth Poiltical Theory and wearing the badge of a Heidegerian Zionist jacka**?
Today these Zionists look as stupid and greedy as they have always been, despite, I am sure, a minority who are as disgusted as I. No doubt a great many have been fooled, about what Trump represented but the game can no longer be concealed and it’s time for those who want to keep their assets inside Russia to speak up, admit their mistakes and repent.
Make no mistake, the British Zionist oligarchy will clean out their banks accounts, these collaborators, just as they did in Cyprus, as soon as it is feasible.
Please read the most recent article by John Helmer, to consider the position of Putin, Below is an excerpt.
August is for soup, not for rest — even if those in power give you no alternative
Three things about Putin’s speech. One is a revelation — Peskov talks Putin into things which are against his better judgement. That makes Putin, in his own, almost ironic words виновник, барин — unwitting target, witting victim.
Two things aren’t the truth – it’s never been the case when Putin “do[es] not even know what I am going to say.” It’s also not true that “no sequel is being considered” [to Olver Stones’ The Putin Interviews]. Unless Peskov has been dipping into his billion-dollar budget without telling his барин, the sequel was reported by the state news agency Tass on July 20.
“We are working on various projects,” Peskov is quoted as admitting. “We will provide information on them once they’ve become tangible. At the moment, we believe it would be premature to provide any kind of information.”
August then is for projects. A year ago, if we believe what we are told, Peskov’s August projects included ousting Sergei Ivanov, the president’s chief of staff, from the Kremlin; and electing Donald Trump to the White House. With what benefit and for whom are still unsettled questions.
http://johnhelmer.net/august-is-for-rest-not-for-soup-even-if-those-in-power-give-you-no-alternative/
Access for Russian gas to the European Union will be blocked, the war in Syia can continue indefinitely, while the British Oligarchy has conducted a masterful ruse by which Saudia Arabia, Iran and Qatar seem to be at loggerheads, with plans for the development of the Pars gas field moving forward under the guidance and control of of Western Energy companies, headed by Rockefellar-Rex Tillerson’s Exxon-Mobil, and so you know develpment of Russia’s arctic oil reserves will also not happened. That too, was a ruse.
Meanwhile the United States is being taken down, by which I mean the American people will be looted, with the US dollar fiat being replaced by what is effectively a Anglo-Zionist-Chinese fiat. Check the reports from the City of London Telegraph, the UK and China have a deal, to provide Zionist expertise for the switchover and ‘manage’ the new replacement unit of global trade. If the Russians want Chinese help they will have to come as beggars. London will remain the most important financial center outside of Asia. The richest peole on earth will make a killing while British Zionist agents within the US will collapse the Fed and replace it with something new, theoretically gold backed, and buy up everything for a fraction of it’s value with the new currency to which only they will have access.
The Pentagon is scrambling carriers to the South China Sea and making hay in North Korea, to remind everyone that if the US dollar is collapsed a mechanism must be worked by which they can still get their trillions, or else they might do something drastic. Personally I would not have much faith they will block the plans of British Zionists since very few of the senior people at the Pentagon aren’t Zionists themselves. Obama took care of the nationalists within the US military so today they are very few and far between, though they might put on one helluva show for your amusement, and to help terrorize you into submission.
All in all, we see how yet again, the Perfidious ones have fooled the world, and if there be any complaining on your part, they might detonate a few nukes in the Middle East and then use the subsequent chaos to bring down the hammer and jackboot on anyone who dares question the burgeoning Zionist NWO. Trump was always their agent, a lifetime actor who told everyone what they wanted to hear. He has played the role of Tsar Nicholas in America to perfection, exactly 100 years after useful idiot Mensheviks did exactly what the Democrats and Republicans in Congress are doing today.
Of course I can’t be right about everything, but this is the basic gist of what is occurring. You will be looted to an unprecedented degree. Only Russia under Putin might have the capability to throw a wrench in the works, but frankly I’m not holding my breath. They are sorrounded by a missile shield to restrain their only obvious response. In any game of nuclear chicken, they are unlikely to make the first move, because unlike our own Zionist Overlords, Putin is not a lunatic.
the bill was signed with qualifiers, the president’s signing statement.
he couldnt do this with a pocket veto.
he now can attack later.
US embassy staff might get around Putin’s expulsion – if they’re willing to cook and clean for themselves
https://www.sott.net/article/358331-US-embassy-staff-could-get-around-Putins-expulsion-if-they-re-willing-to-cook-and-clean-for-themselves