Oh boy, today is a bad day for sure. First, the Russian Central Bank has suddenly raised its interest rates from 10,5% to 17%. I am dubious that this will do much for the Ruble (currently in free fall for many different reasons) but, boy, will that slam the breaks on a Russian economy which needs acceleration! Not being an expert myself (I did get an MA in International Economics, but that was 30 years ago), I hope to post an expert opinion about that soon, so I will spare you my own half-ignorant guessing about what could happen next. But from my admittedly amateur point of view, it sure looks to me like this decision will do no good and lots of harm.
Then there is more ugly infighting in Novorussia. To make a long story short, Motorola was seen shaking hands with the commander of the Ukies at the Donetsk airport. His gesture, which was an act of officer courtesy, was instantly misrepresented and a ugly PR campaign to trash him was initiated. The only bright side to this ugly situation was the reaction of Givi who spoke in defense of his friend. See for yourself:
[Sidebar: the more I see of Givi, the more I like him. He looks awfully young and even innocent, in a good way, but so far I believe that he as shown himself in a very positive light. I have to admit that I fear for him, as he is playing a very dangerous game with a lot of very experienced and very evil people competing against him]
Yet again we see that the most formidable enemy or Russia is not in the USA or London, but inside Russia. I don’t see how Putin can take more of this without taking some kind of strong action. I don’t mean a coup, of course, but heads need to start rolling (figuratively, of course). The 5th column needs to be smacked down before or Putin will be in danger himself.
As for the rump-Ukraine, bad stuff is happening there too. The latest budget proposed by the junta is a recipe for a nightmare: massive social cuts combined with basically all the available money for the military and internal security. It seems unlikely to me that this could indicate anything else but a firm resolve to resume hostilities and repressions.
I am getting this really bad “pre-explosion” feeling which I hate so much and which I usually experience before something bad happens. By the way, I saw the info about a nuclear false flag, the info about the Israelis planning to re-settle Khazaria and about the airports being shut down in eastern Ukraine. I don’t buy the first two *at all*, as for the airports this could mean that the Ukie military might want to use them to rapidly bring in reinforcement of troops and equipment, possibly with NATO assistance. Again, this is consistent with the “Ukies will soon attack” hypothesis. This might also be away of provoking Russia which might be forced to destroy these airports in order to prevent a sudden surge of Ukie forces in support of an attack on Novorussia. Not good.
I am still convinced that the AngloZionists are trying to force Russia to intervene in the Ukraine as this is their last hope to trigger a crisis big enough to mobilize as much as the world as possible against Europe. Just like the sanctions, these latest moves by the Empire would not be so dangerous if Russia was not ruled by two groups fighting for power, one of which is apparently hell-bent on sabotage.
I sure hope that the Eurasian Sovereignists will strike back soon or things will get very bad very soon.
The Saker
Major Anti-Russian False Flag Coming?
http://sjlendman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/major-anti-russian-false-flag-coming.html
Sorry to hear about the interest rate hike. Here in Canada the Cdn dollar is 80 cents to the American dollar….the lowest in more than a decade….but hey…it’s a small price to pay (sarc) to punish Russia.
I am dismayed at the average joe Canuck that I meet and talk with about Russia…they have bought the NATO propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Russia will be damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t so I think it might as well go in and take over Ukraine….Most of the intelligent world will support this.
Saker, you say Givi is going against the tide with “some very evil people”
Who are the evil people ?
I totally loved the video a couple of days ago with the Sheik Omran Hussien…it was so positive about Russia. I think the truth will prevail.
Doing half measures is extremely dangerous – it is like cutting weeds only at the top, rather than uprooting and burning them entirely. Russian leadership should go into this fight all the way and without any fear, because anything less than that will weaken and eventually destroy this great country.
Russia should stop importing goods from the enemies.
All traitors should be jailed and declawed.
In other words gloves should’ve been taken off long time ago.
The Anglo-Zionists are there to annihilate and enslave this land and everything possible should be done in order to prevail.
@greencrow: Aud$ also hovering around usd$0.80.
It’s more about the uptick in the usd$ than other currencies falling.
I agree it matters little what Russia does now — it’s going to be the whipping boy signal for global compliance with US hegemony.
The core issues are: (a) Russia needs more time to settle into new financial BRICS ‘SWIFT2.0’ infrastructure; and (b) as the recent geologist post outlines, there is little or no economic value in SE Ukraine for Russia.
Therefore, as desperate as the Kiev madness gets, having locked in Crimea, there is only a humanitarian driver and that has not peaked yet.
I too am no expert on economics and so I don’t know how to defend the Ruble, or even if defending it is a good idea. What happened to a lot of countries is that they would defend their currency buy buying it with their foreign reserves. Then when their reserves run out their currency crashes worse than ever.
It may be the best thing for Russia to do is wait. Oil isn’t going to zero and eventually will start heading back up. When it does so will the Ruble and all the people shorting the Ruble will scramble to cover as they get squeezed out, thus creating an explosive upward move.
Anyway, if Russia could survive 10$ oil in 1998-99, it can certainly survive 55$ or even 40$ oil today. I don’t think you can say the same about the fracking industry in the US.
As for regaining control of the central bank, this should be a priority for EVERY country, but no country **except** Russia is even discussing it. So while people are wondering “Why isn’t Putin doing anything” in fact he is WAAAYYY ahead of anyone else. At least the Russian media is informing the public about the problem and Russians understand the problem much better than the people of other countries. And the wonderful aspect of it is that a Russian move against their central banksters can create a cascade effect of other countries doing the same. Which is precisely why it is so dangerous and why the Banksters will do just about anything to stop it.
I pray that Putin has angels on his shoulders to guard him.
No harm about raising rates. If JP Morgan, Citi et al. are squeaking about it, than it’s a good thing to do [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-15/first-sellside-reactions-trickle-17-rate-hike-not-enough-according-citi-jpm].
Would be better to back the ruble with gold and silver, that would really rattle the Anglozionist cage. All the currencies today are wortless paper, so changing that would make the ruble skyrocket. Pretty soon the dollar is going to be worth nothing (or rather less than the paper it was printed on because paper in the process got destroyed, lol), and thus make a lot of people who own dollars now lose everything. So buy gold and silver, that’s the best way to kill the Anglozionist empire.
p.s.
There are shortages of gold and silver and the Anglo-American empire won’t be able to hold the illusion for much longer (that’s what I have learned listening very knowledgeable people, like Eric Sprott for example, in the market). Dollar won’t be alive for much longer, so buy gold and silver, those who can, and help the humanity in the process.
The mistakes of 1993 and on through Medvedev are what Putin can’t make up for quick enough.
But he has taken care of Crimea, upgraded the readiness of the military, and the rest is the hardest and longest to get done.
It will come with the next attack in Donbass.
At that moment, he will do two things:
Blunt the attack, cripple the military of Kiev.
Remove the Liberals under national emergency conditions.
The country will be rallying around the flag, and anyone thought slow to support his plans will be out.
He actually needs the coming attack to change the game in Moscow legally, within his Constitutional powers.
He is a master of timing.
When it comes to central bank economics, reality left the stage years ago. Just look at how ZIRP has had the opposite effect of what traditional economists said would happen.
@greencrow
The MSM propaganda and disinformation campaign has been so relentless that it is almost impossible for the average citizen to even realize that there may be another side to the MSM narrative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp4h9HqBU3c
Americanos have started to send their own heavy weaponry to thir lackeys in Kiev. They must be wanting re-escalation badly for them to do so, and something big must be happening behind the hills which we do not see yet for them to do so — my guess, it has something to do with imploding paper ponzi scheme, so they accurately feel they are running out of time.
@greencrow Same here in germany :(
@Saker: Yes, I think NATO used/uses the closed airports for bringing in the “lethal aid” for 150 Million USD. They may even be brainless enough to invade Crimea. This would be the end of life here anywhere in Europe. Plus: Only think of what happens to all the unused nuclear fuel rods, if even only electricity for cooling gets off the net for a few hours. But I think, they will do another false flag, maybe a nuclear one. One of the theories I read went like this: Kiev invades Lugansk and Donetsk, while bombarding western MSM with “wonderful Blitzkrieg success stories”. Then they ignite a nuke and blame it on Russia, and claim “this was Russia’s last desperate action trying to stop the heroic democratic peace-loving Ukies Army”. I’M AFRAID. Especially for my ex-wife in WesternUkraine, even though we last talked years ago (((((
What do you suggest Putin should do Saker? And do you think Putin will do this? Forgive me if I offend your admiration for Putin, but I think a much more stronger and assertive leader will come on the scene in the coming years. But then again that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong and Putin might not be as mild as I think he is.
Best Regards, Ivan.
Anonymous said…
Major Anti-Russian False Flag Coming?
Maybe some have said that it was the true reason of Hollande stop in Moscow to urgently meet Putin on his way back from Astana.
French secret services(DGSE)got this kind of information with very solid sources.
Of course now that everybody knows it,it will probably not happen.
The credit, debt and interest system is an absurdity that will eat itself. Imagine if nature made trees that never stopped growing, or people or anything. This economic dogma of never ending growth is an addiction of the highest order. Putin or no Putin, nature may be taking us to the bottom of the barrel where we have to recover or die. If Russia can kick the credit habit, there’s hope we can get clean. Otherwise, it’s curtains for us worse than any iron curtain.
What Putin has to do now is very clearly explained in the formidable dissertation by Sergei Glaziev published on this site a week or so ago and aptly titled: Stupidity is worse than theft… Why did the Central Bank raise the interest rate and let the ruble flow?
It is a brillant analysis followed by a detailed plan of action about what to do in order to offset the vulnerabilities of the ruble. I suspect most readers of The Saker skipped it because it is not an easy read, being almost an academic paper. One has to have strong notions of economics and fiscal policies to grasp its intricacies. Make no mistake, this is a very important policy manifesto which most likely explains why The Vineyard of The Saker took the time and trouble to make it available in english to its readers. Thank you Saker. Personnally it took me a while before I could muster my courage to read it with extra care. Now I think that it was well worth the effort. Since then I better understand where the enemies of Russia are: inside the Russian Central Bank.
If Putin doesn’t do a total clean up of the moron atlanticists populating this institution, Russia will lose the financial war presently waged upon her.
Nearly $US1 trillion ($A1.08 trillion) was illicitly drained from developing countries in 2012, representing a record level of corruption, money laundering and false trade documentation, a global anti-corruption group says.
The Washington-based group Global Financial Integrity says illicit financial flows around the world grew at 9.4 per cent a year in the decade to 2012, around double the pace of economic growth, draining funds especially from impoverished countries.
The largest outflows came from giant, still poorly-regulated economies like Brazil, China, India and Russia, GFI’s new report says.
Money illicitly streamed out of China at a rate of about $US125 billion annually over that period, for instance.
But also in the top 10 countries, sources of illegal capital outflows are a number of dynamic middle-sized economies: Malaysia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
***********************************
Where has gone this all money?
To UKUSA, to the masters of chaos
The airports were closed down to let USAF Hercules come in to unload “aid”. The information is that 4 planes were unloaded.
It appears some of the cargo is lethal aid, ready to be on the spot and released the minute the law allowing i actually gets signed by Obama.
NAF is aware, getting information (the airports after all are in other would-be republics) and sure to have plans for dealing with it, that they are not going to tell us. They like to surprise the Ukies.
http://fortruss.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/blogger-colonel-cassad-reason-for.html
The picture is NOT LOCAL….it is file photo of US aid being unloaded at Tbilisi in 2008. So far no local pix have surfaced that I’ve seen.
I’m not worried about the interest rate. This seems to be fairly standard practice. As for bank loans to Russian businesses, I hope the government will introduce a low-interest development loan program soon. Now would be a great time to do it. As for the CB action, Alexander Mercouris has this to say on his Facebook page:
Briefly, it seems that the market was angry that the Central Bank did not increase interest rates more last week, which is why we saw the big sell-off today. I personally doubt that raising interest rates more made much sense in terms of inflation risk but the simple fact is the market wanted more and was determined to drive the rouble down in order to get it.
Well as usually happens in these situations the market has now got what it wanted.
Provided this decision causes the rouble to stabilise it will have been worth it. Once the rouble has stabilised interest rates can come down and should do so quite quickly.
Incidentally there is nothing unprecedented about this. Both the gloom that is worrying Jon Hellevig and sharp interest rate hikes are common enough during sharp devaluations. As the FT is pointing out, Brazil did this is in 1999 and Turkey did it with some success earlier this year. To quote the FT:
“Aggressive rate rises are not uncommon in emerging markets when central banks have to defend their currencies from rapid depreciation. Earlier this year Turkey pushed up its key interest rate from 7.75 per cent to 12 per cent on overnight loans. Brazil’s raised its prime-lending rate to 45 per cent in March 1999 after the real weakened by 40 per cent.”
Once the dust settles both the depression and the interest rates fade away.
As for who will pay the political price for this (if there is one) I am afraid it may be Nabiullina. If so then I for one will be sorry since to repeat it is the oil price collapse rather than any errors in Central Bank policy that is ultimately to blame for what has happened.
I think we need to separate fields of battle here. Let the economic thing play itself out. It’s okay for the Central Bank to try standard practices. If the CB screws up, government control will increase. Russia’s fundamentals are sound, and the nation has a positive cash flow.
Goldman just estimated that 1 Trillion Dollars in oilfield investment will be deferred now globally because of the drop in oil price (not even including oil shale). This price drop doesn’t just affect Russia. And as the energy companies tighten their belts and rework all their budgets, the glut will soon disappear and prices will stabilize and probably rise. The economic battlefield is still okay, and if the Russian government would introduce some programs to help alleviate price inflation for the working people, and lower-cost loans for businesses, Russia could ride this whole thing out fairly comfortably.
Courage, mes braves.
re: 17% interest….well, it appears that the central bank is trying to get off shore ( inflated) dollars into Russia by stabilizing the ruble and doing all the classical economic moves to control inflation. ( why exchange dollars for cheap rubles if the ruble then inflates its value away?) But what will they invest these rubles in or will they speculate with them? If people who borrow rubles have to pay back interest rates of 17% isn’t this going to create ipso facto inflation?
I have many questions?
@Chetnick: What you say about the (global) Western FIAT Ponzi scheme soon to im-/ex-plode and for that being the reason, why the Empire’s time to keeep this windy house of cards standing a bit longer, is running out: Yes, I also think that. Do you recall 2008 when the EURUSD=X almost stepped over the magic 1EUR = 1.60USD mark? Back then the USD was already almost finished. They only delayed it until now by having invaded LibYa (and Mali and many other ongoing conflict zones). And especially by intentionally weaking the EUR intentionally, you remember all the MSM prss and rating agency’s down-ratings. ZH always reported about these things, and “conspiracy theory” one after onother changed into “conspiracy matters of facts”. Libor scandal, rigged FX rates, rigged Paper-Gold (rigging phys, too). All that. I love the Keiser report on RT, recommended! Makes me feel better. One thing is obvious: Once again it is to rescue the USD. That’s they main point, why the Western MSM switched into something that wasn’t even as hateful during Nazi times (the press). Because back then what they wrote about Zionism and LyingWesternPropagandaPress was not even all that unjustified nor untrue. Now – on the other hand – completely braindead “stories” about Russia’s daily invasion into Ukraine or “nuclear attac at Lugansk airport” and such pointless insane shit are fabricated and propagated, day in day out. Anybody who speaks out in support of Russia gets DESTROYED in one way or another. Even if that person is a former chancellour of germany, a once hyped Nobel peace prize winner (Guenther Grass) or a Marxist. In german MSM they call all such folks “crazy”, “insane”, “Putin’s slave troll” or, favoritely: Antisemitic. Nazi, obscure right-winger. Yes, even Marxists.
International Criminal Court Challenging Russia
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/15/international-criminal-court-challenging-russia.html
As for the military battlefield, I suppose the US is pushing for another offensive, of course, and the oligarchs are stripping all the money from the social programs to divert it into the military effort – because it’s far easier to steal the money in the military effort than if it’s tied up in pensions and services. Remember, these are still thieves and they don’t have a national consciousness. This is not cynicism on my part, this is the cold reality of the nature of the Ukrainian oligarchs, including Poroshenko – as Margarita Montyan explained to us months ago. Any war effort will be a sham as before, at least on the Ukraine side. The US controllers may have a better grip on the tactics now.
If we’re going to see military action again soon, well that should please the SitRep junkies who complain in your comments, Saker, but more to the point, Russia is the superior actor in the military field, so all action works to the benefit of progress in this situation. Progress both in Ukraine, and against the fifth column back home.
Finally, if there’s a false flag, after the failure of the downed airliner, and with this much advance notice leaking out everywhere, it will continue to be used to end the effectiveness of false flags. In many ways, it will contribute to the detriment of the US, not Russia. My two cents.
Bring on the Rentenruble. Kill speculation.
Hjalmar Schacht stopped the foreign speculators attack on the German Mark by substituting the Rentenmark which was only accepted in Germany and not Legal Tender for foreign transactions by pure speculators
The Rentenmark was backed by land and other industrial hard assets , so was accepted for use by the German people. That ended the Weimar inflation and caused speculator losses among the foreign speculators because the Reichsbank refused to convert their “profits” of US Dollars bought with promise to pay in Marks, instead issuing only Rentenmarks for the USD. [The sellers of USD demanded payment in Marks, which were Legal Tender so good for international trade. The specs expected to pay by waiting until the Mark weakened, using some of their hi-valued USD to payoff their borrowings with cheapened Marks. Instead, the Reichsbank gave them 1 Rentenmarks per BILLION Marks ratio for their profferred USD.]
Thusly was the “carry-trade” smashed.
[from Zerohedge.com comment regarding raising interest rate to 17%] Old Rick en passant
The “nuke” false flag idea is ridiculous all around.
1) if Donbass is being seriously pounded, Russia has plenty of conventional weapons with which to put an end to it
2) if Russia’s intention is to save the people of Donbass, letting off a nuke 100 miles from them is hardly going to achieve that
3) the nuke would have to be delivered somehow, eg by missile or bomber — so where is the famous American “we can stop anything incoming” technology?????
If Ukie tries anything aerial, they will find NAF air defenses have matured past the BUK level. They may also find Big Bear deciding on a no-fly zone. Plus the target is a very small area, very hard to fly into without straying over the border….
There is some potential for some nuclear problem at the Zaporozhye power station but that is 200 km out of NAF territory so can’t really be blamed on them. It wold not suit EUSA for something like that to happen, as it seriously reduces the explaoitation value of a large surrounding area.
Meanwhile Chevron has decided to cut its losses and get out of Ukraine oil shale.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Chevron-Pulls-Out-Of-10-Billion-Gas-Deal-With-Ukraine.html
This is, has been, and always will be my problem, and every other informed persons problem – What is Putin trying to do with what is admittedly a compromised central banking system serving British, American, and Zionist interests. Who is he really working for? Obviously this has been Putin’s Achilles heel from day one. Given the best information from this site, this was inevitable. The Russians had better take back their banking system, print rubles (like everyone else is printing their currency), or fold. I can’t believe Putin is such a poor chess player that he leaves his Queen so vulnerable. And this big time economist you promote – certainly he has thought this over and knows what to do next, right? This is why the best informed wonder if this isn’t an East / West conspiracy to do in both the dollar and the ruble and end up with a Zion based currency solution. So we get a collapse of both the US and Russian banking systems, a limited nuclear war, and the IMF comes and saves the day with a new currency? God save the queen!
Bring on the Rentenruble. Kill speculation.
Hjalmar Schacht stopped the foreign speculators attack on the German Mark by substituting the Rentenmark which was only accepted in Germany and not Legal Tender for foreign transactions by pure speculators
The Rentenmark was backed by land and other industrial hard assets , so was accepted for use by the German people. That ended the Weimar inflation and caused speculator losses among the foreign speculators because the Reichsbank refused to convert their “profits” of US Dollars bought with promise to pay in Marks, instead issuing only Rentenmarks for the USD. [The sellers of USD demanded payment in Marks, which were Legal Tender so good for international trade. The specs expected to pay by waiting until the Mark weakened, using some of their hi-valued USD to payoff their borrowings with cheapened Marks. Instead, the Reichsbank gave them 1 Rentenmarks per BILLION Marks ratio for their profferred USD.]
Thusly was the “carry-trade” smashed.
Old Rick en passant [repeating a post from elsewhere on the net. Omitted the link ]
Most likely the ones selling rubles to buy dollars are Russian oligarchs from the 5th column. They are doing this in a synchronized manner and based on a plan. I’m sorry to see that Putin is repeating the mistakes of tzar Nicholas who also took half measures, but too little too late. Instead of going around the world in a rush to find new opportunistic allies (see Turkey who will most likely stab Putin in the back), Putin should have focused on his internal enemies and on emergency measures to make the economy a self-sustainable one. And he should have talked about the international banking mafia openly. He should have pushed for the truth about the bolshevik revolution to become official (and bury that fucking psychopat and criminal called Lenin in some shit hole instead of keeping him like a mummy). He should have asked for 1 or 100 trillion golden coins in compensations from the khazars for all their crimes against humanity (treat them with the same chutzpah like they treat the goyim). He should have revealed the truth about the fall of Eastern Europe in 1989 and the treason of Gorbachev (how come that sellout and old fart is not in some Siberian prison ???). He supervised the destruction of all those countries just to allow more space for the western economies (which otherwise would have gone into a big crisis right then). It was this criminal called Gorbatchev that actually gave the order to kill president Ceausescu of Romania, the only one who had the courage to stand up against IMF and the World Bank (the so called revolution in Romania was done by KGB+CIA+MOSSAD). Putin should have promised many countries, that were looted and raped in the last 2 centuries, to get compensations if they join Russia in the fight against the hidden zionist empire of Khazaria. Too bad he didn’t do any of these … I really hoped and prayed for him, but it seems he is just too weak. And let’s not forget that, after all, his mother name is Shelomova (and yes, I know she was supposed to be a devout orthodox despite her origins) … but you never know and judging by his lack of actions, I am quite puzzled. Sometimes you need to think the unthinkable.
I dont think raising rates does anything for the currency, it is supposed to lower inflation but that only works when it is generated internally. The aim is not to make money to war so not losing money is not on the agenda. They have printed trillions and the US$ is strong? Never in history has such a thing happened.
UAE said that oil can go to $40 and it promptly crashed through $60.. Now every state except the one that control the financial and oil there is in trouble. They are all on the verge of bankruptcy and at $40 oil their already meager revenues are not even enough to pay for interest on the debts. As I have been saying for a while now, the US is in deep doodoo and crashing the entire world before they implode is the only way to come out on top. Other wise they will not look so good while others will get by as even banana republics. And Russian currency will act like how the Indian currency was trashed when it did not follow the diktats of the empire. Now India did not crater with a low currency and neither will Russia so why are they panicking and doing things which will make things worse? Indian companies have just as much exposure to the US$ and debt as russian companies and it does hurt but the smart thing they did not do was panic since they been there when ever they make the empire unhappy..
Oil is already under $40.. I always wondered why JPM was holding so much oil on old tankers all over the world.. Now I know.. They were the ones who started dumping all the oil to crash the price.. So this was all planned for many years. For some strange reason they always seem to come out on top no matter what the situation an uncanny ability to see what the government will do next. They are also the biggest shorts selling paper precious metals to keep the US$ high. The thing is they will never deliver the goods.. Just like they will keep shorting as much ruble as possible knowing full well that no one will take delivery.. The way to stop it is to close the currency market from speculators. Free markets are only for the benefit of the empire.
From the land of the obvious…
1 – The Anglo-Zionists have given up on trying to force a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Ukies can’t even mount the appearance of a credible military threat to Donbas and frankly I’m suprised anyone with a military backround is buying into the so-called “threat.” The Ukies are in total disarray and the junta is flat broke. Even a summer offensive appears next to impossible given the state of their economy.
2 – The Anglo-Zionists are trying to force a massive flight of capital from Russia. The hike to 17% interest is a move to prevent this from happening. So far it appears as though the “smart” money is staying put, including that of Western investors as well as Russian emigres.
Ask yourself why.
3 – Apparently Putin was aware of the AZ strategy, to crush the ruble and force capital to flee, explaining Russia’s recent massive gold buying spree.
4 – Putin has no interest in moving against the Fifth column in any way, at least not for now. Most wealthy Russians remain fully invested despite all the talk of “internal enemies” and what Putin must do to terrorize them in the style of a Western demagogue.
5 – Khazin, on the other hand, very much wants to get the ball rolling on captial flight from Russia. That way Khordokovsky, the Novo Khazarian Kibbutzers (desperate to escape Israel) and his other wealthy friends can move in and buy up everything on the cheap.
Get ready for Palestine on the Dniepr ladies and gents.
Emphasizing my point:
Putin wants to to play it cool and soothe the Atlanticists.
Khazin wants fireworks and blood on the streets.
Which of these two individuals would you prefer to see get his way?
Re: using a Rentenruble to stop foreign speculative attack on the Ruble:
Also, to prevent the fraud of using the central bank to discount notes [a form of abuse of excessive credits], thereby gaining foreign exchange to increase hoarding of foreign currencies, Schacht put a full stop to central bank discounting. Thus for example, corporations who were hoarding valuable foreign currency were forced to spend it as working capital. {wEven tho the bank would apply a discount rate to supposedly discourage too-easy credits, the devaluation rate of the Mark was far greater than any discount and too-easy credit the result.]
They are not going there to plow fields for crops. NATO is moving east and Putin had better have his response ready, imo. Or just accept the new ‘geo-reality’ and demand payment of the outstanding gas$loans to Ukraine.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=761688523905174&fref=nf
Can someone explain why is so complicated for Russia to sell natural gas and oil in rubles ??? Maybe is it because Russia is, in fact, still controlled by the international banking mafia (after all) and Putin has the role to rally all the real freedom fighters behind a “fake hero” ??? Can someone who lives in Russia and reads this site (although I’m afraid there are very, very few of them) print comments from this blog and send it to mr. Putin ??? Maybe he doesn’t know many things about the financial world order and needs to do a bit more readings. He had years at his disposal to ask that at least a portion of the natural resources to be paid in rubles. Not to mention that if he was really smart he could have build a lot of industry that needs natural gas (especially petro-chemistry) right next to the fields. And Russia could have become a world leader in exporting all kind of stuff: fertilizers, paints, plastics (like Germany does now using russian gas). Oh well, what do I know … ?
Whatever the motive, the effect of US policy regarding Ukraine and Russia tends to keep Russia and the EU apart and antagonistic, which staunches their economic development, for what should have been a relatively easy resolution of their shared problem: getting a reliable government in Ukraine that’ll transit the damn gas according to contract. Instead we’ve got this.
The weak hand is neither Russia nor the US, but the EU. Assuming Russia doesn’t ‘cry uncle’, the EU’s situation will become untenable. It will have to change, and in that there may lurk the “unintended consequence” of the US policy decisions.
I don’t think the US wants the EU to disappear, and certainly doesn’t want it to be ‘independent and sovereign’, but to continue on at is is now, weak and characterless, but that seems the least likely outcome.
Yes, I really like Givi…here you can see a perfect example of how evil works..who in their right mind would not want Motorola and Givi to be on “their” side ??? who???
but now they are being persecuted…this is evil. this is the way evil works.
who in their right mind doesn’t want to have peace and happiness and enough food, water, and all the wonderful things Earth offers to its inhabitants…yet we are in danger of losing all of this ??? This is evil and the way it works.
@wherewolf: I agree with you in many sense.
@Saker: something of Saker doesn’t add up. I think.
Sk
Hello Saker and friends,
I am not a economist neither, but this will fuck up russian economy and also create a paradise for financial speculation…
I wonder putin is awaiting to send this
central bank president back to house…
some guess?
I really don’t get all this stuff for one week about a fifth column in Russia and the rant about the Central Bank. Seems that since el señor Gazin spoke this site sees he russian government as evil, Putin as stupid and Medveded as a traitor. Who is Gazin anyway ? What are his powers to completely change the mind of the Saker ?
Medvedev had and continues to have very strong words against the West and Ukraine. The russian Central Bank has played well so far, pushing for dedollarization and buying a hell lot of gold drying out the West.
http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/grandmaster-putins-golden-trap
The fall of the ruble has boosted russian exports and economy.
So frankly, I don’t get the hysteria out there for one week…
Regards
The Khazaria story was an ironic humour piece written for Purim. (Check the date, you’ll see I’m correct)
It is meaningless.
Only in Syria the stakes were global and far different from Libya. It involved national security issues for Russia, for Iran and indirectly, for China. Today, nearly three years on, despite the CIA and Mossad efforts to use their creation, ISIS, or the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) to terrify the American war-weary public to agree to yet another war in the Middle East, after the fiasco of Iraq and Afghanistan the trillions of US tax dollars and destroyed lives of US servicemen and women, Bashar al Assad remains in power. Granted he presides over a land devastated by death and destruction, thanks to those loveless, ridiculous western Oligarchs. But the oligarchs and their partner-in-crime, Netanjahu, Brooklyn’s least-honorable son, have not got what they wanted in Syria.
More recently, they have tried to panic us into agreeing to mass vaccination with untested, likely toxic medications to try to justify Obama’s War on Ebola. Only no one seems to believe them. The increasingly ridiculous Dr Margaret Chan, the Director General of WHO, who was guilty of criminal mis-conduct five years ago when she bowed to Big Pharma wishes and declared a non-existent Swine Flu as global “Pandemic Level 6,” tries to utter terrifying statements about Ebola, but nobody much is paying attention.
The execution of the oil collapse has so far been technically flawless. Oil prices on average have plummeted almost 30% since September. The only problem is that the power-addicted Oligarchs and their ridiculous neo-con hired thinkers overlooked the fact that, in the process, they would bankrupt their very vulnerable shale oil bonanza.
For the past several years, the United States Government has bought on to the shale oil bonanza myth. It has shaped US foreign policy decisions, given people in Washington the false illusion they can risk blowing up much of the world’s Middle East without threatening global oil supplies, or Ukraine, because The United States of America is becoming the New Saudi Arabia.
http://journal-neo.org/2014/12/16/ridiculous-people-and-unintended-consequences/
Any thoughts that the Ukraine airport situation might be the result of the energy crisis? Airports use a lot of electricity and who knows what backup generators are installed in Ukraine for blackout periods.
Remaining on the theme of Russia’s recent gold buying spree, hoarders got very excited when news came of massive Russian purchases. Russia, they surmised, was preparing to back the ruble with GOLD!
Whether true or not, the Anglo-Zionists have certainly switched back and forth between fiat paper and gold backed currency many times throughout history. This is a scam they pull which allows them to buy up everything in paper, store their wealth in physical gold, then crash fiat paper making it instantly worthless. In the aftermath bankers are only too happy to reintroduce a gold backed currency since they already own all of it.
Nice scam eh?
Oh and lordy please help us but guess who owns almost ALL the physical gold in storage today?
Score ten points if you answered Anglo-Zionist banksters.
Your own paper certificates are worthless btw.
But when Russia decided to start buying and importing massive quantities of physical gold with their own paper it put the Anglo-Zionists in an awkward position. Russia can also buy and store large quantities of this mostly useless and inedible heavy metal, unlike you.
In other words, the Russian strategy was a brilliant double-whammy hedge that struck a devastating blow to the AZ plan to create a Socialist Republican Planet for the Rich (SRPR).
Main Street, on the other hand, whose assets are enumerated in soon to be worthless paper, will instantly go broke when the petroldollar ponzi scheme is wound down — except for the few wise souls who are heavily invested in guess which country?
Score ten more points for answering Russia.
Russia’s massive gold buying spree — an unquestionable instance of Russia acting instead of saying — was an incredibly effective hedge made by Russia to counteract the long term Anglo-Zionist strategy to create the S.R.P.R.
Gold is worthless except the value people ascribe to it. For more than a decade the ground has been prepared for a switch back to a gold standard in a relentless campaign of propaganda. If Russia also owns large quantities of gold, while also possessing massive reserves of easily accessible energy resources, it is immune to the Anglo-Zionist bait and switch so is therefore perfectly prepared for the long planned petrodollar implosion.
Let me repeat it some more to annoy you:
Russia is now relatively well prepared for the long planned petrodollar implosion.
The banksters can’t crash the global economy if Russia is immune, hence the need to force Putin’s hand — thus helping to conceal the latest AZ scam in a shit storm of anti Russian propaganda and causing suddenly impoverished Westerners to blame an external enemy instead of the psychopathic gangsters in their midst.
“So much for the Oligarchs’ ridiculous plans to make USA into the New Saudi Arabia and bankrupt Russia in the process.
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” “
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2014/12/16/ridiculous-people-and-unintended-consequences/
” Some people are starting to loudly criticize Putin for his inaction; but what can he do? Ideologically, he is a statist, and has done a good job of shoring up Russian sovereignty, clawing back control of natural resources from foreign interests and curtailing foreign manipulation of Russian politics. But he is also an economic liberal who believes in market mechanisms and the free flow of capital. He can’t go after the bankers on the basis of ideology alone, because what ideological differences are there? And so, once again, he is being patient, letting the bankers burn the old “wooden” ruble all the way to the ground, and their own career prospects in the process. And then he will step in and solve the ensuing political problem, as a political problem rather than as a financial one.
This strategy carries a very substantial opportunity cost. After all, if the central bank acted on behalf of regular Russians and their employers, it could take some very impressive and effective steps. For instance, it could buy out western-held Russian debt and declare force majeur on its repayment until financial sanctions against Russia are lifted. It could drop its interest rate for specifically targeted domestic industries—those involved in import replacement. And, most obviously, it could very effectively curtail the activities of well-connected financial insiders aimed at destroying the value of the ruble. Putin said he knows who they are. I hope that they are wearing adult diapers. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they get Khodorkovskied before too long.”
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.at/2014/12/can-anybody-find-me-central-banker-to.html
Sorry if duplicate—
Re: using a Rentenruble to stop foreign speculative attack on the Ruble:
Also, to prevent the fraud of using the central bank to discount notes [a form of abuse of excessive credits], thereby gaining foreign exchange to increase hoarding of foreign currencies, Schacht put a full stop to central bank discounting. Thus for example, corporations who were hoarding valuable foreign currency were forced to spend it as working capital. {Even tho the bank would apply a discount rate to supposedly discourage too-easy credits, the devaluation rate of the Mark was far greater than any discount and too-easy credit the result.]
from Rick, again
“Rise interest rates”
Saker is the bad thing to do. Best is to leave currency to float. In Sweden there was a panic rising in the 90tys (to 100 hundred or somethin!) it did not help except for the vuture fonds that use “carry trading”. This measure is of no use it will make people poorer and the small companies perish.
Your remarks 5th column unclear about who exactly you were referring to.
What worries me is that the Duma is asking for new authorization for Russia’s use of force in Ukraine. This means there will be some kind of confrontation in the Ukraine between Russia, Ukraine and NATO possibly.
The thing is many European countries could get cold feet on war. How many are really prepared to go into NATO war?
Bloomberg calls this Jew
Putin opponent
————————————-
Putin Opponent Crunches Odds of Overthrowing Leader
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/putin-opponent-predicts-inner-circle-will-betray-him-yvumPNDsRQiSjua~UqRYeg.html
————————————–
My question is
Why is there not one single person in the USA Obama opponent or
how come that there is not a single opponent of Boyko Borisov (PM Bulgaria)?
And why the Russian media do not call Snowden anti-CIA than Whisle Blower (sic!).
And the last question
Why does not the Russian government shut down pro-NATO newspaper RIA NOVOSTI?
Thanks
.
Hi, just a question for anyone who knows the answer.
Is it possibble that the russian central bank is controlled by the fifth collumm?
If so makting this last action a more destabilizing negative action.
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin ordered snap military drills in Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad region earlier this month, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The drills, which mobilized 9,000 soldiers and more than 55 naval ships, were carried out to test the military’s combat readiness in Kaliningrad, an exclave that borders NATO members Lithuania and Poland.
[
Rusia nesmi dozvoliti da je NATO-nacisti iznenadu kao sta ih je iznenadio Hitler u operaciji Barbarossa.
This one is eye opening article about South Stream
http://www.pravda.ru/world/15-12-2014/1240003-south-0/
Putin´s Confident: Putin to Nationalize Rothschild´s Central Bank and Purge “Collaborators” with West. “War till One Side Collapses inevitable”
http://new.euro-med.dk/20141215-putins-confident-putin-to-nationalize-rothschilds-central-bank-and-purge-collaborators-with-west-war-till-one-side-collapses-inevitable.php
more bad news: 3 (that’s three) Congressional Representatives passed a “unanimous” House bill to escalate against Russia, in a near empty chamber @ 10:30 pm. that’s Washington.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/three_congressmen_just_reignited_the_cold_war_while_no_one_was_looking_2014
Some points about Ruble.
1, Problem would big for country with external debt which is not case of Russia. They prepared for it
2, AZ expected that Russia will spent all currency reserves toward saving Rouble, but Russia stopped it. Good
3, There is bunch of countries going down with Russia. Merkel talks about South Stream. She does not look and sound sure, similar Juncker. If you read this article it looks like Bulgaria and Serbia play doubble game Russia-AZ and they ignored Brussels and Berlin.
Article should be there in english as well
http://www.pravda.ru/world/15-12-2014/1240003-south-0/
Russia is doomed. Its ruling class is mentally still adoring USA.
RE: Where has gone this all money?
Well the top 3 investors of high priced apartments in NY and London and other places are from China, India, Russia..
Those looting oligarchs are stashing their ill gotten gains before people start looking or people to hang from lamp posts. Now there is no money laundering involved here since the money is just moved the other way.. The laundry mats come in when money moves from the western world to other countries. You can imagine that the majority of people in China and India are barely making do while sums large as this which are enough to push prices UP in this no demand driven western cities to record highs means they are just buying anything they can get their hands on and the sums are HUGE. This is why the US wants free trade and free markets so governments don’t install controls of money and wealth moving out of the country. And it is not because life is so much greater in the chocking states…. But if they keep and stay in their own countries they would get hanged like the head of the anti corruption bureau in china who stole over 100 BILLION..
Also why BRICKS are moving to install their own banking systems because then they have a means to find out where and when funds are moving unlike the SWIFT system where it is controlled by the very same crooked london banksters.
I saw the Kazzura video of ‘the handshake’. Far from being traitorous I thought Motorolla’s handling of the exchange was very politically astute. There was acknowledgement of the senselessness of ‘brothers’ fighting and killing each other. IMHO the morale – or lack of it – of the largely conscripted and inexperienced UA is going to be a key to any further hostilities and also to what happens eventually to the ability of the oligarch/fascists to maintain their control in rump Ukraine.
Many of the ‘brothers’ on the other side will be the people who refuse to fight (as many are already doing), or defect to the Novorossian side (as many have done already), or will join to use military force against the sinking ship that is the Cabal in Kiev.
As you say Saker, it is most concerning that anyone would use such an incident to try and discredit Motorolla.
This policy of complete remission after the annexation of Crimea failed .Its sad to see Mr Lavrov to continues this flabby and defeatist foreign Putin stays undecided and helpless to change its economic policies which lead to poverty of the Russian population and at the end after some time will lead tο a Russian Maidan in the red squere.
Russia doesn’t have the level of economic self-sufficiency that USSR had. USSR had a minimal amount of trade with western countries, the Soviet rouble was not convertible, there where strict capital controls, and there was no stock exchange. The Soviet state had an almost total control on the economy.
USSR also was bigger with direct control over the Caucasus (Georgia, Ajerbaijan and Armenia) and Central Asia and had many allied communist countries (Eastern Bloc – COMECON – Warsaw Pact).
Now Russia doesn’t have any of the above.
its industry got disintegrated during the neoliberal privatisations of the Yeltsin administration with many soviet state corporations and assets becoming private property of jewish gangsters.
Even though there is more state control compared to the western countries, its economy is somewhat integrated to the globalised capitalist system.
Its only allies (Belarus & Kazakhstan) are former Soviet Republics. There are no Russian allies in Europe anymore (almost all countries are part of the EU and NATO). The relations with Venezuela and Bolivia is not comparable to the Cuban-Soviet alliance.
Things are very difficult but if Russia surrenders, then it will become a third world vassal state of the USA.
While the dissolution of USSR was a huge geopolitical catastrophe and Gorbachev-Yeltsin are to blame with their awful decisions and policies, there still could be a solution and that will be a return to some of the best aspects of the Soviet Union.
Russia needs to disconnect with the globalised system, to increase self-sufficiency and encourage local production, to nationalise natural monopolies, and natural resources, to retake property from oligarchs and to radically reform the monetary system and the way the central bank operates.
All these will be very difficult to implement since there is a power struggle between the neoliberals and the nationalists-sovereignists….
Thanks very much for this link to ICC – global decadence and subversion of truth and morality –
Medievil said…
International Criminal Court Challenging Russia
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/15/international-criminal-court-challenging-russia.html
“It’s time for Russia to make known its position with regard to repressive organs of the so-called international legal system and support the states ready to oppose the arbitrary activities of the International Criminal Court…”
Things are very bad and we have to blame the actions of Mr. Gorbachev who destroyed Soviet Union in exchange for who knows what….
Unfortunately, Gorbachev f@cked up everything and his actions were disastrous. The fall of soviet union could have been avoided as we can see from the survival of China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea. This guy sold out the communist regimes of Eastern Germany and other countries by not supporting them and as a result they collapsed and became vassals of the Western multinational corporations who exploited their resources.
Gorbachev gave the whole of Eastern Europe to EU-NATO-USA and millions of people suffered in poverty in these countries.
Now almost the whole world is controlled by the system of neoliberal globalisation, controlled by transnational elites who promote free trade agreements and regional union so to dismantle the sovereignty of the countries. We see the results with EU which is a globalist project and has caused great destruction for the lives of million europeans in countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland and eastern europe….
Dear The Saker,
The interest rate hike, from what I can gather,is to slow down the speculators and reduce the amount of rubles in circulation which therefore means banks will need to use their foreign reserves. So it is not all bad.
It has become abundantly clear that the Ukies in Banderastan want to carry on the war with their US friends backing. The closure of the airports was to deliver their lethal aid etc. No Minsk meeting taking place. When/what or how is realy where we are now – it is a waiting game.
I thought it was a very good move by the Kremlin this morning having no comment on the RCB rate hike and stating the RCB is independent. Whom do you think the public will blame for what is happening?…shrewd move…I am now waiting for the public to demand the Govt. take over the central bank with their full support and backing – with legislation to that effect.
Things were always going to get tough before they can get better. I believe in Putin and his team – they know what to do and will do it when the time is right. It may be painful for a while but it will all come good. They must make sure the public are aware at all times.
Rgds,
Veritas
OH MY GOD: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=usdrub=X
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=eurrub=X
aT THE MOMENT 1usd ALMOST 80 rub, 1 eur ALMOST 100 RUB
RUB down 19.43% today morning only (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
dEAR gOD, SAY THAT’S NOT TRUE!
Every problem is also an opportunity if approached correctly.
So the US and shills want an economic war?
Let them at it.
the man thrust I see is the over production of Oil by the Saudis.
Well Fine, best response for Russia and Allies (esp China) is to buy it while it is cheap and of course to pay for it in Dollars and Dollar denominated bonds.
Likewise (esp for China) the opportunity is to help developing countries struggling with dollar denominated debt. Use the dollars and bonds to buy resources and allow the other countries to use the dollars to pay off the debts.
Eventual position
Russia and China with considerable Oil and commodity inventories and much reduced dollar exposure.
Developing world, much reduced in debt and weened of dollar debt.
Saudi and US etc, holding vast quantities of debased dollars that nobody else wants and losing value fast.
Get the picture?
Here are Orlov’s comments:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.nl/2014/12/can-anybody-find-me-central-banker-to.html
Kind regards,
Dutch
An interview of Gabriele Adinolfi worth listening to (ion french):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBTVnXUzTvk
re Hjalmar Schacht and Germany’s hyperinflation remedy’
Clearly I am not a scholar nor do I have any first-hand knowledge of events.
I do have a crude, working knowledge of what transpired which, however mild and incomplete, seems useful and instructive.
Schacht later wrote that the Rentenmark itself did not stop the inflation. Rather, it was his “credit bar” that ended it.
That “credit bar” was the Reichsbank refusal [on Schacht.s order] to discount bills which it had been doing excessively and causing the flood of credit/excess money creation. Hence, the inflation. Foreign interests that benefited from a weakened Germany were active in the scheme.
The Reichsbank was a complicated private-central-bank affair that begs clarification to help understanding. It had the flavor of the modern US Federal Reserve. Because it was wrongly seen as simply a government-controlled bank that caused the hyperinflation, it was later often used an example of why a central bank must be private and independent of the government.
If there is interest, I will explain further in some detail.
from Rick who is quite fallible.
On the ruble front, I would expect a serious move by Putin around New Year, when least expected. I expect to see fully fledged capital controls quite soon.
On the military front, we have been expecting a Ukie attack for some time now, but it has failed to materialise. If these reports over American weaponry is true, then the possibility of renewed war becomes almost inevitable. The latest attack on the ruble is probably a precursor to a renewed attack. I remember that the ruble was diving without reason right before the Maidan coup.
Turmoil Spreads: Ruble Replunges, Crude Craters, Yen Surges, Emerging Markets Tumbling http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-16/turmoil-spreads-ruble-replunges-crude-craters-yen-surges-emerging-markets-tumbling
“The USDRUB Pair Will Be Discontinued Due To Recent Instability Of The Russian Ruble” http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-16/usdrub-pair-will-be-discontinued-due-recent-instability-russian-ruble
Well, don’t panic yet, folks.
As Saker has repeatedly pointed out, this is a very nuanced issue, and Putin seems to be a very astute player.
The USSR was a country of 280 million people with a nationalized economic system largely independent of the rest of the world, which enabled it to grow from the 13th industrial power in the world to the 2nd in only a decade while the capitalist world stagnated in the great depression of the ’30’s.
This publicly owned and controlled centralized system of production and distribution also enabled them to relocate over 3000 major factories from the west of the country to the Urals and Central Asia in the midst of the largest invasion in history, while their bridges and railways were being bombed and the workers needed to move the factories were being drafted. It was probably the greatest industrial feat in human history. It would have taken a decade in peacetime when they weren’t being bombed and had a full workforce.
Russia today has no such options. The centralized publicly owned economy has been stolen and is now largely in private hands, with foolish plans to sell off even more of it, and the now capitalist economy is integrated with the dollar system.
The USSR built industries where it made sense to do so for economic, demographic, and defence reasons. That meant a large part of the heavy industry was built in the Donbas area where the coking coal and iron ore were conveniently close to each other. As a result, much of the shipbuilding, aircraft industry, and heavy machinery like jet engines and helicopter gearboxes were manufactured in the Ukrainian SSR.
You don’t just wish skilled workers and major industrial plants into existence overnight. It takes years to build them and the supporting infrastructure. After the breakup of the USSR Russia continued to outsource much of it’s key defence manufacturing to Ukraine. Putin has been working for a decade to turn that around and patriate the crucial defence industry to Russia, particularly in the last year as Ukraine disintegrated. But it takes time, and without control over the now privatized economy, he can’t just order a ministry to build a heavy machine or jet engine manufacturing plant somewhere. It is all done by contracts and private businesses now, just like in the “Western” economies.
Part 2 to follow . . .
I really do not know it: Is the Russian Central Bank chief lady Elvira Nabiullina inexperienced, on bad luck OR maybe one of the many western Trojan Horses inside Russia??? http://itar-tass.com/en/economy/767145
Part 2 . . .
The re-construction of Russian industry is a long, slow, and painful process. Just consider aviation. The USSR manufactured an equivalent of every type of western passenger and transport aircraft, as well as military ones. From the AN 124 to the TU 144 to the IL 86, USSR factories supplied the entire needs of the USSR and it’s allies. Today they produce only a few types of fighter aircraft. Everything else has been shut down, and Aeroflot has been broken into a dozen regional carriers who order Airbuses and Boeings.
It is the same across the whole spectrum of industry and manufacturing. Even if the Russian government re-nationalized all the stolen industry, it would take another decade to rebuild Russia into a major manufacturing power again, especially with the more limited manpower and resources available now.
Putin is doing his best within this framework to rebuild Russia into a strong and independent country, but it take time. A lot of time.
The western oligarchies see what is happening and are trying to slow or stop the process with every tool at their disposal short of direct invasion or nuclear attack (so far).
Russia has wisely focused on rebuilding its strategic nuclear triad, in particular the submarine launched and mobile ICBM forces. That may be enough to stop the US from attempting a first strike. But you get some idea of how far things had deteriorated on the industrial front from the fact that it took 20 years – yes, 20 years!! – unbelievable – to build one nuclear submarine, according to a recent RT story on it being commissioned.
Things have greatly improved since Yeltsin finally drank himself to death, and in another 5 years Russia may well be in a much better position industrially and militarily. The USA objective is to attack before Russia gets too strong. Hopefully, it is probably already too late.
I think Putin’s government are on the right track in building trade and economic ties with China, India, and Latin America while the US economy stagnates into a largely military and service sector economy with its consumer sector outsourced to the third world.
Putin’s main task it to keep Russia out of any major wars while he consolidates and diversifies the economic sphere through bi-lateral and multi-lateral (BRICS) agreements.
So far he has been doing an amazing job of negotiating his way through the maze of traps set out for him by his “western partners”.
Lets hope he isn’t assassinated or otherwise disabled by disease or whatever before he has some worthy replacements in line behind him.
The solution to the current most urgent needs of the Russian economy and financial system is very simple. All of the current turmoil can be fixed overnight with two very simple provisions:
1) Create a State Bank for Economic Development, whose ONLY activity is to provide loans to every domestic non-financial enterprise, for investment and working capital purpose, and to families, for the purchase of the home or flat where to live, with interest rates charges capped at 2%. The Russian foreign currencies reserves alone can provide this bank with a loaning firepower of several trillions dollars. Of course, the loans must be granted and repaid in the domestic currency.
2) Forbid by law any short sale (i.e. the sale of what you DO NOT HAVE, in unlimited quantities, reserved to a selected few; in short, the ultimate price fixing scheme) of any financial securities (stocks, bond, currencies). Reserve the short sale of tangible commodities ONLY to the producers of the same commodities, limited to one year of current production.
That’s all! You shall not fight against your enemies, internal and external; they will die a natural death. You don’t need the Central Bank nor government’s cooperation for that, you need only two very simple laws and you have a strong majority in the Duma. If the Kremlin wants it, it can be done in a week! With that, interest rates on the ruble can stay high, it will add pain to the scoundrels and it’s good for savers (generally, the middle class) and savings are an investment in themselves.
With that, you don’t need the verbose proposals of Glaziev too. Glaziev is very interesting, a good reading. It’s clear that he has a good understanding of the basic functioning of economy and finance, moreover he describes very well the modality of the systematic plunder, operated by what we’ll term the “international banking cartel” for convenience of presentation, against the working and productive classes (and almost everybody else, in fact!), not only in Russia but everywhere. Over and above, he draws a good portrait of the absolute inanity and incompetence of modern “economists” and financial bureaucrats (even if I doubt that somebody can be SO stupid, so that I’d rather talk of treason, not stupidity).
Anyway, when he comes to the solutions he goes a little astray, falling for a plethora of academic, verbose and hazy proposals, which could be a recipe for disaster, relying too much on the good will of too much persons to be implemented.
Putin is good but Medvedev is bad (Medvedev is a handpicked buddy, a 100% puppet of Putin), Putin is good but the oligarchs are bad (you cannot be oligarch without being a close friend of Putin, no person became a billionaire in Russia in the last 15 or so odd years who was not a friend of Putin and no person became a millionaire who was not a friend of Putin’s friend. You cannot do any business in Russia period, I don’t care what, selling hotdogs or manufacturing straightjackets if you are not connected to the KGB/FSB or someone in hierarchy of the medium level bureaucracy, you may buy these connections but you still need them) and finally the Central Bank which is, as Mikhail Delyagin rightly claims is an extension of the US sanctions against the country and is essentially the enemy of the country – all people inside it are Putin’s appointees, including its head (Putin’s personal favorite) and am I sure Putin approves of every step it takes. The story of good Pew tin (or Poo tin) the Kinglet and bad oligarchs, disobedient boyars, naughty Fifth Column and central bank gambling without Putin’s consent is laughable. `