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☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

To Rafah, or not to Rafah, that is the question

Par : AHH — 28 mars 2024 à 02:24

All eyes are on Rafah as Israel prepares to mount an invasion to expel Palestinians or decimate them. It is this pivotal battle that will either force Israel into a ceasefire or thrust the region into an all-out, multi-front war.

By Tawfik Chouman at The Cradle.

The Battle of Rafah: a short step to regional war

The temporary truce struck on 24 November between the Hamas resistance movement and the Israeli government could have paved the way toward successive truces and potentially a sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

But the opportunity was squandered by Tel Aviv, who viewed the continuation of its genocidal war as a means to reshape Gaza’s political and security landscape under the guise of ‘restoring deterrence’ and mitigating domestic fallout from Hamas’ 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

Now, nearly six months since the commencement of what Israel calls a ‘war of survival and existence’ against Gaza, it has become clear that the occupation state’s military aggression cannot unseat Hamas from either the Strip or the broader Palestinian political arena.

The recent flurry of indirect Hamas–Israel negotiations held in Paris, Cairo, and Doha have revealed a stark political reality: Hamas is the primary Palestinian negotiating party where Gaza is concerned. This tacit acknowledgment by Tel Aviv marks the strategic failure of one of Israel’s dual objectives set forth last October, aimed at eradicating Hamas and its allied resistance factions in the Strip.

Bibi’s political interests v domestic backlash

This reality raises questions about the potential pathways available to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he struggles with immense international pressure to stop the carnage. Will he persist with the war on Gaza and risk global pariah status, or will he be compelled to pursue a politically costly settlement? The latter option, it should be noted, will not be an easy fix. It could potentially unleash a storm of domestic backlash within Israel, with various political factions eager to hold him accountable from multiple angles.

Since Netanyahu abandoned the truce in November, prominent Israeli political commentators and even former prime ministers have been surprisingly unanimous in their assessment. They argue that Netanyahu’s decision to prolong the war serves mainly his personal political interests, allowing him to project an illusion of victory while evading political, security, and judicial scrutiny.

Accordingly, Netanyahu’s stance remains firmly opposed to a war settlement. He has instead doubled down on the necessity of eliminating the military capabilities of Hamas and its allies, and is ostensibly pursuing an ‘absolute victory’ through total war.

The prime minister’s roadmap hinges on continuing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. In this scenario, he envisions the Battle of Rafah as the decisive climax that will definitively render the already terminal ‘two-state solution’ obsolete and permanently sever any ties between Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Battle of Rafah thus emerges as a pivotal juncture, delineating two competing trajectories: one driven by regional and international efforts towards a negotiated settlement, and the other dictated solely by Netanyahu’s ambitions.

Regional ramifications and Egypt’s dilemma

This raises complex questions about whether Netanyahu can prolong the war and influence regional and international actors – to buy time, if you will – all while factoring in the delicate balance of power involving Egypt and the wider regional war against other members of the Axis of Resistance.

Indeed, the Battle of Rafah presents a multi-level challenge for Egypt, encompassing political, security, and popular dimensions. Should the Israeli army invade Rafah, it will have significant implications for Cairo’s relations with Tel Aviv, in addition to severely impacting Egypt’s domestic security landscape.

A recent poll by the Washington Institute for Near East Studies revealed that three-quarters of Egyptians view Hamas positively. This popular sentiment influences Egyptian policy regarding potential Israeli actions in Rafah.

On 10 March, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported warnings from Egyptian officials on the potential suspension of the Camp David Accords if Israel were to attack Rafah.

Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian Information Service, emphasized the seriousness of Israel’s occupation of the Philadelphi Corridor – a buffer zone on the Sinai–Gaza border designated by the Camp David agreement – stating it poses a grave threat to Cairo–Tel Aviv relations.

Dealing with the potential mass influxes of Gazan civilians seeking refuge and Palestinian fighters crossing into Egyptian territory also poses significant logistical and security challenges. This scenario also raises questions about the Israeli army’s potential incursions into Egyptian territory and how the Egyptian military would respond.

Moreover, any intensification of pressure on Rafah or a full-scale Israeli invasion will lead to widespread regional ramifications, potentially including the unraveling of the Abraham Accords. The Axis of Resistance has made it clear that the elimination of Hamas is unacceptable and, if threatened, may trigger a regional war.

Complicating matters further is the lack of substantive US pressure on Israel to halt its actions in Gaza. While the Biden White House seeks a ‘credible operational plan,’ it has not unequivocally opposed an attack on Rafah. This ambivalence enables and even emboldens Netanyahu to continue his military operations.

Rafah could reshape the region 

Regardless of the outcome of the Battle of Rafah, both Israeli and US perspectives interpret it as a campaign directed against Hamas, which they view as an extension of Iranian influence in the region. This narrative aligns with what Thomas Friedman, writing for the New York Times, referred to as the new “Biden Doctrine,” which emphasizes confronting Iran and its allies in West Asia. This marks a significant shift in US strategy since 1979.

The convergence of US and Israeli interests casts suspicion on ongoing efforts to bring about a long-term ceasefire, with all eyes focused on the current round of talks in Doha. Amos Harel, writing for Haaretz, frames the discussions as a race toward either a negotiated ceasefire or a potentially expansive regional conflict involving multiple fronts.

Yemen’s Ansarallah movement, which last week expanded its naval operations into the Indian Ocean, has issued a stark warning against a Rafah invasion, threatening a sharp escalation in both sea and air operations, including the closure of the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Similarly, the Lebanese front remains sensitive to developments in Rafah. Despite the northern front’s expansion since the onset of 2024, recent Israeli attacks targeting Baalbek, over 100 kilometers from the southern border, suggest Tel Aviv’s misguided willingness to escalate.

This possibility could spill over into reality if Israel invades Rafah, as the occupation army may resort to preemptive actions to mitigate perceived threats from Lebanese resistance forces.

Overall, the Battle of Rafah will likely reshape the regional conflict, adding new layers to existing pressure fronts. Importantly, it challenges the notion that Hamas stands alone, abandoned in Rafah, as various regional actors, including Iran and its allies, are closely watching and prepared to intervene.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Geoengineering – Weapon of Mass Destruction

Par : AHH — 26 mars 2024 à 22:50

Solving the ‘Climate Crisis’ is Bad for Business and Worse for Politics

For GlobalSouth.co by Peter Koenig
25 March 202

The article Harvard Shuts Geoengineering Project by Cauf Skiviers, explains Bill Gates, funder of the project, stopping Harvard from carrying out the study to Preserve the Climate Narrative.

How is this relevant?

That Bill Gates calls the shots on what should and should not go forward, is nothing new. Surprising is that he was willing to finance such a study in the first place. – Why?

The honest results of the research would have shown the outright “climate change” fraud humanity has been exposed to for more than three decades.

The study’s outcome would have gone in the complete opposite direction of the current western globalist plan, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Great Reset and the UN Agenda 2030, One World Order, One World Government. Their success being largely based on the ”climate” lie.

Geoengineering serves two purposes, falsely demonstrating the Green Agenda’s fake CO2 emissions-based climate change, and – of equal importance – making weather and climate into Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

The outcome of the study would have been against those who want to destroy the world’s economy and social structure as we know it – to rebuild it afresh, according to the elites’ desire. See Club of Rome’s “First Global Revolution” (1991); and this.

The revelation of the now canceled Harvard research, would have allowed just about anyone marginally aware of what is happening to Mother Earth’s climate, to see through the scam. It would have been difficult to avoid leaking the study’s outcome of such a hyped-up topic, like “climate change”, to the public.

Imagine! – Harvard research would destroy a political agenda, as well as Big Business. It would reveal that the climate narrative of the “Green Agenda”, is a lie, and that the weather almost everywhere on the globe is manipulated – or to use the scientific term “geoengineered”.

More than three decades of intense “fake science” and media manipulation about humans’ CO2, methane, and similar greenhouse gas emissions, is the culprit for “climate change”, have left most people, even non-active, often “bought”, so-called scientists, under the impression that doomsday is just around the corner, if we keep using hydrocarbons (oil and gas) to fuel our economy and keep using agriculture to feed humanity.

These alarm bells are constant calls to decarbonize civilization. Yet, the use of hydrocarbons (mostly oil and gas) to run the world’s economies has hardly changed in the last three decades. In the early 1990s about 87% of all energy used worldwide came from oil and gas. The figure is almost the same today.

It is a big lie. The climate is NOT changing, at least not more than it has always changed over the past 4 billion years – normally by small increments, so that life on earth can adapt and adjust.

According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (Spanish Acronym – AEMET), there are currently more than 50 countries which have at least some technologies to change the weather and climate. See this.

Those with the most sophisticated knowledge are the United States, Russia, and China.

It is fair to assume that the 50-plus nations are “modifying” the weather or climate according to what benefits them most. It is also fair to assume that today there is worldwide almost no weather completely natural, but influenced either directly, or indirectly, through modified weather patterns elsewhere in the world, the collateral effect of geoengineering.

In olden times, it was called “the butterfly effect” – meaning the butterfly flaps its wings and will have an effect somewhere in the world. You do not know where and what. With geoengineering that can be very dangerous.

Obviously, weather modifications, so far, serve primarily the fake climate change agenda. When a super hurricane hits the Caribbean, or a prolonged Monsoon floods and destroys two thirds of Pakistan, including her economy, it exponentially exceeds the “normal”. Blame it on “climate change”.

But most often there is an economic and / or political agenda behind it. Take Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans on 29 August 2005. Some 1,800 people died. With 230 km / hour, Katrina made landfall in Southeast Louisiana and destroyed New Orleans.

While the State of Louisiana evacuated about 1.5 million people before the hurricane hit, 150,000 to 200,000 stayed behind, mostly black people in “old” New Orleans, often run-down, but potential prime real estate for developers; was to be razed for luxury-style rebuilding.

The original owners were later force-evacuated to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) provided “emergency” camps (shacks), all over the country. So, the force-refugees could not organize. The properties were taken over by the state and city. – This served both, an economic and political agenda.


In June through August and into September 2022, Pakistan received about three times as much rain as normal. The deadly disaster was blamed on “climate change”. See this.

In reality, the catastrophe is suspected of having been geoengineered, and had a political agenda. On 10 April 2022, the popular, democratically and by a landslide elected President, Imram Khan, was ousted through a parliamentary non-confidence vote, instigated and “influenced” by the US, because Mr. Khan refused to follow orders from Washington, but instead intended to be President for an independent Pakistan and for the People of Pakistan.

For weeks people took to the streets by the millions, creating national unrest, wanting their President Imram Khan back. Creating or geoengineering the destructive Monsoon floods was a means to stop the social upheaval, so that the country could follow the western / Washington imposed political agenda, which meant foremost no political or business relations with China.

This is weaponized geoengineering.

When geoengineering serves as a weapon for Super-Powers, the dangers may be equivalent or worse than from nuclear weapons. Because most people have no clue that these weather “disturbances” and climate disasters are manmade and targeted for specific purposes at an “enemy”.

To get this right, geoengineering is NOT manmade in terms of what the Green Agenda interprets manmade “climate change”, as in CO2 emissions, greenhouse gases and more of the like. Geoengineering is dangerous. The Green Agenda climate change claims are sheer bullsh*t.


Geoengineering has been developed since the early 1940s. It started out with simple cloud-seeding, to prompt rainfall, mostly for agricultural purposes. It then moved to more sophisticated weather and climate manipulations, using the infamous chemtrails, white “vapor” stripes emanating from airplanes, crisscrossing the blue skies, disseminating poisonous chemicals and microscopic heavy metal particles, to influence the climate – but also, and possibly more important, to affect people’s health in very negative ways.

There are hundreds if not thousands of patents out there for these chemicals and heavy metals coming down from the planes into the ground, into the water, into plants and vegetables and finally into our bodies, killing our Pineal Gland and gradually weakening our bodies.

Geoengineering also includes the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) and similarly sophisticated technologies. HAARP, created by the Pentagon-linked thinktank, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), is controlled by the US Airforce. HAARP is possibly the world’s most capable high-power, high-frequency electromagnetic waves transmitter, acting on the ionosphere.

HAARP technologies often applied from satellites, can emit electromagnetic waves piercing deep into the earth, creating earthquakes. It is suspected that HAARP technologies were used to cause the 6 February 2023 Turkey – Syria earthquake of 7.8 Richter scale strength, killing more than 60,000 people.

The seism happened shortly before Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reelected in May 2023 as President of Turkey. The earthquake’s epicenter was in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, with seismic movement taking place along the Conjugated Tectonic Faults. Strangely and remarkably, however, the tremors defied the natural patterns and do not fit into the usual mainshock–aftershocks sequence.

This was also the time when President Erdogan refused to approve Sweden and Finland into NATO, despite the tremendous pressure of all 29 other NATO countries – to put NATO even closer to Russia, the western-made non-conform enemy that needed to be “subdued.”

This would be weaponized political geoengineering, with an economic side effect.


The 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake of 7.0 magnitude, left the capital city, Port-au-Prince, devastated and killed about 220,000 people. Sizable off-shore oil and gas deposits are all over the Caribbean, and also off-shore of Port-au-Prince.

These petrol reserves, are so deep that it is uneconomical to exploit them at current depths. A seismic event will break the tectonic plates, so that the earth’s core pressure pushes the oil to higher levels, where exploitation is easier and more economical.

Haiti has been in chaos ever since. The Clinton Foundation set up allegedly to help rebuild Haiti, has been a disaster, causing more harm than good, and making the Clintons richer. Destabilizing the country is a good reason for the US to maintain steady control.

Haiti is the world’s first and only country inhabited by black slaves that fought for and obtained independence 220 years ago (January 1, 1804). Washington pretends, Haiti could become a national security threat – like Cuba! – and must be controlled. See this.

The giant Haiti tremor also served two interests: Economics, as in oil; and politics, as in control.

Geoengineering is a convenient and highly effective weapon to dominate or coerce countries into submission. The geo-weapon’s potential could explode exponentially during the coming years, decades, if people remain ignorant about its menace for humanity.

A Harvard study divulging what geoengineering does and can do would not only derail the entire fake “climate change” narrative, but might also risk taking steam out of the growing geo-weapons industry.

Therefore, “Solving the ‘Climate Crisis’ is indeed Bad for Business- and bad for Politics”, and even worse for strategic warfare planning. So, Bill Gates was right in stopping the Harvard Geoengineering Project. Geoengineering may, therefore, prosper, bringing rain, shine and – war.

—-

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Guys, We’re a Terrorist Nation

Par : AHH — 26 mars 2024 à 21:32

“We have met the enemy and it is us”

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The Nuland – Budanov – Tajik – Crocus connection

Par : AHH — 26 mars 2024 à 00:13

The Russian population has handed to the Kremlin total carte blanche to exercise brutal, maximum punishment – whatever and wherever it takes.

By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture Foundation.

Let’s start with the possible chain of events that may have led to the Crocus terror attack. This is as explosive as it gets. Intel sources in Moscow discreetly confirm this is one of the FSB’s prime lines of investigation.

December 4, 2023. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, only 3 months after his retirement, tells CIA mouthpiece The Washington Post: “There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night (…) You gotta get back there and create a campaign behind the lines.”

January 4, 2024: In an interview with ABC News, “spy chief” Kyrylo Budanov lays down the road map: strikes “deeper and deeper” into Russia.

January 31: Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev and meets Budanov. Then, in a dodgy press conference at night in the middle of an empty street, she promises “nasty surprises” to Putin: code for asymmetric war.

February 22: Nuland shows up at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event and doubles down on the “nasty surprises” and asymmetric war. That may be interpreted as the definitive signal for Budanov to start deploying dirty ops.

February 25: The New York Times publishes a story about CIA cells in Ukraine: nothing that Russian intel does not already know.

Then, a lull until March 5 – when crucial shadow play may have been in effect. Privileged scenario: Nuland was a key dirty ops plotter alongside the CIA and the Ukrainian GUR (Budanov). Rival Deep State factions got hold of it and maneuvered to “terminate” her one way or another – because Russian intel would have inevitably connected the dots.

Yet Nuland, in fact, is not “retired” yet; she’s still presented as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and showed up recently in Rome for a G7-related meeting, although her new job, in theory, seems to be at Columbia University (a Hillary Clinton maneuver).

Meanwhile, the assets for a major “nasty surprise” are already in place, in the dark, and totally off radar. The op cannot be called off.

March 5: Little Blinken formally announces Nuland’s “retirement”.

March 7: At least one Tajik among the four-member terror commando visits the Crocus venue and has his photo taken.

March 7-8 at night: U.S. and British embassies simultaneously announce a possible terror attack on Moscow, telling their nationals to avoid “concerts” and gatherings within the next two days.

March 9: Massively popular Russian patriotic singer Shaman performs at Crocus. That may have been the carefully chosen occasion targeted for the “nasty surprise” – as it falls only a few days before the presidential elections, from March 15 to 17. But security at Crocus was massive, so the op is postponed.

March 22: The Crocus City Hall terror attack.

ISIS-K: the ultimate can of worms

The Budanov connection is betrayed by the modus operandi– similar to previous Ukraine intel terror attacks against Daria Dugina and Vladimir Tatarsky: close reconnaissance for days, even weeks; the hit; and then a dash for the border.

And that brings us to the Tajik connection.

There seem to be holes aplenty in the narrative concocted by the ragged bunch turned mass killers: following an Islamist preacher on Telegram; offered what was later established as a puny 500 thousand rubles (roughly $4,500) for the four of them to shoot random people in a concert hall; sent half of the funds via Telegram; directed to a weapons cache where they find AK-12s and hand grenades.

The videos show that they used the machine guns like pros; shots were accurate, short bursts or single fire; no panic whatsoever; effective use of hand grenades; fleeing the scene in a flash, just melting away, almost in time to catch the “window” that would take them across the border to Ukraine.

All that takes training. And that also applies to facing nasty counter-interrogation. Still, the FSB seems to have broken them all – quite literally.

A potential handler has surfaced, named Abdullo Buriyev. Turkish intel had earlier identified him as a handler for ISIS-K, or Wilayat Khorasan in Afghanistan. One of the members of the Crocus commando told the FSB their “acquaintance” Abdullo helped them to buy the car for the op.

And that leads us to the massive can of worms to end them all: ISIS-K.

The alleged emir of ISIS-K, since 2020, is an Afghan Tajik, Sanaullah Ghafari. He was not killed in Afghanistan in June 2023, as the Americans were spinning: he may be currently holed up in Balochistan in Pakistan.

Yet the real person of interest here is not Tajik Ghafari but Chechen Abdul Hakim al-Shishani, the former leader of the jihadi outfit Ajnad al-Kavkaz (“Soldiers of the Caucasus”), who was fighting against the government in Damascus in Idlib and then escaped to Ukraine because of a crackdown by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – in another one of those classic inter-jihadi squabbles.

Shishani was spotted on the border near Belgorod during the recent attack concocted by Ukrainian intel inside Russia. Call it another vector of the “nasty surprises”.

Shishani had been in Ukraine for over two years and has acquired citizenship. He is in fact the sterling connection between the nasty motley crue Idlib gangs in Syria and GUR in Kiev – as his Chechens worked closely with Jabhat al-Nusra, which was virtually indistinguishable from ISIS.

Shishani, fiercely anti-Assad, anti-Putin and anti-Kadyrov, is the classic “moderate rebel” advertised for years as a “freedom fighter” by the CIA and the Pentagon.

Some of the four hapless Tajiks seem to have followed ideological/religious indoctrination on the internet dispensed by Wilayat Khorasan, or ISIS-K, in a chat room called Rahnamo ba Khuroson.

The indoctrination game happened to be supervised by a Tajik, Salmon Khurosoni. He’s the guy who made the first move to recruit the commando. Khurosoni is arguably a messenger between ISIS-K and the CIA.

The problem is the ISIS-K modus operandi for any attack never features a fistful of dollars: the promise is Paradise via martyrdom. Yet in this case it seems it’s Khurosoni himself who has approved the 500 thousand ruble reward.

After handler Buriyev relayed the instructions, the commando sent the bayat – the ISIS pledge of allegiance – to Khurosoni. Ukraine may not have been their final destination. Another foreign intel connection – not identified by FSB sources – would have sent them to Turkey, and then Afghanistan.

That’s exactly where Khurosoni is to be found. Khurosoni may have been the ideological mastermind of Crocus. But, crucially, he’s not the client.

Oleh Tyahnybok, with McCain and Nuland

The Ukrainian love affair with terror gangs

Ukrainian intel, SBU and GUR, have been using the “Islamic” terror galaxy as they please since the first Chechnya war in the mid-1990s. Milley and Nuland of course knew it, as there were serious rifts in the past, for instance, between GUR and the CIA.

Following the symbiosis of any Ukrainian government post-1991 with assorted terror/jihadi outfits, Kiev post-Maidan turbo-charged these connections especially with Idlib gangs, as well as north Caucasus outfits, from the Chechen Shishani to ISIS in Syria and then ISIS-K. GUR routinely aims to recruit ISIS and ISIS-K denizens via online chat rooms. Exactly the modus operandi that led to Crocus.

One “Azan” association, founded in 2017 by Anvar Derkach, a member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir, actually facilitates terrorist life in Ukraine, Tatars from Crimea included – from lodging to juridical assistance.

The FSB investigation is establishing a trail: Crocus was planned by pros – and certainly not by a bunch of low-IQ Tajik dregs. Not by ISIS-K, but by GUR. A classic false flag, with the clueless Tajiks under the impression that they were working for ISIS-K.

The FSB investigation is also unveiling the standard modus operandi of online terror, everywhere. A recruiter focuses on a specific profile; adapts himself to the candidate, especially his – low – IQ; provides him with the minimum necessary for a job; then the candidate/executor become disposable.

Everyone in Russia remembers that during the first attack on the Crimea bridge, the driver of the kamikaze truck was blissfully unaware of what he was carrying,

As for ISIS, everyone seriously following West Asia knows that’s a gigantic diversionist scam, complete with the Americans transferring ISIS operatives from the Al-Tanf base to the eastern Euphrates, and then to Afghanistan after the Hegemon’s humiliating “withdrawal”. Project ISIS-K actually started in 2021, after it became pointless to use ISIS goons imported from Syria to block the relentless progress of the Taliban.

Ace Russian war correspondent Marat Khairullin has added another juicy morsel to this funky salad: he convincingly unveils the MI6 angle in the Crocus City Hall terror attack (in English here, in two parts, posted by “S”).

The FSB is right in the middle of the painstaking process of cracking most, if not all ISIS-K-CIA/MI6 connections. Once it’s all established, there will be hell to pay.

But that won’t be the end of the story. Countless terror networks are not controlled by Western intel – although they will work with Western intel via middlemen, usually Salafist “preachers” who deal with Saudi/Gulf intel agencies.

The case of the CIA flying “black” helicopters to extract jihadists from Syria and drop them in Afghanistan is more like an exception – in terms of direct contact – than the norm. So the FSB and the Kremlin will be very careful when it comes to directly accusing the CIA and MI6 of managing these networks.

But even with plausible deniability, the Crocus investigation seems to be leading exactly to where Moscow wants it: uncovering the crucial middleman. And everything seems to be pointing to Budanov and his goons.

Ramzan Kadyrov dropped an extra clue. He said the Crocus “curators” chose on purpose to instrumentalize elements of an ethnic minority – Tajiks – who barely speak Russian to open up new wounds in a multinational nation where dozens of ethnicities live side by side for centuries.

In the end, it didn’t work. The Russian population has handed to the Kremlin total carte blanche to exercise brutal, maximum punishment – whatever and wherever it takes.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Double Crossing of the Red Line

Par : AHH — 25 mars 2024 à 18:05

Moscow’s Terror Explosion – Macron’s NATO Troops to Ukraine

Peter Koenig
23 March 2024

Automatic gun-shooting by 5 men in black took place Friday evening 22 March in the Crocus City Concert Hall, attached to a shopping mall, at the outskirts of Moscow. The terror attack preceded a concert. The hall was therefore crowded with people, panicking for leaving it. The assault was followed by a massive explosion.

The official fatality as of 23 March stands at 133. Dozens of people were injured.

The Islamic State (IS) – a CIA creation – claimed credit for the attack.

However, the political end of this attack is more complex.
On March 7, 2024, the US Embassy in Russia warned Moscow that a terror attack may take place in Moscow within the next few weeks. No further details.

Is it one of the now fashionable “predictive planning” stunts?

On the same day, the same US Embassy in Moscow warned US citizens in Moscow not to visit shopping malls. How much did the US know?

Speculations abound. Was this an empty warning to destabilize Russia and Russian elections? Or was it one more provocation to pull Russia into a larger conflict?

On the day of the attack, John Kirby, spokesman for National Security at the White House said in a Press Conference that there were no indications that Ukraine had anything to do with the attack. In early March Washington just had some indications that a terror assault may hit Moscow.

“Some indications”? – Why then the warning on the same 7 March to US citizens in Moscow not to visit any shopping malls?

It could not be more obvious that a hidden agenda is being played by Washington – and, may be added, by NATO and Europe?

Whether the Islamic State, Al Qaeda or another CIA / MI6 terror creation – or even Kiev directly, was involved in this mass-killing is irrelevant, because whoever acted, did so on behalf of US / NATO and the collective West.

Admiral John Kirby, spokesman for National Security at the White House

It is no coincidence that French President Macron practically simultaneously sends officially 2,000 French NATO troops to Ukraine. “Officially”, because western / NATO military advisers, trainers and coaches for Kiev’s Nazi-military have been in Kiev for quite a while.

Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski has called it an open secret that Western soldiers are in Ukraine. German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz said, “there are already some troops from big countries in Ukraine.” (See this)


This is clearly the crossing of President Putin’s Red Line. Mr. Macron knows it, those who mandate the crossing of the Red Line, like the WEF and those dark Deep State Cult forces behind the WEF, know it – and Moscow knows that they know it.

Is it a provocation to pull Moscow into a hot war?
And the Moscow Concert Hall assault being a doubling-up of the Red-Line crossing?

This happening in the Ides of March, and just after the confirmed landslide re-election of President Putin on 17 March 2024.

Ides of March, is the day in the ancient Roman calendar that falls approximately on Mid-March and is associated with misfortune and doom. The date is also known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Most US wars were initiated in March. Is it a symbolic cult ritual of the west?

It would perfectly fit into the Death Cult of the Great Reset (WEF) and the UN Agenda 2030, which are currently plaguing humanity – worldwide.

There are other non-coincidences. The 24 March 2024 is the 25th anniversary of the 1999 US-NATO assault on Yugoslavia (Ides of March) – currently being commemorated by a three-day Conference 22-24 March 2024, in Belgrade.

The destruction and dismembering of Yugoslavia were also planned by a long hand. After Josip Tito’s death in May 1980 (he served in several leadership positions of Yugoslavia from 1943 – 1980) – there were some lesser communist successors, who were vulnerable to western / NATO “pressures”, and let what was a solid Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) deteriorate, western-style.

In 1990 Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia became de facto President of the SFR Yugoslavia attempting to hold the federation together – which in the ten years after President Tito’s departure was financially destabilized by the west. In the 1990s the SFR Yugoslavia was one of the first “cases” where the World Bank, IMF Washington Consensus was applied full-scale – indebting to destabilize, create internal unrest – and divide.

Mr. Milošević was captured, detained at the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prison in The Hague. He was poisoned on March 11, 2006 in his prison cell – shortly before his scheduled appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Once divided with constant civil unrest, there was “justification” for western rescue, i.e., bombing Yugoslavia literally into bits and pieces – leaving what we have today, numerous so-called independent former Yugoslavian Federal States – being economically and with “sanctions” controlled by the west.

This is the strategy Washington wants to apply to the Russian Federation – destabilizing it, fracturing it, Regime Change, and then taking it over.

Imagine! – The world’s biggest riches in the world’s largest country, absorbed or subdued by the (still) wannabe US Empire – and its European vassals.

It looks like the west wants a hot war with Russia, come hell or high water. Yes, it would be hell for Europe – for the third time in just over 100 years, and three-times for the same purpose – taking control of Russia, WWI, WWII and now WWIII?

A war – possibly nuclear – of which nobody can predict the outcome. As President Putin repeatedly said – there will be no winners, just absolute destruction.

Under no circumstances will Russia allow a take-over by an arrogant, criminal west. With Russian military’s far-superiority over US and NATO forces, this will not happen.

In the current Middle-East scenario, western leaders are supporting and funding the Israeli-Zionists, literally destroying and mass-killing – wiping out – Palestine, depicting an arrogance blinded by the zest for unlimited might, possibly driving humanity into a bottomless abyss.

A cleansing of this genocidal western “superiority” may bring birth of a new civilization – an evolution to a more spiritual and less material humanity.

—-

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Fallout from Moscow’s Crocus City Hall

Par : AHH — 25 mars 2024 à 08:10

Was the US behind the Moscow terror attack? The US and Ukraine will pay a high price. And that, I have been reliably informed, will extend to our Arab world.

By Abdel Bari Atwan at Rai Al Youm.

The Ukraine war could be poised to take a dramatic new turn

The terrorist operation in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall centre, which killed 143 people and injured hundreds of others, mostly concertgoers, was clearly carried out by a group that had been given serious military training. It could mark a paradigm shift in the Ukraine war presaging a strategic escalation and NATO’s official entry into the war.

Two weeks earlier, the US embassy in Moscow had warned its citizens that extremists were planning imminent attacks on large gatherings, including concerts, in the Russian capital, and warned them to stay away. That foreknowledge of the planning and execution of the operation raised suspicions about a degree of complicity. Washington’s denunciation of the atrocity, and swift disavowal of involvement, cannot be taken at face value.

When the initial warning was made, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova remarked that if the US had information about terrorist actions of such enormity, it should have shared it with Russia. That was the first official hint from Moscow of suspected American complicity.

Two years into the Ukraine war, the US has begun to sense defeat. Russia has made a succession of gains, taking control of the Donbas region and annexing it after holding referendums.

Large-scale US and NATO intervention — on the material, military, and intelligence fronts — failed to achieve any major success. Russia did not collapse under the weight of draconian sanctions. Its economy remains strong. The predicted colour revolution never happened, nor the anticipated military coup to depose Putin.

The opposite occurred, with the Russian president getting re-elected with an 87% majority on a 74% turnout.

The resort to terrorist attacks in Moscow could be a mark of the US’ frustration and a response aimed at expanding the scope of the war. But that would not only be a losing bet. It could bring the prospect of a catastrophic nuclear war closer.

Putin announced on Saturday night that the eleven people involved in the attack, including four direct participants, had been apprehended.
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the Russia Today broadcast network, Margarita Simonyan, published video excerpts of the interrogation of one of the suspects. He identified himself as Feredoun Shamsedin, born in 1988, who arrived in Russia from Turkey on 4 March. He said he had been recruited via Telegram after following an extremist preacher, by someone who offered him 5 million roubles ($5,000) to conduct a mass killing in Moscow. Half of the money was transferred to him in advance.

I met Ms. Simonyan when I visited Moscow recently. She was constantly accompanied by a security detail because she had been subjected to death threats. She said she believed the Crocus atrocity was masterminded by the Ukrainian regime, rather than by ISIS as the US media were claiming. Putin’s subsequent assertion that the perpetrators were arrested while heading towards the Ukrainian border reinforced that accusation.

Russia’s fingers of blame pointed at Ukraine were a portent of fierce retaliation. It seems to have already begun. Former president and current deputy national security chief Dmitri Medvedev warned immediately after the massacre that Russia would hunt down any Ukrainian leaders proven to have been involved.

Reading between the lines, that may imply that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky could be top of the target list.

Two days before the Crocus attack, Putin threatened Ukraine with ”war’—abandoning the term special military operation’ — in response to French President Emanual Macron’s hint that NATO could send 90,000 fully equipped troops to Ukraine. Under Russian military doctrine, a declaration of war authorises the use of all available means, including nuclear weapons.

The US administration, disoriented and defeated in Ukraine and (so far) the Middle East, is fueling this escalation against Russia. It is the primary beneficiary of the Crocus attack. Not just to destabilise Russia by stoking ethnic tensions, but also to divert international attention away from its collusion in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the failure of its cynical attempt at the UN Security Council to sustain it under the guise of favouring (but not actually calling for) a cease-fire.

Putin won’t forgive this assault on his capital while it was celebrating the renewal of his presidential term. He is likely to make the US and Ukraine pay a high price. And that, I have been reliably informed, will extend to our Arab world.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

VVP’s Announced Telephone Conversations in Last Two Days

Par : AHH — 24 mars 2024 à 17:08

Per Newton’s third law, Hell cometh to the demented Anglo-Zionist satanists in Greater Syria….


🇷🇺🇧🇾📞 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.

The President of the Republic of Belarus expressed his heartfelt condolences on the monstrous terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, conveyed words of sympathy and support to the victims’ families and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured, emphasising that the people of Belarus stand together with the people of Russia in this time of sorrow.

Alexander Lukashenko offered any assistance that may be needed, and expressed his confidence that the organisers and perpetrators of this heinous crime will face inevitable punishment.

For his part, Vladimir Putin informed his counterpart about the detention of the terrorists directly involved in the attack, as well as about the ongoing investigation.

🤝 Both leaders expressed mutual readiness to continue close cooperation in the fight against terrorism.


🇷🇺🇰🇿📞 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

During his telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed his deep condolences over numerous victims of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, stressing that he resolutely condemns this barbaric crime, and asked to convey words of sympathy and support to the victims’ families and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.

Both Leaders reaffirmed their intention to step up anti-terror cooperation.


🇷🇺🇺🇿📞 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev

Shavkat Mirziyoyev strongly condemned the heinous terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, expressed his sincere condolences in connection with the tragedy, and asked to convey words of support to the victims’ families and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.

Both Sides reaffirmed their intention to continue close cooperation to counter terrorism.


🇷🇺🇹🇷📞 On March 23, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a telephone conversation.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered his deep and heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the heinous terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. He noted that the Republic of Türkiye stands with the people of Russia in this dark hour.

Vladimir Putin emphasised that Russia appreciates the support of the Turkish people and informed his Turkish counterpart on the status of the investigation into the terrorist attack.

During the conversation, the Turkish Leader stressed the urgent need for closer bilateral cooperation in the fight against the terrorist threat.

President Putin expressed gratitude for the condolences and supported the idea of stepping up cooperation in countering terrorism.


🇷🇺🇸🇾📞 On March 23, President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of the Syrian Arab Republic Bashar al-Assad held a telephone conversation.

The President of Syria strongly condemned the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, stressing that Syrian citizens share the pain and grief of the Russian people. He wished fortitude to the victims’ families and friends and a speedy recovery to the injured.

Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad discussed the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and the current situation in Syria, which is directly facing the terrorist threat.

🤝 The Leaders agreed to intensify contacts both in addressing counterterrorism and in all other areas of bilateral cooperation.

ADDENDUM:


🇹🇯 🇷🇺 President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon telephoned Vladimir Putin to express deep condolences and solidarity with the Russian people over the death of innocent civilians in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. The President of Tajikistan emphasised that there was no nor could not be any justification for that crime.

During the conversation, Vladimir Putin and Emomali Rahmon noted that the security services of Russia and Tajikistan were working closely together to counter terrorism and that they would build up their cooperation.

Tajikistan’s President Rahmon during phone conversation with Russia’s Putin condemns terrorist attack in Russia, says terrorists have neither nationality nor religion

During the conversation, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev strongly condemned the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, which claimed the lives of over 100 innocent civilians, expressed deep condolences to their families and friends, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

Ilham Aliyev stressed that the people of Azerbaijan stand together with the Russian people on this day of national mourning and expressed confidence that the severe punishment of the criminals and those who masterminded that crime was unavoidable.

Vladimir Putin thanked the President of Azerbaijan for his words of support and expressed readiness to further strengthen practical interaction in the spirit of strategic partnership and alliance between Russia and Azerbaijan.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The Day the combined West committed Suicide

Par : AHH — 24 mars 2024 à 15:43

Twenty-five years ago, NATO started bombing Yugoslavia

On March 24, 1999, Western countries launched a series of devastating airstrikes on Belgrade, the capital of the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia, which had been already suffering from a political crisis. The US and its allies declared that the Noble Anvil military op was motivated by “humanitarian” reasons and targeted only the military – but in reality, NATO airstrikes killed at least 2,500 people, ruined national infrastructure and sped up the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
@geopolitics_live

Sergey Lavrov at the UNSC

🎙 Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Sergey Lavrov’s address to the President of the Security Council (March 24, 1999)

💬 The Russian Federation is profoundly outraged at the use by the NATO of military force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

☝ Those who are involved in this unilateral use of force against the sovereign Federal Republic of Yugoslavia — carried out in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and without the authorization of the Security Council — must realize the heavy responsibility they bear for subverting the Charter and other norms of international law and for attempting to establish in the world, de facto, the primacy of force and unilateral diktat.

The members of NATO are not entitled to decide the fate of other sovereign and independent States. They must not forget that they are not only members of their alliance, but also Members of the United Nations.

❌ Attempts to justify the NATO strikes with arguments about preventing a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo are completely untenable.

<…>

Attempts to apply a different standard to international law and to disregard its basic norms and principles create a dangerous precedent that could cause acute destabilization and chaos on the regional and global level.

The fact that NATO has opted to use force in Kosovo raises very serious questions about the sincerity of the repeated assurances that that alliance was not claiming the role of the world’s policeman and was prepared to cooperate in the interests of common European security.

❗ The Russian Federation vehemently demands the immediate cessation of this illegal military action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Read in full

Nuremberg and the Crime of Wars of Aggression

“To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

Primakov’s ‘U-Turn over Atlantic’

How Russian PM Primakov showed Moscow won’t be US satellite

On March 24, 1999, Yevgeny Primakov’s plane was en route to the US where the then-Russian prime minister was due to discuss an IMF loan to the tune of $5 billion for his country. But after then-US Vice President Al Gore told Primakov about NATO starting to bomb Yugoslavia, he decided to turn his plane around and go back to Moscow.

Despite Gore’s desperate attempts to persuade Primakov to backtrack on his decision and come to Washington, the Russian prime minister was undeterred.

“If I had accepted Gore’s terms, I would have been a real traitor,” Primakov later said.

Dr. Samuel Hoff, a professor of history and political science at Delaware State University, points to the significant expansion of NATO after the March 1999 incident.

“It is a fact that in 1999, NATO had 16 countries. And as we sit here in 2024, there are 32 members,” Hoff notes in an interview with Sputnik.

Peter Kuznick, a professor of history at the American University, tells Sputnik that Primakov’s U-turn over the Atlantic added significantly to tarnishing the already “strained” US-Russian relations at the time.

Referring to current “terrible” ties between Moscow and Washington, “the lack of trust” and a bilateral “polarization,” the professor says that one is “beginning to see signs of that certainly with Primakov’s mission in 1999.”

“So it certainly can be seen as an important turning point in terms of the deterioration of potential friendship between the US and Russia and creating a much more positive kind of multipolar world,” he concludes.

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NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia: A ‘culmination of negligence’ that opened Pandora’s box

Twenty-five years ago, NATO kicked off its 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. According to various sources, up to 2,500 people were killed and over 6,000 more injured during the bombing, which was not approved by the UN.

In an interview with Sputnik, Dr. Stevan Gajic, a Balkans expert and research associate at the Belgrade-based Institute of European Studies, says that the beginning of NATO’s “illegal attack” against Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999, was “a precedent that opened Pandora’s box.”

“It was a culmination of negligence of the international law that started since the end of the Cold War. Absolutely, [the] 1999 [NATO campaign] was a precedent. We can even say that the international law was in a way abolished at that moment and, of course, after that chaos was introduced into the system of international relations, Gacic points out.

The expert also didn’t rule out launching a “real investigation against NATO crimes” in Yugoslavia, which he says can only happen after the serious geopolitical changes following the collapse of NATO in one way or the other. He was echoed by Dr. Srdjan Sljukic, a professor of sociology at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, who tells Sputnik that “NATO aggression against Yugoslavia” reflected “two sorts of crimes,” such as “breaking the international law” and “bombing civilian objects and killing many civilians.”

Sljukic also warns that “as long as the key Western countries are ruled by the current liberal elites, NATO countries will not be put on fair trial because of their crimes in Yugoslavia and all over the world.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry Statement in connection with the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia

History knows many events which, by virtue of their profound impact on the international order, marked a change of eras.

The NATO attack on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999 is certainly one such event. It went beyond being a tragic milestone in the life of the Serbian people with thousands of ruined lives and desecrated national dignity, and included a devastating blow to international law and European security foundations that had been laid after World War II. The United States and the EU got finally convinced in their own impunity and moral superiority which was bad news for those who prefer to choose their own path rather than become someone’s tool in their efforts to realise their own interests. The strategic balance of power collapsed, and a drawn-out crisis of international relations ensued which continues to worsen.

The US and its allies who assaulted a peaceful European country trampled on the UN Charter and the CSCE/OSCE principles, and desecrated the very notion of sovereignty. They have thus made it clear that they will stoop to anything, including radioactive contamination of vast swathes of land, to achieve global dominance. The widespread use of depleted uranium munitions by NATO has led to a multifold increase in cancer cases in that region, contaminated the environment where millions of people had lived for many years, and went down in history as a separate dark chapter on the list of NATO crimes.

During the 78 days of military aggression 14,000 bombs were dropped on Yugoslavia and over 2,000 missiles were fired, including cluster and demolition shells. Under the mocking front of a “humanitarian intervention,” mostly civilian targets were hit, including residential districts, hospitals, schools, bridges, mass transit vehicles, and refugee convoys. Thousands of civilians were killed, including 89 children, whom the Western coalition cynically referred to as “collateral damage.” No one has ever been held accountable for these atrocities, and international justice turned a deaf ear to the suffering of the Serbs and let NATO atrocities go unnoticed.

Not only the bombed-out buildings of the Yugoslav General Staff and Defence Ministry in central Belgrade which irritate the US officials to this day remind us of those terrible days. Serbia has many other unhealed wounds. A portion of the country’s ancestral territory, Kosovo and Metohija, has been forcibly taken away. The West has taken under its wing terrorists from the Kosovo Liberation Army, gave the province the status of a pseudo-state, and encourages the expulsion of the indigenous Serbian population.

This inevitably begs the question: was the “Kosovo project” worth the sacrifice and destruction that the alliance brought upon Yugoslavia? Has the self-proclaimed “republic” added stability or prosperity to the Balkan region?

There is no doubt that the United States’ concern for the rights of Kosovo Albanians is a fake claim from the get-go. It is nothing but a false pretext for the crackdown on Serbs.

The West’s goal was to turn the provisional self-governing bodies in Pristina into a tool for anti-Serb ethnic cleansing and a festering trouble spot to put pressure on Belgrade. At the end of the day, the Kosovo settlement is in a deadlock, and the situation on the ground threatens to escalate into an armed conflict.

This is what the Western “peacemaking” is all about. Its disastrous ramifications can now be seen in Ukraine, where a neo-Nazi regime has been nurtured on the basis of Washington and its supporters’ rejection of the principles of equality and mutual respect in international affairs, a regime that committed genocide against the Russian population and plunged the country into a military face-off.

We can hear the US and the EU increasingly call on Serbs to “turn the page” and forgive NATO for the invasion that took place 25 years ago. On top of that, they lay the bulk of the blame on the Serbs for the dramatic events during the breakup of Yugoslavia, including the 1999 bombing attacks. I’d be hard pressed to find proper words to describe the extent of Western shamelessness and lack of self-criticism.

The Alliance will never be able to wash off the shame of war crimes. No one believes its demagoguery about defending freedom and democracy anymore. The United States and the rest of NATO have no right whatsoever to talk about implementing an obscure new “rules-based order.” Their every effort to put together some kind of “global security architecture” is by definition malevolent and toxic, and aimed solely at perpetrating the neocolonial hegemony of the West.

Russia and its partners in Belgrade will continue to oppose the attempts to distort the history of the Yugoslav crisis and to shift the emphasis to demonising Serbs and justifying the 1999 aggression. The attempts to insult the memory of the innocent victims of NATO hangmen are unacceptable.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Turkey takes its Seat in Rules-based Terrorism Inc.

Par : AHH — 23 mars 2024 à 19:08

Turkey starts to drift into view, as NATO becomes officially activated in Europe.. Turkish elites, in spite of antipathy of its working peoples for post-modern western values, remain at the heart of NATO.

To woo Washington, Erdogan will sell out Palestine

After Ankara and Washington successfully swapped Sweden’s NATO accession for an F-16 fighter jet deal, Turkiye is focused on accelerating that rapprochement and is willing to sweep divisive issues – like genocide in Gaza – under the rug.

By Mohamad Hasan Sweidan at The Cradle.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan

On 7–8 March, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin visited Washington. The trip garnered attention as it marked Turkiye’s first official visit to the US following the conclusion of the ‘Sweden for F-16’ deal, whereby Ankara accepted Stockholm’s accession to NATO in exchange for US Congressional approval of the sale of 40 F-16s to Turkiye.

During the visit, the two Turkish officials met with their US counterparts Antony Blinken and William Burns, along with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and their respective foreign ministers chaired the seventh meeting of the US–Turkiye Strategic Mechanism.

“Naval Battle of Çesme at Night,” July 1770, Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), by Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky (1848)

US–Turkish rapprochement

The thaw in US–Turkish relations has been palpable, as noted by Jeff Flake, the US Ambassador to Ankara, during a televised interview: “Especially in recent months, the two countries have developed shared areas. We observe improvements in defense, trade, and interpersonal relations.”

A closer examination of the joint statement released following the meeting illustrates the transition of Turkish–American relations into a more favorable and cooperative phase.

Established in 2021 and inaugurated on 4 April 2021 amidst escalating discord between Turkiye and the US, the strategic mechanism was conceived to address and improve the strained bilateral relations.

The joint statement issued by the Strategic Mechanism this month included several crucial points, each carrying significant implications:

Both parties addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine, condemning Russia’s actions as ‘unacceptable’ while emphasizing the importance of upholding Ukraine’s unity and sovereignty. However, it is worth noting that Ankara’s endorsement of the statement’s rhetoric aligns more closely with Kiev’s perspective, a deviation from Turkiye’s previous neutral stance. This marked shift will undermine President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aspirations to mediate the conflict impartially.

“Destruction of the Turkish Fleet in the Bay of Chesme,” July 1770, Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), by Jacob Philipp Hackert, commissioned by Catherine II in 1772

Playing to the audience

On Israel’s brutal military assault in Gaza, the statement merely referred to an “ongoing crisis” and “underlined the importance of finding a path towards ending the conflict and addressing the humanitarian crisis immediately.” This is a war that Erdogan has, on the record, framed as a “genocide” and called its aggressors in Tel Aviv “war criminals.”

While both parties expressed support for the “two-state solution” as an end goal to the war, the statement’s release coincided with a fiery speech by Erdogan in Istanbul in which he attacked Israel, calling it “the Nazis of our time.” The contrast between the two statements is a real-time reflection of how Turkiye addresses its different target audiences.

On the issue of combating terrorism, the statement endorses joint US–Turkish efforts against organizations like the PKK, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda across regions spanning from Africa to Central Asia. They also recommitted to counterterrorism consultations and discussions on the Syria file, including the adherence to UN Resolution 2254 and supporting a “Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political process.”

The two parties addressed a multitude of regional issues in West Asia and Africa in alignment with the broader US strategy outlined by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, which focuses on partnership-building, deterrence, diplomacy, regional integration, and “democracy promotion” in these geographies.

This includes cooperation in military industry, energy, and trade development, reflecting the existing $30 billion trade volume between Washington and Ankara.

Significantly, the parties discussed leveraging financing opportunities under the Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership – a western initiative intended to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This partnership includes the controversial India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), aimed at enhancing regional connectivity and economic development very much to the benefit of Israel.

New Turkish military action in Syria and Iraq?

As the municipal elections in Turkiye draw near – with Erdogan seeking to reclaim his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) control of Istanbul and Ankara after notable previous losses – there’s a tangible resurgence in Turkish rhetoric advocating for military action in northern Syria and Iraq.

According to reports from the Turkish news agency T24, the Turkish armed forces are gearing up for an operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside its neighboring states following local elections on 31 March.

After a 4 March cabinet meeting, Erdogan spoke of Turkiye’s readiness for a comprehensive operation against the Kurdish separatist groups and reiterated Ankara’s objective of establishing a security corridor spanning 30 to 40 kilometers along the Turkish–Syrian border.

Although the military rhetoric is undoubtedly influenced by Erdogan’s bid to attract nationalist voters in the upcoming elections, it is also connected to the recent Turkish–Iraqi diplomatic breakthrough following a high-level Turkish delegation’s visit to Baghdad.

The meeting in the Iraqi capital led to a security deal in which both countries committed to take action against the PKK. A joint statement read:

Both sides stressed that the PKK organization represents a security threat to both Turkiye and Iraq, and it is certain that the presence of the organization on Iraqi territory represents a violation of the Iraqi constitution … Turkiye welcomed the decision taken by the Iraqi National Security Council to list the PKK as a banned organization in Iraq. The two sides consulted on the measures that must be taken against the organization and its banned extensions [PKK’s alleged offshoots] that target Turkiye from within Iraq’s territory.

Fidan’s senior adviser, Nuh Yilmaz, praised the move, saying, “Turkiye and Iraq decided for the first time to fight jointly against PKK terrorism.” In a post on platform X, he added: “A decision that will mark a turning point! We will see results gradually!”


Strategic interests come first 

According to a well-informed Turkish source:

Turkey’s main purpose is very clear. The presence of the PKK in Metina and Gara [in northern Iraq] has the potential to seriously threaten the Iraq Development Road Project … We both would like to remove PKK from these two areas as well as secure the area for the construction of the project, reaching both objectives in one step.

Ankara and Baghdad seek to counter any threat to this development road project, a land corridor linking the port of Faw in Basra to the Turkish border and from there to Europe.

In this context, Erdogan is expected to visit Baghdad for the first time since 2012, where, some speculate, he will try to conclude a border control security agreement with the Iraqi government and seek to convince Baghdad to support future Turkish military operations against the PKK.

Despite Turkiye and Erdogan’s vocal criticism of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, recent interactions between Ankara and Washington indicate a pragmatic approach in their dealings, through which Turkiye hopes to be reinstated as an important US strategic partner.

While the Turkish president is stepping up anti-Zionist rhetoric on his domestic front, his administration maintains substantial economic ties with Israel, exporting various vital goods and services to the occupation state.

Although a Washington–Ankara rapprochement is still in its nascent stage, recent developments reveal the old allies are on a positive trajectory to repair bilateral relations after a period of strained diplomatic ties.

Erdogan’s foreign policy approach – as exemplified by his rhetorical Gaza stance and material support for Israel – makes clear Turkiye’s shift toward prioritizing strategic interests over ideological ones.

≈≈≈

“Chesma battle of 1770,” Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), by Vladimir Kosov (2021)

Nuclear Threat, World War III and Turkey: Balance Policy or a Game?

Is Turkey’s rhetorical stance of “balancing” a genuine attempt at strategic equilibrium, or merely an endeavor to occupy multiple positions simultaneously?

By Erkin Öncan at Strategic Culture Foundation.

Alexander Stubb, the newly elected president of Finland, has made several noteworthy statements regarding the current geopolitical climate. He emphasized the escalating tensions amidst discussions of a World War III. Stubb, representing the center-right National Coalition Party, expressed openness to the possibility of allowing the transportation and storage of U.S. nuclear weapons in Finnish territory, branding them as a “guarantee of peace.” This stance remained consistent throughout his election campaign and was reiterated upon assuming office. Stubb underscored the necessity for Finland to possess a tangible nuclear deterrent force, citing NATO membership as pivotal in providing multiple layers of deterrence, including military, munitions, and nuclear deterrence from the USA. He further asserted that Finland’s alignment with NATO signifies a definitive step towards embracing Western values, a sentiment echoed by the inclusion of Turkey as an enthusiastic participant in the anticipated third major conflict.

However, Finland’s enthusiasm for NATO membership has not gone unnoticed by Russia, which shares a significant border with the country. In response to Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO, Russian President Putin announced plans to bolster military presence along the Western borders to counteract perceived threats stemming from NATO’s eastward expansion. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov conveyed Moscow’s acknowledgment of the democratic choice made by the Finnish people but indicated pessimism regarding potential improvements in Russo-Finnish relations.

The most explicit reaction to Stubb’s nuclear policy came from Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariya Zakharova. Addressing the issue during a weekly press conference at the World Youth Festival in Sochi, Zakharova outlined Russia’s stance on the placement of U.S. nuclear weapons in Northern Europe. She asserted that such deployments would be considered a direct threat and would consequently be designated as legitimate targets in the event of a direct military conflict between Russia and NATO. Zakharova underscored Russia’s awareness of the desires of the United States and its allies in this regard.

Izmir, Turkey: permanent headquarters of NATO Land Forces, known as Allied Land Command (LANDCOM).

The primary source of concern regarding nuclear capabilities is now widely recognized to stem from the potential for World War III to be nuclear in nature. When discussing nuclear power, the focus often turns to Russia, acknowledged as the “world’s largest nuclear power”.

Western media consistently highlights the perceived “nuclear threat emanating from the authoritarian Kremlin”. However, to truly address the concept of a “nuclear danger”, it is essential to consider the United States, which has transformed Europe into a depot for nuclear weapons, rather than Russia, which does not maintain nuclear forces beyond its borders, apart from the neighboring Belarus.

The United States and its NATO allies do not disclose precise figures regarding the stockpiles deployed in Europe. Nevertheless, estimates from the U.S.-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in 2021 suggest that around 100 U.S. nuclear weapons are stored across six bases in five NATO member countries.

These weapons are kept in inactive states within underground vaults at national air bases. Notably, the “permissive action link” (PAL) codes required to activate these weapons are under American control. In the event of their use, the weapons would be loaded onto warplanes designated by NATO.

This situation is intricately tied to the “modernization” efforts undertaken by nations operating F-35A, F-18 Super Hornet, or Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

U.S. nuclear weapons have been stationed in Europe since the mid-1950s, authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for storage at NATO bases on the continent as a deterrent against the Soviet Union.

Stored in warehouses across Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries, these weapons are maintained for potential deployment when required. Additionally, countries such as Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland, and Romania participate in SNOWCAT operations, facilitating NATO partner involvement in nuclear missions.

Meanwhile, Finland, under the leadership of Stubb, is positioning itself as a significant player in the ongoing ’nuclear preparedness’ measures originally aimed at countering the USSR and persisting in response to Russia.

This dynamic persists alongside ongoing military actions initiated by NATO against Russia. Notably, the commencement of Steadfast Defender-24, hailed as NATO’s largest military exercise since the Cold War, marks a significant development. This exercise aims to test the transfer of military forces to Eastern Europe and beyond, encompassing regions where Russia’s influence is perceived as encroaching.

This exercise constitutes a series of 15 maneuvers rather than a singular major military operation.

Steadfast Defender encompasses various other exercises conducted at national or regional levels, including Joint Warrior, Solid Approach, Arctic Dolphin, Northern Response, Immediate Response, Brilliant Jump, Movable Defender, Slovak Shield, Saber Strike, Trojan Trail-24, and Spring Storm.

İzmir: rebranded ancient Smyrna from pre-historic through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, Ottoman, and Turk Periods.

Turkey actively participates in these exercises, with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) playing a pivotal role in Brilliant Jump, Nordic Response, Saber Strike, and Immediate Response exercises.

Turkey’s involvement extends beyond military participation; it also hosts one of NATO’s most crucial commands. The permanent headquarters of NATO Land Forces, known as Allied Land Command (LANDCOM), is situated in Izmir.

Decisions regarding NATO’s land maneuvers are made at the command post within the General Vecihi Akın Barracks in Buca, Izmir. Given its historical significance, Izmir, where the first shot was fired against invaders a century ago, could potentially be remembered as the site where the decision to initiate the first shot of a world-engulfing war was made if a new global conflict were to erupt on Russia’s borders.

This prompts consideration of Turkey’s rhetorical stance of “balancing”. Is it a genuine attempt at strategic equilibrium, or merely an endeavor to occupy multiple positions simultaneously?

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Gaza Update: Anglo-Zionist Pier & Bifurcation Road

Par : AHH — 23 mars 2024 à 18:36

Along with the latest news from the resistance in Gaza and the West Bank, Jon Elmer takes a look at the US military operation to build a pier in Gaza City and how that plan lines up with Israel’s ongoing construction of a highway south of Gaza City that will divide the Strip between north and south.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

How could Russia respond to NATO invasion?

Par : AHH — 22 mars 2024 à 20:48

Will France/NATO invade Ukraine? How will Russia respond?

🇫🇷🚨 Will France invade Ukraine? How will Russia respond?

☢ Scott Ritter goes nuclear on French President Emmanuel Macron, Poland, and the Baltic States (“over-fed chihuahuas”). Don’t watch this episode if you’re a NATO fanboy! #NewRulesPodcast pic.twitter.com/Zb3s90VxES

— NewRulesGeopolitics (@NewRulesGeo) March 21, 2024

In this week’s episode of the New Rules podcast, we’re discussing the potential of a French/NATO military intervention in Ukraine. Longtime friend of the program, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter goes NUCLEAR on French President Emmanuel Macron, Poland, and the Baltic States.

“France is the equivalent of an overfed Chihuahua, and you don’t want to get in the ring with the really beefed up Rottweilers, especially when they’ve been trained to eat overfed Chihuahuas their entire life,” he told the New Rules podcast.

 

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Dien Bien Phools

Par : AHH — 21 mars 2024 à 14:09

We Won’t Get Dien Bien Phooled Again! Once the French have defeated Russia, they will attack all of Europe. France cannot be allowed to win!

with gratitude to FiveGunsWest and penned by Bones!

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys

I must have every book about Dien Bien Phu there is. I also have the French Communist Party books on this topic and various and sundry others of the time, and Bernard Fall’s books as well.

‘A Street Without Joy’ is the benchmark of French military decline and the onset of loss of empire for the country that has gone from a lion, De Gaulle, to a mouse, Micron. And now the mouse that roars.

Street Without Joy (1961) by French-American professor and journalist Bernard B. Fall, who was on-site as a French soldier, and then as an American war correspondent. The book gives a first-hand look at the French engagement, with an insider understanding of Vietnamese events, and provided insights into guerrilla warfare. It drew wide interest among Americans in the mid-1960s, when their own country markedly increased its activity in the Vietnam War. (wiki)

The history of Dien Bien Phu is a study in miscalculation multiplied Force Ten. Fuck up after fuck up. Cascading idiocy. They so underestimated their enemy that they didn’t even dig in their gun emplacements. The man in charge of the artillery discovered his mistake as 100s of projectiles per minute rained down on the camps and took out the artillery. Despondently, he went down into his bunker sleeping quarters, pulled the pin on a grenade and placed it over his heart. He was such a larger than life individual and an inspiration to the men that the ‘overseer’s of the men’, the officers, lied to them and told them that he’d fallen on the field of honor. There is no honor in a colonial war for the occupier.

The artillery stood exposed. No sandbags. They disdained the abilities of the eventual victors so much that they stupidly held their last stand in a valley surrounded by mountains riddled with caves. They thought the Vietminh couldn’t shoot straight. Turns out they were crack shots, sighting through the barrels of their guns in the high caves surrounding Frenchy and Heinz.

Most of the “French” troops at Dien Bien Phu were former SS Nazi storm troopers. I guess the US took the cream of the NAZI crop. General Gehlen who set up our Gestapo Security State. Mr. Werner “I just make the mizziles, vhere they come down izz not my koncern” Von Braun. Eva wasn’t available.

The rank and file SS troops wound up in Vietnam, getting their asses shot off by the Vietminh and their ashes hauled in the official French brothels that always traveled with the troops. This practice is still current. They come to San Francisco once a year for fleet week. You can see the prostitutes. Some whores got the Croix de Guerre for ‘services above and beyond the call of booty’.

@robertjames6640 1 year ago:

“An amazing movie. I served with men who fought at Dien Bien Phu and they held the greatest of respect for the Vietnamese people who defeated them. Vietnam and its people are resilient, hard working and truly delightful.”


The Frogs Made It Personal For Giap

In the late 1930s, Giap married a fellow member of the party, whom he had met in prison years earlier. She gave birth to a daughter, Hong Anh, in 1940. Four months later, the party’s central committee decided to send him to join Ho, who was living in exile in China, where he was preparing plans for the revolution he intended to launch.

Soon after Gen. Giap left for China, his wife was taken into custody by French authorities. She died in prison, either by suicide or while being tortured. Because of the intervening world war, it was years before Gen. Giap learned of his wife’s death. In 1947, his father also died while in French custody, refusing to publicly denounce his son, although he never agreed with his communist ideology.

“He carries in his soul wounds that even time cannot heal,” Hong Anh told biographer Currey of her father.

It’s not my intention to recap history on this fascinating and well deserved defeat of the French who were ferreted out of their holes and FROG MARCHED off to a POW camp as they should have been, but to rub this humiliating defeat in their faces as they consider war with Russia. I consider them stupid like the rest of the crime syndicate of the Western satellite colonies of the former US empire.

The Frogs Can’t Get Enough

The Dien Bien Phools can’t get enough humiliation, death and defeat. Now they want to send their children to Ukraine to kill Russians for Joe Biden’s corrupt regime, all the while blathering on about freedom and democracy, meaningless crap that Ukraine doesn’t have or represent. They are fighting for western leaders endless supply of Merck cocaine and children to rape and abuse. They may not know it, but that is the reality.

The rank and file French soldier has no idea what they’re fighting for and for the most part, they never have. Remember, once invaded by the Nazis in WW2 they sided with the NAZIs and became Vichy France. The French Foreign legion … the former SS Nazis … didn’t care what they fought besides the kicks they got out of usual frolics colonial powers derive from killing the natives who have no standing army, navy or airforce. A turkey shoot as it’s called. Once again they’ve sided with the Nazis to boot.

That said, US troops have no idea what the fuck they’re doing from moment to moment. They’re a largely uneducated rabble and the non-coms are just as bad. An immoral uneducated rabble using the military as a jobs program in much the same way as a corrupt Congress critter uses the arms manufacturing as a jobs program bringing money into their coffers and sharing a little with the community. The last thing the US military wants to do? Their jobs.

Most of the world is watching Russia systematically destroy what was by far the largest most capable and equipped NATO-commanded army in the world (the Ukrainian army), understanding that what is unfolding is Washington’s Waterloo.

The US general stuff are all rear echelon muthafuckas

So drive on, it don’t mean nuthin’

Larch445:

“When or where have the French been correct in their strategic judgment?
SE Asia? Algeria? Sahel? West Africa? Central Africa? NATO? WWII?
Where or when?
They always get it wrong.”

smoothieX12:

“Yes, some imbeciles in Paris think so, but considering the level of French Armed Forces–they will be hunted down and killed.

What Paris is going to do about it? Right–nothing. France’s nuclear deterrent is dwarfed by Russia’s conventional, let alone nuclear capability–so, does Macron and his buddies want to die?

They will. So will France as a whole. Hey, French voted for this. Time to face consequences. And here is the funny thing–France is alone in all that.”

Bones:

“I predict popcorn shortages. Be sure to lay in a big supply. Enough to binge eat for a couple of days. ‘French cooking’ will not take that long. If US enters the fray, it may take a week to fry and die. They haven’t met Mr. Thermobaric. Have fun guys. Ta Ta.”

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

A Travelogue of Electoral Donbass

Par : AHH — 20 mars 2024 à 19:03

Donetsk, Avdeyevka, Mariupol – on the Road in Electoral Donbass

By Pepe Escobar at Sputnik.

They have waited 10 long, suffering years to vote in this election. And vote they did, in massive numbers, certifying a landslide reelection for the political leader who brought them back to Mother Russia. VVP may now be widely referred to as Mr. 87%. In Donetsk, turnout was even higher: 88,17%. And no less than 95% voted for him.

To follow the Russian electoral process at work in Donbass was a humbling – and illuminating – experience. Graphically, in front of us, the full weight of the collective West’s relentless denigration campaign was instantly gobbled up by the rich black soil of Novorossiya. The impeccable organization, the full transparency of the voting, the enthusiasm by polling station workers and voters alike punctuated the historical gravity of the political moment: at the same time everything was enveloped in an impalpable feeling of silent jubilation.

This was of course a referendum. Donbass represents a microcosm of the solid internal cohesion of Russian citizens around the policies of Team Putin – while at the same time sharing a feeling experienced by the overwhelming majority of the Global South. VVP’s victory was a victory of the Global Majority.

And that’s what’s making the puny Global Minority even more apoplectic. With their highest turnout since 1991, Russian voters inflicted a massive strategic defeat to the intellectual pigmies who pass for Western “leadership” – arguably the most mediocre political class of the past 100 years. They voted for a fairer, stable system of international relations; for multipolarity; and for true leadership by civilization-states such as Russia.

VVP’s 87% score was followed, by a long shot, by the Communists, with 3.9%. That is quite significant, because these 91% represent a total rejection of the globalist Davos/Great Reset plutocratic “future” envisioned by the 0.001%.

Avdeevka. Ukrainian Nazi vehicle – literally.

Avdeyevka: Voting Under Total Devastation

On Election Day Two, at section 198 in downtown Donetsk, not far from Government House, it was possible to fully measure the fluidity and transparency of the system – even as Donetsk was not spared from shelling, in the late afternoon and early evening in the final day of voting.

Afterwards, a strategic pit stop in a neighborhood mini-market. Yuri, an activist, was buying a full load of fresh eggs to be transported to the nearly starving civilians who still remain in Avdeyevka. Ten eggs cost the equivalent of a dollar and forty cents.

Side by side with Pushkin: The extraordinary Ludmilla Leonova in Yasinovata, the main polling station in town.

At Yasinovata, very close to Avdeyevka, we visit the MBOU, or school number 7, impeccably rebuilt after non-stop shelling. The director, Ludmilla Leonova, an extraordinary strong woman, takes me on a guide tour of the school and its brand new classrooms for chemistry and biology, a quaint Soviet alphabet decorating the classroom for Russian language. Classes, hopefully, will resume in the Fall.

Close to the school a refugee center for those who have been brought from Avdeyevka has been set up. Everything is spotlessly clean. People are processed, entered into the system, then wait for proper papers. Everyone wants to obtain a Russian passport as soon as possible.

For the moment, they stay in dormitories, around 10 people in each room. Some came from Avdeyevka, miraculously, in their own cars: there are a few Ukrainian license plates around. Invariably, the overall expectation is to return to Avdeyevka, when reconstruction starts, to rebuild their lives in their own town.

Then, it’s on the road to Avdeyevka. Nothing, absolutely nothing prepares us to confront total devastation. In my nearly 40 years as a foreign correspondent, I’ve never seen anything like it – even Iraq. At the unofficial entry to Avdeyevka, beside the skeleton of a bombed building and the remains of a tank turret, the flags of all military batallions which took part in the liberation flutter in the wind.

Avdeevka.

Each building in every street is at least partially destroyed. A few remaining residents congregate in a flat to organize the distribution of essential supplies. I find a miraculously preserved icon behind the window of a bombed-out ground floor apartment.

Avdeevka. The icon by the window that survived everything.

AVDEEVKA. A local resident who refuses to leave.

FPVs loiter overheard – detected by a handheld device, and our military escort is on full alert. We find out that as we enter a ground floor apartment which is being kept as a sort of mini food depot – housing donations from Yasinovata or from the military – that very same room, in the morning, had been converted into a polling station. That’s where the very few remaining Avdeyevka residents actually voted.

A nearly blind man with his dog explains why he can’t leave: he lives in the same street, and his apartment is still functional – even though he has no water or electricity. He explains how the Ukrainians were occupying each apartment block – with residents turned into refugees or hostages in the basements – and then, pressed by the Russians, relocated to nearby schools and hospitals until finally fleeing.

Avdeevka. He will NOT leave.

The basements are a nightmare. Virtually no light. The temperature is at least 10 degrees Celsius lower than at street level. It’s impossible to imagine how they survived. Another resident nonchalantly strolls by in his bicycle, surrounded by derelict concrete skeletons. The loud booms – mostly outgoing – are incessant.

Avdeevka. The miraculously preserved church of Mary Magdalen.

The miraculously preserved church of Mary Magdalen.

The miraculously preserved church of Mary Magdalen.

Then, standing amidst total devastation, a vision: the elegant silhouette of the Church of Mary Magdalen, immaculately preserved. Dmitry, the caretaker, takes me around; it’s a beautiful church, the paintings on the roof still gleaming under the pale sunlight, a gorgeous chandelier and the inner chamber virtually intact.

View of Mariupol from within the Pakrovska Church — with Azovstal and the Russian Sea of Azov in the background

The Mariupol Renaissance

The final election day is spent in Mariupol – which is being rebuilt at nearly breakneck speed: the new railway station has just been finished. Voting is seamless at school number 53, housing district 711. A beautiful mural behind the ballot box depicts the sister cities St. Petersburg and Mariupol, with the legendary Scarlet Sails from the Alexander Green story right in the middle.

Mariupol. School 53. Complete with gentleman on the voting booth, ballot box and a lovely painting featuring a ship with red sails…

I revisit the port: international cargo is still not moving, only ships coming from the Russian mainland. But the first deal has been reached with Cameroon – fruits in exchange with metals and manufactured products. Several other deals with African nations are on the horizon.

The Pakrovska church, a Mariupol landmark, is being carefully restored. We are welcomed by Father Viktor, who hosts lunch for a group of people from the parish, and a fine conversation ensues ranging from Christian Orthodoxy to the Decline of the West and the LGBT agenda.

We go to the roof and walk around a balustrade offering a spectacular 360-degree view of Mariupol, with the port, the destroyed Azovstal iron works and the Russian Sea of Azov in the deep background. The massive church bells ring – as in a metaphor for the resurrection of a beautiful city which has the potential to become a sort of Nice in the Sea of Azov.

Mariupol. Azovstal with the restored monument to the Great Patriotic War – restored by Wagner – in the foreground.

Back in Donetsk, going to a “secret” school/museum only 2 km away from the line of fire – which I first visited last month – has to be canceled: Donetsk continues to be shelled.

With Avdeyevka in mind, as well as the shelling that refuses to go away, a few questions on numbers pop up on the long 20-hour drive back to Moscow.

In Chechnya, led by uber-patriot Kadyrov, turnout was 97%. And no less than 99% voted for VVP. So, unlike in the past, forget about any ulterior attempt at a color revolution in Chechnya.

Same pattern in the Caucasus, in the region of Kabardino: turnout was 96%. No less than 94% voted for VVP.

Between Kazakhstan and Mongolia, in Tuva, turnout was 96%. And 95% voted for VVP. In the autonomous Yamal-Nenets, turnout was 94%. But VVP got “only” 79% of the votes. In lake Baikal, Buryatia had 74% turnout and 88% of votes for VVP.

The key, once again, remains Moscow. Turnout, compared to other regions, was relatively low: 67%. Well, Moscow is still largely Westernized and in several aspects ideologically globalist – thus more critical than other parts of Russia when it comes to the patriotic emphasis.

Avdeevka. Nella zona pericolosa. Gli FPV indugiano nel cielo. Foto del giovane fotoreporter Denis Grigory.

And that brings us to the clincher. Even with the resounding success of Mr. 87%, they will never give up. If there ever is a minor chance of a successful Hybrid War strategy provoking a color revolution, the stage will be Moscow. Quite pathetic, actually, when compared to the images of Mr. 87% saluted by a packed Red Square on Sunday like the ultimate rock star.

The Kremlin is taking no chances. Putin addressed the FSB and went straight to the point: attempts to sow interethnic trouble – as a prelude to color revolutions – must be strictly suppressed. The FSB will go for the next level: traitors will be identified by name and targeted without a statute of limitations.

After the electoral euphoria, no one really knows what happens next. It has to be something hugely significant, honoring the historical VVP electoral landslide. He has carte blanche now to do anything. Priority number one: to finish once and for all with the Hegemon-built terror mongrel that has been attacking Novorossiya for 10 long years.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Yemen Ends Thalassocratic Rule

Par : AHH — 19 mars 2024 à 19:03

Garland Nixon interviews Laith Marouf — West Asia update: Yemen and the beginning of the end of imperial naval force projection;

wide ranging talk includes:
🔸Zionist attempt to break the Syrian landbridge to Hezbollah again (after ISIS a decade ago);
🔸the Vichy regime of the Palestinian Authority;
🔸Prof Ali Kadri: the role of directed Genocide in western Capitalism; for more see:
https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/palestine-war-occupation-and-proletarianization-w-ali-kadri
http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue91/Kadri91.pdf
🔸the European lunch of the Empire
🔸COVID and Deagleian depopulation of the Golden Billion…

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The UN System in the Dock

Par : AHH — 18 mars 2024 à 14:04

How much longer will the world’s people allow the zionists and their imperialist backers to carry out their horrific crimes with impunity?

Lalkar writers at The Communists.

UN system in the dock: international law or rules-based order?

Two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in favour of South Africa’s prima facia case of genocide against it, Israel, and its primary sponsor the United States, along with the usual cohort of vassal states including Britain, all withdrew funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), which provides food and aid to Gaza.

The very same people being deprived of food, water, medical supplies and all other life-supporting mechanisms whilst being bombed into oblivion by Israel using US and British weapons, have had what meagre support they had withdrawn.

Whilst the withdrawal of Unrwa funding could be considered a war crime in itself, the action is in flagrant defiance of the ICJ’s ruling, which found the charges of genocide brought by South Africa to be plausible.

The ICJ ordered Israel to abide by six provisional measures to prevent genocide and alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe, one of which was for Israel to secure immediate and effective steps to provide humanitarian assistance and essential services in Gaza. The defunding of Unrwa by the imperialists was a retaliatory message to the ICJ that, by deciding that Israel was non-compliant with the present orders thus warranting further orders, Israel will not recognise the ICJ’s authority.

Israel feels free to ignore ICJ ruling

What does this say about the authority and influence of the highest international court in our world? What does it say about Israel’s acknowledgement of the court’s legitimacy when, following its ruling, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu responds by declaring: “Israel’s commitment to international law is unwavering. Equally unwavering is our sacred commitment to defend our country.”

Mr Netanyahu went on to assert that South Africa’s allegation that Israel was committing genocide was “not only false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it”.

Well, decent people the world over have made it clear what they think, and they reject Israel and the reject the western support of the zionists’ ongoing genocidal campaign. Whilst many may have no historical knowledge of the region and no understanding of the geopolitical implications or of US imperialist ambitions, they do know the difference between right and wrong.

They know genocide when they see it on their social media feeds, despite western media’s intense campaign of lying propaganda and protestations to the contrary.

Narratives unravelling fast

What we are witnessing is the rapid unravelling of two carefully constructed narratives that have run in parallel since 1945. One is the right of Israel to exist on any basis, and the other is the pretence that we are all governed according to some democratic principles enshrined in international law.

Since 1945, international law has been centred on the United Nations and its charter. One hundred and ninety-three countries have acceded to the UN charter as member states, declaring their wish to be part of the community of nations.

As part of the deal, they are obliged to follow the fundamental principles and provisions that extend from that charter, including its highest court, the ICJ.

Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld once stated that the goal of the UN was not to “take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell”. But neither the UN’s courts nor its plethora of resolutions have done much for humanity in Palestine!

Israel and its sponsors, the USA and Britain, flagrantly disregard international law and the demands of millions of pro-Palestinian demonstrators worldwide, and they must be brought to account. It is time to delineate the words and actions of our leaders and to make them accountable for what they do.

Words matter. Words are how we communicate, interpret and understand one another and our world. They are also how we are manipulated into accepting wars and injustices that, if clearly articulated, we would fervently fight.Remember ‘weapons of mass destruction’? Our leaders and mass media constantly play with words to mould our thinking. Have you noticed how Israelis are ‘killed’ but Palestinians ‘die’?

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) was established in 1949. Since 1950 it has been providing nutritional, health and educational services to the 750,000 Palestinians displaced as a result of ethnic cleansing by the zionist colonisers, those displaced in later waves of war and occupation, and their descendants. Today, owing to a lack of international support, the agency struggles to provide services to over five million Palestinian refugees. Since the Palestinian refugees’ plight is officially recognised as ’temporary’, Unrwa is also supposed to be a temporary organisation, with its mandate reviewed and renewed every three years by the general assembly.

No limits to US-granted immunity for Israel

A change in phraseology coming out of the USA in recent years quietly replaced ‘international law’ with ‘the rules-based order’. Over time, the ‘rules-based order’ became the dominant phraseology in western media and political discourse, despite not having anything like the same meaning.

The ‘rules-based order’ flaunted by American and British politicians is less about international law and more about international law as interpreted by the United States. It allows the USA to flout the rules that govern other nations, and in particular to justify its exceptionalist approach toward Israel. This was clearly articulated in the joint declaration made during President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in July 2022.

The statement reaffirmed “the unbreakable bonds between our two countries and the enduring commitment of the United States to Israel’s security”, along with the determination of the two states “to combat all efforts to boycott or delegitimise Israel, to deny its right to self-defence, or to single it out in any forum, including at the United Nations or the International Criminal Court”.

This commitment underpins the consistent refusal of the United States to hold Israel to account for its repeated violations of humanitarian law or to condemn its policy of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The USA and its allies have always been partial in their application of the moral imperative, particularly when applied to international law. Israel remains the most immune and, regardless of sin, its brutal ethnic cleansing continues to have the full financial and military support of the USA and Britain.

Israel is America’s military base in the middle east. It has ensured US domination of the region and its oil since WW2, and that is why Israel is supported by the USA regardless of its actions or world opinion.

Imperialism v humanity: the struggle of our times

Whilst from the perspective of the western imperialists, such actions are presented as being consistent with their ‘rules-based order’, for the rest of the world they clearly violate the most basic rules of international law – and of humanity itself.

The ICJ ruling in support of South Africa’s submission that Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people is a positive step, but if the court has no teeth, and if the genocide continues, what is the point of the court? What, in fact, is the point of the United Nations itself?

And if there is no legal mechanism for stopping what we all see and know is a genocide, and our own governments are complicit, who is going to see that justice is done?

Israel and the UN system are both in the dock. If nothing is done to hold Israel accountable, it will be because the USA has a veto over the only body with any executive power – the UN security council.

The USA has used that position to protect Israel and green light its genocidal and apartheid activities with impunity for 75 years, despite international outrage.

The question is: how much longer will the world’s people allow that situation to continue?

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

WHAT?! Yemen Just Closed the Indian Ocean to USUK Ships too

Par : AHH — 18 mars 2024 à 00:09

“… and all linked to zionists…”

Richard connects a terrible dot on the back of my mind! Yemen didn’t merely extend the Gauntlet to the Indian Ocean for the zionists, but to the same western parties they currently fight in the Red Sea. They closed the South Africa route to USUK and those of the combined West that partake of the aggression against Palestine and/or themselves in the Red Sea or hinder the Gauntlet in the Red Sea! They emphasized this on day one by droning or missiling two US ships in the Indian Ocean………..

Let’s see if they can carry it off. Assuming they will be as resourceful as only motivated Yemenis can be.. and that several civilizational-states work to ensure they get accurate targeting and manifests of cargo ships to be targetted, what would be the consequences for severing the India/China sea trade to Europe and to the eastern US seaboard?? The US has the Pacific coast option, but Europe.. would be reduced to railroads, mostly through.. Russia as they helped torch West Asia, the Ukraine, and currently stoke Transcaucasia. This is unliveable

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The Perfect Tripwire for War Against China

Par : AHH — 17 mars 2024 à 18:14

US Troops as close as 2.5 miles from China Mainland and key city Xiamen.

By Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

Taiwan Confirms Presence Of US Green Berets On Islands Very Close To China’s Coast

Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng confirmed on Thursday the presence of US Army Special Forces soldiers in Kinmen, a group of islands that are controlled by Taiwan but located just off the coast of mainland China.

Some parts of the Kinmen islands are just 2.5 miles away from the mainland Chinese city of Xiamen. The presence of US troops on the islands was first reported by Taiwanese media last month.

Chiu confirmed the highly provocative deployment when asked about a new report from the US outlet SOFREP that said US Green Berets have taken up “permanent positions” as military advisors in Kinmen. The US soldiers are also deployed in Penghu, a Taiwanese-controlled archipelago about 30 miles west of the main island of Taiwan and 70 miles east of mainland China.

The SOFREP report said the US Green Berets were stationed at the Taiwanese Army’s amphibious command centers. The deployment was carried out under provisions in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which called for the US to create a comprehensive training program for the Taiwanese military.

The new collaboration includes the US troops training Taiwanese forces on the Black Hornet Nano, a compact military drone. Chiu said the presence of the US Green Berets was a “learning opportunity” for Taiwan’s military.

The US has significantly increased its military and diplomatic support for Taiwan in recent years, ratcheting up tensions with China. Last year, the US deployed around 200 troops to Taiwan, marking the largest known US military presence on the island since the US pulled its troops out after Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979.

The US also recently began providing Taiwan with unprecedented military aid. Since 1979, the US has always sold weapons to Taiwan but never financed the purchases or provided arms free of charge until last year.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

What is China’s Economic Future?

Par : AHH — 16 mars 2024 à 19:48

Political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are joined by Beijing-based scholar Mick Dunford to discuss what is actually happening in China’s economy, explaining its technological development and transition toward a new industrial revolution.

Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson at The Geopolitical Economy Hour.

Video:

Podcast:

Transcript:

RADHIKA DESAI: Hello and welcome to the 24th Geopolitical Economy Hour, the show that examines the fast-changing political and geopolitical economy of our time. I’m Radhika Desai.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I’m Michael Hudson.

RADHIKA DESAI: And working behind the scenes to bring you our show every fortnight are our host, Ben Norton; our videographer, Paul Graham; and our transcriber, Zach Weiser.

And with us today we have, once again, Professor Mick Dunford, professor emeritus of geography at Sussex University and now working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, keeping a close watch, among other things, on China’s economy. So welcome, Mick.

MICK DUNFORD:  Thank you very much.

RADHIKA DESAI: So, China’s economy is what we’re going to talk about today. Where is it at after decades of breakneck growth, after executing the greatest industrial revolution ever? Where is it headed?

Trying to understand this is not easy. The disinformation that is fake news and even what I often call fake scholarship that distorts the view that any honest person may be trying to take on China’s economy is simply overwhelming. It’s absolutely wall-to-wall propaganda, no matter which Western publication or website you open.

If we are to believe the Western press and the leading scholarly lights of the West, who are the major generators of the Western discourse on China, we are at peak China. That is to say, they claim that China has reached a point, reached the highest point, that is, that it ever can. And from here on, it’s only going to be downhill, more or less rapidly.

They say that China has, in recent years, inflated a huge property bubble to compensate for the West’s inability to keep up imports. And this bubble is about to burst. And when it does, it will subject China to a 1980s and 1990s Japan-style long-term deflation or secular stagnation. They have even invented a word to talk about this: “Japanification”. We are told that the Japanification of China’s economy is impending.

They say that the U.S.’s trade and technology wars are hitting China where it hurts the most, at its export and its reliance on inward foreign investment. They are saying that China has grown only by stealing technology. And now that the U.S. is making it harder for it to do so, its technological development can only stall. They are saying that China followed disastrous COVID-19 policies, leading to mass death, draconian lockdowns, and economic disaster.

They are saying that China over-invests, and its growth will not pick up unless China now permits higher consumption levels. They are saying that China has a serious unemployment crisis, that the CPC, the Communist Party of China, is losing legitimacy, because it is failing to deliver ever-higher living standards. And they are saying that Xi Jinping’s authoritarian leadership is ensuring that the private sector will stall, and with it, so will China’s growth.

All this, they say, before even beginning to talk about China’s foreign policy. And there, of course, lie another long litany of alleged disasters and misdemeanors that China is responsible for, beginning with debt-trap diplomacy and China’s allegedly voracious appetite for the world’s resources.

The only reason why Western experts ever stress the strength of China’s economy is when they want to argue that the West must redouble its efforts to contain China and to stall its rise.

So today, we’re going to take a closer look at China’s economy, and in doing so, we’re going to bust a lot of these myths. We’re going to show you that, sadly, for the purveyors of the fake news and fake scholarship about China, no amount of their huffing and puffing has been able to blow down China’s house, because, like the good, the smart little pig, China is actually building its house with bricks.

So, we have a number of topics to discuss in this show. Here they are:

1.    Characterising China’s Economy: Capitalist? Socialist?

2.    Growth Story

3.    Covid Response

4.    The Alleged Debt and Property Bubble? And Japanification?

5.    Restricted Consumption? Stagnant living standards?

6.    Exports in the China Story

7.    China’s new growth strategy

8.    China’s foreign policy

So, these are the topics that we hope to discuss. We want to begin by talking about how to characterize China’s economy. Is it capitalist? Is it socialist? Then we will do the most important and primary basic thing, we will look at the growth story with some statistics. We will then look at China’s Covid response. We will look at the alleged debt and property bubble and whether China is being Japanified.

Then we will look at the issue of whether China is overinvesting and neglecting consumption and living standards, etc. How reliant is China on exports? What is China’s growth strategy? And what is China’s foreign policy? And are those myths about it true? So, this is what we hope to discuss.

So, Mick, why don’t you start us off with your thoughts on exactly how to characterize China’s economy?

MICK DUNFORD: Ok, the way I would characterize China is as a planned rational state. I mean, right the way through, it has maintained a system of national five-year planning, and it also produces longer-term plans. But it’s a planned rational state that uses market instruments.

China has a very large state sector. And of course, some people have claimed that this state sector is, in a sense, an impediment to growth. And we’ve seen a resurrection of this idea, guo jin min tui (国进民退), which is used to refer to the idea that the state sector is advancing and the private sector is retreating.

It’s a very, very strange concept, in fact, because the third word is min (民), and min refers to people. So, what they are actually, in a sense, saying – these ideas were invented by neoliberal economists in 2002 – the private sector is equated with the people, which I find absolutely astonishing. But, I mean, the country does have a very significant public sector.

What I find striking is that one can actually turn it around and say, what is it that these Western economists seem to think China should do? And they seem to think that China should privatize all assets into the hands of domestic and foreign capitalists. It should remove capital controls. It should open the door to foreign finance capital. It should transfer governance to liberal capitalist political parties that are actually controlled by capital.

I think one of the most fundamental features of the China system is actually that it’s the state that controls capital, rather than capital that controls the state. And it’s, in fact, this aspect of the Chinese model, and in particular, the rule of the Communist Party of China that has basically transformed China from what was, effectively one of the poorest countries in the world into one of its largest industrial powers.

So, in a way, it’s a planned rational state in which the CPC has played an absolutely fundamental role. And without it, I mean, China would never have established the national sovereignty that permitted it to choose a path that suited its conditions and to radically transform the lives and livelihoods of its people.

RADHIKA DESAI: Michael, do you want to [speak]?

MICHAEL HUDSON: The question is, what is the state? There are two aspects of the state with China. One is public infrastructure. And the purpose of China’s public infrastructure is to lower the cost of doing business because infrastructure is a monopoly.

That’s what really upsets the American investors. They wanted to buy the phone system, the transportation system, so that they could benefit from charging monopoly rents, just like under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.

The most important sector that China’s treated in the public is money creation and banks. Americans hope that American banks would come over and they would be making all the loans in China and benefiting from China’s growth and turning it into interest. And instead, the government’s doing that. And the government is deciding what to lend to.

And there’s a third aspect of what people think of when they say state. That’s a centralized economy, centralized planning, Soviet style.

China is one of the least centralized economies in the world because the central government has left the localities to go their own way. That’s part of the Hundred Flowers Bloom. Let’s see how each locality is going to maneuver on a pragmatic, ad hoc basis.

Well, the pragmatic ad hoc basis meant how are localities, villages, and small towns going to finance their budgets? Well, they financed it by real estate sales, and that’s going to be what we’re discussing later.

But once you realize that the state sector is so different from what a state sector is in America, centralized planning and the control of Wall Street for financial purposes, finance capitalism, hyper-centralized planning, you realize that China is the antithesis of what the usual view is.

RADHIKA DESAI: Absolutely. And I’d just like to add a few points, which dovetail very nicely with what both of you have said.

The fact of the matter is that this was also true of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries when they were still ruled by communist parties. We generally refer to them as socialist or communist, but in reality, they themselves never claimed to be socialist or communist. They only said they were building socialism, especially in a country that was as poor as China was in 1949.

The leadership of the Communist Party of China has always understood that there has to be a long period of transition in which there will be a complex set of compromises that will have to be made in order to steer the economy in the direction of socialism, in order to build socialism.

So, from its beginnings, the revolutionary state in China was a multi-class state and a multi-party state. People don’t realize very often that while the Communist Party of China is the overwhelmingly most powerful party in China, there are other parties that exist as well, which reflect the originally multi-class character of China.

Now, it’s true that since 1978, the government has loosened much of its control over the economy. But the important thing here is that the Communist Party retains control of the Chinese state.

The way I like to put it is, yes, there are lots of capitalists in China. Yes, those capitalists are very powerful. They are at the head of some of the biggest corporations in the world, and they are quite influential within the Communist Party. But what makes China meaningfully socialist or meaningfully treading the path to socialism, let’s put it that way, is the fact that ultimately the reins of power are held in the hands of the Communist Party of China leadership, which owes its legitimacy to the people of China.

So, the reigns of power, the reigns of state power are not held by the capitalists; they are held by the Communist Party leadership.

So, in that sense, I would say that China is meaningfully socialist. Although, as Mick pointed out, there is a fairly large private sector in China, but so too is the state sector very large. And the extent of state ownership means that even though the private sector is very large, the state retains control over the overall pace and pattern of growth and development in the country.

And I just add one final thing here, which is going to become quite important as we discuss the various other points, and that is that the financial sector in China remains very heavily controlled by the state.

China has capital controls, China practices a fair degree of financial repression, and China’s financial system is geared to providing money for long-term investments that improve the productive capacities of the economy and the material welfare of the people. And this is completely different from the kind of financial sector we have today.

So, Mick or Michael, did you want to add anything?

MICK DUNFORD: Just to reiterate, I mean, the point is, the government sets strategic targets that relate to raising the quality of the life of all the Chinese people. And it has strategic autonomy, which gives China the opportunity or the possibility of actually choosing its own development path.

And I think that’s something that very strikingly marks China out from other parts of the Global South that have had much greater difficulty, in a sense, in accelerating their growth, partly because of debt and their subordination to the Washington financial institutions.

So I think that is critically important, the role of sovereignty and autonomy in enabling China to make choices that suited its conditions, and at the same time making choices that are driven by a long-term strategic goal to transform the quality of the lives of all Chinese people.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I want to put in one word about sovereignty. You put your finger on it. That’s really what makes it different.

What makes other countries lose their sovereignty is when they let go, how are they going to finance their investment? If they let foreign banks come in to finance their investment, if they let American and European banks come in, what do they do? They fund a real estate bubble, a different kind of a real estate bubble. They fund takeover loans. They fund privatization.

Banks don’t make loans for new investment. China makes great money to finance new tangible investment. Banks make money so you can buy a public utility or a railroad and then just load it down with debt, and you can borrow and borrow and use the money that you borrow to pay a special dividend if you’re a private capital company. Pretty soon, the country that follows this dependency on foreign credit ends up losing its sovereignty.

The way in which China has protected its sovereignty is to keep money in the public domain and to create money for actual tangible capital investment, not to take your property into a property-owning rentier class, largely foreign-owned.

RADHIKA DESAI: Thank you. Those are very important points. Thank you.

I’d just like to add one final point on the matter of how to characterize the Chinese economy and the Chinese state. At the end of the day, it’s not just important to say that the state controls the economy, but whose state is it?

The way to look at it as well is that in the United States, essentially we have a state that is controlled by the big corporations, which in our time have become exceedingly financialized corporations, so that they are directing the United States economy essentially towards ever more debt and ever less production, whereas that is not the case in China.

And the question of whose state it is makes use of the word autonomy. The autonomy refers to the fact that it is not subservient to any one section of society, but seeks to achieve the welfare of society as a whole and increase its productive capacity.

MICK DUNFORD: If I may just add, I think also it’s important that you pay attention to the policy-making process in China. It’s an example of what one might call substantive democracy. It delivers substantive results for the whole of the Chinese population.

In that sense, it delivers improvements in the quality of the lives of all the people, and therefore, in a sense, it’s a democratic system. But it’s also a country that actually has procedures of policy-making, experimentation, design, and choice and so on that are extremely important and that have fundamental aspects of democracy about them.

When Western countries characterize China as authoritarian, they’re actually fundamentally misrepresenting the character of the Chinese system and the way in which it works, because they, in a sense, merely equate democracy with a system, whereas China, of course, does have multiple political parties, but a system with competitive elections between different political parties. There are other models of democracy, and China is another model of democracy.

RADHIKA DESAI: Mick, you’re absolutely right to talk about the substantive democracy. Indeed, in China, they have recently developed a new term for it. They call it a “whole process democracy”, and it really involves multiple levels of consultation with the people, going down to the most basic village and township levels, and then all the way up the chain.

And I think this process does work, because the other remarkable thing about the CPC leadership is its ability to change direction pragmatically. If something does not work, then it assesses what it has attempted, why it has failed, and then it revises course. So, I think we will see several instances of this as we talk as well.

Michael, you want to add something?

MICHAEL HUDSON: One thing about democracy. The definition of a democracy traditionally is to prevent an oligarchy from developing. There’s only one way to prevent an oligarchy from developing as people get richer and richer, and that’s to have a strong state.

The role of a strong state is to prevent an oligarchy from developing. That’s why the oligarchy in America and Europe are libertarian, meaning get rid of government, because a government is strong enough to prevent us from gouging the economy, to prevent us from taking it over.

So, you need a strong central state in order to have a democracy. Americans call that socialism, and they say that’s the antithesis of democracy, which means a state that is loyal to the United States and follows U.S. policy and lets the U.S. banks financialize the economy. So, just to clarify the definitions here.

RADHIKA DESAI: Very, very true, Michael. But let’s not go, I mean, maybe we should do a separate show on political theory of the state, because that’s equally important.

But for now, let’s look at our next topic. We hope, of course, that everybody understands how we characterize China’s state. But now, let’s look at China’s GDP growth.

So, here you have a chart, and we have several charts on this matter, but we’ll take them one by one and comment on them:

gdp growth china west 1980 2028

So, here we have a chart showing the annual rate of GDP growth from 1980 to 2028. Of course, post-2023 are their projections, which are shown by the dotted lines. And I’ve only taken a few selected countries from the Our World in Data website, and anybody can go there and look at this data, by the way.

So, you can see China and then a handful of the most important Western countries. And you can see that going back to 1980, essentially China’s growth rate, which is here, the top red line here, has absolutely been massively higher on practically any year than the other countries.

In fact, you see I left Russia in here. I should probably have taken it out. It’s a bit of a distraction, because here you see Russia’s growth rate massively bouncing up from the late 90s financial crisis. But let’s leave that aside.

All the other major countries, which you see here, they are all showing considerably lower growth. So, the United States here is this orangish line. And essentially, they’re all showing much lower growth.

And more recently as well, this is the Covid-19 pandemic. And you can see that China, again, like all the other countries, it experienced a fairly sharp decline in the growth rate, but it still remained positive, unlike all the other countries.

And it remains substantially above that of the rest of the economies that constantly are telling China how to improve its economic policy. So, that’s what I want to say about this chart.

But Mick, go ahead.

MICK DUNFORD: Can you show that table that I sent?

RADHIKA DESAI: Yeah, sure. Yes, here we go:

gdp growth china west table

MICK DUNFORD: These are more recent growth rates for China, for the world, and for the G7. And I mean, first of all, they show absolutely clearly that China’s growth rate is still a long way in excess of the average growth rates of all G7 countries, many of which have actually performed abysmally. I mean, Germany is now in recession, it declined 0.3% per year this year. I mean, Italy has had extremely low rates of growth, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, all had extremely low rates of growth.

China last year achieved a growth rate of 5.2%. It itself expects to grow at 5% next year. The IMF forecast 4.6%. Even that 4.6% target is quite close to the average growth rate that China needs to achieve to meet its 2035 target. It has a 2035 target of doubling its GDP, its 2020 GDP by 2035. I think that that goal is perfectly realizable. And in that sense, I strongly disagree with people who argue that China has in a sense peaked.

But I do find it, really quite astonishing, that Western countries, whose economies have performed extremely poorly, feel in a position to lecture China about how it should address what is said to be an unsatisfactory rate of growth. That’s the first point I want to make.

I just want to say something else, if I may. When we talk about, I mean, China’s growth has slowed. And, there’s no doubt that in terms of people’s everyday lives, there are many difficulties. And I just want to quote something.

At New Year, Xi Jinping gave a speech. I wanted to cite his actual words. He recognised that in these years, China faces what he called the tests of the winds and rains. And then he said, when I see people rising to the occasion, reaching out to each other in adversity, meeting challenges head on and overcoming difficulties, I am deeply moved.

So, the leadership and all Chinese people are well aware that there are many, many difficulties and challenges confronted, because China is actually undergoing a major structural transformation about which we shall speak later. But China is also in the short term undertaking a lot of important actions that are actually designed to cope with some of the real difficulties that people confront.

So, if you listen to Li Qiang’s government work report, he addressed the problem of short-term employment generation. And there are proposals for 12 million new urban jobs to increase employment, especially for college graduates and other young people, because for young people, the unemployment rate, including college students, is in the region of 21 percent. Urban unemployment is 5 percent. So, there are issues to do with the generation of employment.

Government expenditure this year will target a whole series of strategic issues, but also livelihoods. So, affordable housing, youth unemployment, job security, insurance, pensions, preschool education, the living conditions in older communities. So, I’m just saying that, in the current context, difficult economic situation and a particularly turbulent global situation. I mean, China, as every other country in the world, faces challenges, and it is in many ways directly addressing them in very important ways.

RADHIKA DESAI: Great. Thanks, Mick. Michael, do you want to add anything?

MICHAEL HUDSON: No, I think that’s it. The question is, what is the GDP that is growing? There are a number of ways of looking at GDP. And when I went to school 60 years ago, economists usually thought of GDP as something industrial. They’d look at energy production. They’d look at railway cargo transportation.

If you look at the industrial component of what most economists used to look at, electricity is the power for industry, electricity is productivity growth for labor. If you look at these, what is the component of GDP, you realize that these differences in Mick’s charts are even wider than what he showed, because the American GDP, very largely interest, overdraft fees of credit card companies, as we’ve said, is providing a financial service. 7% of American GDP is the increase in homeowners’ view of what their rental value of their property is. That’s 7%.

Now, I doubt that China includes a measure like this in its GDP. But if it did, with all of its rise in real estate prices, its GDP would be even higher in a reality-based basis.

So real GDP, as we think of it, and the public thinks of it, is something useful and productive. Actually, China’s doing a much more efficient job in minimizing the kind of financial and rentier overhead that you have in the United States.

RADHIKA DESAI: Exactly, Michael. What I was going to point out as well is that these figures of U.S. GDP growth and the absolute level of U.S. GDP are heavily financialized.

The financial sector, which actually is not a force for good in general in the U.S. economy, it is out of which the indebtedness comes, out of which the productive weakening comes. The growth of the financial sector is counted as GDP in the United States and massively inflates U.S. GDP, which would not be as high as this.

And this is particularly important given that President Biden, for example, is congratulating himself now for having the strongest economy in the world or the Western world or whatever it is. Well, that’s what the U.S.’s boast is based on.

And China does not do that, nor does it have the kind of financial sector which creates, which destroys the productive economy. Rather, as we were saying, it has the kind of financial sector that supports it.

So, just another general point I want to make. We were talking about this chart:

gdp growth china west table

This shows from 1980 to 2028, and the projections remain, by the way, even from conservative sources, that China’s growth is going to remain higher than the rest of the world, particularly the Western countries, for a long time to come.

And I also decided to show you this chart:

gdp growth china west 2008 2028

This is the chart of growth, which is just a more focused version of the previous one, which shows growth rates from 2008 to 2028.

So 2008 is when we had what Michael and I call the North Atlantic Financial Crisis. And since then, what we’ve seen is, yes, of course, all countries have seen a sort of a reduction in their growth rate, and certainly China has. But even since then, you can see that China’s growth remains high and stable. So, that’s another thing that we wanted to show.

And this is a chart showing the rise of per capita GDP:

gdp per capita growth china west 1970 2021

That is to say, you can have a higher GDP, but if your population is expanding, then to what extent is per capita GDP rising? So, you can see here that, again, even in terms of per capita GDP, and this only again goes to 2021, but in terms of per capita GDP, China has remained head and shoulders above all the major Western countries.

And this bounce here that you see in the case of the US and the UK here, it is only a dead cat bounce from the absolute depths to which their economies had sunk during Covid, and so they came to some sort of normalcy.

Mick, you may want to say something about this chart, because you sent it to me. So, please go ahead:

gdp per capita ppp 2021 china west

MICK DUNFORD: It’s correct, of course, that China’s growth slowed. Now, in 2013, China entered what is called the New Era. At that time, China decided that its growth rate should slow. It chose slower growth. It spoke of 6 or 7 percent per year, and it more or less achieved that, until the Covid pandemic. So, China chose slower growth for very particular reasons, and I think in this discussion, we shall come to some of these reasons later on.

But in a sense, what they want is what they call high-quality growth. And what China is seeking to do is undertake a profound structural transformation of its economy, establishing new growth drivers by directing finance towards high-productivity sectors and directing finance towards the use of digital and green technologies in order to transform its traditional industries. So, in a sense, it’s undergoing a profound process of structural transformation.

And I mean, if you, for example, look at Li Qiang’s speech, the major tasks include invigorating China through science and education, so to strengthen the education, science and technology system, to improve the capabilities of the workforce, or promote innovation, industrial investment and skills, and another, striving to modernize the industrial system and accelerate the development of new productive forces, bearing in mind that we’re on the verge of a new industrial revolution. But these are very important issues, fundamentally important issues.

RADHIKA DESAI: And I would say just, and I know we’ll talk about it at greater length later on, but it is really important to bear in mind that really, when the world stands at the cusp of being able to exploit new technologies like quantum computing or nanotechnology or artificial intelligence or what have you, a relatively centralized decision-making process about how to allocate resources, for what purposes, for what social benefits, etc., is likely to prove far superior, that is to say, China’s method is likely to prove far superior than the Western tactic of leaving private corporate capital in charge of the process.

And just to give you a couple of instances of this, the fact that private corporate capital is in charge of the development of digital technologies is already creating all sorts of social harms in our Western societies, whether it is harms to children’s mental health or even adults’ mental health, to political division that the algorithms sow and so on.

And also, it is leading to a situation where even these mega-corporations, these giant corporations, actually do not have the resources to invest, the scale of resources that will be needed to invest. So, for example, you hear in the Financial Times that Sam Altman is looking for people to invest in his artificial intelligence ventures, which will require trillions of dollars, and he cannot find private investors for it. So, this is really quite interesting.

Okay, so if we’re done with the growth rate story, oh, and I just want to say one other thing about this, which is, this is a GDP per capita in purchasing power parity, and China, in the space of a few decades, essentially, has experienced the biggest spurt in per capita well-being, etc., which includes important achievements like eliminating extreme poverty.

The Communist Party has brought China to essentially per capita GDP in purchasing power terms of next to nothing in 1980 to about $20,000 per annum in 2020. This is really quite an important achievement. And to do this for a country of 5 to 10 million people would be laudable, but to do this for a country of 1.3 billion people is a massive, historic achievement, and I think that’s something to remember.

MICK DUNFORD: I just, if you just go back for one minute, I mean, I absolutely agree with what you’ve just said, Radhika.

I’ll just make a comment about this chart. It’s because we were probably going to speak about Japanification:

gdp per capita ppp 2021 china west

It basically shows that the GDP per capita of Japan, and indeed of Germany, closed in on the United States, and actually Germany overtook it in the 1980s. But after that point in time, I mean, after the revaluation of their two respective currencies, and after the, the bubble, the stock market and property market bubble in Japan, you saw stagnation set in. And there’s a question as to whether that will happen with China.

But I mean, I think that one thing that’s striking in this diagram is that China is still at a much lower level of GDP per capita than Japan, or indeed Germany was at that time. And those economies, because, they were at the technological frontier to some extent, had to innovate, move into new technologies.

China, because there is still a technological gap, has enormous opportunities to accelerate its growth in a way in which, well, Japan failed because it chose not to take up opportunities, and it gave up semiconductors manufacture. But China has enormous opportunities, and that’s one reason why we must anticipate China’s growth as continuing.

RADHIKA DESAI: Absolutely. Thank you, Mick. Okay, so if we’re done with the growth story, let’s go to our next topic, which is what happened in China under Covid-19. Now, of course, there is just so much dispute about and controversy around Covid and Covid strategies, etc. So we don’t want to get into all of them, but I just want to emphasize two things.

We’ve already looked at the growth figures, we looked at the growth figures around Covid:

gdp growth china west 2008 2028

So you can see here that in 2020, all economies had a big dip thanks to Covid in their economies, but China is alone among the major economies to have remained in positive growth territory, and to have, of course, remained much higher than the rest of the other major world economies. So essentially, China, whatever China did, it did not sacrifice growth.

Now, this is very ironical, because in the Western countries, we were told that we need to, in order to continue growing, we need to, so in order to preserve livelihoods, which was the euphemism for preserving the profits of big corporations, in order to preserve livelihoods, we may have to sacrifice some lives. And the Western economies went through an absolutely excruciating process of lockdown here, and opening there, and lockdown again, and opening again, and so on.

But all of this had devastating impacts on Western economies, whereas China prioritized the preservation of life above all. And it imposed a lockdown knowing that, okay, even if we are going to develop vaccines, and remember, China developed its own vaccines, and effectively inoculated over 70 percent of the population by the time they began reopening.

China prioritized the saving of lives, and it was accused of essentially creating world shortages by shutting down its economy, etc. But in reality, China’s strategy, which focused before the availability of vaccines, on essentially physical distancing, isolation, etc., as was necessary, but China managed to do it in a way as to keep up a relatively robust growth rate, and very importantly, lose very few lives.

This is a chart, again from Our World In Data, of cumulative Covid-19 deaths per million of population:

covid 19 deaths per million china us

So here we have all these countries, the United States and United Kingdom are these top two lines, Germany, Canada, Japan, even though we are told that East Asian economies did well because they had experience with SARS, etc., even then, compared to China, which is down here with a cumulative Covid death rate per million of about 149 or something people dying per million, and these numbers are over 3,000, almost 4,000 per million at this point in the United States and the UK, and then you have these other economies.

So China actually managed to avoid the worst of Covid, both in terms of lives and in terms of livelihood, and it did so because it did not compromise the saving of lives.

Does anyone else want to add anything? Mick? You were there.

MICK DUNFORD: Well, I mean, obviously, there were difficulties for some people in some places at some times. I was here right through it. All I can say is the impact personally on me was extremely limited.

It was a very effective system for protecting life. And if you lived in some places, then in fact the impact on your life, apart from having frequent nucleic acid tests and so on and ensuring that your health code was up to date, the impact on one’s life was relatively limited.

But in some places, obviously, in Wuhan at the outset, in Shanghai later on, the impact was very considerable.

But I think it’s an indication of the importance of a kind of collectivism, and the priority given to the protection of human life. And as you said, it is quite striking that actually through it, China’s economy actually kept ticking over.

And of course, China produces so many important intermediate goods that obviously it was also very important in providing things that were needed in many, many other parts of the world.

It also shared its drugs, its vaccines, which is really quite different, in a sense, from the conduct of the United States. And to some extent, the Western pharmaceutical companies.

RADHIKA DESAI: Absolutely. Michael, go ahead.

MICHAEL HUDSON: In the United States, that would be considered a failure of policy. The United States used Covid as an opportunity to kill.

For instance, the governor of New York, Cuomo, took the Covid patients and he moved them into all of the assisted living and old people’s homes. And that had a great increase in productivity. It resulted in enormous death rates for the elderly.

That helped save New York’s pension plan system. It helped save other pension plans. It helped save Social Security because the dead people were no longer what America called “the dead weight”.

The American policy was to indeed infect as many people over the age of 65 as you could. And that helped balance state, local budgets, pension plan budgets.

The increase in the death rate is now the official policy of the Center for Disease Control in the United States. They say do not wear masks. They’ve blocked any kind of mask wearing. They’ve done everything they could to prevent the use of HIPAA filters or airborne disease. The Disease Control Center says that Covid is not an airborne disease. Therefore, do not protect yourself.

Well, the result is many children have been getting Covid and that weakens their resistance system. And they’re getting measles and all sorts of other things. And all of that is greatly increasing GDP in America. The health care costs of America’s destructive policy.

I think Marx made a joke about this in Capital. He said when more people get sick, the doctors and the economic output goes up. Are you really going to consider sickness and destruction and fires rebuilding and cleanup costs? Are you going to count all of this there?

RADHIKA DESAI: But the irony is Michael, even with all of that, America’s GDP plunged so deeply down.

Well, I think we should move on to the next topic, but I will just say one thing. It is generally said that China is in a panic, the Chinese government reversed its draconian Covid policies because there were popular protests, and blah blah and so on. I would not agree with that.

Certainly, there were some popular protests. It also seems as though at least some of them were being pushed by the National Endowment for Democracy with the typical color revolution style. They have one symbol that symbolizes it. So, they decided to put up blank pieces of paper, etc. So, there’s no doubt that there was some of this going on. And as Mick said, undoubtedly, there were local difficulties in many places.

But what becomes very clear is that China decided to lift Covid restrictions towards the end of 2022 only after it has satisfied itself that the risk. And I should also add one thing. It was under pressure to lift these restrictions a great deal because the fact was that the rest of the world was not following China’s footsteps apart from a handful of other countries. And they were socialist countries. They were not following China’s footsteps.

So, it’s very hard to be the only country that’s doing it. But nevertheless, despite all those pressures, China had a very deliberate policy. It lifted Covid restrictions after assuring itself that enough of the population had been vaccinated, as to achieve something close to herd immunity.

And these figures of deaths per million demonstrate that China’s bet proved right, and China continues to monitor the situation. Covid hasn’t gone away.

And so, in all of these ways, I think that it’s important for us to understand that China’s policy has actually been above all about protecting people’s lives.

MICK DUNFORD: Just from my recollection, the demonstrations of which you spoke, where the slogans were written in English, I wonder who they were talking to, were on the 1st of December. China had, on the 11th of November, already announced the steps of, in a sense, removing restrictions. And then they were finalized in early December. So, the change was already underway.

RADHIKA DESAI: Exactly. Great. So, I think we are at almost, I think, 50 minutes or so. So, let’s do the next topic, which is the property bubble. And then we will stop this episode and we will do a part two of this episode, and do the other four topics that remain in part two.

So, Mick, do you want to start us off about the property bubble and the alleged Japanification, impending Japanification of China’s economy?

MICK DUNFORD: Okay. Well, if you want, you can just show the chart:

house property prices china us

Basically, you can see that throughout this period, Chinese house prices have risen quite substantially. You know, in a sense, the story started, with housing reform, after 1988, when China moved from a welfare to a commodity system. And then, in 1998, it actually privatized Danwei housing, and it adopted the view that housing should be provided, as a commodity by developers.

And in 2003, that course of action was confirmed. And from that point in time, one saw very, very substantial growth in the number of developers, many of which, the overwhelming majority of which were private developers. So, in a sense, they moved towards a fundamentally market system.

And they very quickly had to make certain adjustments because they found that while the quality of housing and the amount of housing space per person was going up, these developers were orienting their houses towards more affluent groups. So, there was an under-provision of housing for middle-income groups and for low-income groups.

And so, there were progressively, you saw over the years, increasing attention paid to the provision of low-cost housing and of low-cost rented housing. And in fact, in the current five-year plan, 25% of all housing is meant to be basically low-cost housing.

So, the important point is that this problem emerged in a system that was liberalized, actually, I mean, in line with recommendations that were made in 1993 by the World Bank.

So, in other words, it’s an example of a liberalized, predominantly market-led, private-led system, in which these difficulties and these problems have emerged.

So, that’s the first thing I want to say. And I mean, obviously, to address housing needs, China has had, over the course of time, to considerably move back in the direction of providing low-cost housing in order to meet the housing needs of the Chinese people.

But basically, in August 2020, the government got very, very deeply concerned about, on the one hand, increasing house prices and, on the other hand, the explosion of borrowing and the fact that the liabilities of many of these developers substantially exceeded their assets.

And of course, the other line on that chart is a line indicating house prices in the United States. And of course, it was the crash of prices in the subprime market that, in a sense, precipitated the financial crisis. So, China, in the first place, is absolutely determined that it should not confront that kind of problem that was generated by the liberalized housing system in the United States.

So, I mean, that’s the first thing I basically want to say.

If you want, I can say something about the case of Evergrande. But basically, what China did in 2020 was it introduced what it called Three Red Lines, which were basically designed to reduce financial risks.

But it had a number of consequences because it, to some extent, deflated the housing market. Housing prices started to fall. Some of these developers found themselves in a situation where their liabilities substantially exceeded their assets. There was a decline in housing investment.

But to some extent, I think this is a part of a deliberate goal of basically diverting capital towards, as I said earlier, high productivity activities and away from activities, especially the speculative side of the housing market. So, I’ll just say that for the moment, but I can come back and say something about Evergrande, if you wish, in a few minutes.

RADHIKA DESAI: Okay, great. Michael, do you want to add anything?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, what I’d like to know as the background for this is what is the, how much of this housing is owner-occupied and how much is rental housing? That’s one question. The other question is how much is the ratio of housing costs to personal income? In America, it’s over 40% of personal income for housing. What’s the ratio in China?

I’d want to know the debt-equity ratio. How much debt, on the average, for different income groups? Debt relative to the value of housing. In America, for the real estate sector as a whole, debt is, the banker owns more of the house than the nominal house owner, whose equity ratio for the whole economy is under 50%.

These are the depth dimensions that I’d want to ask for these charts, if you know anything about them.

RADHIKA DESAI: Okay, thanks for that. And so, I just want to add one thing, which is that, this graph actually really says it all, and in some ways implicitly answers Michael’s questions:

house property prices china us

Because the blue line, which shows the United States property prices, you can see that they reached a certain peak at 150% of the value of its 2010 values in 2008. Then it went down to below the level of 2010.

But U.S. monetary policy, Federal Reserve policy, its continuing deregulated financial sector, the easy money policy that was applied in a big way with zero interest rate policies, with quantitative easing, etc., etc., has simply led to a new property boom, where the prices of property prices have reached a peak, which is even higher than that of 2007-8, which was such a disaster. And this was all made possible precisely by the, by increasing housing debt, etc.

Whereas in China, a big driver of the housing boom has actually been that people are investing their savings in it. So, by logically, it means that the extent of a debt in the housing market will be comparatively lower. The entities that are indebted are actually the developers.

And that’s a very different kind of problem than, than the, than the owners being indebted. So that’s the main thing I want to say.

And Mick, you wanted to come back about, about Evergrande, so please do. And then remember also that we want to talk about this chart in particular, and deal with the question of Japanification:

china loans real estate industry

So, please go ahead, Mick. Let’s talk about that.

MICK DUNFORD: Okay, well, I mean, as Radhika just said, the problem is, the indebtedness of developers, and the existence of debts that considerably exceed the value of their assets.

And the way in which this situation has come about, and I mean, as I said, the Chinese government, in a sense, wants to address the financial risks associated with that situation, and did so by introducing these so-called Three Red Lines.

It also is interested in reducing house prices, and it’s also interested in redirecting finance towards productivity-increasing activities.

So, Evergrande is an enormous real estate giant. It has debt of 300 billion dollars. It has 20 billion of overseas debt, and its assets, according to its accounts at the end of the last quarter of last year, are 242 billion. And 90 percent of those assets are in mainland China. So, its liability asset ratio was 84.7 percent, and the Three Red Lines set a limit of 70, 70 percent. So, it’s substantially in excess of the red line.

In 2021, it defaulted. And then, in January this year, it was told to liquidate after international creditors and the company failed to agree on a restructuring plan. In September, by the way, last year, its chair, Su Jiayin, was placed under mandatory measures, on suspicion of unspecified crimes. Basically, it was a Hong Kong court that called in the liquidators.

And the reason was that, in a way, outside China, Evergrande looked as a massively profitable distressed debt trade opportunity. There were 19 billion in defaulted offshore bonds with very substantial assets and, initially, a view that the Chinese government might prop up the property market.

So, large numbers of U.S. and European hedge funds basically piled into the debt, and they expected quite large payouts. But it seems as if this negotiation was, to some extent, controlled by a Guangdong risk management committee. And the authorities, basically, were very, very reluctant to allow offshore claimants to secure onshore revenues and onshore assets.

And, in fact, to stop the misuse of funds, I think about 10 Chinese local provinces actually took control of pre-sales revenues. They put it into custodial accounts, and the idea was that this money should basically—the priority is to ensure that the houses of people who’ve paid deposits on houses are actually built, and people who’ve undertaken work in building houses, are basically paid. So, that, then saw the value of these offshore bonds collapse very rapidly, indeed.

And I think that, to some extent, explains the concerns of the international financial market about the difficulties of this particular case. But I think, it’s clear that China intends, basically, to deflate this sector and to put an end to this speculative housing market as much as it possibly can, and to direct capital, towards productivity increasing, essentially, the industrial sector. And we shall talk about this direction of finance later on.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Evergrande debt, and other real estate debt, is to domestic Chinese banks and lenders. Certainly, many Chinese home buyers did not borrow internationally.

So, I want to find out how much the domestic Chinese banking system, or near banking system — not the Bank of China itself, but the near banks intermediaries who lent — to what extent have the banks given guarantees for the loans for Evergrande and others?

I understand that there are some guarantees domestically, and if the banks have to pay them, the banks will go under, just as occurring here in New York City. Do you have any information on that?

MICK DUNFORD: No, I don’t really have any information, except, I mean, some of the literature that I’ve read suggests that these creditors, bondholders and also other creditors, basically shareholders, are going to take a very, very major haircut.

RADHIKA DESAI: Exactly. I think that this is the key, that there will be an imposition of haircuts on the rich and the powerful, not just subjecting ordinary people to repossession of their homes, which they should have access to.

So, as Mick has already said, the Chinese government is doing everything possible to make sure that the ordinary buyers who have bought these houses do not lose out, which is the opposite of what was done in trying to resolve the housing and credit bubble in the United States.

So, I just want to say a couple of things. I mean, the Chinese government is quite aware, as Mick pointed out, the whole thing has begun by, this whole property bubble is in good part a product of the fact that when relations between China and the West were much better, China accepted some World Bank advice, and this is partly a result of that and the kind of deregulation that the World Bank had suggested.

But very clearly, now relations between China and the West are not good. In fact, they’re anything but good. China is unlikely, once bitten, twice shy, to accept such bad advice again, even if they were good. And now that they’re not good, there will be, and China is clearly looking at distinctively pragmatic, socialistic ways out.

And you see in the new address to the NPC by the Premier [Li Qiang], that social housing has become a major priority, not building houses for private ownership, but rather building houses which will be kept in the public sector and rented out at affordable rates. And I think this is really an important thing, really the way to go.

And finally, I would say that, the property bubble in Japan and the property bubble in the United States were bound to have very different consequences, partly because, well, for two reasons, mainly. Number one, the nature of their financial systems were very different.

In the case of Japan, the financial system was being transformed from one that resembles China’s financial system to something that resembles much more the US financial system. And Japan has continued this transformation and has suffered as a result. I would say in short, really, Japan has paid the price of keeping its economy capitalist. So in many ways is the United States.

And the second reason, of course, is that, funnily enough, one of the effects of the Plaza Accord was that, by the time the Plaza Accord came around, Japan was no longer interested in buying US treasuries. And as a result, the United States essentially restricted its access to US markets in a much bigger way. And so, essentially, Japan lost those export markets.

And it did not do what China is able to do. It perhaps could not do what China is able to do, being a capitalist country, which is massively reorient the stimulus for production away from exports and towards the domestic market, including the market for investment.

So I think that we are, maybe this is the cue at which we can talk about Japanification. So maybe you can start us off by commenting on this chart, and then Michael and I can jump in as well:

china loans real estate industry

MICK DUNFORD: Ok, the blue line, of course, is the flow of loans to different sectors. So the blue line is the flow of loans to the real estate sector.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Only the Bank of China or by?

MICK DUNFORD:  All the banks. You can see from 2016, the share going to real estate has diminished very significantly, whereas, where it says industrial MLT, that’s medium and long term loans for industrial investment, you can see a very, very strong, steady increase in the share of loans going to industrial investment. In agriculture, it declines. And then also, that has actually increased since 2016. So this is a directing of investment towards manufacturing and towards the industrial sector of the economy.

So why is that? Well, I think the first thing one can say is that, in the past, basically, the growth drivers of the Chinese economy were, to some extent, export manufactures. But China was predominantly involved in processing activities, employing very unskilled labor and associated with very low levels of labor productivity.

So one of China’s goals is to significantly, basically, strengthen, upgrade the quality of these traditional industries, to make them digital, to make them green, and to radically increase productivity through a large-scale investment wave.

And then, secondly, we’re on the verge of a new industrial revolution, which Radhika has spoken about. So the aim in this case is, basically, to divert investment towards the industries that are associated with the next industrial revolution.

The other main growth drivers in the past, alongside this export sector, were obviously real estate, which, I mean, if you look at GDP by expenditure, was accounting probably with household appliances and furniture and household goods and so on, about 26, 27 percent of the economy.

But it’s a sector that’s associated with relatively low productivity, and of course, it was associated with very substantial speculation and generated very considerable financial instability.

So, as Radhika said, there will be, in dealing with this financial crisis, basically an underwriting of existing, of obligations to existing home buyers, and in the future, an attempt to establish a more sustainable housing market.

The other area of the economy was basically this sort of platform economy. But this platform economy was associated with very, very strong tendencies towards monopoly, and in the, about four or five years ago, a series of measures were adopted, basically, to restrict, some aspects of this platform economy, and other areas, like private tutoring, which was generating large disparities in the educational system, and is associated with the fact, that the cost of raising children in China is extremely high. I mean, it’s the second highest in the world after South Korea, actually.

So, these growth drivers, these old growth drivers, are basically seen as not offering potential to sustain the growth of the Chinese economy into the years ahead, and so there’s this attempt to look for new growth drivers. And basically, for that reason, you’ve seen this redirection of investment.

And I think one can distinguish that, from what happened to Japan, because basically, in Japan, industrial investment did not increase, largely, I think, because the profitability of investment was not sufficiently high. And also Japan, in a sense, adopted a neoliberal program. It didn’t implement industrial policies.

Whereas China is seeking to undertake this transformation, basically, through, it’s a kind of supply-side restructuring, driven by industrial policy, and driven by financial policies, providing strategic funding for industrial transformation.

Then linking that also to the transformation of education, to try to ensure that the output of the education system, in terms of skill profiles, and so on, corresponds much, much more closely with the profile of work and employment, with much more emphasis upon STEM, in the context of this new industrial revolution, radically raising productivity, and by radically raising productivity, you increase income, and ultimately, you’ll increase consumption, and so on.

So I think that the Japanification course is not one that China will follow, that China will actually address this need to innovate and transform its industrial system, in order to, in a sense, address the problems that are associated with the earlier drivers of Chinese development.

MICHAEL HUDSON: We probably need a whole other program to talk about the difference in structure. Real estate is the largest sector of every economy, and China is so different from Japan.

The Ginza district in Japan, right around the palace, that small district, was larger than all of the real estate value in California. So, we’re dealing with a huge debt finance explosion there, and then you have the largest collapse of property prices in Japan, everywhere, anywhere in the world.

In a way, what you’ve described brings us back to what we were talking about at the beginning of the show, about China’s structure. The effect of the real estate slowdown and falling in prices has a disastrous effect on localities, small villages and towns in China, who are dependent on real estate sales as funding their budget.

So, the real estate crash in China, if we’re talking about what policy is China going to take, how is it going to solve the problem of local budgets without solving it by creating a booming real estate market for towns to sell off their property to developers, and developers to make a profit selling off a property to private buyers, mainly.

I assume they’re not just selling it to the government to make a profit. I think there’s a lot of structure that I’d like to know. I don’t know what it is now, but it’s so different from what you have everywhere else.

I think that really is what I hope will be the focus of our show, the geopolitics of different real estate structures and the real estate tax that goes with it.

RADHIKA DESAI: That’s a really interesting question, and much of that we will be discussing in the second part of this show, which we’ll be recording in a week or so, I think.

But let me maybe then just bring this to a conclusion by simply agreeing with what both of you have said, which is that China has a very good chance, in fact, very likely, China is not going to follow the Japanification model because, as Michael is emphasizing, the structure of China’s economy and the imperatives generated by that structure are very different.

To name just one, if something is not profitable in a capitalist economy, it will not get done. Whereas in the case of the Chinese economy, the Chinese government can always say, well, if it’s necessary, we’ll do it even if it isn’t profitable, because it is necessary for the welfare of the people or the productive capacity of the economy, etc. So, profitability just does not play the role of a brake in the same way as it does in capitalist societies.

Secondly, the role of the state, both in terms of initiating new projects and taking responsibility for new projects, and we can already see in the current NPC and the discussions there that the role of the state is already once again expanding again in China, and it can continue to do so. And I think that’s a very good thing.

And remember also that, Mick, you emphasized in the case of when you were discussing one of the graphs, that the per capita GDP of China today is considerably lower than what it was in Japan, even in the late 80s and early 90s.

And that means that, number one, domestic consumption can be a big stimulus for further economic expansion. And secondly, of course, the industrial opportunities, the opportunities for a new industrial revolution are many, and China in particular, because of the important state role in the Chinese economy, the centrality of the state role in the Chinese economy, and the aim of the Chinese economy and the Chinese economy’s managers to develop China’s productive capacity in whatever way that works, not necessarily through private ownership.

These elements are actually going to ensure that China will exploit the opportunities of the new technologies much more effectively and execute a transition to the next industrial revolution much more successfully, and that will be an important road to avoiding what’s called Japanification.

MICK DUNFORD: You know, I think the difference is that Japan, I thought, in the 1980s was at the technological frontier, and China is not. But just, what Michael was referring to is the fact that in China, local government revenue came to depend to a very considerable extent on what is called land revenue.

You know, basically all land is state-owned, is either state-owned or owned by the rural collectives. But what happened was that if land was converted for use for urbanization, was converted for use for urbanization, for housing, then basically the local government could in effect sell leases, 90-year leases, or depending on the activity, different lengths of lease. They could sell these leases to developers. And then that revenue was used by local government to fund infrastructure.

To some extent that model has come up against limits. And I think, the issue Michael raised really concerns how in future will local government be funded, and will there be a reform in the system of taxation?

Will a property tax be introduced in order to generate government revenue rather than relying upon this land tax? Because of course that did encourage local government to allocate that land to people who are going to build housing for upper-income groups, because the implications for land value were under that situation, they would actually be higher rather than providing that land to construct housing for low income groups.

So, this issue of land revenue is one that has to be addressed basically by someone who’s an expert in public finance.

MICHAEL HUDSON: That should be what we talk about in the next show, I think.

RADHIKA DESAI: Great. So I think that we should bring this part of the show, the first part of this show to an end. And let me just do that by going back to our list of topics.

So just to conclude, we managed to cover the first four, although the question of Japanification and the alleged property bubble will resonate into all the rest of the topics, certainly the question of consumption, exports and China’s new growth strategy. So we will return to it.

But in the next [Geopolitical Economy] Hour, we will be talking about these topics, restricted consumption, exports, new growth strategy, and of course, China’s foreign economic policy.

So thanks very much both. Thanks to all the listeners. And we look forward to seeing you in another week or two. Thank you and goodbye.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The Terms of Surrender

Par : AHH — 16 mars 2024 à 19:22

Putin presented the West with a bill of exchange that it is not able to repay

By Irina Alksnis, RIA Novosti columnist.

“In an interview with Dmitry Kiselyov, Vladimir Putin stressed that the West will not just have to offer Russia guarantees of compliance with the agreements, but these guarantees: a) must be spelled out; b) suit Moscow; and c) the Russian leadership must actually believe in them.”

In an interview with Dmitry Kiselyov, Vladimir Putin paid great attention to the issue of potential negotiations with the West over Ukraine. At first glance, this might even seem somewhat unexpected, but the topic is really becoming more and more relevant and is increasingly heard in the public field, which means that it is time to clarify Russia’s position as clearly as possible. Which the president did.

The reality of the situation on the Ukrainian front, which is unpleasant for the West, is reaching more and more people on the other side. This entails quite natural consequences: the voices demanding to negotiate with Moscow are getting louder and louder. And if initially they were mostly marginal figures, on whom it was very convenient to hang the label “Russian agent” or “useful idiot of the Kremlin”, now the most mainstream and very influential forces – the media, think tanks, politicians and statesmen – up to the Pope are saying the same thing.

This point of view has not yet become dominant there and still meets impressive resistance, but it can no longer be called marginal. And judging by the way events are developing in Ukraine, the moment when it will become dominant on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean is not very long away.

However, these changes worry the politically active patriotic part of Russian society. The reason is obvious: people fear that in the course of negotiations, Russia will lose the achievements for which our soldiers pay with their blood and lives. Either the West will simply deceive us, as it has done so many times in the past, or a part of the Russian elite that remains pro-Western will be inclined to make concessions, surrendering our military victory. But no one is immune from mistakes and failures in the negotiation process – even the most ardent patriot of his country.

This is probably why the president gave a detailed and detailed commentary on this issue, touching on very different aspects that affect Russia’s position. And this is the answer primarily for us-the citizens of the country. But it can also be very useful for the West, if there are still smart enough and qualified people there who are able to hear and understand what is said, and not invent their own version of Putin’s answer in accordance with the agenda and personal beliefs (and with this there are more and more problems lately). Well, for the insufficiently nationalized representatives of the domestic establishment, who are hoping to turn the stuffing back, the president’s answer is also very useful – and makes them understand that you should not dream of the impossible.

The West, in the form of Ukraine as anti-Russia, prepared a very powerful weapon against our country, but when it did not work as expected, it had to openly enter the war itself – and this became its huge, downright fatal mistake, because it turned on the patriotic war regime in our people. Putin said that “deep Russian society”, ordinary citizens, had long been waiting for their demand for the country and the state, and the war of the West against us was exactly the situation that turned on the mechanism of national consolidation.

This means that the state has a free hand in relying on powerful and active (literally combative) popular support. He is not under pressure from public opinion, which insists on ending the fighting at any cost and as soon as possible – on the contrary, citizens consider it right to solve the issue radically, eliminating the threat to Russia in the south-western direction once and for all. This means that the SVO can continue for as long as it takes, until the West is not just ripe for negotiations (this will happen soon), but reaches the point where it hears Moscow’s position and accepts its conditions (but this may take much longer).

By the way, the president’s words made it clear why Russian officials are so actively pedaling the topic of deception on the part of the West, which Moscow has encountered many times in recent decades. You can often hear criticism of this position – saying that it exposes Russia as weak and stupid. However, it has now provided the state with an extremely comfortable and strong negotiating position: what are your guarantees, gentlemen? Because the old and, alas, unkind principle of “gentlemen take their word for it” has finally broken down.

Putin stressed that the West should not just offer Russia guarantees of compliance with the agreements, but these guarantees should: a) be spelled out; b) suit Moscow; and c) the Russian leadership should actually believe in them.

In fact, in the sphere of reputation and moral authority, the West finds itself in exactly the same situation as with the American debt, which is storming to astronomical heights and whose mere maintenance is increasingly shaking the financial system. Everyone has already realized that this is just a pyramid scheme, but it still holds, and the world is watching with curiosity (although not without concern about the consequences) what will become the “pebble” that will start the crash.

Well, by demanding guarantees at the talks, Putin swung the “pebble” of another tower – the tower of Babel of Western hypocrisy and lies.

Perhaps this is understood by American and European hawks, who are now actively rocking the topic of the need to introduce a Western contingent to Ukraine. Realizing that Moscow will not be able to push through or deceive in negotiations, they see direct participation in the conflict as the only remaining option to try to reduce the conflict to a more or less acceptable outcome for NATO countries.

However, Putin also had words for these hotheads – in particular, the word “interventionists”. Moreover, the president explicitly stated that it is precisely as an intervention on the territory of Russia that we will regard the entry of Western troops into Ukraine. And he reminded that our country has a rich experience of successfully solving this problem, which everyone in the West should remember.

In essence, Ukraine has become a conflict in which the bankruptcy of Europe and the United States – military, moral, economic – threatens to turn from expected to actual. And in his interview, Putin presented the West with a bill of exchange, which in principle it is not able to repay.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

African Observers of Russian Presidential Elections

Par : AHH — 16 mars 2024 à 14:10

Those who travel to Russia and see the reality for themselves, from any part of the world, are consistently astounded and pleased with what they see. This consistent discrepancy between reality and media-driven myth underlines the potency of the mindwashing western Big Lie Media, which most of humanity continues to foolishly imbibe.




Visiting Russia is a key antidote, until the Global South / Global Majority drops safeguards against western media, referred to as “informational hygiene” by Russians. Otherwise Forever Wars are permanently baked in as this Big Lie Media forever sews discord, false impressions between natural allies, and works to divide humanity along false lines.

An interesting pattern developed during yesterday’s first of three main voting days. Let the following 11 African election observers from 10 different African countries tell you in their own words. The selections are from the Sputnik Africa Telegram channel.

International observers for the Russian presidential elections plan to visit at least 52-53 regions, they will be provided with all the necessary assistance, said the head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova. Currently 333,600 people are monitoring the Russian presidential election, including over 700 from 106countries,” Pamfilova noted.
The process of voting is “proceeding normally,” she added.”

💠Everything you need to know about Russia’s 2024 presidential elections

Russian citizens will head to the polls on March 15-17 to vote in 2024 presidential election. There are 112.3 million eligible voters inside Russia, and around 1.9 million eligible voters reside abroad. Voter turnout is expected at 71%, as per the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).

What’s new about 2024 elections?
E-voting, a remote electronic voting system, is being used for the first time to elect a Russian president. Voters in 29 Russian regions will be able to cast their ballots remotely.
🔹Electronic ballot processing system uses a special scanner to read and process marked paper ballots and tally the results.
🔹Mobile Voter mechanism provides online voting.
🔹Elections state automated system is information software that ensures that ballots are counted in an accurate and rapid manner.

There are four candidates vying for the top office:
🔸Self-nominated candidate and incumbent President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin;
🔸Communist Party nominee Nikolay Kharitonov;
🔸Liberal Democratic Party nominee Leonid Slutsky;
🔸New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov.

Who will observe the voting process?
🔸Election observers are Russian citizens who monitor compliance of election procedure with the law, supervise the process and record possible violations.
🔸200 parliamentary international observers have been accredited to monitor the elections in Russia, delegations from 36 countries are already arriving.

👉 Follow this link to learn more

≈≈≈≈≈≈

💠A Kenyan observer for the Russian presidential elections, who’s watching the voting process in Russia’s city of Perm told Sputnik that “the election process has started well” and “the election officials are well set”

“It’s very cold, [but] I am very happy to be here,” he added.

💠Fast and secure procedure: a Burundian observer appreciates the advantages of voting electronically in the Russian presidential election

“When I was told what happens electronically, I congratulated you, I saw that you had succeeded,” President of the National Assembly of Burundi, Honorable Gelase Daniel Ndabirabe, told Sputnik Africa.

Ndabirabe noted that once a person is identified in the system, the voting process takes “very little time,” adding that such an option saves “a lot of time and energy” for people.

Lastly, the observer praised the excellent security of the electronic voting.

“I was told that to date there have been no complaints about the security of the electronic trial. Which is another great success, because that’s what’s so frightening. I say: “congratulations”. Because there can’t be any hacking. That’s a very good thing,” Ndabirabe concluded.


💠Cameroonian observer speaks about Russian presidential election. African observers who are inspecting polling stations across Russia will return home genuinely satisfied with what they have seen, Serge Espoir Matomba, the first secretary of the Cameroonian United People for Social Renovation, told Sputnik Africa.

According to him, at a time when “the world wants to be multipolar, we have an obligation to know what’s going on without waiting to be told what’s going on. There is this growing misinformation that is being used today as a lever for manipulation.”

“That is why I am in Moscow today, to see with my own eyes how the elections are going, how the buzz around the elections is going, how the process itself is being set in motion,” Matomba said.

“The image that Africa has often had of Russia in the past is changing exponentially,” the politician concluded. “Africans are now realizing that Russia is not the country they were presented with. And that’s a good thing.”

💠 An observer from Kenya in the Kherson region praised the Russian electronic voting system

“In Russia you can vote from home. In other countries, especially in African countries, with electronic voting you have to go to the polling station to register,” said Ezekiel Kanagi Mutes.


💠 “Absolutely fair”: Ethiopian observer impressed by Russian presidential elections

“Really, it is well planned, well organized. I have seen the voters, how they are electing. As to my observation up to now, it is absolutely fair. I appreciate it,” Dr. Petros Woldegiorgis, an observer from Ethiopia and President of Bonga University, told Sputnik Africa.

He particularly noted the accessibility measures in place, including the option for citizens in distant locations to vote via telephone—a novel experience for him.

“The general feeling I have is wonderful,” the observer remarked. “From Alpha to Omega, what I have seen now, honestly speaking, I’m very much excited.”

💠 🇷🇺🗳🇹🇿 “Very open and freely”: Tanzanian observer from the ruling party on the Russian presidential election

“The voting process here is very interesting. […] It takes very small time, just 3 to 5 minutes you are done, is very open and freely,” Joseph Mgaya told Sputnik Africa.

Furthermore, the observer pointed out that Russian citizens are voting “freely” and they can do it in every corner of the country – you just need to have an ID with you.

Mgaya also praised the “high-end” online voting technology that simplifies the whole election process.

“I’m very interested in it because it’s high-end [and] […] it’s very open,” he added.


💠 “The process is more than transparent”: Comorian observer on presidential elections in Russia

The Russian presidential election has a number of advantages, including security cameras to ensure transparency, candidate representatives at each polling station, “a more efficient electronic system combined with a reliable manual system,” Ahmed Said Mdahoma, head of the Independent National Electoral Commission of the Comoros, told Sputnik Africa.

He also noted “maximum” security to ensure the calm of the electoral process and “constant communication at the level of the Central Electoral Commission to inform citizens, observers and actors about the electoral process.”

In addition, Mdahoma emphasized a 3-day voting period that would allow “everyone who wants to exercise their right to vote to find the right time” to do so.


💠 Chairman of CAR National Electoral Commission praises organization of Russian presidential elections

Mathias Moruba visited three polling stations in Russia and noted their compliance with international electoral standards, the Russian Embassy in the Central African Republic (CAR) said.

According to the embassy, the delegation from the Central African Republic arrived in Russia to observe the presidential election at the invitation of the Russian Central Election Commission.


💠 “Russia is already ahead,” says Madagascan observer on electronic voting in Russia

Russia’s presidential election is taking place “calmly and also within the norm,” which has highlighted some advances, such as automated voting, which saves voters’ time, Ralaisoavamanjaka Andriamarotafikatohanambahoaka, the first general rapporteur of Madagascar’s Independent National Electoral Commission, told Sputnik Africa.

“The computerized system is a novelty. The whole world will choose this system. The choice of the virtual system, which the majority of people will make, is mainly to save time for them,” the observer explained.

He added that “it’s obvious that we’ve respected the principle of electoral sovereignty and the electoral norm in Moscow and Russia in general.”
[His name is not a typo!! Another example here.]


💠🇷🇺🗳🇦🇴 “No violations”: an observer from Angola about the Russian presidential elections

“We didn’t find any problems, no violations. [Everything went] very well, without problems. And everything was peaceful,” said Manuel Camati, member of the National Electoral Commission of Angola.

He also noted that elections are part of the sovereignty of each state, and therefore it was important for him to be personally present in this process.

Speaking about the technological innovations of the Russian elections, Camati said that they help to quickly resolve any issues, and the electronic voting option allows “to minimize the number of errors and speed up electoral processes.”


💠🇷🇺🇲🇱 Voting in Russia “proceeding normally, as in other countries,” says Malian observer

The ability to vote electronically is important for people who cannot travel, such as the disabled and the elderly, Nana Aïcha Cissé, the first vice-president of Mali’s Network of Women Parliamentarians, told Sputnik Africa.

She came to observe the elections in Russia for the first time and said she was impressed by the organization.

The observer also called Mali “a friend of Russia,” noting that “people know Russia, they know the ties that exist between Mali and Russia, and that’s very important.”

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The German-American Strategic Stooges Clown Show

Par : AHH — 15 mars 2024 à 19:08

The saga of Bundeswehr officers plotting to blow up the Kerch bridge with Taurus missiles and getting away with it is a gift that keeps on giving.

By Pepe Escobar at Strategic Culture.

The Four Stooges saga of Bundeswehr officers plotting to blow up the Kerch bridge in Crimea with Taurus missiles and getting away with it is a gift that keeps on giving.

President Putin, in his comprehensive interview to Dmitry Kiselev for Russia 1/RIA Novosti, did not fail to address it:

“They are fantasizing, encouraging themselves, first of all. Secondly, they are trying to intimidate us. As for the Federal Republic of Germany, there are constitutional problems there. They correctly say: if these Taurus hit that part of the Crimean Bridge, which, of course, even according to their concepts, is Russian territory, this is a violation of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

Yet it gets curioser and curioser.

When the transcript of the Taurus leak  was published by RT, everyone was able to hear Brigadier General Frank Gräfe – head of operations of the German Air Force – speaking with Lieutenant Colonel Fenske from the German Space Command Air Operations on the plan to deploy Taurus systems in Ukraine.

A key point is that during the plotting, these two mention that plans were already discussed “four months ago” with “Schneider”, the successor of “Wilsbach”.

Well, these are German names, of course. Thus it did not dawn on anyone that (Kevin) Schneider and (Kenneth) Wilsbach could instead be… Americans.

Yet that did raise the eyebrows of German investigative journalist Dirk Pohlmann – who I had the pleasure to meet in Berlin years ago – and his fellow researcher Tobias Augenbraun.

They found out that the German-sounding names did identify Americans. Not only that: none less than the former and the current Commanders of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces.

The Four (actually Six) Stooges element gets an extra boost when it is established that Liver Sausage Chancellor Scholz and his Totalenkrieg Minister Pistorius learned about the Taurus plan no less than four months later.

So here apparently we have a clear cut case of top German military officers taking direct orders regarding an attack on Crimea – part of the Russian Federation – directly from American officers in the Pacific Air Forces.

That in itself opens the dossier to a large spectrum ranging from national treason (against Germany) to casus belli (from the point of view of Russia).

Of course none of that is being discussed on German mainstream media.

After all, the only thing that seems to disturb Brigadier General Gräfe is that German media may start seriously prying on the Bundeswehr’s Multiple Stooges methods.

The only ones who actually did proper investigation were Pohlmann and Augenbaun.

It would be too much to expect from German media of the “Bild” type to analyze what would be the Russian response to the Multiple Stooge shenanigans against Crimea: a devastating retaliation against Berlin assets.


It’s so cold in Alaska

During the jolly Bundeswehr conversation yet another “plan” is mentioned:

“Nee, nee. Ich mein wegen der anderen Sache.” (“No, no. I mean the other matter.”) Then: “Ähm … meinst du Alaska jetzt?” (“Ahm, you mean Alaska now?”)

It all gets juicier when it is known that German Space Command Air Operations Centre officer Florstedt will meet none other than Schneider next Tuesday, March 19, in Alaska.

And Gräfe will also “have to go back to Alaska” to explain everything all over again to Schneider as he is “new” in the post.

So the question is: Why Alaska?

Enter American shadowplay on a lot of “activities” in Alaska – which happen to concern none other than China.

And there’s more: during the conversation still another “plan” (“Auftrag”, meaning “mission”) also surfaces, bearing a not clearly understandable code name sounding like “Kumalatra”.

What all of that tells us is that the Crash Test Dummy administration in the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon seem to betting, in desperation, on Total War in the black soil of Novorossiya.

And now they are sayin’ it out loud, with no shadow play, and coming directly from the head of the CIA, William Burns, who obviously sucks at secrecy.

This is what Burns told the members of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this week:

“I think without supplemental assistance in 2024, you’re going to see more Avdeevkas, and that – it seems to me – would be a massive and historic mistake for the United States.”

That spells out how much the Avdeevka trauma is impressed on the psyche of the U.S. intel apparatus.

Yet there’s more: “With supplemental assistance, Ukraine can hold its own on the front lines through 2024 and into early 2025. Ukraine can continue to exact costs against Russia, not only with deep penetration strikes in Crimea, but also against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.”

Here we go: Crimea all over again.

Burns actually believes that the humongous $60 billion new “aid” package which must be approved by the U.S. Congress will enable Kiev to launch an “offensive” by the end of 2024.

The only thing he gets right is that if there’s no new package, there will be “significant territorial losses for Ukraine this year.”

Burns may not be the brightest bulb in the – intel – room. A long time ago he was a diplomat/CIA asset in Moscow, and seems to have learned nothing.

Apart from letting cats and kitties galore out of the bag. It’s not only about attacking Crimea. This one is being read with surpreme delight in Beijing:

“The U.S. is providing assistance to Ukraine in part because such activities help curb China.”

Burns nailed his Cat Out of the Bag Oscar win when he said “if we’re seen to be walking away from support for Ukraine, not only is that going to feed doubts amongst our allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific; it’s going to stoke the ambitions of the Chinese leadership in contingencies ranging from Taiwan to the South China Sea”.

The inestimable Andrei Martyanov perfectly summed up the astonishing incompetence, peppered with tawdry exceptionalism, that permeates this performance by Burns.

There are things “they cannot grasp due to low level of education and culture. This is a new paradigm for them – all of them are ‘graduates’ of the school of ‘beating the crap from defenseless nations’ strategic ‘studies’, and with the level of economic ‘science’ in the West they cannot grasp how this all unfolds.”

So what is left is panic, as expressed by Burns in the Senate, mixed with the impotence in understanding a “different warrior culture” such as Russia’s: “They simply have no reference points.”

And still they choose war, as masterfully analyzed by Rostislav Ishchenko.

Even as the acronym fest of the CIA and 17 other U.S. intel agencies have concluded, in a report shown to Congress earlier this week, that Russia is “almost certainly” seeking to avoid a direct military conflict with NATO and will calibrate its policies to steer clear of a global war.

After all the Empire of Chaos is all about Forever Wars. And we are all in the middle of a do or die affair. The Empire simply cannot afford the cosmic humiliation of NATO in Novorossiya.

Still every “plan” – Taurus on Crimea-style – is a bluff. Russia is aware of bluff after bluff. The Western cards are now all on the table. The only question is when, and how fast will Russia call the bluff.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The Angst in the French Mind

Par : AHH — 15 mars 2024 à 17:36

The endless ennui and envy of those incapable of abandoning phantom pains. Most useful putty in the hands of Empire

By Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar at the Indian Punchline.

Ever since its ignominious defeat in the Napoleonic wars, France is entrapped in the predicament of countries that get sandwiched between great powers. Following World War II, France addressed this predicament by forging an axis with Germany in Europe.

Caught up in a similar predicament, Britain adapted itself to a subaltern role tapping into the American power globally but France never gave up its quest to regain glory as a global power. And it continues to be a work in progress.

The angst in the French mind is understandable as the five centuries of western dominance of the world order is drawing to a close. This predicament condemns France to a diplomacy that is constantly in a state of suspended animation interspersed with sudden bouts of activism.

But, for activism to be result-oriented, there are prerequisites needed such as the profiling of like-minded activist groups, leadership and associates and supporters and sympathisers — and, most important, sustainment and logistics. Or else, activism comes to resemble epileptic fits, an incurable affliction of the nervous system.

The French President Emmanuel Macron’s halcyon days in international diplomacy ended with the recent  dissolution of the Franco-German axis in Europe, which dated back to the Treaties of Rome in 1957. As Berlin sharply swerved to trans-atlanticism as its foreign-policy dogma, France’s clout diminished in European affairs. 

The stakes are high in the reconciliation meeting on Friday as Macron travels to Berlin to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who not only snubbed him by ruling out the use of ground troops from European countries in the Ukraine war, but also digging in on Taurus missile issue arguing that it would entail assigning German staff in support to Ukraine, which, he announced on Wednesday in the Bundestag, is simply “out of the question” while he remained the chancellor. 

Of course, this is not to decry Macron’s formidable intellect — such as when he declared in a blunt interview in late 2019 with the Economist magazine that Europe stood on “the edge of a precipice” and needed to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power lest it will “no longer be in control of our destiny.” Macron’s prescient remark preceded the war in Ukraine by 3 years.

According to the newspaper Marianne, which interviewed several French soldiers, the military reportedly estimates that the Ukraine war is irretrievably lost already. Marianne quoted a senior French officer saying derisively, “We must make no mistake facing the Russians; we are an army of cheerleaders” and sending French troops to the Ukrainian front would simply be “not reasonable” . At the Élysée, an unnamed advisor argued that Macron “wanted to send a strong signal… (in) milli-metered and calibrated words”.

Marianne’s editor Natacha Polony wrote: “It is no longer about Emmanuel Macron or his postures as a virile little leader. It is no longer even about France or its weakening by blind and irresponsible elites. It is a question of whether we will collectively agree to sleepwalk into war. A war that no one can claim will be controlled or contained. It’s a question of whether we agree to send our children to die because the United States insisted on setting up bases on Russia’s borders.”

The big question is why Macron is doing this nonetheless — going to the extent of cobbling together a ‘coalition of the willing’ in Europe. A range of explanations is possible starting with Macron posturing and trying to earn political points at minimal cost, motivated by personal ambitions and intra-European friction with Berlin.

But then, until fairly recently, Macron was a supporter of dialogue with Moscow. The perception in most European capitals, including Moscow, is that Macron is making an attempt to bring the Ukrainian crisis to a new level by announcing western combat deployment against Russia  publicly as an obvious political manipulation.

The geopolitical salience is that Macron who once not too long ago called for dialogue with Moscow and offered his mediation in it, who made the famous declaration of a “Greater Europe” in 2019 and maintained contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin thereof; who as of February last year, while speaking about Russia’s “certain defeat” in Ukraine, called for avoiding Moscow’s “humiliation”; who repeatedly underscored his commitment to the matrix of diplomacy attributed to Charles de Gaulle, which assigned France the role of a “bridge between East and West” — has now swung to the other extreme of harsh Euro-Atlantic rhetoric.

This appalling inconsistency can only be seen as stemming out of the unfavourable development of events in the scenario of the Ukrainian crisis with the prospect of a Russian defeat in the war no longer in the cards even remotely and replaced by the growing possibility that peace will ultimately be attainable only on Russia’s terms. Put differently, the power dynamic in Europe is shifting dramatically, which, of course, impacts Macron’s own ambitions to “lead Europe.”

Meanwhile, Russian-French relations have also been undergoing a stage of fierce competition and rivalry — even confrontation — in a number of areas. For a start,  French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet said in an interview with Le Parisien in January that Russia’s victory in Ukraine would lead to 30% of world wheat exports being controlled by Moscow. For Paris, this is a question of the sustainability of one of the key sectors of French national economy.

French agriculture is marked by its history that had its beginning with the Gaulois in 2000 BC. It needs to be understood that In modern history, French Revolution of 1789, which altered every part of the French social order and led to the abolition of privileges for upper classes, was also an Agricultural Revolution, which allowed a broad land redistribution. Suffice to say, the bond of French people to their agriculture is very strong.

As it is, African states are changing the structure of grain imports due to the technical regulations introduced by the European Union as part of its green agenda and French farmers consequently face rising costs, and over and above that, there is now also the looming loss of regional market share to Russia.

This is on top of the inroads Russia is making in arms exports to the African continent lately. In politico-military terms too, France has lost ground to Russia in the resource-rich Sahel region, its ex-colonies and playpen traditionally. The fact of the matter is that the birds are coming to roost over France’s neo-colonial strategies in Africa, but Paris prefers to put the blame on Russia’s Wagner group which has moved in to fill the security vacuum in Sahel region, as anti-French forces have come to power in several countries at once — Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, CAR.

In the best traditions of geopolitics, France has begun retaliating in regions sensitive to Russian interests — Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine where Russian military presence is in French crosshairs. Unsurprisingly, Ukraine is the most strategic turf where Macron hopes to achieve a bigger French presence.

Through that, Macron hopes to advance his leadership ambitions in Europe as the navigator of the EU’s foreign policy strategy in a wide arc from the African continent across the Mediterranean to Transcaucasia — and potentially all the way to Afghanistan.

All this is unfolding against the historic backdrop of an inevitable US retrenchment in Europe as Indo-Pacific hots up and the simmering rivalry with China becomes an all-consuming passion for Washington. Indeed, alongside, the towering presence of Russia across Europe is beginning to be felt intensely as it surges as the number one military and economic power in the strategic space between Vancouver and Vladivostok.

Today, the paradox is, then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev had proposed way back in 2008 a legally binding pan-European security treaty, which would develop a new security architecture in Europe, involving the reshaping of existing, and creating new institutions and norms regulating security relations in Europe in a wider geopolitical space stretching east “from Vancouver to Vladivostok.” But, alas, the US encouraged the Europeans to see the so-called ‘Medvedev Initiative’ as a trap to enfeeble NATO, the OSCE, the EU and other European bodies,  and reject that wonderful idea which would have anchored the post-cold war era firmly on a binding security architecture.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Nuclear Forces

Par : AHH — 14 mars 2024 à 22:08

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Vladimir Putin on Russia’s Path Ahead

Par : AHH — 14 mars 2024 à 14:53

On the Cusp of Reelection and SMO Victory, Putin’s Interview with Rossiya Segodnya’s General Director Dmitry Kiselev

with thanks to Karl at karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium.

With snippets all over Russian media as well as the 1:45 long video, the job fell to Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent media group. We get to read the translated transcript where all emphasis is mine:

Dmitry Kiselyov: Mr Putin, in your Address to the [Federal Assembly], you have, figuratively speaking, taken trillion after trillion out of your sleeve. Thus, we have proposed an absolutely amazing plan for the country’s development – absolutely amazing. This is a different Russia, with a different infrastructure, a different social system – just a dream country.

I just want to ask you, ask your favorite question from Vysotsky: “Where is the money, Zin?”

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course.

What’s more, first of all, it’s all made up as a result of the painstaking work of the expert community, government specialists, and the Administration. Everything fully fits into the budget rules and, in fact, is quite conservative in nature, because some experts believe that there should be and will be more revenues. This means that it would be necessary to plan for more spending, because this should directly affect the prospects for economic development.

In general, it is correct, but we also planned to spend an additional $ 8 trillion on the development of the economy and social sphere in 2018, and then we increased these expenditures. I think that it is quite likely that if everything turns out as the optimists from this expert community, which I mentioned, say, then we can – and should, and will be able-to increase these costs in various areas.

Dmitry Kiselyov: So we are talking about a six-year period?

Vladimir Putin: Exactly so. We are talking about a six-year period. We are currently drawing up a budget for the “three-year” – a three-year, as we say, planning period. But, of course, when we were preparing for the Message – I say, “we were preparing for the Message”, because the whole team is working-we assumed that we would calculate our income and expenses in those areas that we consider key, priority areas for six years.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But still, there are literally stunning projects. For example, the Sochi-Dzhubga highway: 130 kilometers, of which 90 kilometers are tunnels, and the rest is probably bridges, judging by the landscape. One and a half billion in the first three years only, and the track should ideally be ready in 2030. How necessary is this and will it be enough to win?

Vladimir Putin: People need this route. After all, families with children can’t get to Sochi by car. Everyone stops somewhere in the area of Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk, because the track is very heavy – serpentine.

There are several construction options available. We will be discussing this in the next few days: either do it to Dzhubga, or first do it from Dzhubga to Sochi. Some members of the Government suggest doing this in stages. Others believe that you need to do everything at once, because otherwise there will be a narrow neck from Dzhubga to Sochi.

The first part, if you look from Novorossiysk, is more or less decent, and the coverage is not bad, but very narrow. If we do it before Sochi, as the first part, then there may be traffic jams in this small space, which is still enough there.

In general, we will determine this with our specialists – how, in what stages, but you need to do it. It is necessary to determine, of course, the final cost of the project, to ensure that everyone remains within the framework of financial plans.

First of all-the interests of people, but also the economy. The development of territories in the south of the country is very important.

Dmitry Kiselyov: If we can afford such large-scale investments, it means that the country is rapidly getting richer, especially in the conditions of free trade, in the conditions of almost 15 thousand sanctions-absolutely wild. Moreover, we also set ourselves the task of reducing poverty, including in large families. Isn’t that a little cheeky?

Vladimir Putin: No. See if you go back to this road. When I discussed it with members of the Government, as you know, the Finance Ministry is always such a miser, in a good way, and it is always very conservative about spending, even the Finance Minister [Anton Siluanov] he told me-almost verbatim: “The construction of this road is opposed by those who have never driven on it today.”

Dmitry Kiselyov: In other words, the entire Government should be moved.

Vladimir Putin: And he is right, because this is especially important for families with children.

As for whether we get rich or not. The economy is growing – this is a fact, and a fact that is recorded not by us, but by international economic and financial organizations. We have indeed overtaken the Federal Republic of Germany in terms of purchasing power parity, taking its place – the fifth place – among the world’s largest economies.

The German economy contracted, in my opinion, by 0.3 percent last year, while we grew by 3.6 percent. Japan grew by a small percentage. But if everything develops at the same pace as today, then we have every chance to take the place of Japan and become the fourth economy in the world, and in the near future.

But? – here we must be honest and objective – there is a difference between the quality of our economies. In terms of purchasing power parity, that is, in terms of volume, we are indeed now fifth, and there is every chance to take the place of Japan. But the structure of these countries ‘ economies, of course, differs favorably from ours.

We still have a lot to do to ensure that we have a decent position not only in terms of purchasing power parity, but also [in terms of GDP] per capita – the first. And the second thing is to change the structure itself, to make it much more efficient, more modern, and more innovative. That’s what we’ll be working on.

As for income, purchasing power parity is a very important indicator. This is the volume, the size of the economy. This means that the state receives funds for solving strategic tasks through the tax system at all levels. This gives us the opportunity to develop in the way we consider necessary for our country.

Dmitry Kiselyov:By the way, you are talking about the structure and the need for structural changes in our economy. After all, this is exactly what your Message said, and this is how the task is set: to ensure that innovative industries grow faster than the average economy.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course.

I have already said this: the structure is what we need to work on. The future of our economy, the future of our workforce, efficiency and productivity depend on this.

One of the main tasks today is to increase labor productivity. Because in the face of a shortage of workers and labor resources, we have only one way to develop effectively – to increase labor productivity. This, in turn, means that we must increase the innovative start of the economy, for example, increase the density of robotization. Today we have ten robots, in my opinion, for 10 thousand working people, but we need at least a thousand robots for 10 thousand working people. This is the case in Japan, in my opinion.

And in order for people to work on such new equipment – not only to use robotics, but also other modern means of production-they need to be trained. Another problem arises – training of personnel.

For this purpose, we have designated entire areas, including engineering training. You probably noticed that we have already launched 30 modern engineering schools across the country. This year we are launching 20 more-there will be 50. And we plan to add 50 more in the coming years.

Therefore, these areas are the future of our country. We will move forward and develop in these areas.

Dmitry Kiselyov: In order to “finish” the sanctions. Many people express the idea of creating a special body that would deal with sanctions, their reflection, in general, defense against sanctions. Is something like this supposed to happen, or does it make no sense?

Vladimir Putin: There is no need simply. We analyze-the Government, the Central Bank, the Security Council-everything that our enemies do. A lot of things are being done not even for political or military reasons, although they are argued for this, but simply for reasons of competition…

Dmitry Kiselyov: Unscrupulous and unfair competition.

Vladimir Putin: Unfair competition – under the guise of some political or military considerations. This was the case in the aircraft industry, and it is happening in so many other industries.

Well, we live in the world that exists, and we have adapted to it. We understand who we are dealing with. And so far, as can be seen from the results of our work, we are acting quite effectively.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But the West’s treachery is not limited to sanctions. Here is a quote from your address [to the Federal Assembly]: “The West is trying to drag us into a new arms race in order to exhaust and repeat the trick that they managed in the 80s with the USSR.” How big is our safety margin here in the face of an arms race, in fact?

Vladimir Putin: We need to get the maximum return on every ruble invested in the defense industry. Indeed, during the Soviet era, no one considered these costs, and no one, unfortunately, chased after efficiency in our country. Defense spending accounted for about 13 percent of the country’s GDP – the Soviet Union.

I will not refer to our statistics – we will refer to the Stockholm Institute: last year our defense spending was four percent, and this year-6.8, that is, we have grown by 2.8 percent. In principle, this is a noticeable increase, but absolutely uncritical. In the Soviet Union, it was 13 percent, and now we have 6.8 percent.

I must say that defense spending accelerates the economy, it makes it more energetic. But, of course, there are some limitations here, and we understand that. The age-old question: which is more profitable – guns or oil? We have this in mind.

Although, I repeat, the modern defense industry in our country is good because it not only indirectly affects civilian industries, but also uses the innovations needed for defense and uses these innovations to produce civilian products. This is an extremely important thing.

Our expenses, of course, are not comparable. How many in the United States are they? 800…

Dmitry Kiselyov: Under 900 already.

Vladimir Putin: Under 900 – 860 or 870 billion [dollars]. They are absolutely not comparable to our expenses.

Dmitry Kiselyov: It seems to me that they are sawing there, because they have no hypersound, nothing… What’s it?

Vladimir Putin: I’ll explain what’s going on. The fact is that they spend a lot of money on maintenance – and not only on salaries, but also on maintaining bases around the world. And there, as in a black hole, everything goes away – nothing can be counted. This is where the main cut is made. Although in the production of weapons of destruction, weapons in general are also spent such money that it is difficult to estimate.

If you calculate how much they cost, say, a missile defense system, and one of the main components of overcoming missile defense on our part-the Avangard, an intercontinental missile, and an intercontinental-range planning unit-then these are simply incomparable values. And we, in fact, nullified everything that they did, everything that they invested in this missile defense system. This is how you need to act.

And of course, without any doubt, the very economy of our Armed Forces must meet today’s requirements.

Dmitry Kiselyov: The word “justice” [справедливость] is a magic word for the Russian language. You use it very carefully, but still, one day you uttered this word in your Message – and it sounded like lightning. You said that the distribution of the tax burden should become more equitable in Russia, and suggested that the Government think about it. In what direction do you think?

Vladimir Putin: You know, indeed, the distribution of the tax burden should be fair in the sense that corporations, legal entities and individuals who earn more, in simple terms, should allocate more to the general treasury for solving national problems, primarily for solving problems related to combating poverty.

Dmitry Kiselyov: A progressive tax?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, in fact, a progressive tax.

I don’t want to go into details right now, but we need to work on it. And in this way, we need to build this system so that it really gives a great return on solving, first of all, social issues and tasks facing the state in this area.

We plan to reduce the tax burden, for example, for large families, and take a number of other steps in this direction. It seems to me that society will accept this absolutely normally. First.

Second. What does business itself ask of us? It asks us to decide on the tax system, but not to touch it again, so that it is stable. This is the most important request and requirement on the part of the business.

The Government should address this issue in the very near future and submit proposals together with the deputies of the State Duma.

Dmitry Kiselyov: A progressive tax – we won’t scare anyone off? We used to be always afraid of scaring someone off with this progressive tax.

Vladimir Putin: No, I don’t think so. In principle, we have established this system. Even those who were ardent supporters of the flat scale, the authors of the flat scale, now believe that in general we are ripe for acting much more selectively.

Dmitry Kiselyov: In the course of your address, you thanked your “colleagues from the Government” – this was the wording. Does this mean that Mishustin’s government – in the event of your victory-will be preserved?

Vladimir Putin: We still need to talk about this after the elections, after the votes are counted. It seems to me that this is simply incorrect right now. But in general, the Government is working – as we can see, the results are obvious, these are objective data-and it is working quite satisfactorily.

Dmitry Kiselyov: You mentioned reducing the tax burden for large families. Children and demographics – these topics were very extensive in your message. Indeed, the issue is quite painful, because demographically Russia is melting. Last year was an anti-record birth rate.

Vladimir Putin: I think the birth rate is 1.31 or 1.39…

Dmitry Kiselyov: 1.39 children per woman capable of giving birth.

Vladimir Putin: Childbearing age.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Ideally, we would probably need to double it to three. Because it is literally a disaster for society.

You have proposed a fairly large-scale program of maternity support and demographic incentives. Are you confident that these measures will reverse the downward-to-upward trajectory?

Vladimir Putin: In general, if we take into account all the measures to support families with children, we plan to spend up to 14 trillion rubles through various channels over the next six years. That’s a lot of money.

There are a lot of areas of support for families with children: starting from general social ones – construction or renovation of kindergartens, construction of new schools, repair of old schools, putting them in order in accordance with the requirements of today-to support women from pregnancy to the age of 18. After all, we have almost 400 thousand women now receiving benefits. This is almost every third woman who is expecting a child. And more than ten million children receive benefits. This is a serious thing.

We have continued the system of providing maternity capital. We have continued payments – these decisions are currently being made – in the amount of 450 thousand rubles per family, if there is a third child, to pay off the mortgage loan. We have retained mortgage benefits for families with children. In general, a whole set in very different areas in order to support families.

Of course, as you have already mentioned, this is also the fight against poverty, because, of course, it is much more difficult for families with children than for those with no children. This is understandable, the costs are high. Nevertheless, we have managed to do a lot in this area.

Look, 20 years ago we had, in my opinion, 29 percent of the population below the poverty line – that’s 42 million people. Now 9.3 percent, according to the latest data, but this is also 13 and a half million people. Of course, a lot. Of course, we need to do everything possible to reduce it to at least seven percent. And for large families-there is a more modest figure, but it should also be increased.

What do we assume when we talk about problems with the birth rate? I have already said it many times, and experts say it, these are objective things, namely: we had two very large declines in the birth rate. During the Great Patriotic War-1943-1944. A comparable decline occurred immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Just one to one, the same decline in the birth rate.

It is clear why: the social support system has collapsed. No matter how weak it was in the USSR, if you can talk about it, but still it was, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it disappeared almost completely, and poverty began to be complete. There’s no need to say anything right now. In any case, the family planning horizon declined during these years, and the birth rate fell before the war years. Then we had a climb. And now we have quite a large number of children, young people who will enter adulthood and childbearing age in a few years, and we assume that our indicators will also increase.

What you said is a global trend. There are only a few countries with developed economies that show positive demographic dynamics, while in all other countries everything goes into negative territory. This is a complex problem related to the economy and women’s life priorities. Now it is better not to go there, but let the demographers try, tell us and suggest a solution.

But do you know what sets you up for a positive mood? The mood in society. In our country, 70% of men and 72% of women want to have two or more children, and the state should support them. This is a whole large set of support measures that we are planning – We will definitely implement them, and we will do it.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But we are still not sure that these measures will turn the tide.

In the late 90’s-this is a well-known story, you told us about it yourself-you saved your children from a fire: you entered a burning house, on the second floor. And then they remembered that there was still money somewhere. Money in the fire and burned. This indicates your priorities: first-children, then-money.

Maybe now it’s the same across the country? Not 14 [trillions], but directly on everything, and create such a program to guarantee a reversal of this situation?

Vladimir Putin: You know, you need to watch this in the course of events, as they say. In the early 2000s, we took a number of steps in the field of demography, including the introduction of maternity capital and a number of other measures that gave an obvious positive result. This means that we can achieve the goals we need.

Dmitry Kiselyov: So there is such an experience?

Vladimir Putin: There is experience, of course, there is experience. And, using this experience and other modern developments, we should still count on achieving the goals that we set for ourselves. And as events unfold, we will adjust those measures or add something else to the measures that we will apply.

For example, we have just announced the Year of the Family. We have a new national project – “Family”. There are some elements that we have never used before. For example, 75 billion [rubles] will be allocated to those regions where the birth rate is lower than the national average. These are mainly the central regions of Russia and the North-West. 75 billion is a decent amount of money. You just need to use them correctly.

There is also such a component as caring for the elderly. There are other support measures. We need to raise the birth rate and increase life expectancy – then we will stabilize the country’s population. This is the most important integral indicator of our success or, perhaps, work that requires additional attention from all administrative levels and authorities.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Yes, but everywhere in the world there is also a third tool for solving demographic problems – immigration. What figures can we talk about in this six-year period, and what does consistency mean in this work?

Vladimir Putin: If we talk about migrant workers, we don’t have so many immigrants compared to other countries – they make up 3.7 percent of the total number of employees. But they are concentrated in those regions where economic life is most active, and there, of course, they are much more numerous. These are the Moscow region, Moscow, the North-Western region and some regions of the North where the level of wages is decent. But, without any doubt, this is an issue that requires special attention from the authorities-both local, regional, and federal.

What would you like to say here? A very important thing. After all, when they attract labor migrants, they always talk about the need to do this due to a shortage of workers. Our entrepreneurs should understand that the situation for them in terms of the availability of workers will not change for the better in the coming years – they will face a shortage of labor.

This means that in order to solve this problem radically – and now I will return to what we have already said – we need to increase labor productivity and reduce the number of employees in those areas where it is possible to do this, achieving even better results by introducing modern equipment. To do this, we need to invest in this area and train personnel – we have also already discussed this. This is the most important thing we need to think about.

In general, of course, migration policy is an important tool in the economy. Here it is not a sin to look at the experience of other countries. First of all, of course, we need to talk about the repatriation of our compatriots. What is repatriation and what is compatriots-we have already reflected in the regulatory framework, there is no need to repeat here.

We need to talk about attracting people who may not be going to move to the Russian Federation, but because of their qualifications, because of their talents in various fields, they can make a significant contribution to the development of our state, to the development of Russia. We will also be happy to attract such people.

As for traditional labor migrants, we also need to think about how to prepare them for coming to Russia, including with our partners in the countries where they live. This is the study of the Russian language, our traditions, culture, and so on. We need them to be taken care of and treated like a human being. So that they integrate naturally into our society. All this together should give a corresponding, I hope, positive effect.

Yes, and, of course, everyone should observe our traditions and the laws of the Russian Federation. And of course, compliance with sanitary standards and so on is very much in demand. Ensuring the safety of citizens of the Russian Federation should be the first priority.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Russians are probably the biggest divided nation in the world. You had a conversation with the “Leaders of Russia”, and one of your interlocutors said that in the Zaporozhye region we found that they are as Russian as we are. And for them-there was such an impression – it sounded like a revelation. In general, this is true, and we are now growing with new regions, and Odessa is a Russian city. Probably, there is great hope here, in this direction, too?

Vladimir Putin: Of course. The population density in these regions has always been quite high, and the climate is wonderful.

As for the Donbass, it is an industrially developed region-back in the days of the Soviet Union. How much the Soviet Union has invested in this region, in its coal mining industry, in the metallurgical industry! Yes, of course, investments are required to ensure that all production is modern, and that people’s living and working conditions are completely different from what they were a couple of decades ago.

As for Novorossiya, it is a region with a pronounced developed agriculture. Here we will do everything possible to support both traditional areas of activity and new ones that fit seamlessly into these regions and people’s desire to develop them. And there, you know, people are very talented.

Moreover, as I have already said, even taxes go to the federal budget from there. Yes, they need to be helped, supported, and brought to the national and federal Russian level at this stage. They will work, and very quickly.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Historically, it is quite obvious that the Nazi regimes themselves do not dissolve, but disappear as a result of military defeat. So it was in Germany, in Italy, in Japan. The same thing will obviously happen with Bandera’s Nazi regime. We are now moving along the entire front line, according to reports from both the Ministry of Defense and our war correspondents.

Still, did we manage to find a way to fight when our losses are less in the offensive than in the defense? This task is quite non-trivial for the art of war, but it always holds back the offensive. This is a frugality that is absolutely justified in relation to our hero warriors. But this question arises: how to move forward with minimal losses?

Vladimir Putin: The question is clear and fair. But the answer is also simple: we need to increase the means of destruction – the number and power of means of destruction, and increase the effectiveness of the forces and means used. Aviation – both tactical, and army, and the same strategic. I mean, of course, in those components that are acceptable for armed conflicts of this kind. These are ground-based weapons, including high-precision weapons. These are artillery and armored vehicles. We are developing, without any exaggeration, by leaps and bounds.

Dmitry Kiselyov: In this direction?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it does. This is the answer to your question: the more powerful and more weapons-the less losses.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But the question still arises, what price are we willing to pay – perhaps the word “project” is not appropriate – for all this challenge that we have been forced to face historically?

Vladimir Putin: Look, every human life is priceless. And the loss of a loved one for a family, for any family, is a huge grief.

But the question is what? The question is to determine the very fact of what we are doing. What are we doing? We met today, and you have just noticed that one of the participants in the conversation said: we were surprised to find that there were Russians just like us. We came to the aid of these people. This is basically the answer to your question.

If we abandon these people today, then tomorrow our losses may increase many times, and our children will have no future, because we will feel insecure, we will be a third-or fourth-class country, no one will take us into account if we cannot protect ourselves. And the consequences can be disastrous for Russian statehood. That’s the answer.

Dmitry Kiselyov: The Americans seem to be talking about negotiations and strategic stability, but at the same time they are saying that it is necessary to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. Our position sounds like: “We are open to negotiations, but the time for good gestures has passed, they are over.” So, there will be no negotiations?

Vladimir Putin: We have never refused to negotiate.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But how does it mean that without good gestures, there is no compromise? How then?

Vladimir Putin: I’ll try to explain. When we were negotiating in Turkey, in Istanbul (I have already said this many times, I must repeat it again, I will do it again), with the negotiators from that side, we came up with a thick folio, a document, in fact, a contract, a draft contract. An excerpt from this agreement is available, it was initialed by the head of the negotiation group from Ukraine, Mr. Arakhamiya. He did it, there is his signature (we have it in the Administration). But then, as you know, Mr. Arakhamia himself told the world publicly, also at a meeting, in my opinion, with journalists, with foreign partners: the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Johnson, came and dissuaded them from finally signing and, accordingly, fulfilling this agreement. And the topic that you have just mentioned is that Russia needs to be defeated on the battlefield.

Are we ready to negotiate? Yes, we are ready. But only we are ready for negotiations that are not based on some “wishlist” after the use of psychotropic drugs, but based on the realities that have developed, as they say in such cases, on earth. This is the first one.

Second. After all, we have already been promised many things many times. They promised not to expand NATO to the East, and then we see them at our borders. They promised, if we don’t go deep into history, that the internal conflict in Ukraine will be resolved by peaceful means, by political means. As we recall, three foreign ministers arrived in Kiev, Poland, Germany and France, promised that they would be the guarantors of these agreements, and a day later a coup d’etat took place. They promised to fulfill the Minsk agreements, and then publicly stated that they were not going to fulfill these promises, but only took a pause to arm the Bandera regime in Ukraine. We were promised a lot of things, so promises alone are not enough here.

Right now, to negotiate just because they are running out of ammunition is somehow ridiculous on our part. Nevertheless, we are ready for a serious conversation, and we want to resolve all conflicts, and especially this conflict, by peaceful means. But we must clearly understand for ourselves that this is not a pause that the enemy wants to take for rearmament, but a serious conversation with the security guarantees of the Russian Federation.

We know the various options in question, we know the “carrots” that are going to be shown to us in order to convince us that the moment has come. We want, I repeat once again, to resolve all disputes and this dispute, this conflict, by peaceful means. And we are ready for it, we want it. But this should be a serious conversation with ensuring security for the opposing side, and in this case we are primarily interested in the security of the Russian Federation. We will proceed from this.

Dmitry Kiselyov:Mr President, I think we look a little too noble. Can’t we conclude something with them, and they will once again deceive us, and we will console ourselves with the fact that we are honest, and they deceived us? Is it our fate, after all, to remain a fool all the time?

Americans minted their own medals in the 1990s for winning the Cold War, and since then, all those decades have been decades of big lies. How can we even hope that they will go and finally conclude a fair contract with us, which they will fulfill, and even with guarantees for us? I do not know what to do with them at all? Do you really believe this is possible?

Vladimir Putin: ****I hate to say this, but I don’t believe anyone.****

Dmitry Kiselyov: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: But we need guarantees. Guarantees must be written down, they must be such that we would be satisfied, in which we will believe. That’s what we’re talking about.

Now, it is probably premature to publicly talk about what it could have been. But we certainly won’t buy into any empty promises.

Dmitry Kiselyov: I am afraid that you will be quoted in an extended way. Do you not trust anyone at all, or do you mean your Western partners in this case when you say that you don’t trust anyone?

Vladimir Putin: I prefer to be guided by facts, rather than good wishes and talk about trusting everyone. After all, you know, when decisions are made at this level, the degree of responsibility for the consequences of the decisions made is very high. Therefore, we will not do anything that does not meet the interests of our country.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Mr President, what happened to Macron? Has he lost his mind at all? He is going to send the French troops to fight with our army, he looks like a Gallic fighting rooster, thereby scaring all the Europeans. Still, how to respond to this?

Vladimir Putin: The fact is that the military of Western countries has been present in Ukraine for a long time, even before the coup, they were present, and after the coup, their number increased many times. Now they are also present directly in the form of advisers, they are present in the form of foreign mercenaries and suffer losses. But if we are talking about official military contingents of foreign countries, I am sure that this will not change the situation on the battlefield – this is the most important thing, just as the supply of weapons does not change anything.

Second, it can lead to serious geopolitical consequences. Because if, say, Polish troops enter the territory of Ukraine, as it sounds, to cover the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, for example, or in some other places, to free up Ukrainian military contingents to participate in combat operations on the contact line, then I think that Polish troops will never leave there again. I think so. They sleep and see, they want to return those lands that they consider historically their own and that were taken from them by the “father of nations” Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and transferred to Ukraine. They want them back, of course. And if official Polish units enter there, they are unlikely to leave.

But then their example can be followed by other countries that lost part of their territories as a result of the Second World War. I think that the geopolitical consequences for Ukraine, even from the point of view of preserving its statehood in its modern form, will certainly stand up in all its glory and in full growth.

Dmitry Kiselyov: If we return to Macron, maybe he decided to take revenge on Russia in this way because we “stepped on his tail” in Africa, and we had to “stand there, be afraid”? He probably didn’t expect us to be so active there.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I think there is some resentment, but when we maintained direct contacts, we spoke quite frankly about this topic.

We didn’t go into Africa and squeeze France out. The problem is different. The well-known Wagner group first carried out a number of economic projects in Syria, then moved to other African countries. The Ministry of Defense provides support, but only on the basis of the fact that this is a Russian group, nothing more. We didn’t squeeze anyone out. It’s just that the African leaders of some countries agreed with Russian economic operators, wanted to work with them, and did not want to work with the French in any way. It wasn’t even our initiative, it was an initiative on the part of our African friends.

If an independent state wants to develop relations with its partners from other countries, including Russia, and wants to develop relations with Russia, it is not clear why it should take offense at us in this regard. We didn’t touch them, the former French colonialists, in these countries. I even say this without irony, because in many countries where France has historically been a metropolis, they don’t really want to deal with them. We have nothing to do with it. It’s probably more convenient to take offense at someone without seeing your own problems. Perhaps such a sharp, rather emotional reaction on the part of the French President is also related to what is happening in some African states.

Although I know other countries in Africa, where they are calm about the French stay and say that ” yes, we are satisfied, we are ready to work with them.” But in some countries they don’t want to. We have nothing to do with it. We don’t incite anyone there, we don’t incite anyone against France.

We do not set ourselves such tasks. To be honest, we do not have such nationwide tasks at the level of the Russian state. We’re just friends with them, that’s all. They want to develop relations with us – for God’s sake, and we meet them halfway. There’s nothing to be offended about.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But now they are saying in France that there are no “red lines” left in relation to Russia, and nothing is impossible, and everything is possible. In general, they want to somehow talk to us on the basis of a balance of power. What we just do not hear from France, from the West, and from Lithuania. In general, some such choir is not harmonious, but hostile.

Maybe we should also make unconventional decisions and at some point turn to the two-million-strong North Korean army for help? For example, in exchange for our “nuclear umbrella” over half of the Korean Peninsula? Why not then?

Vladimir Putin: First, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has its own “nuclear umbrella”. They didn’t ask us for anything. This is the first one.

Second. In principle, as we can see today from the results of what is happening on the battlefield, we are coping with the tasks that we set for ourselves.

As for those states that say that they have no “red lines” in relation to Russia, they should understand that there will be no “red lines”in relation to these states in Russia either.

As for the small states of Europe, first of all, we treat everyone with respect, no matter what. Secondly, when they, these small states, call for a tougher policy towards Russia and take some extreme measures, including, for example, to send troops and so on, these are still those states, and they understand this, that will not feel the consequences of their provocative statements. And those who can feel it, they behave much more restrained. And correctly.

Dmitry Kiselyov: And all those German dances with Taurus? Scholz says “we do not supply”, but there are forces that insist on delivering Taurus to Ukraine, the British take their own initiative: let’s, they say, transit through England, we are ready to send. The target is the Crimean Bridge, German generals are already planning operations, as we have heard, not only the Crimean Bridge, but also military bases, as they say, in the depths of Russian territory. Some are already saying that these missiles can hit the Kremlin. Don’t they really bury themselves in their dreams?

Vladimir Putin: They fantasize, encourage themselves, first of all. Secondly, they are trying to intimidate us.

As for Germany, there are also constitutional problems there. They are right to say that if the Taurus gets into that part of the Crimean Bridge, which, of course, even according to their concepts is Russian territory, this is a violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The fact is that the opposition in Germany is behaving even more aggressively. Let’s see what they agree on. We are following this closely. They use the same British, American missiles. It doesn’t change the situation on the battlefield. Yes, they are causing us, of course, damage, this is obvious. But, in fact, this does not change the course of hostilities and the consequences that inevitably come for the opposite side.

We now hear that in the same Germany, both your channels, and foreign channels, German channels show how much they have, how much is in a faulty state, how much needs to be improved, upgraded, and so on. Let them work. As you correctly said, there are some things they need to think about. Who is smarter, he thinks.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But the new members of NATO – Finland and Sweden, in general, what did they exchange for? Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom suddenly told the Turks that Sweden is against having NATO bases on Swedish territory. What, they didn’t understand where they were going at all? What happened to them?

Vladimir Putin: You should ask them, I do not know. We have had quite good relations, stable relations with these countries, and I think that they have benefited more from the fact that they are neutral, because this gives certain advantages, at least as a negotiating platform to reduce tensions in Europe.

In general, we had perfect relations with Finland, just perfect. We did not have a single claim to each other, especially territorial, not to mention other areas. We didn’t even have any troops, we removed all the troops from there, from the Russian-Finnish border. Why did they do this? Based, in my opinion, on purely political considerations. I probably really wanted to be members of a Western club, under some kind of “umbrella”. Frankly, I don’t understand why they need it. This is an absolutely senseless step from the point of view of ensuring our own national interests. Nevertheless, it is up to them to decide, they have decided so.

We didn’t have any troops there, now we will. There were no defense systems there, now they will appear. What for? Our economic relations were very good. They used our market, and we bought a lot from them. What’s wrong with that? But now the situation will change. With their many products in other markets, they are not really needed, and ours do not receive enough. I don’t understand.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Meanwhile, in the United States, the war is raging.…

Vladimir Putin: You know, this is a household item, but nevertheless. In recent years, both Helsinki and the border regions of Finland have accepted Russian rubles. Including in Helsinki, in large supermarkets, you could buy whatever goods you wanted for rubles. There are all the ads around in Russian.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Now the border region is simply going bankrupt.

Vladimir Putin: Yes. What am I talking about? On the other hand, from the point of view of the economy, it is very good – real estate prices were kept at a fairly good level. From the point of view of the economy, it is good, but there were, apparently, forces that were completely right-wing conservative, nationalist, who did not really like it – such a rapprochement with Russia. Some even considered it redundant: “What are Russian houses and apartments being bought for? Everything here is in Russian…”

I don’t even think so, I know that such Russophobia has started to grow up at the everyday level. Maybe some political forces inside the country decided to take advantage of this domestic roll, maybe. The whole combination of these factors led to this decision. I think so, but I can’t be 100 percent sure. In any case, this certainly does not improve the security situation in any way – both in bilateral relations and in Europe as a whole.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But in the meantime, the United States is actively running for president. It can’t do without you. You invisibly participate in it, because you are mentioned by each of the candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties in their speeches and arguments. In general, it seems that you do not leave the pages of newspapers and TV news headlines there and are an argument in the election campaign of everyone. And you’re adding fuel to the fire.

Vladimir Putin: How is that?

Dmitry Kiselyov: Saying that one of the candidates is preferable for us. But if a foreign president generally says that one of the candidates in another country is preferable, then this is a classic interference in the election. In general, to what extent do you interfere in the American elections in this way, saying that Biden is preferable to us? And in general, how much is it so? Is this trolling or even what is it?

Vladimir Putin: No, you know, I will tell you one thing that will show you that nothing changes in my preferences here. First.

Second. We do not interfere in any elections and, as I have said many times, we will work with any leader who has the confidence of the American people, the American electorate.

But here’s what’s interesting. Even in the last year of his term as President, Mr. Trump, today’s presidential candidate, reproached me just because I sympathize with Biden. That was more than four years ago. He told me so in one of the conversations. Excuse me, I’ll say it like him, it’s just a direct speech: “You want sleeping Joe to win.

He told me so when he was still President. And then, to my surprise, he was harassed for allegedly supporting him as a candidate. Well, some complete nonsense.

As for the current pre-election situation, it is becoming increasingly uncivilized. I don’t want to make any comments on that.

But I think it is obvious to everyone that the American political system cannot claim to be democratic in every sense of the word.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Actually, to be honest, your preference for Biden sounds rather strange to me personally. After all, Biden came to Moscow in 2011 and tried to persuade you not to run for president.

Do you remember this story? Then he told about it, meeting with the Russian opposition in Spaso House. And Garry Kasparov wrote about this, that Biden told this story, that he came to the Russian White House to Prime Minister Putin and tried in every possible way to dissuade him from running for President and began to build an “Arab spring” in our country. So Biden didn’t seem to like you very much back then. You have such a historic duel with him. Or did it just go away?

Vladimir Putin: To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to this.

Dmitry Kiselyov: It’s over, isn’t it? You didn’t even pay much attention to it.

Vladimir Putin: Some kind of duel…

Dmitry Kiselyov: So it was serious for him, but not for you.

Vladimir Putin: This is just a sign of interference…

Dmitry Kiselyov: Yes, this is a 100 percent outright intervention.

Vladimir Putin: … in our domestic political processes. We have already spoken many times, and I have spoken many times: “We will not allow anyone to do this.”

Dmitry Kiselyov: All right.

If we avoid interference, pre-election battles, in fact, the escalation continues. It seems that both superpowers-Russia and the United States – are playing what in America is called the chicken game: this is when chickens jump on each other, and there it is a game when guys in cars fly into each other’s heads, and who will turn first. It seems that no one is going to turn off first. So, a collision is inevitable?

Vladimir Putin: Why not? Here in the United States, they announced that they are not going to send troops. We know what American troops are like on Russian territory. These are the interventionists. We will treat it this way, even if they appear on the territory of Ukraine, they understand this. I said that Biden is a representative of the traditional political school, and this is confirmed. But in addition to Biden and others, there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic deterrence.

So I don’t think it’s all so head-on here. But we are ready for this. I have said many times that this is a matter of life and death for us, but for them it is a matter of improving their tactical position in general in the situation in the world, but also in Europe in particular, preserving their status among their allies. This is also important, but not as important as it is for us.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Interestingly, you said that we are ready for this. The philosopher Alexander Dugin, a specialist in geopolitics, calls directly and practically to prepare for a nuclear war. “And the better we are prepared for it, the less likely such a war is,” says Alexander Dugin. How can you even be prepared for this? Are we really ready for nuclear war?

Vladimir Putin: From a military-technical point of view, we are certainly ready. They [the troops] are constantly in a state of combat readiness. This is the first one.

Second. This is also a generally accepted thing – our nuclear triad is more modern than any other triad, and only we and the Americans really have such a triad.

We have made much more progress here. We have it more modern, all the nuclear component. In general, we have approximate parity in terms of carriers and charges, but we have a more modern one.

Everyone knows this, all the experts know it. But this does not mean that we should measure the number of carriers and warheads, but we need to know about this. And I repeat, those who need it – experts, specialists, and the military-are well aware of this.

They are now setting a task to increase this modernity, novelty, and they have corresponding plans. We know that too. They develop all their components, and so do we. But this does not mean that, in my opinion, they are ready to unleash this nuclear war tomorrow. If they want to, what should I do? We are ready.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Perhaps we should conduct nuclear tests at some point to be more convincing. After all, we have no international restrictions for this.

Vladimir Putin: There is a treaty banning such tests, but unfortunately the United States has not ratified it. Therefore, in order to maintain parity, we have withdrawn this ratification. Since the treaty has not been ratified by the United States, and it has not entered into final force, because it has not received the necessary number of ratifications, nevertheless, we adhere to these agreements.

We know that the United States is considering conducting such tests. This is due to the fact that when new warheads appear, as some experts believe, it is not enough to test them only on a computer, which means that they need to be tested in their natural form. Such ideas are floating around in certain circles in the United States, they have a place to be, we know about it.

And we’re watching, too. If they conduct such tests, I don’t rule it out, not necessarily, we need it or not, we still need to think about it, but it is possible that we can do the same.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But are we technically ready for this?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, we are always ready. I want to make it clear that these are not ordinary types of weapons, this is the type, branch of the armed forces that is in constant combat readiness.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Mr President, did you ever think about tactical nuclear weapons during the difficult times of last year, I do not know, at the front in connection with Kharkiv or Kherson?

Vladimir Putin: And why? It was also at the suggestion of the then command of the group that we decided to withdraw our troops from Kherson. But this did not mean that the front was falling apart there. Nothing like this has ever happened before. It was simply done in order not to incur unnecessary losses among the personnel. That’s all. This was the most important motive, because in the conditions of combat operations, when it was impossible to fully supply the group located on the right bank, we would simply suffer unjustified losses of personnel. Because of this, it was decided to relocate to the left bank.

The correctness of this choice was confirmed by what the Ukrainian command tried to do in certain areas of the left bank, in the same village of Krynki: just like in a meat grinder, they threw their people there, and that’s all. They’ve been running around barefoot lately, in the truest sense of the word. They tried to throw ammunition to them there by high-speed boats and drones. What is it? Just to be slaughtered, sent to be slaughtered.

I once asked the Chief of the General Staff, there is nothing secret here, I said: “Listen, who do you think makes such decisions from the other side? After all, the one who makes the decision understands that he sends people to their deaths?” He says, ” They understand.” I say, ” Who makes the decision, why do they do it? It’s pointless.” “Meaningless from a military point of view.” I say, ” Which one?” “I don’t know,” he says, ” probably the top political leadership, based on political considerations, that they have some chance to break through our defenses, there is some chance to get additional money, referring to the fact that they have some kind of foothold on the left bank, there is some kind of base, this is a chance to present your position beautifully at international meetings.” The command has passed, all lower-level bosses automatically issue further instructions.

But, by the way, the prisoners who were captured there surrendered, they show that they did not even know what situation they were in. Let’s say that new units are being deployed there and they say: “There is a stable defense there, come on, continue, help.” They couldn’t even get to the left bank anymore.

Dmitry Kiselyov: A tragedy.

Vladimir Putin: It’s natural. From a human point of view, absolutely.

So why do we need to use weapons of mass destruction? There has never been such a need.

Dmitry Kiselyov: So this idea never occurred to you?

Vladimir Putin: No. And why? Weapons exist to be used. We have our own principles, what are they talking about? That we are ready to use weapons, including any weapon, including the one you mentioned, if we are talking about the existence of the Russian state, about harming our sovereignty and independence. We have everything spelled out in our Strategy. We didn’t change it.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Mr Putin, when outgoing President Yeltsin suggested that you run for president, your first reaction was: “I’m not ready.”

Vladimir Putin: That’s right, it’s a direct speech.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Of course, you have evolved a lot since then. If you had to write a telegram to yourself at that time, what text would it contain?

Vladimir Putin: You know, it’s like “Yankees at King Arthur’s Court” or something like that. It is impossible to answer this question, because the question was asked at that time, in the context of the historical and economic situation in which the country was located, in the internal political situation from the point of view of internal security. And all of this together led me to the answer I gave: “I’m not ready for this.” Not because I was afraid of something, but because the scale of the tasks was huge, and the number of problems increased every day like a snowball. So I said it sincerely and not because, I repeat, I was afraid of something, but because I thought that I was not ready to solve all these problems, God forbid, I would do something even worse. That’s what it was all about. So I said it absolutely sincerely, and if I came back, I would repeat the same thing.

Dmitry Kiselyov: What was the decisive factor then? You went after all.

Vladimir Putin: I think I’ve had some conversations with Boris Nikolayevich.

Most importantly, in the end, what did he say to me back then: “Okay, okay, I understand, we’ll get to that later.” And we’ve come back to this several times.

In the end, he said that I was an experienced person, I knew what I was doing, what I was offering, and he said some other things to me. Probably, it is inconvenient to praise yourself, but I said such positive words. Later, he confirmed this again, this time in a completely positive way, I will not talk about it now.

And when the work started, everything was completely different there. You know, when you work, you think: this, this, this is what you need right now, this is now, this is tomorrow – and it went, and it went. When you get involved in a job, it’s a completely different story.

Dmitry Kiselyov: There is no time to be afraid already.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it’s not about fears, but about understanding, about being able to solve these problems. Remember for yourself what the year 1999 is like in the economy, security, finance, and everything else.

Dmitry Kiselyov: You once said that preparing for admission to Leningrad University was a turning point for you. It was a situation where you had to go all-in, knowing: either I will do it now and I will manage, and then I will carry out the plans that I want (and you were already going to work in the KGB), or I lost, and then everything is different and there are no chances. Is Russia now also in a position where it is necessary to play all-in?

Vladimir Putin: First of all, I didn’t have such a position then. Yes, I wanted to work in the state security agencies.

Dmitry Kiselyov: It was the admission, it was such a turning point, it’s a feeling, isn’t it? Either this or that?

Vladimir Putin: Not quite. I just came to the waiting room and said: “I would like to work. What is needed for this?”

The alternative was simple: I was told that I either need to get a higher education, and preferably a law degree, or serve in the army, or have at least three years of work experience, but it is better to serve in the army. If I hadn’t gone to university, I would have joined the army.

Yes, it might have been a longer way to reach the goal that I set for myself, but it was still there. There is always an alternative.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But you did it with tension.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, of course, because I was still studying at a school with a chemical and mathematical bias, and here I had to take humanities subjects. I had to leave one thing and do another.

Yes, of course, there was tension. It was necessary to learn a foreign language independently, German in this case, it was necessary to study history, literature, and so on.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Russia is also at a crossroads right now: either it turns out, or…

Vladimir Putin: ***Russia is not at a crossroads. It is on the strategic path of its development and will not deviate from its path.***

Dmitry Kiselyov: To what extent do you feel the support of the Russian society in this new capacity? After all, a new quality of Russian society has emerged.

Vladimir Putin: It was there, it just showed up. And it is very good that we have given this deep Russian society an opportunity to express itself. I have a feeling that people have been waiting for this for a long time, that an ordinary person will be in demand by the country and the state, and the fate of the country depends on him. It is this sense of inner connection with the Motherland, with the Fatherland, its importance in solving key tasks, in this case in the field of security, that has brought to the surface the strength of the Russian and other peoples of Russia.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Do you feed off of it?

Vladimir Putin: Always. The point is not even that someone feeds, the point is that I see the requests of society. This is the most important thing – to meet the needs of society.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But it is time to recognize that you play a key role not only in Russia, but also in the world, because billions of people associate you with the hope for international justice, for the protection of human dignity, and for the protection of traditional values. How does it feel to feel so much responsibility?

Vladimir Putin: To tell you the truth, I don’t feel it at all. I just work in the interests of Russia, in the interests of our people. Yes, I understand what you are talking about now, and I am ready to comment on it. But so that I feel like some kind of arbiter of the world’s destinies, there is no such thing. Believe me, not even close. I’m just doing my duty to Russia and to our people, who consider Russia their homeland.

As for other countries of the world, this is very closely related to how we are treated around the world. That’s interesting. It’s a phenomenon, that’s for sure.

What I would like to draw your attention to. Here you are absolutely right, many people in the world look at us, at what is happening in our country and in our struggle for our interests.

That, in my opinion, is what is important. And why is this happening? Not because we are formally members of BRICS or have any traditional relations with Africa. This is also important, but the point, in my opinion, is completely different. It lies in the fact that this so-called golden billion for centuries, 500 years, practically parasitized other peoples. They tore apart the unfortunate peoples of Africa, they exploited Latin America, they exploited the countries of Asia, and of course no one has forgotten it. I have a feeling that it is not even a matter of the leadership of these countries, although this is very important, and ordinary citizens of these countries feel in their hearts what is happening.

They associate our struggle for our independence and true sovereignty with their aspirations for their own sovereignty and independent development. But this is compounded by the fact that there is a very strong desire among Western elites to freeze the existing unfair state of affairs in international affairs. They have been used to stuffing their bellies with human flesh and their pockets with money for centuries. But they must understand that the vampire ball is ending.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Are you alluding to their, as you put it in your address, colonial ways? You’re talking about it.

Vladimir Putin: That’s what happens.

Dmitry Kiselyov: But now you have drawn a completely fair picture when people see some hope in Russia. How did it happen that Western propaganda, with all its power, its enormous resources and tools, could not pupate Russia, isolate it and create a false image of it, even though it was trying in the minds of billions of people? How did this happen?

Vladimir Putin: Because what I just said is more important to people. People all over the world feel this in their hearts. They don’t even need any pragmatic explanations for what is happening.

Dmitry Kiselyov: That is, despite the amount of dirt?

Vladimir Putin: Yes. In their own countries, they also fool people, and this has an effect. They – in many countries-believe that this is in their interests, because they do not want to have such a huge country as Russia on their borders. The largest in the world in terms of territory, the largest in Europe in terms of population – not such a large population in the global dimension, not comparable to either China or India, but the largest in Europe – and now the fifth largest economy in the world. Why do we need such a competitor? They think: no, it is better, as some American experts suggested, to divide it into three, four, or five parts – this will be better for everyone. They proceed from this.

And some, at least, of the Western elites, blinded by their Russophobia, were happy when they brought us to the line after which our attempts to end the war unleashed by the West in Ukraine in 2014 by force began, when we moved to conduct a special military operation. They were even happy, I think. Because they thought that now they would finish us off, and now under this barrage of sanctions, practically a sanctions war declared on us, with the help of Western weapons and a war by the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, they would finish Russia off. Hence the slogan: “Inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.”

But later came the realization that this was unlikely, and even later that it was impossible. And the realization came that instead of strategic defeat, they were facing impotence, and impotence, despite the fact that they relied on the power of the all-powerful United States. They are faced with impotence before the unity of the Russian people, before the fundamental foundations of the Russian financial and economic system, its stability, and before the growing capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

And that’s when they started thinking – those who are smarter, began to think – that it would be necessary to change some kind of strategy in relation to the Russian Federation. Then there was the idea of resuming the negotiation process, finding some ways to end this conflict, and finding out where Russia’s real interests are here. These are dangerous people, by the way, because it is easier to fight people who are guided by such base principles.

Do you remember what they used to say in Russia? What was the happiness of some people at the household level? Full, drunk, and snuffed out. Yes? Here with such people it is easier when you are full, drunk, that is, full, drunk. Nose in tobacco, because snuff was used. Now the nose is covered in cocaine. It doesn’t matter if it’s easier with such people, but it’s more difficult with smart ones – they are more dangerous, because they affect the consciousness of society, including ours, and they will throw out all sorts of their “wishlist” under the guise of “carrots” for us.

You already noticed this when you asked about the possibility of a negotiation process. But still. Hence the contradictions within the Western community. This is an obvious thing, we can see it.

We are not going to engage in splits there – they will do it brilliantly themselves. But we will certainly seek to protect our interests.

Dmitry Kiselyov: I can’t help but ask. These attacks on the Belgorod and Kursk regions are military actions that are taking place in our regions. They behave more brazenly – do they feel something? What causes this?

Vladimir Putin: The explanation is very simple. All this is happening against the backdrop of failures on the contact line, on the front line. They didn’t achieve any of the goals they set for themselves last year. Moreover, the initiative has now completely passed to our Armed Forces. Everyone knows this, everyone recognizes it. I don’t think I’ll say anything new here. Against the background of those failures, they need at least something to show, and, mainly, attention should be focused on the information side of the matter.

On the state border line, the enemy tried to attack primarily with sabotage groups. The latest report of the General Staff: somewhere up to 300 people, including with the participation of foreign mercenaries. The enemy’s losses amounted to more than 200 people – about 230. Of the eight tanks used, the enemy lost seven, of the nine armored vehicles-nine, of which seven were American-made, Bradley. Other armored vehicles were also used, but mainly for transporting personnel: they pick you up, drop you off, and leave right away. This is on the Belgorod section of the border. A little further south, in my opinion, in one place-there are much smaller forces. Nevertheless, the main goal, I have no doubt, is to prevent, if not disrupt the presidential elections in Russia, then at least somehow interfere with the normal process of expressing the will of citizens. First.

Second. This is an informational effect, which I have already mentioned.

The third. If at least something happens, get some chance, some argument, some trump card in the possible future negotiation process: we’ll give it back to you, and you’ll give it back to us.

But as I said, with people who are guided by principles: well-fed, drunk, and interested in well-known material-it’s easier to talk to them, because you can calculate what they’re going to do. They will also try in some other areas, but we can see that.

Dmitry Kiselyov: We mentioned the episode when you saved your children from a fire, but you already have grandchildren. What country would you like to leave to your grandchildren?

Vladimir Putin: You know, at the first stage, we need to fulfill everything that was stated in the Message to the Federal Assembly a few days ago. We have big plans. They are quite specific in the sphere of economic development, social sphere, support for motherhood, childhood, families with children, support for pensioners. We haven’t talked much about this lately, or haven’t talked much about it, but we also have the appropriate resources laid down here. This applies to the indexation of pensions, various benefits, and long-term care for people who need it.

I would like to say that the people of the older generation are the ones who make us have a fairly strong and stable statehood and economy today. Because, despite all the twists and turns and the most difficult tests for the economy in the 90s, it survived thanks to their heroic work after the Great Patriotic War and during the economic recovery. Therefore, we should never forget about this-about the merits of the older generation. We should always keep this in mind, ensuring their proper well-being. The future belongs to children, so I have already talked about programs in the field of motherhood and childhood.

All this is done only on the basis of the economy. I hope that it will be more technologically advanced, more modern, and based on modern achievements in science and technology, information technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, genetics, and so on. How our agriculture is developing! And modern technologies are also needed there. They are actively used and will continue to be used.

Of course, the country will be self-sufficient in ensuring its security and defense. All this together we will have to multiply many times – and the future will be assured.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Thank you, Mr President. Your confidence is contagious. I wish you success in your noble deeds.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Dmitry Kiselyov: Thank you.

Several segments were super-emphasized: First regarding the trustworthiness of those from the Empire of Lies—”I hate to say this, but I don’t believe anyone.” And second and most importantly regarding its development, “Russia is not at a crossroads. It is on the strategic path of its development and will not deviate from its path.” Readers may have more than those, and there’re passages I’ve emphasized when they were first produced during previous events that I chose to leave alone. Putin reminds me of numerous US Presidents from the first 80 years of the 19th Century who deemed it unbecoming for them to promote themselves during their Presidential campaigns. Putin was also gracious and correct to note that Russia’s development plans and their implementation is a team effort spanning Russia. Putin’s observation that today’s Russian society isn’t new, that it’s always been there and is experiencing a resurrection, was very important as it connects past efforts and great deeds with the present. Putin’s pause to talk about pensions and pensioners—points that haven’t got much illumination recently—was also important as it emphasized that healthier demographics includes lengthening lifespan and reassuring his peers that their security will also continue and improve. The approach to the migrant workers issue was also well thought as was his directness about the lack of labor lasting a decade or more. I expect robots to appear in Russia’s retail sector very soon and in the transport sector freeing people to advance well beyond being a clerk or driver.

In the opening, there was the discussion about the construction of a very difficult Sochi-Dzhubga highway traversing geography very similar to that of the Northern California Coastline that Highway 1 snakes through but has no real shoreline since it’s the leading edge of the North American Plate and thus nothing to develop. The map that’s below is the best I could find depicting the region, although there are many that do a very good job of showing the immediate Sochi region;

The terrain along the coast continues another 40 K to the North—a significant engineering challenge. That challenge can serve as a metaphor for the trials Russia will face in its development over the next 6 years. There’s plenty of work to be done, and then as Putin continually says, there’ll be more work to be done.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The General Staff brings the Cure

Par : AHH — 13 mars 2024 à 20:23

On the healing power of the Holy Russian General Staff

By Marat Khairullin

What Europe is doing today is literally incomprehensible to the mind. I emphasize: the mind of a modern, civilized, well-informed person, brought up on humanitarian values. Today we all have the opportunity, as they say, online, live to watch as Europe once again slides into the era of savagery and primitive cruelty. The worst thing is that today we can clearly see how huge chunks of modern Europe are peeling off the veneer of civilization that our neighbors have been so proud of in recent decades. And, probably, even more frightening here is that you can clearly see how thin this raid was.

Decades of peace after the Great Patriotic War allowed all of humanity to forget that for centuries Europe was a source of threat to all of humanity. There is no abomination that European civilization does not invent and embody in relation to Man – any form of oppression, genocide, mass burning of women, concentration camps, slavery and the destruction of entire peoples by starvation, colonialism and neocolonialism, the mass introduction of homosexuality as a form of “soft genocide” against the entire human race, etc. so on and so forth…

And the pinnacle of all this: Europe has unleashed two world wars and is now rapidly unleashing a third… That is, some satanic gene that seeks to destroy humanity is embedded in the very structure of European civilization.

Two world wars and tens of millions of innocent victims did not cure Europe of this monstrous genetic disease, and now, before the eyes of the whole world, it is trying to ignite a Third World War, which threatens to destroy this time everyone on the planet, including the planet itself…

Probably, now many of my readers will ask the question-why this philosophical speech from a reporter working exclusively on earth. And the fact is that here on earth, and specifically in the trenches, I discovered that the cure for this satanic European gene has long been developed by our country in the form of fundamental concepts on which domestic military science is built.

Of course, I draw conditional parallels, but the point is that our strategic planners assume that sooner or later Europe will once again attack us. And based on this, they make their own plans. Moreover, as I understand it, based on historical experience, a clear gradation of signs of the coming European invasion has been developed. They fit into a fairly simple formula: as soon as Europe starts moving its borders towards Russia, expect an attack. It’s always been like this. And, as I understand it, the entire current foreign and domestic policy of Russia is based on the fact that a future war with Europe is inevitable.

I have repeatedly written about the profound signs that indirectly indicate this assessment of the situation by our authorities. For example, the country’s defense sector has been sent a clear signal from the highest level that the current rate of financing for the industry will continue for at least a decade. So that production workers are not afraid to deploy additional capacities, realizing that they will always find sales.

However, today, against the background of the fact that Europe has already openly announced another campaign to the East, it makes sense to talk about what cards we are playing in this escalation. Especially in comparison with the situation on the eve of the first two World Wars.

So, the main difference, from my point of view, is that both the first and Second World Wars were not only inevitable for us, but, obviously, we entered them with a much smaller set of trump cards than our opponents. Roughly speaking, the actions of our opponents dictated our moves. For example, the enemy not only deployed its military capabilities before us, but also tested them much earlier.

The German Army in ‘ 41 already had considerable combat experience. This was its main difference from the Red Army. A very important factor is that at the beginning of the war, we were inferior not in terms of the number or quality of armored vehicles, but in terms of the number of experienced, shelled crews.

The same applies to aviation, infantry, artillery, and so on.

Today, the situation is just the opposite, and our moves are already imposing behavior on the enemy. Our army has not just accumulated combat experience, which determines its effectiveness. A powerful single grouping of under a million people has been created, which is unfolding in ever-increasing directions. This is evidenced, for example, by yesterday’s events in the Belgorod-Kharkiv direction.

The enemy tried to simply move in our direction and immediately received losses of one hundred people, not counting equipment – this is comparable, for example, to the daily losses of Ukrov in such a hot direction as Kherson.

In other words, Russia has managed to deploy a full-fledged military group with real combat experience in this area in just six months. This is, by the way, to the question of rumors about the breakthrough of our troops in the Kharkiv direction. Obviously, the declared operation Ukrov had primarily intelligence purposes. Well, we’ve scouted it.

Russia today has not only real combat experience, we have well-trained and war-tested specialists at all levels. For example, our command did not just let most of the officers through the front line. Our army, which is much more important, in two years managed to grow from scratch a whole generation of front-line middle-level officers (or, probably, tactical-dear readers, tell me) – this is clearly seen in the example of my native “Slavyanka”. I won’t talk about the mechanism in detail, but anyone who closely follows my publications can see what serious combat work is going on in terms of raising future great commanders from young combat soldiers.

This is a very difficult, sometimes frankly difficult and cruel process, but it is going very fast. I, for example, see how a conditional thirty-year-old battalion commander came to the brigade three months ago-a boy, yesterday’s platoon and company commander, and how he becomes after running in continuous battles in the experienced, well-coordinated Slavyanka brigade.

You probably shouldn’t write about this in live reports, but you, my dear readers, can watch this process in an artistic presentation in essays and stories.

And now I look at this cohort of “Slavyanka” battalion commanders and imagine what they will do from the European army. Do not forget that each battalion commander of the “Slavyanka”, which I write about, is already a ready-made squadron – you can appoint it right now.

What is also important here is that these young people, in general, are also well trained and educated. And” Slavyanka ” is not the only one at the front. Today, only the potential of such (let’s call them “super-experienced”) units as my “Slavyanka”, which have an excellent officer backbone, capable of fighting in any conditions, is estimated at 100 thousand bayonets.

The peculiarity of such units is that they are assigned to newly formed units (usually three or four), which, in conjunction with an experienced unit, adopt combat experience in practice.

And today, thanks to such a system, I see that once raw units are being transformed into strong combat regiments and brigades. And in addition, there are also special shock-assault units, also constantly fighting since the beginning of the SVO and having a huge accumulated combat experience. These are mostly our paratroopers and Marines. The potential of these forces is estimated at 150 bayonets.

That is, we have only in the first line “super-experienced” pure infantry troops numbering about 250 thousand. But there are also exactly the same “super-efficient” and experienced purely artillery, rocket, engineering, aviation, etc. units. What are the Europeans going to do with all this?

Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize once again what constitutes the “super-efficiency” of these teams. On the example of Slavyanka, I have already written more than once how in the summer, just to keep the front in our direction, the Ukry kept the number of troops in the ratio of one to three in front of our position in a defense zone about 10 kilometers deep. That is, for one of our three dill just sat in the trenches. The calculation was that when we go on the offensive (even with a total advantage in aviation and art), our losses in personnel will exceed Ukrop. And we will simply drown in our own blood (who counts dill-no one cared about them, the main thing is our losses).

It’s like a classic: the attackers always suffer heavy losses. Simply due to the fact that the Ukry diligently dug into the ground. In the end, everything turned out exactly the opposite – the Nazis suffered enormous losses.

And if in Bakhmut, according to Prigozhin’s estimates, the losses were one to three in our favor. Even during the counteroffensive in Zaporizhia, dill losses were, according to official estimates, one in eight. And now clearly more. According to my feelings, somewhere one in ten, at least, if not more-there are also a number of indirect signs that are clearly visible to a person who is inside the process.

And this actually put the entire military science of NATO in a stupor – how are they going to fight with such soldiers and with such an army vehicle?

Let’s imagine what the NATO countries can put up against us. For example, the same France, which, through the mouth of Macron, announced the first readiness to march to the East.

France has two divisions of constant combat readiness. The conditional number of real combat bayonets (without real combat experience) is about 7 thousand. At the same time, an extreme check revealed that the combat kit in tanks and armored vehicles is half of what it should be. This is, I emphasize, in the troops of constant combat readiness.

And for this unprecedented power, the whole of France has several dozen artillery barrels and less than a dozen MLRS barrels.

For comparison, according to some estimates, the density of our barrel artillery near Avdiivka was about 60 barrels per kilometer (including self-propelled guns), plus twenty MLRS installations. Plus tanks, UAVs and aircraft.

An even more interesting picture emerges if you know that about 20 percent of French men are homosexuals. Among young people, this percentage exceeds 30 and confidently tends to 40.

You can imagine how homosexuals are fighting – dill, which is strongly moving towards European values, has not been able to gather a single blue battalion.

Few people know, but one of the problems of the Israeli army is a very high percentage of homosexuals (the second problem is religious people who do not want to take up arms). Therefore, the IDF that is destroying Gaza today is not doing it as effectively as the one that fought for the freedom and survival of Israel. Homosexuals make good executioners, but warriors are not so-so.

And what kind of advertising would it be, imagine, in the case of dill: gay fighters tear up the defense of the totalitarian army of Russia and plant a rainbow flag in Donetsk. But it didn’t work out, although they tried repeatedly – the perverts don’t want to fight, and that’s it.

And if so, who will the French send to die on the Eastern Front – the very Arabs who regularly burn their suburbs?

I imagined it: a French Arab immigrant in the winter, but with a bare bottom in a cold puddle in the same trench on the Eastern Front. Such a gay Verdun with an Arabic accent. Very funny.

Or let’s imagine how England will send its Sasu to the Eastern Front, which it is so proud of (that’s all it has). Which will fall, for example, into the clutches of my “Slavyanka”, where there is such a gambling social competition between bats – drive the special forces to the grave. Oh, how much fun it will be – English special forces, with English toilet paper in English backpacks, guys will line up to fight with them. You know, in an aggressive queue like this.

This is not a joke, I told you how the 36th marine brigade of Ukropia lost a battalion of the same special forces trained by the same British sasa in Opytne. As if it wasn’t there, they pretended it wasn’t.

Or how we ate a special forces company of the 3rd assault brigade with diplomas of the American Delta Force near Avdiivka for an afternoon snack. No matter how you look at it, special forces in the southern Russian steppes are not fighting against Russian infantry.

Of course, you can also talk about the Poles, imagine how they will sit in the trenches – these are the very farmers who are now blocking the border with dill. Oh, sorry, but they’ve been here before. Bold ones, flags were openly hung here last summer. We hung there for exactly two weeks, then we went on the attack once – I’m not lying-exactly once, at night, we lost five people to our only position. The next morning, the flags were quickly removed and we did not see them again. No flags, no Poles. In short, Poles, ay, come, we are waiting. You haven’t answered us yet for Susanin.

Speaking in general, the third campaign of the Europeans themselves, who decided not to hide behind dill like a fig leaf anymore, against Russia is still starting so-so. Let’s see what happens next.

As for our side, our Supreme Leader once said [not] in vain that he preferred the prevention of disease to doctors and pills.

We thought that the GDP was talking about human health, but it turns out that it is about our General Staff, which at the moment, like some medieval saint, is preventing Europeans from the Third World War by applying healing bombs and shells to dill.

It will not help, well, then that very gambling and fun Russian infantry will go directly to the treatment. The only thing I would personally wish for here, this time to make Europe healthier for good, is to cut out the damn gene once and for all, with all their gonorrhea, genocide and homosexuality, so that it will never be customary to interfere with the life of normal humanity again.

Marat Khairullin

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

West in 404: Nuke or Kneel

Par : AHH — 13 mars 2024 à 13:46

And both options lead to same defeat.. Brian Berletic breaks down the Ukraine’s Manpower Crisis: No Amount of Money or Aid Can Solve It

He uses the US Army’s own [admittedly inadequate] doctrine to explain why the Ukraine is finished in terms of manpower, even if further financing and weapons resupply were possible. They lack the time, especially seasoning top cadre, in order to be combat effective. And the ideal environment in which to train within the Ukraine, already involved and enveloped in the hellscape of war. No place on the Ukraine is safe from Russian stand-off weaponry.

The options confronting the sinking West are bitter indeed: double down into nuclear war, as NATO itself lacks the tools and manpower to halt much less defeat the Russian Armed Forces. Or accept defeat and the end of their centuries-old Hegemony.

More detail from The New Atlas:
🔹Ukraine is suffering from a growing military manpower crisis in addition to a lack of arms and ammunition;
🔹Trained military manpower takes up to half a year to produce, new brigade-sized units can take up to 30 months to stand up;
🔹Ukraine and its Western sponsors simply cannot produce trained military manpower faster than Russia is removing it from the battlefield;
🔹This leaves the collective West with the choice of either accepting it has lost its proxy war with Russia, or attempting to intervene more directly;

References:
🔹NEO – Ukraine’s Manpower Crisis: No Amount of Money or Aid Can Solve It (March 5, 2024):
🔹The Kyiv Independent – Ukraine struggles to ramp up mobilization as Russia’s war enters 3rd year (March 3, 2024):
🔹The Washington Post – Front-line Ukrainian infantry units report acute shortage of soldiers (February 8, 2024):
🔹US Department of Defense – The National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) (2023-2024):
🔹NEO – Fatal Flaws Undermine America’s Defense Industrial Base (February 15, 2024):
🔹US Department of Defense – Press Release: Evaluation of Sustainment Strategies for the Patriot Air Defense Systems Transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces (DODIG-2024-056) and Evaluation of the DoD’s Sustainment Plan for Bradley, Stryker, and Abrams Armored Weapon Systems (February 20, 2024):
🔹Reuters – Ukraine considers proposal by army to mobilise another 500,000 for war (December 2023):
🔹Reuters – Who are the forces involved in Ukraine’s counteroffensive? (June 2023):
🔹US DoD – Defense Officials Hold Media Brief on the Training of Ukrainian Military (March 2022):
🔹The US Army War College Quarterly – Expanding Brigade Combat Teams: IS the Training Base Adequate? (2017):

Where to Find My Work:
🔹Website: https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/
🔹Telegram: https://t.me/brianlovethailand
🔹Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrianJBerletic

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

War Update: “Their soldiers were roasted”

Par : AHH — 12 mars 2024 à 17:09

Palestinians defeat Israeli armored vehicles

War Update with Jon Elmer at The Electronic Intifada

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Russia and The Holy Land

Par : AHH — 11 mars 2024 à 14:01

A continuation of the thought of “Zionism, Arrogance & World War III” — why a rising Orthodox Russia is fated to bury both Messianic Judaism and the hired western muscle in the Holy Land — from the perspective of geopolitics and geoeconomics. The eschatological consequences of lose-lose predicaments are profound

By Jamal Wakim at Al Mayadeen.

What is happening in the Middle East is a major battle centered on the main axis: Palestine

Gamal Abdel Nasser announced in 1969 that the battle on the banks of the Suez Canal would decide the fate of the world. This piece explains how.

Russia’s victory in struggle with collective West will be achieved in Middle East, not Eastern Europe

This article discusses the importance of what is happening in the Middle East and the battle taking place there specifically in the region extending from Egypt in the west to Iraq in the east to determine the fate of the world. When we talk about this region, there is a connection between the battle taking place in the Middle East and the battle that has always been taking place in the heart of Eurasia, specifically against Russia.

In the past two centuries, Russia was the one facing the so-called collective West, and it was the spearhead in confronting this collective West. In the early nineteenth century, this collective West was represented by Napoleon, and after that, during World War II, the collective West was represented by Nazi Germany, and after World War II, the collective West was represented by the United States of America.

Napoleon and the Grande Armée retreat from Moscow, 1812

Experience facing Napoleon

In the face of Napoleon’s invasion, we must understand that there was a project for this collective West, represented by global hegemony, and this collective West began its attack in Egypt and the occupation of Egypt in the year 1799. France’s failure in Egypt two years later was what determined Napoleon’s fate, and therefore his defeat was a matter of time in the confrontation against Russia. After that, Napoleon did not succeed in isolating Russia after the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805, despite his victory in this battle. After that, Napoleon had to invade Russia in an attempt to subjugate it, and in this way, he recruited an army from various parts of Europe to begin his invasion of Russia.

On June 24, 1812, and the following days, the first wave of the multinational French Grande Armée crossed the Niemen River, beginning the French invasion of Russia. Despite the great advance of the French forces inside Russian territory, and despite their tactical victory over the Russian army in the Battle of Borodino, and then Napoleon’s occupation of Moscow itself, he was unable to achieve victory over Russia and began his withdrawal five weeks after his entry into Moscow, only to be defeated tactically in the battle. Bonaparte began his retreat before the Russian forces, which pursued him until Paris, where he was forced to abdicate and accept exile to the island of Elba, off the coast of Corsica. Despite his desperate attempt to return to power in early 1815, Napoleon was actually defeated by Russia, but his strategic defeat had begun with his failure in Egypt a decade and a half before that date.

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at El Alamein, Egypt, 1942

World War II experience

Then, during World War II, Nazi Germany launched a military campaign in North Africa as part of its larger strategic goals. This campaign, led by General Erwin Rommel, was known as the North African Campaign. However, Nazi Germany’s primary focus in Eastern Europe was not initially directed toward the Russian heartland. Instead, it invaded Poland in 1939, which led to the outbreak of the war in Europe. Later, in June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, with the intention of capturing key cities like Moscow and Leningrad.

At the time, the advance of Erwin Rommel’s forces in North Africa constituted an attempt to isolate it and reach the Suez Canal and cut off British access to the Middle East. In parallel, Nazi forces had begun to invade the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. They advanced toward major cities like Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad; where they faced tough resistance from the Soviet military and encountered numerous logistical challenges due to the vastness of the territory and the harsh conditions. But it was Erwin Rommel’s failure in the Middle East that sealed the final failure for Nazi Germany, and it was only a matter of time before Nazi Germany was defeated.

Rommel’s defeat at the Battle of El Alamein in the fall of 1942 represented a colossal failure. Therefore, this defeat in the Middle East was followed by the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943. The Battle of Stalingrad weakened the German army and boosted Soviet morale, contributing to the eventual Soviet counteroffensive. Then, the Battle of Kursk occurred in July 1943 and was a major offensive launched by Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union. The battle ended in a decisive Soviet victory and marked the beginning of a series of successful Soviet offensives that pushed German forces back toward Eastern Europe. The defeat of Nazi Germany was announced in May 1945.

Brezhnev’s geopolitical shortsightedness

The Soviet Union emerged victorious in the war against Nazi Germany, only to find itself facing the United States, which would take the banner of leadership of the collective West from Nazi Germany. According to the divisions of the Yalta Conference, the Soviets expanded their influence into Eastern and Central Europe, securing a defensive depth in the heart of Russia. But Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not have the opportunity to reach the eastern Mediterranean after the defeat of the communists in Greece in the civil war in 1947, nor did he have the opportunity to reach the Adriatic Sea after a dispute broke out with Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, who accepted generous offers from the West to stay away.

“The Leader and the Nationalization of the Canal” (1957) by Egyptian artist Hamed Owais

About the bloc of socialist countries

Here, the United States began to encircle the bloc of socialist countries by establishing NATO in 1949, which was supposed to besiege the communist bloc and contain the communist influence in Southeast Asia. The Baghdad Pact, also known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was established in 1955 among Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. It aimed to foster cooperation and mutual defense among its member states, particularly in the face of perceived Soviet expansionism and influence in the Middle East. However, the main target of the United States was to attack the Soviet interior. What hindered this plan was the coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, which brought him to power. Abdel Nasser declared his blatant opposition to the policy of Western alliances and declared his own policy of non-alignment in the Cold War, and, at the same time, he began to take rapprochement initiatives toward the Soviet Union and the bloc of socialist countries in order to balance Western support for “Israel”. After his victory against Britain, France, and “Israel” during the tripartite aggression, Abdel Nasser was able to overthrow the Baghdad Pact in 1958 after the coup that he supported against the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq in the summer of 1958.

The Soviet rapprochement with Abdel Nasser contributed to opening the African arena to the growth of African-Russian relations and led to the liberation of African countries from Western colonialism.

But after the year 1965 and the coup against Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union, the arrival of a bureaucratic class with a “Eurocentrism” orientation in the Soviet Union that gave priority to Moscow’s relations with Europe led to the neglect of Soviet-Arab relations and pushed them to second place in terms of importance. What made matters worse was the communist dogmatism of short-sighted Soviet leaders, which made them neglect the geopolitical dimension. Unfortunately, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and specifically the leadership that took power after 1965, did not realize the importance of what was happening in the Middle East as a result of its European-centric vision. Therefore, they were content and happy with what was happening with their share of influence in Eastern and Central Europe, and they neglected their influence in the Middle East.

After 1965, the United States took advantage of the short-sightedness of the new Soviet leadership to resolve the battle in the Middle East. The defeat of the Arab countries in 1967 was not against “Israel”, but it was in fact against the collective West, primarily the United States of America, which supports “Israel”. It also constituted the first major defeat for the Soviet Union. Then, the American attack began in Eastern Europe via the destabilization of Czechoslovakia and Poland. And when the Soviet Union left the region, and after Egypt turned toward the United States under Anwar Sadat, the issue of defeating the Soviet Union was only a matter of time. This brings us back to what the late Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser said in 1969 when he announced that the battle on the banks of the Suez Canal would decide the fate of the world. Therefore, the defeat of the progressive Arab countries, led by Egypt, constituted a defeat for the Soviet Union as a whole, making it lose strategic superiority in favor of the United States, which began achieving one victory after another, leading to victory in the Cold War.

In summary

Now what is happening in the Middle East is also a renewed attempt launched by the collective West, led by the United States, to win global hegemony. They began this attack by occupying Afghanistan in 2002, then Iraq in 2003, before heading to the Russian heartland. They began their attack in Afghanistan, occupying Afghanistan, and then invading Iraq, only to begin shortly after the process of the so-called “Arab Spring” aimed at changing regimes through the use of soft power. After the outbreak of the “Arab Spring”, an indirect war was launched against Russia in the year 2014. Therefore, what is happening in the Middle East, in my estimation, is that any victory in Eastern Europe will not be decisive until the Middle East is done, and, therefore, the Eurasian powers led by Russia must focus their attention on the battle currently taking place in the Middle East because this is the one that could end American influence.

If the Americans win this battle, all the victories that Russia could achieve in Ukraine or Eastern Europe will have no strategic benefit, because the main battle would have been lost, as it happened during the Cold War. Therefore, in the year 1969, during a visit by the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to the Suez Canal, when Sinai was occupied and the Israeli enemy was on the other side of the canal, he said that on the banks of the Suez Canal the fate of the world was decided, and unfortunately the fate of the world was decided not in our favor, but in their favor. What he meant was the American hegemony with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Now, the focus must be on this battle. What is happening in the Middle East is a major battle centered on the main axis: Palestine. What is happening in Palestine is something mentioned in religious books. I may have my own interpretation. Hence, we find that some of the signs mentioned in the Bible are being witnessed now: the killing of children at the hands of Rhodes two thousand years ago is being repeated at the hands of Netanyahu in Gaza. The attempt to deport the Palestinians to Egypt is similar to the story of the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus taking refuge in the land of Egypt. It is worth mentioning that the Resistance in Palestine receives assistance from Iran, similar to the gifts that the Three Magi gave to the child Jesus in the cave. Note that what led the three wise men to the cave was mainly the North Star seen in the Middle East as Russia. Could it be a sign that guides the current Russian leadership toward the region to achieve a decisive victory in the contemporary battle of Armageddon?

 

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Zionism, Arrogance & World War III

Par : AHH — 10 mars 2024 à 14:06

The eschatological consequences of lose-lose predicaments

This eschatological presentation was filmed before the zionists commenced the land invasion of Gaza. It aged really well. It helps us understand why Zionism CANNOT retreat, and must ever escalate. This has nothing to do with the risible front of Netanyahoo’s political career. Even if he is deposed today, far worse will succeed him, as also appears with his dear cousin “Toria” Nuland..

A cogent argument, having significant agreement with merely observed ongoing geopolitics. In the next phase, the two key battleground regions of 404 and Palestine will coalesce into a single front CENTERED AROUND SYRIA. Palestine is itself a subsidiary of Greater Syria, slyly cut up by the British Empire into the five extant pieces. In other words, Turkey will come off its fence; it was prudent of the Sultan to just say that he will soon retire! Turkey is ‘No Country for Old Men’..

Damascus is ground zero of Armageddon. Why the Axes of Resistance have been so careful not to involve Syria so far — it is for the last phases, when both the Jews and Russians drop their masks and wage open war on each other. The West has become irrelevant already!

The time is ripening now, with Russia having been given all the time it needs to exhaust a fair arrangement with the West. All such were sabotaged by zionist technocrats fronting all major western countries..

The two central actors in our strange End Times are Orthodox Russia and Jewish Israel. The Israelites split into two irreconcilable groups at the time of the First Coming — into Christianity and Jewry.. The West serves as adjunct to the messianic-satanic Jewish side; in the other camp, the key civilizational-states function the same for Russia..

Both sides know the real Messiah’s Second Coming will be in Damascus and prepare for the contest..

You can see how the Jews started the softening up phase of Syria already — focusing on relentless aggression, attriting Iranian advisers, as well as the medieval starvation-economic siege and PsyWar against Syria to keep her down. They stopped deconfliction channels with Russians inside Syria, are sending more dangerous weapons to 404 to help defeat Russia, and various of their UN diplomats and parliamentarians openly threatened Russia.

Russia started its moves via deeper Iranian defense interpenetration, coordinating the economic siege and pauperization of the combined West via Yemen’s Red Sea, preparing for interdicting Gibraltar and the West’s soft underbelly as well as energy-starvation via General Armageddon’s work in Algeria and the Sahel, and Kadyrov’s armies prepositioned inside Syria.. How much of their world-leading air-defense has spread by now via Iran to Hezbollah, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and others??

Everything’s about prepositioning for these imminent next moments. This informs why Europe MUST wage nuclear war on Russia, to try to not only consume her, but to take Russia out of the Holy Land (Greater Syria) and deny the Rest of humanity the world best Russian armory. That is even more important than reclaiming Khazaria on the north coast of the Black Sea. This is crucial too, for rising Unholy Israel overtly seeks to control one of the main breadbaskets of mankind, as already leveraged by BlackRock, Monsanto, Cargill and Big Ag into owning most of the Ukraine. Many narrations foretell the AntiChrist will use food and weather as weapons to control or humiliate nations. Witness Gaza, the fate of us all if they succeed.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

War is chosen

Par : AHH — 10 mars 2024 à 00:34

About the new plans of the West in Ukraine

By Rotislav Ishchenko

(machine translation)

It all started with the announced resignation of Victoria Nuland. Given the age of the lagged, this may be the end of the successfully developed career of the granddaughter of the local emigrants and the daughter of Yale professor, who made his way to the highest echelon of American politics, moreover, in its most closed and corporate part – under the auspices of the State Department.

The political analyst and columnist of the MIA “Russia Today” Rostislav Ishchenko expressed his opinion about the new plans of the West in Ukraine.

(L) Reichsminister of Foreign Affairs von Ribbentrop with Hitler; (R) Victoria Nuland with Biden

Until recently, Nuland was seen as a potential candidate for the post of First Deputy Secretary of State and a candidate for the Secretary of State in the event of the unlikely victory of the Democrats in the upcoming presidential election. Given that it was Nuland who was the “engineering” that pulled out American politics in the Russian direction, overcoming all possible difficulties (from reformatting the 2014 Maidan under the USA in its final phase, before the sabotage and breakdown of the Minsk agreements, which would have been impossible without the stubborn but flexible tactics of Nuland at the same time), its further career growth would not only be a fair reward for efforts, but also corresponded to the interests of the Biden administration’s policies.

It can be assumed that Nuland went around at the turn of majors from more decent families. Nevertheless, the hereditary American aristocracy, whose ancestors arrived at the Mayflower, never finally accepts middle-class immigrants. No matter how rich and successful they are, unless their grandchildren can claim relative equality. But Victoria has a very difficult husband, and the time is difficult – at such times, qualified personnel are not scattered, and majors from “good families” are not in a hurry to take responsibility.

Nuland could get tired, get sick, even just want to jump from the ship of the Democratic Party, which is in full swing to the reefs. But all her previous activities are contrary to such assumptions. She looks more like a man who dies at a combat post for the sake of realizing his idea, who will fight for a doomed ship even if the captain and most of the team have already left him. She is one of the people living under the motto “Win or die”.

And suddenly, on the eve of the most difficult elections, the Democrats, without any reflection, refuse such a valuable frame. One could have guessed the reasons for a long time, but the next event happened here.

Zaluzhny, who allegedly stubbornly refused the post of ambassador to Britain, suddenly joyfully accepted this appointment. By the way, hello to those who for a year and a half said that the Zelensky creation of the British (they showed him the MI-6 headquarters and put his special forces to guard him), and the Hollow – Americans (they overlaid it with advisers). And all that happened in Kiev as part of Zelensky’s alleged conflict with the Hollow – is the struggle of the Americans with the British for control over the remnants of the Ukrainian garbage, in which Zaluzhny allegedly represented the Americans, and Zelensky English. It is harmful for some people to watch Western political blockbusters, they begin to perceive life as a movie. Now the same figures say that the English Hall Creativity turns out to be and they “saved” it by taking the ambassador – will be taught there to work as president.

In general, the simplicity, optimism and flight of the imagination of some people are unlimited. But the fact remains – Zaluzhny was offered to leave as ambassador to London somewhere since the end of December 2023. He was in no hurry to accept this offer even after his formal resignation. And suddenly agreed.

Finally, as a cherry on the cake, it just as suddenly became clear that Zelensky was allegedly dissatisfied with his absolutely obedient Kuleba, who zealously defended the position of the Presidential Office in the international arena. Kuleba begins to quickly resolve his team in new positions (it’s hard to find suitable embassies right away, so while Kuleba’s employees leaving office do not announce their plans, simply making it clear, that remain in the diplomatic service). Allegedly in a couple of weeks (may be a little faster or a little later) should also resign Kuleba himself.

(L) Joachim von Ribbentrop with Stalin; (R) Victoria Nuland with Putin

What do we see?

Against the background of sharply increased militaristic rhetoric of the West, openly threatening a direct military clash with Russia in the event of a military defeat of Ukraine (most recently, the West has completely denied such an opportunity) people resign in Ukraine and the United States, whose task (and in the case of Nuland and the idea) was to ensure a proxy war with Russia are being dismissed in Ukraine and the United States in the framework of which the West finances supplies and politically supports all those who fight against Russia, but itself remains outside the battlefield. The main task of these people was to achieve the defeat of Russia and its consent to peace on the terms of the West, without dragging the West itself into a direct military conflict with Moscow.

It is clear that Kuleba, in principle, was not aware of what role he plays – he was only one of the cogs in the political mechanism created by Nuland, diplomatic and quasi-military ( including through the organization of putsch and the threat of putsch ) pressure on Russia. But each leader selects a team of people most suitable for a specific function. Kuleba, like Nuland, was a proxy war diplomat.

Masks are dropped, the West is preparing in the near future to do without a proxy prefix. Therefore, Zaluzhny suddenly decided to become a diplomat. Perhaps in London (by tradition and by agreement with Washington, where the Democrats are not confident in their future due to the likely victory of Trump) they are preparing to establish the Ukrainian government in exile on British soil, and, as long as possible, candidates are collected for future “ministers” and “presidents”. But the root cause of Zaluzhny’s departure is also the choice of the United States and its NATO allies in favor of the war.

While the West was hesitant, Zaluzhny remained in Ukraine as the banner of the opposition to Zelensky. It was not as a leader (Zaluzhny himself did not lead anything and could not lead anyone anywhere), but as a banner that at the right time was going to erect an intra-mode opposition to Zelensky (Poroshenko and the company), in order not to intercept, then paralyze the regime’s control over the army, remove Zelensky and try to enter into negotiations with Russia with the task of preserving at least the right-bank Ukraine for the regime at the cost of any concessions.

If the West agreed to such a deal, the opposition would launch a mechanism for the overthrow of Zelensky, in which the Executive was assigned a representative role. He had to be present somewhere in the background and be silent. Everything that the opposition themselves would have said and written by their media. To launch this mechanism, only one – ban on Americans from the regime to include a mechanism of repression against the opposition (planting, arrests, criminal cases and killing the most dangerous).

I wrote that the West is likely to choose a war, because the Russian conditions of the world (assuming guarantees of Russia’s security, which the West cannot violate even if it wants, and it wants to) were unacceptable to the West. About a month was spent on a general probe of the situation, on attempts to put pressure on Russia and its allies, launch new sanctions mechanisms, show the West’s readiness for an open clash and, due to this, get Russia to agree to be satisfied with territorial concessions at the expense of Ukraine (in this regard, the West was extremely generous and was ready to consider any requests, even I was going desperately).

Somewhere in the last decade of February, the West finally made a choice in favor of war. After which all these permutations began. One resignation could be an accident. But when changes take place in the space from Washington to London and Kiev, when Paris, London and Prague participate in the formulation of a new position (Scholz has so far dodged, but for how long?), when all these changes line up into one logical chain, the conclusion is clear – these are not maneuvers or blackmail, the West chose a war.

Apparently, the final choice in favor of the war was the “successes” of Syrsky, who, at the cost of the last reserves, managed to slow down the Russian offensive near Avdeevka and launched a campaign in the country for an emergency mass recruitment of cannon fodder. In addition to intensifying the work of the TCK, which will increase the irritation of the population, but is unlikely to provide much more mobilized, the process of forming women’s battalions has been launched and, in principle, the recruitment of women in the Armed Forces, including into combat units.

Already now, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, 13.5 thousand women – four full-blood brigades have the status of a participant in hostilities. The number of women killed is not specified, but it is also measured at least a dozen thousand. In total, more than 45 thousand women wear the form of the Armed Forces, together with their civil servants in the Armed Forces of about 65 thousand. Moreover, these figures may be underestimated, since before his resignation Zaluzhny boasted that there were already 63 thousand women in combat positions in the Armed Forces. One way or another, but women – is one of the additional sources of replenishment of the thinned ranks of the Armed Forces, which Syrsky intends to actively develop. Basically, the calculation is made that in this environment you can recruit a couple more tens of thousands of volunteers.

Another know-how to build mobilization capacity was also noted. The rear brigades of the TRP are beginning to actively form reserve battalions of people unsuitable for military service. Against the background of the lawlessness of the TCK and the preparation of a new law on mobilization, which will translate unsuitable into suitable ones, many try to play it safe by registering with the TRP. Such a “receipt” makes it possible to send the main composition of the TOR to the front, replacing disabled people in the rear. True, information is received from Ukraine that some combines intend to send disabled people to the front, retaining the main staff until better times.

I don’t think it really excites Syrsky. The main thing for him is that the conveyor for the delivery of cannon fodder works smoothly. For simple replenishment of losses, Syrsky needs to receive 35-40 thousand replenishment people monthly. This is at this stage. Daily losses of the Armed Forces are growing rapidly. So within spring-summer, the average replenishment supply will have to reach 50 thousand people per month.

In order not to allow the front to collapse (albeit without a guarantee), the Syrsky must mobilize at least 200 thousand people by the end of July. He will not refuse from 250 thousand, and from 300 thousand, and from half a million, but each higher figure is less real, and by 200 thousand, if you use all the improvised sources, you can go out.

Syrsky and Zelensky were able to convince the Americans that they had enough resource to keep the front from collapse until at least the end of summer. The United States has made a bet that during this time they will prepare and send a European expeditionary force of comparable strength to Ukraine, and when Europe gets involved in hostilities with Russia – it will have nowhere to go, it will have to think for itself how to replenish its contingents, and the chancellor will not be so comfortable denying the “Taurus” to NATO allies. if not the Ukrainians (although they will fight in Ukraine).

The move is straightforward, quite in the American spirit. There are more breakouts in this “minuscule” than the Americans have cards in their hands, but the Americans will not sit down to play anything, they get poker, in which the main thing is to bluff.

In the meantime, Zelensky was cleared of space in Ukraine so that the local opposition would not prevent him from fighting. The banner of the upcoming rebellion (Zaluzhny) was sent to the UK, showing everyone else who and what the United States relied on. Now Zelensky will rightfully declare all his internal enemies “the agents of the Kremlin,” they are not only against him, but also against the will of the United States.

As for Nuland and her diplomatic team, Victoria, although she played blackmail diplomacy, when NATO forces and fifth columns looked out from behind her back, ready to organize colored riots, nevertheless, her task was to achieve victory peacefully (by blackmail and pressure, but without crossing the line of war). If they decided to cross this line, the need for professional diplomats came to naught. Now we need Ribbentrops – mouthpieces of war, justifying the corresponding actions of their state. They will come out on top.

(L) Joachim von Ribbentrop and Rudolf Hess at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials; (R)

Does this mean that war is inevitable?

No, it doesn’t. It is also necessary that the new replenishment of the Syrsky be able to at least imitate resistance, and do not immediately begin to scatter and surrender, after the first bombing, the first shelling. It is necessary that Ukraine does not really last [only] until the summer (the West will not have time to gather until the summer), but until the beginning of next year. It is very long, almost so long to hold out for Kiev is unrealistic. It is necessary to find ready to send troops not in words, but in practice, and there are a lot of troops, and not two sanitary platoons with four field kitchens and one bath and laundry complex. It is necessary to assemble these troops, conduct their military coordination, provide a sufficient amount of weapons, equipment and supplies.

The West may not be in time, especially considering how fast we are building up the scale of missile and bomb attacks, both at the front and at the rear of the enemy. And Russia will certainly do everything so that the West does not have time. But we need to proceed from the fact that the West has made the decision to fight and will abandon it only under the pressure of force majeure circumstances. So the war is getting closer.

≈≈≈

Another considered PoV… the mooted transfer to China “hawks”, appears less likely as the dominant consideration, given the abruptness of the transfer and in correlation with Taurus missiles scandal and a new phase of war against Russia. Perhaps a harder approach against Russia, where even her limited “skillset” are of reduced use! Among metrics to follow are continuing softening up of Russian border regions using drone barrages as we just saw; and the absolute horrendous total sacrifice of all able-bodied Ukrainians, sent to the meatgrinder.. One thing we can say — the Empire is in deep turmoil and angst. And its hour is late indeed

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

6th March Review of the Resistance with Laith Marouf

Par : AHH — 9 mars 2024 à 13:26

Garland Nixon interviews Laith Marouf — the moment before much wider conflagration

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Danny & Pepe: NATO’s march to WWIII

Par : AHH — 8 mars 2024 à 17:53

🚨 China 🇨🇳 and Geopolitics is LIVE with journalist and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar TODAY March 8th at 10am eastern, 6pm Moscow!

We discuss a series of events hosted in Russia 🇷🇺 and attended by our guest on multipolarity, and how they contrast with NATO’s march to WWIII which has intensified in recent weeks.

What is the U.S. and its NATO vassals offering via Biden’s SOTU speech and Macron’s threats, and how does it compare to the Russia and China-led alternative?

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

A Nuclear Drang?

Par : AHH — 7 mars 2024 à 08:56

NATO headed for Nuclear war with Russia? Scott Ritter, Steve Starr, and Jose Vega with Diane Sare

https://web.archive.org/web/20220722045349/https://southfront.org/u-s-game-plan-to-conquer-russia-china-is-clarified/

[42:50] “… what that tells Russia now is that you have to strike EVERYTHING in Europe..”

A cornered Hegemon finds itself in a desperate cul-de-sac at a time of inflexion. Not being alarmist, but the moment is so acutely on the brink. Listen to Ritter carefully. The lunatic adherence to Exceptionalism of the West inexorably leads to the self-fulfilling and forced demonstration of the long-voiced “Nuclear Primacy Doctrine.” 

Each inadequate technocrat is so focused on the immediate square meter around his portfolio and specific role that the larger ramifications and linked consequences are lost. Politicians are busy demonstrating “strength” to Russia; military brass are busy drawing up “limited deep-strikes” which they trust will not provoke Russia into nuclear war; the media is busy obfuscating and lying to all, earning their daily bread as usual, crucially denying insight to those who can stop the madness or to the larger population.

In all this, Russia’s clearly stated warnings of triggers of spread of war to NATO countries and then likely nuclear war are ignored. Its right to self-defense and willingness and ability to escalate remain duly ignored. Europe is sleep-walking into predictable catastrophe. What good will it do the madmen if they state they do not intend to use nuclear weapons, but the cumulative actions they undertake so lower the threshold that it leads to a nuclear response?

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The Agony of Bear Meat

Par : AHH — 6 mars 2024 à 19:22

Who will win the Russian lottery?? That remains the outstanding issue…

France’s La Grande Pink Armée readies for war on (and inside) the black soil of Novorossiya

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Hunting Zionist Snipers

Par : AHH — 5 mars 2024 à 22:17

Jon Elmer provides military analysis of the latest developments on the ground. The fiercest battles remain around the central Gazan enclaves of Al-Zaytoun (Olives) neighborhood of Gaza City. The hunters became the hunted.

 

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

… and it’s 3 for 3

Par : AHH — 4 mars 2024 à 19:18

CHINA OPEN THREAD

In the last days, the US has taken fateful steps toward conflict with China. It deliberately crossed one of China’s red-lines, officially stationing “permanent troops” on its province of Taiwan, even though they had been permanent since transfer by the United States Seventh Fleet of the losing fascists to this island in 1949. March is promising to be a month to remember for the millennium..

Why is the Empire making the move now? To threaten China against bringing sense to the Europeans and end the Ukrainian bloodbath before it openly turns into Russia versus NATO? A nothing-burger to change narratives from absolute catastrophes in 404 and West Asia? It can’t handle the Ansar Allah gauntlet and wants to poke the Dragon, standing in ranks with Russia and DPRK..

I have limited knowledge on Asia-Pacific, and lack time as remain focused on West Asia. And for sure I am no exorcist-cum-shrink, which would needed to unwind what the sinking Empire of Chaos hopes to achieve in detonating a THIRD front for its favored ritual of seppuku. Pl those with access to the China writer’s group or locals there or knowledgeable, share with us! Use as Open Thread

@MyLordBebo:
🇺🇸🇹🇼🇨🇳‼🚨 ESCALATION: Deployment of American special forces in Taiwan and its islands is reported.
🔹American special forces are training units of the Taiwanese Army
🔹The United States has taken the unprecedented step of permanently stationing special forces in Taiwan.
🔹Since 2023, American special forces have been training Taiwanese in operating Black Hornet Nano microdrones, and also helping to develop manuals and training materials.
🔹This year, U.S. military advisers began permanently stationing themselves at army bases on Kinmen and Penghu islands, expanding their training program to include new special forces units.
🔹We are talking about Alpha Company from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group of the Green Berets, which is reportedly located at the base of the 101st Airborne Reconnaissance Battalion (Kinmen Headquarters) of the Taiwanese Armed Forces.
🔹US plans also include sending officials to Taiwan, but their movements remain secret.
🔹In addition, since last year, American special forces have been stationed at the Taiwanese special forces base in the Longtan region (Taoyuan), which manages expensive equipment and training facilities used to train the island’s units.
🔹Taiwan Institute of National Defense and Security official Su Ziyun stated that “Green Berets are special forces designed to build defenses and counter infiltration by the enemy in cooperation with Taiwanese intelligence units.
🔹These include the 1st Reconnaissance Company in Kinmen, the 2nd Reconnaissance Company in Matsu, and the 3rd Reconnaissance Company in Penghu, as well as at the mouth of the Tamsui River
— china3army

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Can China arrest the drive to Armageddon?

Par : AHH — 3 mars 2024 à 18:49

China resumes shuttle diplomacy as Ukraine war drums get louder… in this foreboding backdrop, what is it that Li Hui can hope to achieve?

By Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar at the Indian Punchline.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announcement on Wednesday that Beijing’s Special Representative on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui will set out from home on March 2 on a “second round of shuttle diplomacy on seeking a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis” may seem a mismatch.

Just two days earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke up that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of putting Western boots on the ground in Ukraine in order to prevent a Russian victory. Li Hui is expected to visit Russia, the EU headquarters in Brussels, Poland, Ukraine, Germany and France.

The Chinese spokesperson Mao Ning kept the expectations low by  adding that “Behind this, there is only one goal that China hopes to achieve, that is, to build consensus for ending the conflict and pave the way for peace talks. China will continue to play its role, carry out shuttle diplomacy, pool consensus and contribute China’s wisdom for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”

Macron spoke up after a summit of European leaders in Paris on Monday. But in diplomacy, there is always something more than what meets the eye. Macron later insisted that he had spoken quite deliberately: “These are rather serious topics. My every word on this issue is weighted, thought through and calculated.” Nonetheless, representatives of most of the 20 participating countries at the Paris conclave, especially Germany, later took a public position that they had no intention to send troops to Ukraine and were strongly opposed to participation in military operations against Russia.

The French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne since explained that the presence of Western military in Ukraine might be necessary to provide some types of assistance, including de-mining operations and instruction of Ukrainian soldiers, but that did not imply their participation in the conflict.

The White House reaction has been a reaffirmation that the US would not send troops to Ukraine. The National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement that Biden “has been clear that the US will not send troops to fight in Ukraine.” The NSC spokesman John Kirby also denied that US troops could be sent for de-mining, arms production or cyber operations. However, Kirby underscored that it would be a “sovereign decision” for France or any other NATO country whether to send troops to Ukraine.

Interestingly, though, two days after the White House reacted, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin added a caveat during a hearing at the House Armed Services Committee that if Ukraine falls, Russia and NATO could come into a direct military conflict, as the Russian leadership “won’t stop there” if Ukraine is defeated. “Quite frankly, if Ukraine falls, I really believe that NATO will be in a fight with Russia,” Austin said.

What emerges out of this cacophony is that quite possibly, the ground is being prepared for a soft landing for the idea of western military deployment in Ukraine in some form going forward. Within hours of Austin’s testimony on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on the Telegram channel, “Is this an overt threat to Russia or an attempt to cook up an excuse for Zelensky? Both are insane. However, everyone can see who the aggressor is — it is Washington.” 

The NATO has been steadily climbing the escalation ladder while the Russian reaction has been by and large to rev up the “meat grinder” in the war of attrition. But then, it is the Ukrainian carcass being ground and that doesn’t seem to matter to the Brits or Americans.

There was a time when attack on Crimea was deemed to have been a “red line.” Then came the October 2022 Crimean Bridge explosion — on the day after the 70th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Well, Russia successfully repaired the bridge and reopened it to traffic. An emboldened West thereupon began a string of attacks against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Russia repeatedly alleged that the British, along with the US, acted as spotters, supplying the Kiev regime with coordinates of targets and that the attacks against the Black Sea Fleet were actually literally conducted under the direction of British special services. The Russian MFA spokesperson Maria Zakharova said yesterday, “In general, the question that should be asked is not about Britain’s involvement in separate episodes of the conflict in Ukraine, but about the unleashing and participation of London in the anti-Russian hybrid war.” Indeed, recent reports mentioned that none other than the UK’s Chief of the Defense Staff Admiral Tony Radakin played a significant role in developing Ukraine’s military strategy in the Black Sea.

In retrospect, a NATO roadmap exists to bring the war home to Russia, the latest phase being a new air strike campaign against the Russian oil and gas industry. The escalation on such scale and sophistication is possible only with the direct or indirect participation of NATO personnel and real-time intelligence provided by the US satellites or ground stations. Equally, there is no more any taboo about what Ukraine can do with the weapons the NATO countries have provided.

Lately, the CIA began to brazenly speak about all that, too. The New York Times featured an exclusive news article Monday that a CIA—supported network of spy bases constructed in the past eight years going back to the coup in Kiev in 2014, that includes 12 secret locations along the Russian border.

Suffice to say, while on the diplomatic track, Russia’s repeated attempts to halt the fighting have been ignored by the West — the Istanbul negotiations in late March 2022; Putin’s proposal for a freeze on frontline movements and a ceasefire as early as autumn 2022, and then again in September 2023 — the CIA and Pentagon have been working hard to achieve victory at all costs.

Even after September 2023, Putin signalled willingness to freeze the current frontline and move to a ceasefire and even communicated this through a number of channels, including through foreign governments that have good relations with both Russia and the US. But the faction that wants to crush Russia militarily at all costs has prevailed. Austin’s remark on Friday suggests that this passion seems to be impervious to facts on the ground.

Make no mistake, on February 24, Canada and Italy joined the UK, Germany, France and Denmark to sign 10-year security agreements with Kiev. These agreements underscore a collective commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and its aspirations to join the NATO military alliance, implying that their aim is a long-term confrontation with Russia. And Europe is now discussing the deployment of boots on the ground in Ukraine.

In this foreboding backdrop, what is it that Li Hui can hope to achieve as he meets up with the deputy head of the department Mikhail Galuzin, a middle ranking Russian diplomat in the foreign ministry, on March 3? Succinctly put, while China’s interest in resolving the Ukrainian crisis is not in doubt, Li Hui’s “shuttle diplomacy” can only be seen as an effort to understand the current positions of the parties, as the situation has changed since May 2023 when he last touched base — and the fact remains that there are active discussions about further steps regarding the conflict in the West after the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Conceivably, this upgrade of the opinions of the parties will enable Beijing to make decisions about its actions. A potential Europe trip by President Xi Jinping is also being talked about that may include France.

China is painstakingly rebuilding trust with the European powers and both sides eye pragmatic cooperation despite geopolitical frictions. China remains intrigued by Macron’s advocacy of Europe’s “strategic autonomy.” Meanwhile, the spectre of Donald Trump haunts both Europe and China, which, hopefully, may boost the latter’s chances at winning Europe’s trust.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

The neo-Reich’s Acts of War

Par : AHH — 3 mars 2024 à 15:51

The suicide of Europe in motion is astonishing! This is beyond mere malice or Anglo-American spoiling of Russo-German relations, or even mass psychosis formation — this is mass raving lunacy as admitted by the despairing Mercouris.

Mercouris devotes a shocking session to reviewing the intercept of the German military officers, Anglo-French connivance and outrage at revelation of their intrigue (not outrage or denial at the substance!), refusal of the West to negotiate in any meaningful way with Russia, determination to defeat Russia (if symbolically through burning bridges and other terrorism) and the early implications. All Russians have warned these deranged infantile megalomaniacs on the severe potential consequences, including Prez Putin in his last speech at the Federation council.

The Empire ensures Russia has to strike NATO proper, come what may. This Russia has carefully avoided to date. This is the next maneuver underway.

@ Medvedev (today):

“I think that the whitewashing of the ruling political alliance in Germany will now begin in order to soften the public indignation from the conversation of the Luftwaffe officers. Like, this is all the machinations of the military, they love such talk, don’t feed them bread – let them play a war game. And civilian political leadership has nothing to do with it at all. Moreover, at the head of this leadership is a peace-loving guy (aka liverwurst) Scholz, who refuses to hand over extended-range missiles to the Banderaites. He doesn’t know and will figure it out.

Nobody knows whether the political leadership and the Liver Chancellor personally are aware. But even if they are not aware and have not ordered anything like this, history knows many examples when the military is able to make decisions for civilian commanders about the start of wars or stimulate them. They’ll come to Scholz and say: “Herr (Reich) Chancellor, a missile was shot down in Ukraine. According to its type and trajectory, it was flying to Berlin.” What will Scholz answer, huh?
Clear as day.

So attempts to present the conversation of Bundeswehr officers as a game of rockets and tanks are a malicious lie.

Germany is preparing for war with Russia.”

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Kinetic Updates: Gaza and Lebanon

Par : AHH — 3 mars 2024 à 11:09

Gaza insights by The Electronic Intifada.
Is Israel running out of armored vehicles? with Jon Elmer


Lebanese insights by Elijah J. Magnier.
A free article by Elijah Magnier about the adaptive changes in the rules of engagement, deterrence due to mutual recognition of potential for widespread destruction

The calculus of conflict between Hezbollah’s deterrence and Israel’s destruction: Understanding the Dynamics of War.

Written by Elijah J. Magnier

In the aftermath of the Israeli air strikes on the areas of Baalbek, Nabatieh and Tyre, an important debate has emerged as to whether Israel’s actions represent an evolution or a breach of the protocols of engagement that Hezbollah has established since 8 October. This situation underscores Hezbollah’s role as the frontline defender of Gaza, which is currently enduring harsh aggression and destruction from a military and administrative power that overlooks the moral obligations outlined in the Geneva Conventions and international law. These obligations emphasise the protection of civilians and the provision of basic necessities, even in the midst of conflict. However, the unfolding scenario and the resulting military engagements required innovative tactical responses, reflecting the evolution and diversification of weapons and targeting strategies. These developments required a multi-faceted approach to combat without violating established rules of engagement.

Military experts familiar with the nuanced dynamics of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel indicate that the confrontation has entered a phase of escalating intensity. This phase is characterised by the use of sophisticated weaponry and technological advances, facilitating the testing of various new weapons and countermeasures. These tests are designed to assess each side’s ability to inflict significant casualties on the other and to develop defensive strategies. Throughout the conflict, there has been a progressive escalation in the variety of weapons, the choice of targets and the fluctuation in the volume and concentration of fire across the primary front. This front is limited by the border zone, which extends up to eight kilometres into territory controlled by the warring parties.

Israel, however, has established a new paradigm to which Hezbollah appears to have adapted, provided it does not violate the established protocols of engagement, which are encapsulated by three principles: the protection of civilians, the preservation of urban areas, and the protection of infrastructure on both sides, with an emphasis on military targets. Despite the inevitability of civilian casualties on both fronts, Hezbollah demonstrates a stricter adherence to these rules of engagement than Israel. Both parties categorise these unintended civilian losses as ‘collateral damage’, a term used in military jargon. But neither is indifferent to the plight of the innocent victims.

Israel’s current strategy, which it intends to maintain as long as the conflict remains within manageable bounds, revolves around targeting and attempting to neutralise specific categories of adversaries, including
– Active Hezbollah fighters and frontline leaders, including officials and members from the border regions and elite units such as Al-Radwan.
– Hezbollah members and leaders involved in the Palestine Unit, who contribute to Palestinian support through military training, technological assistance, logistical support, intelligence, command and coordination.
– Hezbollah Air Defence Force personnel and commanders.
– Individuals and leaders whom Israel, based on its intelligence assessments, regardless of their veracity, believes to be associated with the Palestinian entity.
– Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian entities, wherever they may be, as long as they are associated with supporting the Palestinian cause.

This strategic equation transcends geographical boundaries, with the intelligence services and the Israeli Air Force operating wherever specific targets are located – whether in the south, the capital, the Bekaa, Syria, Iran or elsewhere – and reaching them wherever possible. The Israeli Air Force operates on the premise that there are no geographical constraints on its operations and targets individuals in all areas of Lebanon, provided they are military targets. However, it refrains from targeting Hezbollah leaders who are not actively involved in the ongoing conflict, recognising the potential for unintended escalation.

The catalyst for Israel’s adaptation of its military tactics was Hezbollah’s deployment of the fifth-generation Kornet missile system. This move took Israel by surprise, given the precision, volume of fire and vast arsenal of laser-guided missiles at Hezbollah’s disposal, with over a thousand missiles deployed in a matter of months. In response, Israel turned to Israeli-American technological innovation to neutralise these laser-guided threats, with some success. In the face of this, Hezbollah reverted to using older generations of laser weapons that were unaffected by modern countermeasures. Israel responded to this new strategic environment by concentrating on concealing critical assets such as tanks and command centres.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah escalated by targeting visible surveillance equipment and using suicide TV drones against concealed assets, introducing a new class of weapons. Israel’s attempts to mitigate its losses led to an intensified strategy involving the widespread destruction of border communities and the use of its superior air capabilities within the confines of established rules of engagement. Both parties tacitly agreed to evacuate civilians from critical border areas, allowing the tactical demolition of homes as part of the conflict dynamic.

However, Israel’s continued focus on precise targets deep inside Lebanon, aimed at establishing a new strategic balance, forced Hezbollah to unveil a novel anti-aircraft capability. This innovation drove Israel to extreme but strategically measured responses. Israel in turn stepped up its defences, successfully using electronic countermeasures to divert or deceive Hezbollah’s anti-aircraft missiles. This escalation forced Hezbollah to innovate further by introducing a weapon capable of evading Israeli electronic interception. This breakthrough technology, developed by Iran and supplied to Hezbollah, challenged Israel’s dominance in air superiority. It enabled Hezbollah to shoot down Israel’s sophisticated Hermes 450 drone, which Israel considers a compact military aircraft capable of operating at 20,000 feet and armed to the teeth.

This development shifted Israel’s strategic posture slightly, allowing for targeted strikes within the bounds of operational flexibility. Israel targeted a specific Hezbollah air force facility responsible for missile launches, while refraining from attacking multiple sites associated with the same unit, despite their presumed inclusion in Israel’s list of potential targets.

The escalation necessitated the use of Hezbollah’s air defence forces, expanding the scope of the conflict with the leadership’s strategic awareness. This expansion was a direct response to Israel’s increasing threats, underscored by explicit warnings that Hezbollah’s sophisticated and anti-aircraft arsenal would indiscriminately target areas across Lebanon. Nevertheless, Hezbollah demonstrated its restraint and capability by deploying powerful, previously rarely used rockets, as seen in Safed. This action served as a stark reminder to Israel that any escalation would be met with a formidable response. Hezbollah’s strategic posture suggests that it can inflict significant damage on targets across the border and deep inside Israeli territory if necessary.

Both parties recognise that the dynamics of engagement could shift to allow for targeted strikes anywhere, including into each other’s territory. However, such actions would be undertaken deliberately to ensure that the conflict remains manageable despite the expanded geographical scope of engagement.

The conflict has forced Hezbollah to deploy its air defence capabilities, resulting in an expanded area of operations that is fully recognised by its leadership. This strategic adjustment was in response to Israeli warnings that Hezbollah’s sophisticated anti-aircraft systems could target regions throughout Lebanon. Hezbollah demonstrated its capabilities by deploying powerful missiles that had previously been used sparingly, signalling to Israel that any threats would be met with formidable retaliation. Hezbollah has shown that it can inflict significant damage not only across the border but deep inside Israeli territory if necessary. Either side can escalate by accurately and correctly targeting strategic locations in the other’s territory, ensuring that the conflict remains within controlled parameters.

This war does not extend to an all-out war where civilian are targeted as well as cities, airports, ports, infrastructure and energy resources. The fighting remains strictly military, even by Israel’s standard, despite the inevitable civilian unintended casualties resulting from the hostilities. Hezbollah’s response has been significantly determined, especially when it fired over 100 rockets in 24 hours at targets such as Safad, the Golan Heights, the regional headquarters of the “Golan Division” and command centres on various units along the Lebanese borders. In addition, Hezbollah uses armed and surveillance drones that penetrate deep into Israel, reaching areas beyond Haifa such as Afula, 90 km from the borders, sometimes without public acknowledgement so as not to provoke further Israeli retaliation.

This controlled conflict is governed by evolving rules of engagement, influenced by each party’s advances in weaponry or the impact of their actions on the other. Despite the mutual interest in preventing the situation from escalating out of control, the underlying problem remains significant: The Israeli military, considered the most powerful in the Middle East, has had to accept a deterrence framework and rules of engagement established by Hezbollah. This represents a significant challenge to Israel’s prestige and standing on the world stage, and illustrates the complex dynamics of modern asymmetric warfare.

In the event of a full-scale conflict, Israel’s military capabilities are undeniably formidable, with unrivalled air dominance, superior firepower and a substantial supply of munitions backed by the United States and its Western allies, who share compatible weapons systems. On the other hand, Hezbollah has the capability to sustain a daily launch of 500 rockets and missiles for at least a year, a testament to its significant arsenal capable of inflicting significant damage on Israel’s infrastructure, energy, economy and military and civilian population.

This mutual recognition of the potential for widespread destruction serves as a powerful deterrent against escalation to all-out war. Both sides are acutely aware of the devastating consequences of such a conflict, not only in terms of immediate military casualties, but also in terms of long-term effects on civilian life and national stability. This understanding underpins a cautious approach to engagement, with neither party eager to provoke a situation that could spiral into an uncontrollable war. While the balance of power is skewed in terms of conventional military strength, it is balanced somewhat by the capacity for sustained and effective resistance, ensuring a delicate stalemate that neither side is willing to disrupt without considering the serious consequences.

 

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Requiem for Rummy’s Old Europe: Deutschland

Par : AHH — 2 mars 2024 à 15:33

Germany Retreats into Medieval Superstition and Taboo

By Henry Johnston at Russia Today (RT)

Sidebar: Continuing the story of the astonishing suicide of Old Europe, now to Germany. The sadness of Lavrov was remarked at “the rage, intolerance and total absence of critical thought exhibited especially by the Europeans.” This dovetails poignantly into this piece… Europe is plunged into self-inflicted darkness. Germany’s situation is even more bleak than Italy’s. As the major losers of the very last world war, and savagely occupied, mindwashed into atomization and endless generational guilt and controlled to this day by green fanatics, they have even less leeway than proud Italy, and farther to fall.

I recommend this movie, “The Lives of Others” which details the methods of the East German Stasi. Germans have been rendered frighteningly passive, fearful of their own shadows, in perpetual grasping to maintain fleeting lifestyles, trite wokeness and triviality and green craze and adherence to long-gone western “liberal ideals.” Merkel and many of the post-1991 cadre are East German; their people may have lost in the unification transition, but their more adept and amoral nomenklatura arose to the great satisfaction of Anglo-America.

What unfolds for Germany is an even steeper fall than Italy, which had been gradually plundered, deindustrialized, and dismantled since 1970s. The bitterness and anger which this will predictably raise will be used to marshal the society into reaction and greater superstition and feudal fascism. Sad days ahead.

≈≈≈

“An abandonment of reason is among the symptoms of a nation suffering from a collapse in the prevailing narratives”

Bloomberg recently foretold the end of Germany’s days as an industrial power in an article that begins with a depiction of the closing of a factory in Dusseldorf. Stone-faced workers preside with funereal solemnity over the final act – the fashioning of a steel pipe at a rolling mill – at the century-old plant. The “flickering of flares and torches” and “somber tones of a lone horn player” lend the scene a decidedly medieval atmosphere.

Intentional or not in their inclusion of such evocative detail, the Bloomberg writers offer potent imagery for Germany – not only because the country is regressing economically but because its elites are increasingly guided by an atavistic force: the abandonment of reason.

As hard economic realities lay bare the futility of its utopian energy plan and the consequences of numerous terrible decisions mount, Germany is experiencing what Swedish essayist Malcom Kyeyune calls “narrative collapse.” The peculiar offspring of this, Kyeyune argues, is a turn toward ritual, superstition, and taboo. It is a malaise afflicting the entire West, but Germany is suffering a particularly acute case.

Kyeyune defines this as an occurrence “when social and political circumstances change too rapidly for people to keep up, the result tends to be collective manias, social panics, and pseudo-religious revivalist millenarianism.”

The abandonment of reason can be conceived of in various ways. Quite a lot of ink has already been spilled about the irrationality behind Germany’s fantastically improbable climate policy. Indeed, the quasi-religious verve with which this program has been rolled out speaks to something of a loosening of the country’s moorings. But as we will see shortly, the problem goes far beyond an attachment to unattainable policy goals.

Prominent German business executive Wolfgang Reitzle argued that for the government to deliver on its climate and energy policy, capacities for wind and solar power would have to be more than quadrupled, while storage and back-up capacities would have to be massively increased. Such a plan is “neither technically feasible nor affordable for a country like Germany,” Reitzle argues. What it is then, he concludes, “is simply insanity.”

Annalena Baerbock and Joschka Fischer

Michael Shellenberger, in a piece for Forbes magazine in 2019, points out that the initial impetus for seeking to transition to renewables emerged from the idea that human civilization should be scaled back to sustainable levels. He cites German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s 1954 landmark essay ‘The Question Concerning of Technology’ and subsequent work by the likes of Barry Commoner and Murray Bookchin as espousing what emerged in the 1960s as a much more austere vision for the future of civilization.

Shellenberger concludes that the reason why “renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to. One interesting question is why anybody ever thought they could.”

The cohort who suddenly began thinking they could is the German political and intellectual elite in the early 2000s. Gone was the bucolic environmentalism of the 1960s and in its place came an aggressive and utterly detached-from-reality agenda that was imposed with millenarian fervor.

Before circling back to the idea put forth by Kyeyune – that the German elite is now mired in superstition due to the onset of narrative collapse – we must back up for a moment and examine what animated Germany prior to Bloomberg’s flickering flares and melancholy horn.

Modern Germany has long been an object of admiration for the West’s liberal elite, upheld as the ideal incarnation of the post-Fukuyama ‘history-has-ended’ world where liberal democracy triumphed and ideological conflict is a thing of the past. Germany, a nation with a penchant for militarism and authoritarianism, had expurgated its past sins and humbly assumed its place in the grand liberal order, magnanimously refusing to translate its economic prowess into bullying of others.

The country’s status was enhanced even further when the US and UK went off the rails, as the elite saw it, with the populist rebellions of Donald Trump and Brexit. Germany, with its staid, consensus-driven, common-sense politics, was the ‘adult in the room’, in stark contrast to the Anglosphere.


Meanwhile, its economy was humming. The hyper-globalization of the 2000s played right into Germany’s hands. It was a confluence of propitious global circumstances. China was growing at astronomical rates and needed cars and machines – Germany provided both. The expansion of the EU into Eastern Europe opened up new markets for German exports. Germany was prospering and its success was an important driver of economic development across Europe.

All of this helped foster what was perhaps the primary trait of the German elite during this time: a supreme confidence. It was this confidence that led Angela Merkel to famously assert “wir schaffen das” (“we can do this”) when confronted with the task of assimilating over a million migrants. It was the same confidence that led to the idea of jettisoning both nuclear power and coal at essentially the same time, an announcement that was met with a certain disbelief but also awe. “If anyone can do it, it’s the Germans,” was a commonly heard response.

However, the last few years have witnessed a shaking of that assuredness and unraveling of the prevailing narratives as Germany’s vaunted stability and prosperity have been challenged and the benevolent globalized world that nurtured it began fading. But narrative collapse, like many other forms of collapse, at first happens slowly and at the margins before being catapulted forward by some trigger into its more rapid terminal phase.

What was happening at the margins was that the economic model that sustained Germany over the past two decades came under increasing strain as China moved up the value chain and began importing less of Germany’s manufacturing output; it had also become a competitor in the automobile market. Meanwhile, Germany’s economy largely failed to diversify and has been slow to embrace innovation.

Likewise, doubts about the prospects for the energy transition had begun creeping in, again at the margins, long before the events of 2022. Germany has made little progress toward its 2030 emissions target, and it is laughably far behind in its aim of putting 15 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. It has had to delay plans for the phase-out of coal, and in fact even as of 2021 coal still accounted for a quarter of electricity output. In other words, rather than effecting an actual transition, Germany had merely set up a clean energy system that ran parallel to the dirty one. The clean one spoke to the narrative while the dirty one still powered much of the country. This could not help but plant the seed of the cognitive dissonance that would later assume such bewildering proportions.

Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in the colors of the Ukraine

Nevertheless, it was undoubtedly the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 that has precipitated the cascade of failure we see now. Certainly, Germany has made many poor decisions during this time, not the least of which was its headlong plunge into supporting the US-led proxy war against Russia. Relatedly, watching Russia’s sanctions-ridden economy rebound and return to growth – while their own economy struggled – defied everything the German elites would have imagined. That in itself is a narrative-shaking development.

But perhaps more important than the particular economic and political setbacks has been a sense that the benevolent, familiar world of recent decades is receding ever faster and in its place is coming something ominous, as if from a strange and turbulent dream.

To quote Kyeyune again, it’s as if 

“the future that they were promised – and that they promised the rest of us – was one of continued Western progress, prosperity, and geopolitical dominance. But that’s looking less and less plausible, and they neither like nor understand the future that is coming into view.”

For the elites, the world is crumbling around them and nothing is playing out as they had desired, which has deeply shaken their confidence.

The quotes from public officials and business leaders offered in the Bloomberg piece are bleak and a far cry from the “wir schaffen das” confidence of a few years back.

Stefan Klebert, the CEO of a company that has been supplying manufacturing machinery since the late 19th century, said: “To be honest, there is not much hope. I’m not really sure if we can stop this trend. Many things have to change quickly.”

Finance Minister Christian Lindner told a Bloomberg event earlier in February: “We are no longer competitive. We are getting poorer and poorer because we are not growing. We are falling behind.”

Volker Treier, foreign trade chief at Germany’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry, remarked: “You don’t have to be a pessimist to say that what we’re doing at the moment won’t be enough. The speed of structural change is dizzying.”

The last quote, a lament about the speed of structural change, is particularly telling and makes us recall Kyeyune’s assertion that when social and political circumstances change too rapidly for people to keep up, strange flora can sprout. 

This sense of no longer being able to control events and the fear this has engendered have bred a sense of impotence among the European elites – a sort of ‘deer frozen in the headlights’ paralysis – with Germany at the vanguard of this. No longer confident that their actions can produce certain desirable outcomes, the elites have shed their sophisticated modern veneer and technocratic sensibility and retreated into symbolism and superstition.

In a way this should come as no surprise. It is an age-old human response to the lack of control – think about rain dances instead of irrigation – that once again confirms the words of George Bernard Shaw that “the period of time covered by history is far too short to allow of any perceptible progress in the popular sense of evolution of the human species. The notion that there has been any such progress since Caesar’s time is too absurd for discussion. All the savagery, barbarism, dark ages and the rest of it of which we have any record as existing in the past, exists at the present moment.”

As a result of this, actions, emptied of their utilitarian contents, come to be seen as inherently meaningful only if they conform to the prevailing superstitions and carry the necessary symbolism. The policies being pursued are thus detached from reason in the sense that they are no longer evaluated or even undertaken with an expectation of a particular outcome – in fact, the outcomes are often quite the opposite of the presumed intention, leading to all manner of absurdities.


The EU’s rush to approve an absolutely token package of sanctions by February 24 – the anniversary of the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine – is not being carried out with the slightest expectation that a motley assortment of obscure companies and third-tier public officials coming under EU sanctions will achieve any policy aims. The entire value of the endeavor is in its symbolism. Because the symbolism is ‘correct’ the action becomes important.

Germany’s Green Party, a leading voice both in the fanatical climate program and the anti-Russia camp, has in the last two years promoted policies that have directly led to an increase in the burning of coal in the country. This is certainly not an outcome the party would have ever lobbied for. But its actions no longer have anything to do with specific desired outcomes; rather they exist entirely in the mist-filled world of symbolism and, in the logic of this new age of superstition, are to be evaluated only in relation to their symbolic potency.

Kyeyune gives what may be the most vivid example of this principle at work. “Germany still has one functioning pipeline through the Baltic Sea but refuses to use it,” he correctly notes, referring to one line of Nord Stream 2 that was not damaged in the sabotage attack carried out in September 2022. “The problem is that the alternative approach to meeting its energy needs means buying liquefied natural gas… and some of this gas comes from Russia. In other words, Germany still buys natural gas from Russia, less efficiently and at a higher cost, in order to maintain a quasi-ritualistic prohibition against use of the pipeline.

Meanwhile, he continues, a similar operation takes place with Russian oil, which is now sent to India or China to be refined before being imported by Europe. It is “as if the act of mixing it with other oil in a foreign refinery removes the evil spirits contained in it.” In other words, Russian oil must undergo some sort of purification process before it can enter the EU garden. European refiners, meanwhile, suffer, while all sorts of middlemen are enriched along the way, and consumers are left paying higher prices. There is not an ounce of economic logic to it – but we have now passed into a realm beyond economic logic.

Policies governing energy, the lifeblood of industrial civilization, are now subject to the tyranny of ritual, taboo, and superstition. Such is the predicament of the German elite as it seeks to navigate the country through a turbulent period of epochal transition. The abandonment of reason is quite a handicap in carrying out that job.

Addendum:

Venting about the dishonor of the German Government:

The Soviet Union lost 27m people during WW2 because of the Nazis. The Soviet Union made by far the biggest contribution of the Allied forces in defeating Hitler and eventually granted the reunification of East and West Germany…

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 2, 2024

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Requiem for Rummy’s Old Europe: Italia

Par : AHH — 2 mars 2024 à 13:58

Italy formalized entry into the combined western war against Russia

General Fabio Mini interviewed by Alessandro Bianchi at the Anti-Diplomat for “Hegemony”

The heartbreaking ongoing scenes of the surreptitious suicide of our Italia, seduced by the parasitical Piper! Absolute madness. Of a piece with the Annihilation of all in Rummy’s “Olde Europe” — we see French agony and maning of sabotage units in the rear of Russia; the Germans hellbent on leveling symbolic Russian bridges; and the Brits equally focused on sea targets.. At the end, a Beast begins to devour its own viscera, with mindless passion and devotion. None of it apparently articulated to their citizenry in this occult age.

In isolation, this behavior of Italy’s is an unremarkable gesture by a failing senile state with limited MIC and current means. In tandem with every significant western and NATO (and Israeli) state pledging similar support to the Ukraine to defeat Russia to overcome NATO gridlock from Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey and few other sane members, it accrues ominous tones.

In setting of the intercept releases indicating Germany is tasked with air strikes, the Brits naval strikes, and the French rear sabotage missions, and now the Italians with Baltic front, a capable and potent division of labor is establish by nearly a billion belligerents still capable of burning down much of Russia west of the Urals, especially as cost to Ukrainians is not a consideration. Medvedev messaged earlier that NATO still enjoys conventional superiority, which is true numerically, in potential, and in using these dastardly swarm terrorist technique now being unveiled. And that this would prompt a nuclear response as they threaten the very continued existence of the Russian state, per their nuclear doctrine.

Legion – pleasant, chic, woke and bumbling though it may appear, has been unrolled against Russia through these 10+ “bilateral guarantees” given to the Ukrainian fascists. How will Russia respond? Clearly the maddened will not be reasoned with, if they still double down at this bleak late hour.

≈≈≈

(a machine translation)

“I don’t think there is the right perception of how serious the situation is for the whole of Europe”

The Disturbing Military Agreement with Kiev: Risks and Scenarios

Many of the voters who chose Giorgia Meloni in the last election would certainly not have expected a more draghian foreign policy than Draghi, more atlantist than the director of Repubblica Molinari or more Zelensky thread than any Ursula. Still, our premier’s last trip to Kiev as the G7 president in the Ukrainian capital has cleared up all the doubts left. The ten-year agreement with which Meloni, without any parliamentary passage, linked the country to the Kiev regime remains the darkest and most disturbing side.

None more than General Fabio Mini, author of “Europe at war” (Paper First, 2023) and the premise to the new book by Giuseppe Monestarolo “Ukraine, Europe world” (Asterios, 2024) can help us shed light, identify details and future scenarios. Mini is one of the most coherent and strong voices in denouncing the risks associated with the European attitude towards the ongoing conflict. With his articles on Limes and the Daily Fact, he managed to break the dominant propaganda. That propaganda which, as cleverly announced by the general himself, is bringing our continent one step away from an increasingly visible abyss.

We asked General Fabio Mini to help us resolve several doubts for “Hegemony.”

The Interview

Q: The absence of Macron and Scholz next to Meloni in Kiev deserves a necessary General premise.

« Absences speak much more about presences. Absence is a diplomatic and political instrument and experienced countries such as France and Germany know this well. If they have not sent their leaders, there is a political-diplomatic reason, but I do not think it concerns a way out of the conflict with Russia. It seems to me more likely that they have escaped Zelensky’s kissing, also sacrificing those of the two ladies or who do not share in this period the decision-making of the individual states or the centralizing aims proper to von der Leyen for the management of European rearmament and aid in Kiev. »

Q: General helps us to frame the scope of the military agreement signed by the Italian premier in Kiev. What do you expect?

« These are military and civil cooperation measures with Ukraine, already declared to NATO, within the European Union and in all the other international fora in which our government has been present. In practice, it reaffirms military support for Ukraine in the event of future attacks and right now to reject Russia within its borders and even beyond ».

Q: All members of the government wanted to reiterate that we are not an active part of the conflict. Is this so?

« The agreement reaffirms the measures already taken against Moscow such as sanctions, the freezing and confiscation of assets of private Russian citizens abroad and the charge of war damages – including those caused by the Ukrainian bombing in Donbass which is the area that has suffered i more serious damage. Our government insists that “ we are not at war with Russia ” and knows very well that the majority of Italian citizens, unlike parliamentary and government citizens, he doesn’t want this or any other war. But the agreement provides for one-way aid and cooperation in the military, industrial, commercial and political fields. Therefore, the possibility of a negotiation »

Q: Negotiated for an agreement. Agreement that is known as it had already been reached by Ukrainians and Russians a few weeks after the start of operations, in March 2022 in Istanbul. Does this decision by the Italian government make it increasingly complicated?

« It promises everything Ukraine asks for and needs to continue the war. You do not venture into any consideration or proposal that favors the cessation of the conflict. Indeed, by supporting the so-called 10-point Ukrainian peace plan, which denies any negotiation on the borders with Russia, any way out other than defeat on the Russian or Ukrainian field is excluded. »

Q: Are there specific clauses that make our involvement in the conflict greater?

« No, and they are not necessary. The entire document is dedicated to making explicit and strengthening, at least in words, the political and military alignment alongside Ukraine and against Russia.

There is no sign of encouragement for diplomatic action towards peace or suspension of conflict. The essential purpose of this cooperation is not lasting and just peace, nor greater security for Ukraine and Europe itself. In fact, Italy participates and collaborates in the war against Russia, aware that this means the continuation and worsening of the conflict ».

Q: General in the agreement it is said to defend Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy but no reference is made to the guarantees that should be given to the populations of Ukraine itself who would return under its sovereignty…

« This means exactly canceling the ten years of past abuses and massacres and authorizing future ones. It means forgetting what democracy really has to guarantee. The Ukrainian one and ours. I don’t think the document itself involves a surprise for Russia or an extra concern. If anything, the tone and words, copied and pasted by similar American and English documents, may have irritated because they come from a government that represents a population and a culture that Russia respects. Or respected. »

Q: In short, nothing but sovereignty. The drift that began with the Draghi government continues, is intensified and Italy has definitively lost its traditional role of mediation. Are we more at risk today?

« We do not risk today more than we risked yesterday, but this is not a consolation because I do not think there is the right perception of how serious the situation is for all of Europe. And how much our pilots are risking in the border control operations of the Baltic countries. The tightening of relationships or only irritation may be sufficient to bring down any qualms in reactions to any trespassing, even if involuntary. And the general approach to being weak and dangerous.

Italy is betting on the Ukrainian victory, on a rapid conclusion of the conflict and on the slice of cake that can derive from it with arms supplies and with reconstruction. None of the three things are safe and indeed the chances of them happening are decreasing. It is betting on the European rearmament that von der Leyen would like to coordinate and manage on behalf of all of Europe, it is not clear whether to do Germany or the United States a favor by constituting a single pole for imports. Exactly as a success for Covid’s drugs which she herself leads to model for war supplies.

We are continuing along the lines of global conflict by passively following the aims and methods of the United States and Great Britain in Europe against Russia and in the world against China. »

Q: Two years after the start of the Russian operation, his predictions on the Daily Fact and Limes have come true practically all of those, obtusely NATO wire, carried out by the newspapers of the dominant media groups in Italy denied (as usual). General what to expect now from 2024? Will we experience a new escalation?

« I try to be realistic and not hypocritically optimistic. For this year, I see no international will to end the conflict with a negotiation. Instead, I see the outlet for negotiation as a consequence of military operations. The whole world is looking for an honorable compromise to save Ukraine but it is precisely it that does not want to be saved and indeed claims to sacrifice itself to save all of us. As long as you resort to this rhetoric, you don’t get to anything ».

Q: The option to send other weapons and even men – as French President Macron recently said – to fight Russia where it can take us?

« This is exactly what Russia expects to switch to the nuclear option. But he still needs US insurance that the use of tactical nuclear power does not trigger the strategic one. With the current American president, insurance in this sense would not have meant. It should be a gentlemen agreement and so far nothing has been seen that characterizes a gentleman. Within a few months, however, he will be crippled and the new president, whoever he or she is, would have the task of unraveling the skein. Considering that an American president takes at least six months before becoming operational – even if experienced or re-elected – because of the compromises he had to weave to be elected and the changes of the international situation – I believe that this type of tacit or secret agreement is not possible before mid-2025 ».

Q: So in the meantime?

« In the meantime, Russia should pull the war long by increasing the friction on the Ukrainian forces and try to get a good compromise from the exhaustion of Kiev. It is not a short-term thing because aid tends to prolong agony rather than switch to euthanasia. As long as there is war there is hope of business and profits. A less bloody solution could come from a coup d’état in Moscow or Kiev that eliminating the main interlocutors allows the transition to compromises. I see it difficult in Russia and more likely in Ukraine, but always uncertain: successors are not always better than predecessors. »

The extent of the European suicide and the abyss that agreements such as that signed by Meloni in Kiev is now, perhaps, clearer.



☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Haiti – A Paradise for State Crime

Par : AHH — 28 février 2024 à 18:21

Haiti: shaping the terrain for massive exploitation and extraction of huge hydrocarbon reserves

For GlobalSouth.co by Peter Koenig
Economist, Geopolitical Analyst
26 February 2024

In his recent article “The Destabilization of Haiti: Anatomy of a Military Coup d’Etat“, Professor Michel Chossudovsky memorializes 29 February 2024 as the 20th anniversary of the coup d’État against Haiti’s elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

He also describes the military motives for controlling Haiti, namely to destabilize the country and to plunge it into constant chaos. This is precisely what has happened. Haiti is in a constant state of near absolute poverty – by far the poorest country in all Latin America – according to official UN / World Bank indices.

Is there a reason?

As we will see, Haiti is also one of the world’s richest countries, per capita, judged by available natural resources – oil and gas. Discovered before the 2010 earthquake and confirmed by the tremendous 7.0 Richter seism.

Haiti’s Potential Hydrocarbon Deposits

The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), issued in May 1980 a report under the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC), describing the likelihood of large oil deposits in the Caribbean, including off-shore of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (See this) Haiti is also said to have trillions of dollars-worth of off-shore natural gas. (See this)

These discoveries were likely made in the 1970s and 1980s, perhaps earlier, by US satellite imaging. US satellites have mapped the world for hydrocarbon resources already at least 50 years ago. Such information used to be available on internet – no longer.


Brief Haitian History and Background

François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, served as the president of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. He was succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed “Baby Doc”.

The Duvalier dynasty was an autocratic hereditary dictatorship, indiscriminately killing people who dared interfere with their government style. The dynasty empire lasted almost 29 years, from 1957 until 1986, spanning the rule of the father-and-son duo, François and Jean-Claude Duvalier. Both served the United States’ political and economic interests.

The sociopolitical situation in Haiti deteriorated seriously under the regime of Baby Doc and his powerful wife. In 1986, President Reagon asked Jean-Claude to leave Haiti, so that the US could “help install” a more stable and serious government. In February 1986 Baby Doc fled to France in a US Airforce jet.

The end of the Duvalier dynasty brought hope for “freedom” and democracy to the Haitian people. There was a succession of short-lived Presidents until 1991, when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was first elected in February 1991. His Presidency lasted 234 days, when a brief military government took over.

In the ten years following Mr. Aristide’s first election, the US-supported political turmoil in Haiti, with a succession of Heads of State, during which Mr. Aristide was four times elected President.

His last Presidency started in February 2001 and ended 3 years later, when Mr. Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected President, was quietly deposed by a US-guided coup on 29 February 2004 and deported to South Africa, where he presumably still lives in exile. He was discouraged by the US State Department from returning to Haiti.

This coup was planned well in advance, by such unlikely allies, as progressive “socialist” President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – Lula, for short – and George W. Bush, both then Presidents of their respective countries – Brazil and United States.

By now we know that Lula has nothing of progressive, and even less of “socialist” in him. He is and has been totally sold to the usurping west, to Wall Street and the IMF – and that already during his first two terms as President of Brazil, 2003 – 2011.

Both, Lula and Bush are traitors of their countries – but Lula, a make-believe socialist — has deeply betrayed his country during his first two terms, and now, since 1 January 2023, in his third term, but also the people of Haiti.

After associating with Wall Street and the IMF during his first two terms, Lula is again allying with the money brokers – the debt machines, as one may call them.

Toussaint l’Ouverture (1743–1803) Haitian statesman and general

Humiliation of the French and Exceptionalism

Remember – during the French Revolution (1789-99), French black slaves in Haiti launched the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), led by Toussaint l’Ouverture, a former slave and black general of the French Army. After 12 years of struggle and conflict, Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces were defeated, and on 1 January 1804 Haiti declared her sovereign independence.

Haiti, thus, became the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the first country in the Americas to eliminate slavery. Haiti is the only state in history established by a successful slave revolt. See Wikipedia for more details.

In the 1980s, with close to 200 years of independence (on January 1, 2024 Haiti celebrated 220 years of independence), a black, sovereign, autonomous island in the Caribbean was perceived as a “danger” for the Unted States’ “National Security”. There was already a “Communist Cuba” to deal with just 90 miles (150 km) from the southern Florida border. A black independent, uncontrolled, Haiti was beyond limits for a still racist white US supremacy.

Plus, at that time, Haiti’s riches in petrol and gas were already known to Washington, though, most likely not to Haiti.

Thus, the US, French and Canada ganged up against Haiti’s government to control the island and her riches. Chaos was the modus operandi – and US-induced chaos and crime reign up to this day over Haiti.


What is important to know – that there are no coincidences.

In the 1970’s / 1980s and perhaps up to early 1990s, huge petrol resources were satellite-discovered deep under the sea floor off-shore from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. To get to these resources is expensive. Unless they are brought up closer to the surface – for example by an earthquake, that cracks the tectonic plates, letting pressure bring the oil closer into shallower areas.

The 2010 earthquake was planned for precisely that purpose.

On 12 January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, leaving its capital Port-au-Prince devastated. About 220,000 people were reportedly killed.

Among other aid, the Clinton Foundation was supposed to bring order and development back to Haiti, after the seismic devastation. In fact, the contrary is true. More than ten years later, chaos and crime continue dominating the Haitian part of the island of Hispaniola.

Is there a purpose behind it, other than that the Clinton Foundation enriched itself by the multi-million-dollar donations it received to help restore social and economic order in Haiti?

According to the World Atlas (January 2019), recent findings have confirmed Haiti’s enormous oil and gas reserves. Discoveries show that the nation of Haiti might have some of the largest oil reserves in the world. They are estimated to be potentially larger than those of Venezuela. See this for more details.

This amply explains why the United States will not leave Haiti to her independence. The monetary stakes, the riches are too high.

———

Today, the same Lula, who helped instigate the 2004 coup against President Aristide, is “volunteering” in setting up a UN occupation / security force in Haiti, consisting mainly of Brazilian troops. This military occupation is supposed to bring back order and promote economic development.

They will also prepare the ground – or waters – for massive exploitation and extraction of the huge hydrocarbon reserves. This is the military’s hidden agenda. Of course, not part of the official terms of reference.

May Haiti remember her status of the first independent state in Latin America – and rise again.
These hydrocarbon riches belong to the people of Haiti.

——-


Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Who Owns the World?

Par : AHH — 27 février 2024 à 11:44

A Small Group of Big Money

For GlobalSouth.co by Peter Koenig
Economist, Geopolitical Analyst
25 February 2024

“Who Owns the World” is the title of an extraordinary documentary, describing how Big-Big Money controls not only every aspect of your life, but has a stranglehold on every government, the political UN body, as well as every UN agency, and all industries and services of this globe.

These largest investors are BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.

These same investment groups also control over 90% of the world’s major media. Even Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is majority owned by BlackRock / Vanguard. It is therefore no miracle that hardly any news penetrates the walls of secrecy about these major shareholders of every aspect of human life and life-related activities and businesses.

It is a monopoly that can literally not be opposed by traditional means. They have also invented the “rules-based order” — overruling every international and national law at their will. They know no limits, no ethics and adhere to no human or human rights standard. POWER is them.

The two most powerful investors and investment managers are BlackRock and Vanguard. They are closely linked, to the point where their management is largely inter-changeable. Vanguard is BlackRock’s largest shareholder, meaning that they control BlackRock.

Though Vanguard is not transparent about its own shareholders, Vanguard is owned by the richest families on earth. Vanguard has been created to hide their investments and money transactions.

Through non-profit organizations, like the Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, Rothschild Foundation, JPMorgan Foundation, Clinton Foundation, Bush Foundation, Albert DuPont Charity Trust – and so on, billions of “donation” money is transferred – tax-free – to Vanguard, a shield for their potentially criminal transactions and funding.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest funder of WHO. It also controls GAVI, the vaxx-alliance – and is therefore the most influential organization over human health – and death.

These same people, alias Foundations, also own Blackrock – which is why BlackRock and Vanguard are interchangeable or can act as one, if it is to their advantage.

According to Bloomberg, by 2028, the two will own / manage some 20 trillion dollars – about a fifth of the current world GDP.

If joined by State Street, as is often the case, the world’s fourth largest investment manager, you may add another US$ 3 to US$ 4 trillion of managed assets. Sometimes they are joined by Berkshire Hathaway, City Bank, Bank of America, Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs… adding another few trillion of managed assets to their pie.

However, these second or third ranking financial institutions, in turn, are also owned by BlackRock and Vanguard. One might call it an omnipotent vicious circle from which it is almost impossible to escape.

See this one-hour Rumble-video for more details and network of ownership that literally rules the world

With that power they can leverage every country in the world, every institution, and every corporation – as they are the largest shareholders of the industrial, military, service and infrastructure investment machine that makes the world turn.
—-

Please allow just a little detour to Gaza, where the Zionist racist massacre of an entire population has been going on as today for 141 days. Some 30,000 Palestinian have been killed; 70% children and women. Children and women are the prime targets, because children are the next generation and women are the bearer of the next generation – they must be eliminated by the supremacist Zionists.

The horror and inhumanity have no words, cannot be appropriately described with our human vocabulary: Bombs have liquidated an entire family. The mutilated body of a seven-year-old girl, Sidra, is hanging from a wall. Hind, a six-year-old girl, was mercilessly killed by Israeli armed forces, as she was begging for help from an ambulance, surrounded by the cadavers of her killed family. As illustrated by “Hildebrandt”, a Peruvian, renowned non-mainstream news media (23 February 2024).

Tell me, please, are these all-powerful financial conglomerates not powerful enough to stop this massacre at once? They hold entire nations hostage to do their bidding, but they cannot stop Israel, the Zionists behind the State of Israel, from their merciless atrocious killing, murder, massacre of an entire population?

Are they powerful enough to preventing the United States, their Anglosaxon and European puppet governments from halting their money, weapon, and “moral” support of the Zionist onslaught? – Or is their power behind the US veto breaking the UN Security Council’s quest for a Ceasefire in Gaza?

In any case, by not using their power to stop the Zionist war against Palestine, to stop any war, any killing in the world, are they not complicit in the mass-murders in Gaza and around the world by not ending them?

They could. Why are they not doing it?

They are drunk with Power – and as we know, power and money have been derailing humanity for a long time – but now the extent of shame and barbarism has reached a level, where our civilization risks to disappear; and where there is no way to escape – not the traditional ways.
———–

BlackRock / Vanguard are also major shareholders in the secondary and tertiary asset management and banking institutions. So, they control the managed investments of, say, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, City, Chase, Morgan-Stanley – you name it.

If you invest, for example, in a food conglomerate, like Nestlé, Unilever, PepsiCo, most have no idea that they invest in BlackRock / Vanguard, major shareholders of these food corporations, and by doing so, they also invest in the worldwide military industrial (killing) complex which is too is controlled by BlackRock / Vanguard.

BlackRock / Vanguard / State Street are also the powers behind the power – most often invisible. For example, BlackRock has close links with many Central Banks, especially with the Federal Reserve. They lend money to the FED – and are a principal adviser to the FED and most likely to other central banks, including they advise on computer systems they use and which connects them.

BlackRock, is by far the largest influencer and donor, or “partner”, as they prefer to call themselves, therefore, also “commander”, of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the entire UN system, its political arm, as well as its sub-agencies – and by proxy, also the World Health Organization (WHO) – and not to forget GAVI, the Vaccination Association, physically located just next door to WHO – and by further extension, Big-Pharma, the pharma industry.

Together with their faithful think-alike executer of WEF’s mandates, Mr. Klaus Schwab, as well as the multibillionaires, such as the Gates, Rockefellers, Soros’es of this world, one can easily deduct – they – BlackRock and Co. – control our lives – health and death.

Through their world-domineering ownership of all that moves, shakes, and produces, they are globalists, eugenists and “green-agenda” eccentrics – pushing the climate change lie – come hell or high water. Costs in money and lives do not matter.

Were these financial monsters behind the covid-plandemic idea? What a question!

Their agenda – eugenist, destruction of current economic structures to rebuild according to this small elite’s criteria – is clearly spelled out by the Club of Rome’s (CoR) “Limits to Growth” (1972), and the follow-on Report “The First Global Revolution” (1991) which claims early on in its text that annihilation of the current system is a MUST, to rebuild, bringing the fundamental changes in favor of the elite – with eugenics and absolute control always in the fore.

Is the CoR at the service of the global financial empire? After all, the same powers are behind both.

Not by coincidence, the Rockefeller Group is the inventor of the Club of Rome, today comfortably seated, tax free and with full diplomatic immunity, in Switzerland.


———-

The fake Covid plandemic is the first building block for this all-destructive mechanism, the “corner stone’ of destruction, so to speak. The lockdowns, the inhuman, totally invalid PCR tests, the fear-mongering – the invented covid-death rates – were very effective in manipulating people, but also in laying the groundwork for the overall annihilation of our society and even civilization, in shifting assets from the bottom to the top – and in abolishing the world economy that carries our civilization.

Once the people were shivering from fear, the deadly “vaxxes” were introduced. Lo and behold, by now, despite ever-louder opposition – about 5.7 billion people – out of the world’s 8 billion (more than 70%) have received at least one jab – and most got 2 or 3 injections.

These poisonous injections are in the human bodies and may most likely react sooner or later. According to Mike Yeadon, former VP and Chief scientist of Pfizer – over the next three to ten years, the death-toll will increase probably drastically, but most people will not link it to the “vaxxes” — either because they have been indoctrinated that deaths are due to long or late covid, or because they suffer from and live in cognitive dissonance.

Big Money to own and control it all, must drastically reduce world population. This is propagated by the WEF, and as of this day by the CoR (see this).

WEF’s Chairman, Klaus Schwab’s top advisor, Israeli Professor, Yuval Noah Harari, asks openly what to do with the “useless eaters” when their “raison d’être” has ben replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Giving them a base salary for (temporary) survival, getting them hooked on violent video games to prep them for the future, and to let them gradually “disappear”? [01] [02] [03]
—–

In addition to severe human injuries and death, the vaxxes also reduce male and female fertility, cause miscarriages, highly aggressive and lethal turbo-cancers, and of course, myocardities and sudden deaths. Overall excess mortality in the west is as high as 20% in some countries. In the UK, where excess deaths are alarming the common public, they have started modifying statistics to erase surplus mortality.

In parallel, mostly funded by the Soros Open Society Foundation, the Woke movement is ravaging the western world, with promotion of sex changes – and the infamous “multi-letter” agenda – LGBTQIA+ = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual. WOW! – This is promoted in schools, in some countries with strict bans of parents’ interference in their children’s, as young as 11 years, wishes for sex-change.

This agenda reduces birth rates further.

Endless wars – create chaos, confusion, desperation and, of course, also deaths.
——

The Money Masters have succeeded in creating the first building blocks. WHO may soon become the most powerful health (life and death) tyranny on earth, if the infamous Pandemic Treaty and the harshly modified International Health Regulations (IHR) are approved at the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2024.

Knowing who is in possession and control of WHO and the WHA, the world is called upon to exit WHO. Internationally renowned Dr Peter McCullough testified in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, about the social and economic consequences of covid vaxxes, as well as the potentially impending WHO tyranny – concluding with a call on the EU and the US – and the rest of the world to exit WHO. (See this).

To retake the world, by We the People, leaving BlackRock, Vanguard & Co. behind, exiting the UN system and WHO – would be the next step. Most important, and possibly the only way defeating this money power, is withdrawing from the current societal system and start afresh.

Small communal economies – as far away as possible from any digitization – with a dynamic cooperation among themselves, evolving naturally and on a higher spiritual level than the low vibrating one which is typical for our material world and the present strive for ever more material goods.

“Only when we are divided, can the elite retain its power over us.”

“The Wound is the Place, where the Light enters You”. By the great Sufi poet, Rumi

Their weapons are blackmail and fear.

WE MUST NOT FEAR.
We are the 99%.

We can do it.
And we MUST do it for survival of humanity.

——-


Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Yemen’s fearless escalation

Par : AHH — 26 février 2024 à 16:25

Yemen’s fearless escalation

Ansarullah challenge Egypt’s compliance with Israeli Gaza aid curbs

By Abdel Bari Atwan at Rai Al Youm

While many Arab governments that possess hundreds of tanks and warplanes have been passively watching Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the Yemeni government in Sanaa — though exhausted by eight years of war and suffocating blockade — has taken the lead in acting to oppose it.

Yemeni naval forces responded to Israel’s criminal escalation in the Gaza Strip with a parallel escalation first targeting Israeli-linked commercial shipping, and then the US and UK warships deployed to protect it. The two countries’ threats and their repeated airstrikes on Yemen, including the capital, failed to intimidate the Yemeni leadership or people. They had the opposite effect, prompting an intensification of attacks on ships that do not comply with instructions in the Red and Arabian seas, and then missile strikes on the Israeli-held port of Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) last Thursday.

On Friday, Abdelmalek al-Houthi, spiritual leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, gave a fiery speech to millions of marchers who have been taking to the streets of Yemeni cities every week in solidarity with the Palestinian people and resistance groups in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. He affirmed that Yemeni naval and land forces would step up their actions in the Red Sea and also introduce their submarine force into the conflict. He hinted that plans were in place for future actions and surprise moves which he could not disclose.

On Thursday, Yemeni military spokesman Yahya Sarie had announced three further operations: a missile strike on a British-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden which set it on fire; the targeting of a US destroyer; and a missile and drone barrage against Eilat that sent thousands of Israeli settlers scurrying into shelters.

History will record with awe this Yemeni courage at a time of Arab silence and collusion, and how the Yemenis dared cross the reddest of red lines by taking action against the warships of the two mightiest empires in modern times: Britain, whose sun has set but remains a powerful force, and the US superpower that wields an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons.

The Yemeni armed forces’ next step could be to ‘punish’ the Western powers that have been ‘punishing’ various regional actors for supporting the Palestinian. That may entail moving the battle from the Red and Arabian seas to the coastal waters of occupied Palestine.

That was hinted at by leading Ansarullah figure Ali al-Houthi in his response to Egyptian spokesman Dia Rashwan’s attempt to justify Egypt’s failure to force open the Rafah border crossing to allow in thousands of aid trucks to provide relief to Gaza’s starving children. Rashwan had explained that Israel would bombard any trucks that tried to enter the Gaza Strip without its permission.

Ali al-Houthi’s riposte was, verbatim: “We are willing to send people to escort the trucks and transporters taking food, humanitarian, and medical aid into the Gaza Strip. We have much proven experience in this regard gained during the eight-year war when aid was delivered under bombardment.”

The Egyptian authorities are unlikely to take up this proposal, which is hugely embarrassing for them and exposes their collusion in Israel’s policy of starving the Gaza Strip’s more than two million inhabitants. But it has at least served to call them out and publicly challenge their lame excuses for inaction.

The fearlessness of the Yemenis is legendary. Having defied the US and UK’s armadas, and humiliated Israel by closing the Bab al-Mandeb straight to its shipping without it daring to retaliate, I wouldn’t be surprised if they send their own aid shipments towards Gaza and challenge the Egyptian authorities to let them in via Rafah.

The Yemenis are masters of the impressive surprise. They act as they say, and do as they threaten. I fully expect they will match the Afghans and Vietnamese in giving the US a taste of defeat, one that may be the beginning of the end of its military presence in the region.

The flourishing Iran-Russia alliance

The US is paying the price for its strategic short-sightedness

By Abdel Bari Atwan at Rai Al Youm

Russia is making military and economic advances in the Middle East, while the US is in rapid retreat in most of the region’s countries.

This is not only due to the cleverness of its foes, especially the Russians, but to its own stupidity: its arrogance and short-sightedness, and placing all its strategic eggs in the basket of the Israeli occupation state. This is now entangling it in wars – especially in Yemen and Iraq — that could result in the foreseeable future in its military bases being dismantled and its forces and fleets ignominiously exiting the region.

The US’ biggest failure lies in the way the blockades and sanctions it zealously imposes on several states in the region — especially Iran but also to a lesser extent Syria and Yemen — are backfiring.

Iran has succeeded in breaking the embargo imposed on it by developing its domestic military and civilian industries and scientific and technological expertise, including a nuclear programme that enables it to build nuclear weapons in a matter of weeks should its self-imposed prohibition of such a step be lifted.

On Thursday, Reuters news agency, citing six separate sources, reported that Iran was supplying Russia with guided ballistic missiles from the Fateh-110 family, such as the road-mobile Zolfaghar which can hit targets from a distance of 300 to 700 kilometres. Its sources said around 400 missiles had already been sent to Russia by air or by ship via the Caspian Sea, and more would be delivered in the coming few weeks.

This cooperation between two countries subject to draconian US sanctions naturally worries the Biden administration and its Western allies, especially at a time when Russia is making major gains in the Ukraine war that enable it to consolidate its control over the four annexed eastern provinces and Crimea.

Because of the US embargo and sanctions, Iran made its mind up from day one of the Ukraine war and chose to side with Russia — not just verbally, but in practice. It sold the Russian army drones that are considered among the most sophisticated in the world, and is now coming to its ally’s aid by supplying it with smart missiles to replenish its stocks.

Meanwhile, Iran’s paramilitary allies are doing Russia a great service by engaging the US in costly military and economic wars of attrition. Yemeni naval forces now hit out at US warships in the Red Sea and Arabia Sea on an almost daily basis, while Iraq’s Hashd ash-Shaabi assumes the task of striking US bases in Iraq and Syria — and maybe Jordan next.

This growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia is unlikely to be a one-way street. In exchange for its arms supplies, Iran will almost certainly be provided with top-of-the-line Russian military and civilian, possibly including nuclear, technology.

The Iranian-Russian alliance has borne fruit in the form of successes in the Ukraine war, while the US-Israeli alliance has only reaped a succession of failures and defeats: in the Gaza Strip, and — coming soon — in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq. Just wait and see.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Two Years after 22.2.22, the West is Paralyzed

Par : AHH — 24 février 2024 à 20:06

Two years after the start of the SMO, the West is totally paralyzed … The geopolitical moment: “You are irrelevant, and the Global South / Global Majority don’t care”

by Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.

Exactly two years ago this Saturday, on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the launching – and described the objectives – of a Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. That was the inevitable follow-up to what happened three days before, on February 21 – exactly 8 years after Maidan 2014 in Kiev – when Putin officially recognized the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

During this – pregnant with meaning – short space of only three days, everyone expected that the Russian Armed Forces would intervene, militarily, to end the massive bombing and shelling that had been going on for three weeks across the frontline – which even forced the Kremlin to evacuate populations at risk to Russia. Russian intel had conclusive proof that the NATO-backed Kiev forces were ready to execute an ethnic cleansing of Russophone Donbass.

February 24, 2022 was the day that changed 21st century geopolitics forever, in several complex ways. Above all, it marked the beginning of a vicious, all-out confrontation, “military-technical” as the Russians call it, between the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder, its easily pliable NATOstan vassals, and Russia – with Ukraine as the battleground.

There is hardly any question Putin had calculated, before and during these three fateful days, that his decisions would unleash the unbounded fury of the collective West – complete with a tsunami of sanctions.

Ay, there’s the rub; it’s all about Sovereignty. And a true sovereign power simply cannot live under permanent threats. It’s even feasible that Putin had wanted (italics mine) Russia to get sanctioned to death. After all, Russia is so naturally wealthy that without a serious challenge from abroad, the temptation is enormous to live off its rents while importing what it could easily produce.

Exceptionalists always gloated that Russia is “a gas station with nuclear weapons”. That’s ridiculous. Oil and gas, in Russia, account for roughly 15% of GDP, 30% of the government budget, and 45% of exports. Oil and gas add power to the Russian economy – not a drag. Putin shaking Russia’s complacency generated a gas station producing everything it needs, complete with unrivalled nuclear and hypersonic weapons. Beat that.

Russian Winter Soldier

Ukraine has “never been less than a nation”

Xavier Moreau is a French politico-strategic analyst based in Russia for 24 years now. Graduated from the prestigious Saint-Cyr military academy and with a Sorbonne diploma, he hosts two shows on RT France.

His latest book, Ukraine: Pourquoi La Russie a Gagné (“Ukraine: Why Russia has Won”), just out, is an essential manual for European audiences on the realities of the war, not those childish fantasies concocted across the NATOstan sphere by instant “experts” with less than zero combined arms military experience.

Moreau makes it very clear what every impartial, realist analyst was aware of from the beginning: the devastating Russian military superiority, which would condition the endgame. The problem, still, is how this endgame – “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, as established by Moscow – will be achieved.

What is already clear is that “demilitarization”, of Ukraine and NATO, is a howling success that no new wunderwaffen – like F-16s – will be able to change.

Moreau perfectly understands how Ukraine, nearly 10 years after Maidan, is not a nation; “and has never been less than a nation”. It’s a territory where populations that everything separates are jumbled up. Moreover, it has been a – “grotesque” – failed state ever since its independence. Moreau spends several highly entertaining pages going through the corruption grotesquerie in Ukraine, under a regime that “gets its ideological references simultaneously via admirers of Stepan Bandera and Lady Gaga.

None of the above, of course, is reported by oligarch-controlled European mainstream media.

“Parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941” — Konstantin Vasilyev

Watch out for Deng Xiao Putin

The book offers an extremely helpful analysis of those deranged Polish elites who bear “a heavy responsibility in the strategic catastrophe that awaits Washington and Brussels in Ukraine”. The Poles actually believed that Russia would crumble from the inside, complete with a color revolution against Putin. That barely qualifies as Brzezinski on crack.

Moreau shows how 2022 was the year when NATOstan, especially the Anglo-Saxons – historically racist Russophobes –  were self-convinced thar Russia would fold because it is a “poor power”. Obviously, none of these luminaries understood how Putin strengthened the Russian economy very much like Deng Xiaoping on the Chinese economy. This “self-intoxication”, as Moreau qualifies it, did wonders for the Kremlin.

By now it’s clear even for the deaf, dumb, and blind that the destruction of the European economy has been a massive tactic, historic victory for the Hegemon – as much as the blitzkrieg against the Russian economy has been an abysmal failure.

All of the above brings us to the meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers this week in Rio. That was not exactly a breakthrough. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it very clear that the collective West at the G20 tried by all means to “Ukrainize” the agenda – with less than zero success. They were outnumbered and counterpunched by BRICS and Global South members.

At his press conference, Lavrov could not be more stark on the prospects of the war of the collective West against Russia. These are the highlights:

  • Western countries categorically do not want serious dialogue on Ukraine.
  • There were no serious proposals from the United States to begin contacts with the Russian Federation on strategic stability; trust cannot be restored now while Russia is declared an enemy.
  • There were no contacts on the sidelines of the G20 with either Blinken or the British Foreign Secretary.
  • The Russian Federation will respond to new Western sanctions with practical actions that relate to the self-sufficient development of the Russian economy.
  • If Europe tries to restore ties with the Russian Federation, making it dependent on their whims, then such contacts are not needed.

In a nutshell – diplomatically: you are irrelevant, and we don’t care.

That was complementing Lavrov’s intervention during the summit, which defined once again a clear, auspicious path towards multipolarity. Here are the highlights:

  • The forming of a fair multipolar world order without a definite center and periphery has become much more intensive in the past few years. Asian, African and Latin American countries are becoming important parts of the global economy. Not infrequently, they are setting the tone and the dynamics.
  • Many Western economies, especially in Europe, are actually stagnating against this background. These statistics are from Western-supervised institutions – the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD.
  • These institutions are becoming relics from the past. Western domination is already affecting their ability to meet the requirements of the times. Meanwhile, it is perfectly obvious today that the current problems of humanity can only be resolved through a concerted effort and with due consideration for the interests of the Global South and, generally, all global economic realities.
  • Institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD, and the EIB are prioritizing Kiev’s military and other needs. The West allocated over $250 billion to tide over its underling thus creating funding shortages in other parts of the world. Ukraine is taking up the bulk of the funds, relegating Africa and other regions of the Global South to rationing.
  • Countries that have discredited themselves by using unlawful acts ranging from unilateral sanctions and the seizure of sovereign assets and private property to blockades, embargoes, and discrimination against economic operators based on nationality to settle scores with their geopolitical opponents cannot be considered guarantors of financial stability.
  • Without a doubt, new institutions that focus on consensus and mutual benefit are needed to democratize the global economic governance system. Today, we are seeing positive dynamics for strengthening various alliances, including BRICS, the SCO, ASEAN, the African Union, LAS, CELAC, and the EAEU.
  • This year, Russia chairs BRICS, which saw several new members join it. We will do our best to reinforce the potential of this association and its ties with the G20.
  • Considering that 6 out of 15 UN Security Council members represent the Western bloc, we will support the expansion of this body solely through the accession of countries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Call it the real state of things, geopolitically, two years after the start of the SMO.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Medvedev Unplugged

Par : AHH — 24 février 2024 à 16:06

“A dog’s death is a dog’s death.”

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev gave a long interview to the Russian media. He discusses the fate of the SMO, camps for pests in Russia, and WW3 (Eng Subs). The conversation was attended by journalists from Komsomolskaya Pravda, RIA Novosti, TASS, Radio Mayak and Lenta.ru.

Transcript:

Question: Thank you for the traditional invitation to this round table Kolya the beginning of the year then my first question will be just a global one.  Judging by your January and February posts on social networks subtle discussions about preventing Etsi training, I trained for a very long time in this year from you You shouldn’t expect such subtle reasoning, what do you expect from what year

Medvedev (DM):  Well, the year is actually already in full swing, after all, it’s mid-February like this What It’s absolutely obvious that certain trends have formed, what am I waiting for, but I’m thinking how and the vast majority of our citizens are waiting for Victory in a special military operation and this is probably where all our efforts are concentrated, waiting for the return of all our defenders who are taking part in this operation. Well, it means it will work out or not. This is a question that will be resolved just this year, but the trends that have formed a lot. The sun is working and developing Despite all the difficulties of current life I hope that all this will continue and during the remaining months of the year it will be good

1:45 Well, as for subtle existential problems, you know there are always more subtle arguments, less subtle questions about the degree of depth of analysis of certain problems, which means since you are reading there mo Nina, you probably notice that there are subtle arguments interspersed with very ordinary simple ones, sometimes harsh ones, that’s why it will be both, like this

2:17 Question: Dmitry Anatolyevich I will continue; Komsomolskaya Pravda Elena Revyakina: When you were president and prime minister both in Russia and in the West you were considered, well, if you look at the top of the Russian government, you were considered very liberal democratic politicians in recent years, your political image has changed a lot and you are called the main hater on behalf of the Russian authorities on the Internet. I’ve written out some of your expressions here that have become popular. I’ll read them; “to my colleagues from The USA and the EU are Atlantic impotents, a pack of barking dogs from the Western kennel, a motley pack of grunting pigs. And in relation to the French Foreign Ministry, you didn’t even expect us to use a swear word at all. It’s interesting that in relation to you and, well, our authorities, we fortunately didn’t do that we hear.” And the question is that history is cyclical and sooner or later But you will have to put up and somehow come to an agreement, so you personally are not afraid to become an unshakable politician in the international arena. You probably want to continue your political career in this direction

3:33 DM: Well, look at – firstly, those Qualities that were attributed to me and are attributed to me are always someone’s subjective assessments, these are those who wanted to see me as a liberal politician, these are certain circles in the West in our country, some circles or people. They saw it, which means I really am like this and there remained, as they say among the Russian people, another question: that of course the external situation will change for one simple reason because we believe that we were treated unfairly with the Russian Federation and therefore harsher assessments appeared, but as for my internal assessments and feelings, I dare to assure you they are completely probably haven’t changed,

I had, like any politician, illusions that were a little different, but they didn’t change much, but recently the president said that we’ve been with them for too long and this is the phase of our country’s development, it was necessary to give them answers to all the questions earlier extremely strict form regarding the fact that I’m afraid there that someone there won’t say hello or won’t shake hands, firstly, let them ask me to give them a hand, and secondly, when relations are normalizing and I’ll say about some because recently some of them will simply die. That’s why those who want to build relations with Russia must show this in a direct, openly frank form. There are such people and of course the number will grow, but in this sense I am absolutely I am confident that in the near future there will not be a major rapprochement with the West, Western Europe, the United States of America with the Anglo-Saxon world, there is too deep a gap, a divide has formed between us, if you like, and it will be very, very difficult to overcome it.

6:04 Question:  Recently, a number of Western publications have published articles on the topic of the fact that it’s worth dreaming of some possible defeat of Russia in Ukraine Because the focus has switched, the focus of the West has switched, the focus of the United States has switched to the Middle East, so what do you think such publications say, who are they really addressed to, and what conclusions should the Western audience and the West of Eli draw from these publications?

6:30 DMWell, only the Western elites themselves, who need to be properly nurtured and give them the right signals. So before this, the main calculation was for the defeat of Russia, taking into account the hybrid war that was unleashed against us, taking into account the fact that we are opposed by the entire Western world , of course, all Westerners with what Rus is – it will collapse and be divided into parts; Russia will not have enough power to resist the Atlantic military machine. And so on and so forth, events are developing in a completely different scenario.

7:17 Well, naturally, they must react somehow. If we talk about signals like it’s time to take a break, it’s time to start negotiations to a large extent, of course, this is such a cunning move, it means it’s not very cunning, let’s be honest, but the proposal is designed for the fact that we will stop our military actions, the Russian lands will not take place, they will not return to their native bosom, and at this moment they will receive a respite, concentrate, captivity, which will turn out to be several more successful than the failure that took place last year.

8:08 This is also what such publications are designed for. Well, partly. If you want, this is part of such a propaganda campaign and even means those visits that they make to special services, punching through this story in a variety of ways. social fear of different social environments This is nano Calculated. But we are absolutely indifferent to this, let them write what they want, it means it is obvious that they cannot ignore the current situation But what is happening in the Western media is only a reflection of a real-life picture of the real-life events of the day

8:56 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich, Anagen and here in the last DB the success of the Russian Armed Forces near Avdeevka Yesterday literally the president met with the Minister of Defense they discussed all the details, but in Ukraine immediately after this, naturally many began to accuse the new commander in chief that it was his fault and to remind him of Russian origin here In your opinion, Syrsky and I were so lucky or is this still the result of long-term combat work and I will immediately allow myself to ask in continuation of this question, they took Avdiivka and Donetsk, well, the shelling of Donetsk continues Unfortunately, And what in your opinion are the general limits of a special military operation? Should we will reach Kiev, maybe to Lvov, will there be any part of Ukraine that we will consider a legitimate state? Whose borders will it remain? We will be ready to recognize

10:07 DMAvdiivka yesterday, an analysis was given of what happened, this is certainly a major success of the Russian Armed Forces, everyone who took part in this operation is heroes and this needs to be said directly. This, of course, is not some kind of Syrsky. But these are our valiant Armed Forces who concentrated, conducted long-term preparations and made this Breakthrough. You probably all paid attention, because such a fortified area was created in the Avdeevka area, it took more than a year or two to create, these are really very serious fortification protective structures and this made it possible to hold this settlement, so it was a difficult task, but our Armed Forces coped with it brilliantly, I want to congratulate everyone again on this event.

10:59 Well concerns where to go. Well, I’ll express my point of view, which in my opinion corresponds to the current picture of the day, we need to fully ensure our interests What does it mean to fully ensure our interests, firstly, fulfill our tasks that the president said, and secondly, create the necessary protective cordon that will insure from any kind of encroachment on our land, not only shelling but also active offensive operations, and so on and so forth, and only in this case it will be possible to admit that the tasks have been completed, I don’t know where to stop. I think that, taking into account what I said, it means we will still have to will it work a lot and seriously, will it be Kiev?

11:45 Yes Probably it should be Kiev too. If not now then after some time maybe in some kind of this conflict for two reasons [1] Kiev is a Russian city and [2] from there comes a threat to the existence of the Russian Federation International threat because at least Kiev and a Russian city by its roots, it is controlled by the International Brigade of opponents of Russia, led by the United States of America, all who formally perform their functions there are Puppets who have neither conscience nor fear for the future of their country; it is impossible that all decisions are made overseas and at headquarters NATO is absolutely obvious, that’s why Yes, it could be Kiev, which means that if something remains from Ukraine as a result of everything that is happening, then probably such a state has a chance of surviving, although not very great, which means, and in any case, this is certainly not a question for today, but it will be on the agenda after a while

13:05  We must guarantee the future of Russia and without the defeat of this nationalist pro-fascist clique in Kiev it is impossible. This regime must fall. It must be destroyed. It should not remain in this world what will be left for later what will be left in this territorial entity I can’t call it a country now, I don’t know, maybe Lemberg is a region with a center in the city of Lemberg if the Poles or some other regions are very concerned about it. But this is a complex not only military but also a political process and have your say in this in the process they must play or say only war , but the people themselves inhabiting these lands, I have said this many times, that the current Ukrainian state is dangerous for the Ukrainians themselves, and for them this choice looks like this: either life in a normal common state with Russia, or at least in some close principles to the common state of frost, we must make this choice for ourselves.

14:33 Question:  RIA Novosti Maria [sit..] continuation of the topic of Ukraine; How do you assess Zelensky’s prospects today, in your opinion, how loyal are his subordinates to him, can another coup d’etat happen in Ukraine and If so, with whom then to negotiate, if at all,

14:53 DMit is a secondary question from the point of view of who to negotiate with negotiations, a holy place is never empty As for this character, his fate is certainly sad in the history of his country in the history of the world, he will remain as the Bloody Clown who became known thanks to famous publications and who did not bring anything good to his people. Well, he will probably be remembered for the fact that he is delicately individual he played the piano with parts of his body. That’s probably all I can say about him, but the point is not in him.

The point is that the elites themselves who now rule in Kiev must leave, some out of goodness and health, and some forcibly and must appear completely different people who are aware of their responsibility for the future of the people inhabiting this complex There is still an existing entity called Ukraine, when such people appear, somehow you can negotiate with them, although we did not refuse negotiations even with this clique, but you yourself know that they did, they forbade these negotiations for themselves, and even attempts by Western countries to push them in this direction have not yet brought success. You can understand why. Therefore, they will realize. As soon as they say, We are ready for negotiations with the Russian Federation, and their conditions are understood; this recognition of the results will immediately tear off their head. will be demolished And therefore they naturally try as much as possible to delay the moment when they have to pack their bags and leave there for Warsaw or London. Well, this is the best

16:57 Question: case of the technical options about how Ukraine will disappear from the world map; the best was considered the third when the Western lands join a number of EU countries, people central and some other economically unruly regions declare self-determination by joining the Russian Federation; Hungary, Romania and Poland, as you know, have already made territorial claims of their own. This year, at the end of last year, more and more people are appearing in the west. As you just said. We discussed supporters fix the situation along the line of military conflict, but at the moment it’s the end of February, according to which of your options are events currently developing?

17:36 DMWell, in fact, none of these options can yet be rejected, the main thing is that events are developing as a whole in the trend that I’m talking about wrote, it means how it will all end with slow erosion and the fall of power in Kiev or the instant collapse of the call system and the rapid replacement of the main political characters, it’s difficult to say yet, but this process is underway and obviously it cannot be stopped, and everything that happens on the line of combat contact, everything that happens in the holding area its the best proof of these trends. I don’t know how it will happen. I don’t know, but it will happen without any doubt and everyone understands it, so a lot of analysts are there either openly or those who are still afraid and embarrassed somewhere on the sidelines are saying that Well, that’s it That’s how we will certainly not be able to defeat Russia there in this sense. Although publicly they declare all sorts of nonsense, they carry some kind of political blizzard, such as that we should not allow Russia to win this war.

I was recently forced to speak out on this very topic. This is what it means to prevent Victory This means on the terms on which Kiev speaks, that is, to take away from Russia our territories that were included in the Constitution of the Russian Federation as a result of a referendum and that means our new lands were annexed. Our subjects of the Federation returned to Russia. Well, it’s clear this is a global catastrophe. This is a real full-fledged Third World War. Knowledge of all sorts of shoals and other things they are designed only for the public. They themselves are not into it. they believe but are forced to repeat it like a mantra simply in order to justify the gigantic expenditures on the corresponding military budgets. Well, so far everything is developing. It is according to this scenario of more accurate forecasts

19:57 Question:  Yushchenko in his interview with Deutsche Welle said I allow myself to quote the question not in Putin, but the bearers of Putinism are 140 million of these little Putins who need to be destroyed. Do you think our media should rebroadcast such statements in order to show the essence of this Nazi regime and all the Elites in Ukraine, or, on the contrary, it is better not to focus attention on such statements, which are essentially a call for genocide?

20:32 DMmy opinion should be emphasized to the maximum extent Yushchenko is rare with a lumpy one so nasty that it ’s unpleasant even to look at on TV, but this information must be conveyed to everyone in the world and socially to the military personnel who defend our country, this opinion despite my assessment of this character of the former president of Ukraine means they are in something then they try to reproach But the former president of Ukraine makes such statements, however, his essence was clear to me, in any case, already in 2010, when I was forced to give the future president the most harsh assessment of the leader of Ukraine, which was extremely unusual in general for the period, we still tried with them somehow building relationships and so on, but already then, in fact, he actively began to move towards NATO and well, preparing for a war with Russia, it’s not even Kuchma who said that Ukraine is not Russia. This is a completely different character, that’s why my opinion about it it needs to be told so that everyone knows that.

21:54 Question:  I stated that Odessa can be both a bone of discord and a symbol of conflict resolution; since then, monuments to Empress Catherine II have been demolished in Odessa. And in recent months, there have been discussions about dismantling the monument to Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, which stood even in Soviet times on the spot Here’s How do you assess such a policy of the Ukrainian authorities, what can Russia oppose to the destruction of Russian cultural historical heritage other than military force and what fate would you wish for Odessa and its residents?

22:32 DMWell, about Odessa, I can just say Odessa come home and that’s it. So we’ve been waiting for Odessa in Russia Federation, even due to the history of this city, what kind of people live there, what language they speak, this is our Russian city. As for their behavior of this clique of the Kiev regime of Kiev, but at least this is short-sighted because they thereby simply alienate some of the people even those who were loyal until recently Their authorities Well, in general, it looks monstrous because we are talking about measures to counteract the entire Russian culture in general and our entire common path. Well, they are demolishing monuments. We have never even thought about this, all the main Ukrainian characters with the exception of outright Nazis, Banderites of various kinds. So we have always treated them with respect.

I’m not even talking about those people of those classics who, in general, are the pride of the Ukrainian people in the known world and the Ukrainian people were, I mean, Shevchenko. Although he a significant part of the works was written in Russian by Lesya Ukrainka, I’m not talking about Gogol, who is generally one of the outstanding Russian Ukrainian writers, as if immediately answering the question that may arise here, I proceed from the fact that in general the Russians of Ukraine are one people , which means this started talking only in XX century after the destruction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, this is one people. Yes, there are linguistic features ; there is a classical Russian language; there is a South Russian dialect; years they were together, they were separated by various historical events.

Well, I’m not even talking about the fact that Russia at some point was forced to come to the aid of the inhabitants of these Little Russian territories and drive out all the uninvited guests there. The Poles and others concluded the necessary agreements that allowed this part of Russia to develop autonomously and not under the heel of individual Western countries, the composition of Ukraine actually included certain territories that are not directly related to Russia, this is true, but there are different moods and different approaches, and they were always looking in a certain direction, you know, it was always like that.

[I] was probably about 15 years and the school and I went to Tallinn. Well, Tallinn also had its own moods, that was known. But nevertheless, we were accepted there as schoolchildren. We were placed as I remember now, in the sports hall, we were put to sleep on mats, which means that suddenly, we were almost lost there, as they say. a crowd of guys come in, so dressed up, excited, says Let’s go talk Well, we went together Swa where the schoolchildren are from, the same as and say Lvov no, everything was decent, we chatted something there, talked, but you know what I noticed, it was extremely surprising for me, I was normal, normal A Soviet schoolboy, this is some kind of eightieth howl, the first year in their words. And these were children, there was an undisguised hatred for everything Soviet. Well, and partly Russian, for me, as a person who was brought up in international traditions, we didn’t even know who was what nationality in the class. It was very It’s amazing.

Maybe at first I didn’t even attach such importance to it, I didn’t attach such importance, but then I understood. These children who came to meet us were also children from the families of those same Banderites who were brought up in this atmosphere and already, what is called mother’s milk, absorbed hatred to everything Russian. But this is a completely special part of that territorial community, I cannot call it in the full sense a country, and then it was not a country, it was just a republic within the USSR which was called Ukraine, as you know, appearing there as a result of the political events of the first half of the century. I remembered this and wanted to tell you.

28:12 Question: Thank you. About relations with the United States. I wanted to talk what do you think if Trump wins the American elections Will it be more convenient for Russia to build relations with him and in general is it possible to improve relations between Russia and America in the coming years. If yes, under what conditions could this happen and is it possible to return to at least a discussion of treaties that have ceased to be valid?

28:42 DM Now my current position allows me to speak more categorically openly than in certain other periods without regard to the need to build [communication]. I will answer simply Marie, [it] impossible in the coming years of the decade. There will be no normal relations between the United States of America after what happened and, by and large, we are absolutely indifferent to who is at the helm of power in the United States. Yes, they have personal characteristics. Although, looking at the current president and the previous one, I always get the feeling, I don’t know about you, that I watching comics. In a certain sense, the heroes who uttered memes form memes, which means that they are the reason for endless jokes and everything that the Internet and social networks are replete with.

29:53 Why am I talking about this? Well, compare, let’s say Biden on the one hand and Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, […] America is strong here I am I ask you not to think about some kind of conspiracy theory. I talk about this completely seriously when they talk about the deep state, if you don’t take any stupid theories. But to be serious, this deep state is just a very strong state apparatus at the middle level that doesn’t care who is in power a democrat or a republican, a funny grandfather who forgets the names of the leaders of other countries or a completely strong leader of the state, the APT holds the VH that allows America to overcome a variety of obstacles, in fact, to create such a state apparatus is a very serious and big task and this must be treated with respect This allows them to overcome a lot of difficulties.

31:13 But even this state apparatus is not able to fully remove the problems and contradictions that this or that leader can bring , but when you look at what is happening on the border with Mexico, I can hardly imagine this under another president. Well that there is direct disobedience of the Federal authority and the supreme ruler, so to speak, of the United States cannot do anything about it when the head of the state says I will not carry out your instructions, we will not carry out the decision of the Supreme Court, we do not obey the National Guard, we obey our laws and we have our own guard We will carry out these tasks in this sense, this is such a very colorful touch showing the depth of the contradictions and they are connected with the fact that the states are trying, despite their waning strength, to play first fiddle in the international arena instead of really in this case it is difficult to disagree with a number of legislators in In America, instead of strengthening their own country, deal with these problems at the border and solve social problems there, which are more pressing problems that in any state, including rich America, they spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a country that for most Americans does not know Where it is Well, this is a well-known thing Ask where e Ukraine, they will be there for a long time looking for where it is on the world map And that it is clear that this money largely goes to maintaining the military-industrial complex of the United States But on the other hand, it is not spent on social tasks, economic tasks are also of a different order. That is why giving so much a detailed answer with whom it is better for us to work, it doesn’t matter who we work with, because we have direct antagonism now and this gap will not be bridged in the next year.

33:14 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich developing the previous question and when Europe stops listening to the USA and to be their salt?

DM:  you know by these things the feelings that I now have in the coming years this will not happen for several reasons, firstly, the Americans took very good advantage of the weakness of Europe, they recaptured a number of economic spheres from them, they completely ensure their security, that is, the Europeans march in formation on the orders of the United States, and secondly, in Europe about m as you have said many times, a generation of dull Technocrats has arrived who are only separated by the Eurohangar, […] again Compare Macron and many of his predecessors to the same Mitterrand whom Biden confuses with Macron But these are different presidents and Francois Mitterrand and Immanuel Macron are different presidents, maybe this will be important information for them, but I’m not talking about General de Gaulle. Compare the liverwurst of Scholz and Kohl or Schmitt. These are different politicians.

The previous generation had well, what is called the internal strength to object on issues important to their countries, this does not mean that they they went over to our side or abandoned some European ideals, no, but they could secretly object that during the period when De Gaulle was President of France, France suspended participation in the military component of NATO considered this correct. Can you imagine that now at least someone about he stuttered about this and they will tear him into pieces, he will say yes, the Russians will attack us instantly again, the Cossacks will gallop around Paris and it means that there will simply be a world collapse, which is why it means that in this sense there is no way to talk to.

35:58 If such people appear, it will be easier to find a common language with them. I hope that they will appear, if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow. It’s just that people will ask such people to come because they will feel that the current generation of politicians does not live up to their hopes, technically, it’s possible to redly close to six hundred. I was on M.

36:31 Question:  You just touched on several already now which you’ve raised several times on social networks the topic of possible Independence of the state of Texas Could the situation with illegal migrants lead to the loss of a star on the US flag and the emergence of a new independent state?

DM:  I wrote in my humorous forecast that this will happen. Now we are all waiting for the conclusion of an agreement on friendship and cooperation between the TPR and the DPR of the Texas people republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic But in fact, speaking seriously Just 20 years ago this would have seemed nonsense Yes United States Federation The Federation has more internal problems, we know from the experience of the Soviet Union and our experience too, but nevertheless it is a very strong country Leader There and so on, and now this is a completely discussed main thing. Why Because there has been such a division of values, if you want, even a civilizational one between parts of America, and the relationship between supporters of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party used to laugh, they said yes, it’s all the same thing, it’s all big capital from them It means they have a unified position, they just put forward certain points that they use during the election campaign. But now you can’t say that anymore, it’s not a difference in ideology, but the fact that they don’t hear each other and even hate each other.

38:21 Look what the attitude of the nuclear democratic electorate is to Donald Trump, they hate him more than all of us put together because they see him as a threat and, on the contrary, the Trumpists, the conservative wing of the Republican Party, believes that this course of the Democrats of this frenzied globalization will lead America to a dead end from here yes So this is the slogan of [MAGA]. The Revival of internal forces America is actually their problem. But the fact that this will happen 20-25 years ago was impossible to imagine, but it happened. This is precisely because of the mediocre course pursued by the US leadership after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

39:25 Question:  Well, that is, a state may appear, but

DM:  Well, it seems to me I said this, isn’t the agreement between the People’s Republic and the DPR a sign of the statehood of the Armed Forces? Maybe now this is really not an excluded option, as they themselves talk about it. By the way, if you think that we are very happy about this, then no. Because with all the costs of coexistence, let’s say honest enmity united states for It is more important for us that there be a situation there than for a managerial collapse to occur or some unpredictable civil war to break out like in the 19th century.

Well, for one simple reason, America is still the most important world player; America has colossal military potential; America is our direct enemy in this sense, but on the other hand parties partner for negotiations on nuclear potential America Unfortunately for the world, the ENO is the leading issuer of a reserve currency, if this currency is crap, then in fact there will be consequences. For everyone, this also needs to be aware of this; it is necessary to gradually displace the dollar from the first positions; there must be a set of reserve currencies what we have been talking about for decades Yes, but if you suddenly pull out the dollar, the balance between reserve currencies in the world needs to develop electronic currencies, digital currencies are the future. But you need to understand the risks that exist

41:10 Question:  In the Middle East, the situation is also tense. And what will happen if Iran gets involved military conflict, can this completely switch the attention of the backside from supporting Ukraine and breaking this and [Mikh]

DM:  About the dream of that character who is now sitting in Kiev that all attention will be switched by an element of the psychotype if a person is used to an actor playing there That’s how I said on different instruments that absence his attention makes him completely unsure that I am not needed, this is sad, but in fact, the World lives, of course, according to different laws, attention and so will largely be diverted from Ukraine in the Middle East and in a number of other regions, Iran, which you mentioned, seems to me to be very occupied a balanced, calm position does not allow itself to be drawn into any showdowns.

This speaks of the wisdom of the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but in the end, no matter how trivial it may sound, in everything that happens there, the sleepy States are to blame, again. This is who is blocking the fulfillment of the year on the creation of the Jewish and Arab states The Americans have been blocking for many decades, the first few decades they behaved more or less normally and then they stopped being active here, and we understand that the controlling stake in the settlement in this region in Chita lives in the decision-making autonomy of the Israeli authorities, this is of course not the case and they largely dependent on financial and military assistance from the United States.

Therefore, if the United States wanted peace in the Middle East, in any case, by creating two states, these decisions would be much better to manage the conflict from the point of view of the leadership of the United States of America, divide and rule, it is easier to give everyone a little and to show their indispensability, all the more so. They believed in this again after the disappearance of the Soviet Union from the world map because the Soviet Union was still quite actively pursuing its own policy in the Middle East, then a vacuum arose and the United States decided that they were in control of everything there, but the result was that [conflicts of interest] killed it is sad

44:00 Question:  You just spoke about the USA as a nuclear power I have a question about the use of nuclear weapons if it seemed like it a year ago Well, some horror stories and you also somehow spoke about it quite easily, but now your rhetoric is again is changing to a tougher one and you are talking about the threat of using nuclear weapons. Well, it seems quite serious in the public space. And we all understand it like this, if humanly. Yes, understand that if Russia, for the same reasons for itself , presses the nuclear button, then overseas it presses the answer is well, or on the contrary, they press, we press this is a threat to all humanity and probably there are not so many masochists even in the highest echelons of power, after all. Explain how scary these are or do you really believe in the reality of such a scenario, we need to now at least all of us run to some kind of bunker

DM:  Well now there is no need to run. But no matter how sad this scenario sounds, this scenario is real, this scenario is real, we must do everything to prevent it from happening. But this very clock that is ticking there in a certain direction has now accelerated very much and in this I also see the inability. Excuse the impotence of these Western authorities who constantly repeat the same thing No, this is the Armed Forces, the Russians are scaring them, they will never do this, they are mistaken.

45:26 If we are talking about the existence of our country, I also said this recently. What choice will be left for leadership for the head of state , no, that’s why this is unfortunately real the existing threat is a direct and obvious threat to all humanity, there are also arguments that, unfortunately, can be given in this direction, firstly, when humanity created something from weapons. It was always used. [i.e.] by the Americans. What do they think? By the way, they dealt a then unnecessary blow to Japan, which was our common enemy And after that that ‘s all Nobody will ever take this out of the Arsenal, I’m not even talking about our nuclear weapons now, that’s not true, there can be a lot of motives. This first and second is also an accident from which no one is immune, and the accidental unintentional start of a nuclear conflict cannot be dismissed as accounts, therefore, all these games around Ukraine are extremely dangerous

46:43 Well, look, if it occurs to someone, and periodically these clever guys in NATO talk about this. So they will put planes to fly for them While there is nowhere special from Ukraine, let some Starton plane from a NATO country take it this is an attack on Russia I won’t even describe further What can happen Although it can happen Well, almost by accident and not intentionally it may not even be sanctioned at the level of the entire leadership of NATO and the United States as the holders of the main, so to speak, NATO package and the main levers, so unfortunately such a development of events. Perhaps we must do everything to prevent this from happening.

47:36 Unfortunately all instruments of control, full-fledged nuclear deterrence, they are now destroyed, in our opinion, thanks to the efforts of Western countries, because even the last agreement that we once signed with both Obama and which was extended Vladimir Vladimirovich, together with Biden, he has now practically exhausted himself; other agreements are also practically ineffective. So the world is in a tense state.

Question:  Well, there’s no need [for use of nuclear weapons] for now.

DM:  Yes [there’s no need], but I won’t deceive the readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda or all those present; this is not whipping up passions. This is just a reason to think about where For some reason, we people, you know, when we think, well, we almost started a nuclear war, but that was a long time ago, it wasn’t true, it was there because of Cuba, it was also because of something, and now it’s impossible. What’s the difference? in no way is the situation even more tense, then there was no conflict between Russia and America. But now it exists and everyone understands it. That ’s how

48:48 Question: I would like to defuse the situation a little, so let’s talk about the future. Well, in particular, let’s probably turn to the internal agenda and talk about those who have returned Russian regions, this is how it is in the Russian leadership the situation there is being assessed from the point of view of the political construction of economic restoration. Surely there is such a problem as waiting, what should those people who do sports do with them? Because it’s more convenient And deep down they are waiting for the arrival of Ukrainian tanks and there is one more nuance, it’s quite subtle and probably painful. But for sure there are people who are registered according to documents somewhere in the regions of Donbass, but it so happened that they are fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces, no one canceled the oath And when it all ends when it ends when we win [Medvedev interjects: When we win unconditionally] And what will happen to them will they receive Russian passports or what

50:04 DMWell, look, it means about the general situation with new regions, new subjects of the Russian Federation, they are developing, there are obvious changes for the better, the housing stock is being restored, industry is being restored within certain parameters , the social sphere is being restored, payments are being made, this is seen by the people who live there, the situation is different everywhere, there are regions and, say, populated areas points that live essentially on the line of combat contact, this is a very difficult story, our people there risk their lives every day and everyone needs to remember this. These people are essentially at the front, but nevertheless life is changing and a lot has already been done there, but not enough to to give life to the level that we expect is the task set by the president by this year so that, according to the main parameters, the residents of these territories of these regions are equal to other regions of our country; this task is absolutely feasible.

Just look at our experience that we gained in Crimea when I went there for the first time got it It seemed to me that a generation separates us from the point of view of the development of the social sphere of medicine and education. Well, nothing [did not happen] in just 5 years, everything has been greatly improved, and here the same can be done, but only when everything is finally decided on the military front, which means this is the first thing.

As for the people, you know, there are different people there, you said, they sit and wait for Ukrainian tanks. I think there aren’t many of them there. There are just people who sit and think, that’s how the Whites will come and rob, the Reds will come to rob, which means in other words, who will be stronger, that’s who we will serve.

There are certainly such people there, but nevertheless, we must work with everyone, so to speak, there is nothing like that if it’s just caution. Well, we need to convince these people that we are back forever, if these are people who are harming Russia, they need to be exposed and punished — sent to Siberia so for re-education correction to labor camps. As for those who are now fighting, you understand, well here what can you remember what events in the history of the [last] century, but when did the Second World War end, the leaders of Hitler’s Germany, the NSDAP SS activists, the party and political apparatus were tried.

Well, some they executed a few, some were simply convicted, but the vast majority of participants in the corresponding German military machine returned home; they were forgiven if they were not convicted of crimes against humanity in genocide, extermination of people on ethnic grounds, and so on. In a certain sense, the same scale should be applied here. We don’t destroy prisoners, on the contrary, we treat them humanely, as you can see lately, They are actively surrendering, but they understand that they are still a pony in the middle.

53:58 Question:  United Russia is taking part in the preparation of Putin’s election program and your forecast for the elections. What do you think? what will the result be?

DM:  The President is the leader of our country. The United Russia party, as is known, unanimously supported his candidacy at its congress. We are trying our best to keep this in mind. Vladi is in order, he has enormous authority in our country. As for the election program, the President himself forms it.

Moreover, I’ll say straight out that the president’s program can be broader than the program of United Russia, even taking into account the fact that the president is supported not only by those who vote for a bully candidate, so that means we will certainly be ready to implement the ideas with which the president goes to the polls, some of them, well essentially in this pre-election vein. He will probably voice this during the delivery of his message at the end of the month.

Well, as for the forecasts for everything else, I think there is no doubt that Vladimir Vladimirovich will win these elections and show the highest results.

55:27 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich is no secret that you are an active Internet user. [DM: Well, yes..] and in this regard, your opinion is very interesting. Is it necessary to block the external Internet and how to provide, well, some kind of protection against well, our Internet space from toxic content from Internet scammers who simply demonstrate miracles of ingenuity in an attempt, [DM: they are scammers] and you guys are chasing money, but what’s the saddest thing is that these funds often go to our enemies to support the Armed Forces and some other things that are destructive for us, this is like one moment, and I also have one here in question, probably Well, not directly related but indirectly, we often talk about the need to ensure intellectual sovereignty, and our citizens are also savvy here, probably. Well, in your opinion, it plays an important role. Is it necessary to speed up the announced Steps on education reform?

56:40 DM:  You have several questions, which means I’ll start with: Do we need to isolate yourself No, of course, yes, this is almost unrealistic in the modern world. You can tweak something a little, block something, let’s put it bluntly. But completely isolating it is unrealistic and not necessary, the more such segments arise, the more interest there is in them; you need to understand that

Another question is that you really need to put blocks on destructive things destructive various kinds of criminal activity, for example, there are the same [as] drugs and so on. But this should be very, very selective with regard to the protection of our critical technologies, our elements of critical information infrastructure. This is the most important task that was set in general. We need to move faster for quite a long time. You know, I head a commission on this, so to speak, digital sovereignty on critical information technologies, there is a task to bring all the software regarding critical infrastructure to Russian rails, the task is not easy because we don’t have everything, plus it exists.

Well, such conservatism of thinking in companies is because foreign is better than ours and therefore Let us work on it some more, but everyone was convinced that such threats exist after the way Western countries behaved, for example with ordinary household appliances, people bought cars from them, then there are no updates, but it’s just a car or something else some kind of equipment. When we are talking about power plants, elements of other infrastructure, key transport, and so on. This is already a very serious threat.
Therefore, we will definitely cover this topic. Promoting concerning education reform, in view of what exactly is in the reform?

58:53 Question:  Well, now we very often have, as it were , and we are trying to build a patriotic Education education and a savvy person, he resists much more easily the same destructive content, he just bounces off it, it does no good [DM: black is always capable of distinguishing from white], so then it’s not scary to have to be poisoned by some kind of iron curtain of the Internet, and so on

DM:  I understood yes. Well, of course, it’s absolutely certain that a person who is well advanced in these areas is easier to navigate in this and it’s more difficult, so to speak, for scammers to have a conversation with him although every time they come up with something new. But this is a question of general enlightenment. Look at how it happened Well, I probably remember this You also, one way or another, remember Russia’s integration into the Internet environment when the Internet became popular among us

Well, this is not about the nineties Although a user In the nineties of the Internet, some people, especially people of the older generation, believed everything that was on the Internet, well, on TV they always tell the truth. Yes, in the newspapers they always write the truth and Wikipedia tells the truth Pete Ilya VN information, she was prepared to visualize and then growing up came.

I’m not talking about what to believe. no one is allowed, but still, a significant part of almost everyone in our country today understands that there can be lies and fakes on the Internet and everything. What is connected with this in the future there will be more [technology] most likely to the fact that we will have to expose various falsehoods on this topic and that means fighting these fakes, since this is already happening now, so education in this area is necessary. You are right. But you know, as if I would say this is not just some kind of courses, it seems to me a general maturation of the audience.

Strangely enough, our children are often in this I mean, Horseshoe is better than a child, they have been using all this since childhood and they understand that it’s all wrong, it’s all not working, it’s all there, so to speak, somehow they’re talking in a different language. If you paid attention to how millennials communicate, zoomers communicate. It’s like that further This is a slightly different language Although it irritates me now to say it, but this is already the grumbling of an adult. That’s why society will grow up. This is obvious, but we must move society towards this, probably , we probably need to make some decisions in education too on this topic

I really to be honest, I can’t even imagine what the basics of information hygiene are. It seems to me that this is a course that is unlikely to be difficult, unlikely to be easy to teach, but I’ll say it again, I don’t even have some skills in this sense, but who more often falls for the bait is precisely people who are more adults who didn’t have this information hygiene that you said since childhood That is, they just absorbed it all And absorbed it all, we just need to fight the scammers This is absolutely obvious.

1:02:43 Question:  Let’s talk about the economy. Is there any hope that Russia will return frozen assets Do we need them or will we be able to survive and without these 2, if the West comes up with a withdrawal mechanism, how can we respond?

DM:  I will express my position. I think that the chances of returning this money are small, although I feel sorry for them, but this is an element of confrontation, part of that hybrid war that is unleashed against us. Note, I want to draw attention to one point that they understand in the West, look, the West is legally not officially a participant in the war with our country. The West did not declare war on Russia, but we did not declare war on the European Union, on Western
countries.

Yes, we understand there is a hybrid war going on, they pump them up with weapons with money, instructors. But officially, and this is very important, we are not in now here is a continuation of the thought Why in certain cases a country pays reparations because something is confiscated from it, confiscated because other countries are participants in the conflict with it, they are in a state of war, and the West is with us and it talks about it all the time in the Kama Foundation

Because of this, they have such confusion in their brains, “I want to take it away, I want to give this money to the Ukrainian authorities” and with on the other hand, this is an explosion, this is a hacking of the legal world order, this is a rejection of the principles of the basic principles of protecting global private property, and so on, which has already been there for hundreds of years, which is why this task is still difficult for them.

But if they want, of course, they will refuse everything based on their principles and take it away this is the Sun. We will survive without this. As for our answers, they may be different, there are even a number of decisions on this matter, but they are still of such a fragmentary nature; for obvious reasons, we do not have investments from foreign countries on our territory on which we could impose our own penalties This is how our investments are, let’s say.

But we have a fairly large fund of obligations for which we must fulfill something in relation to Western investors, this set of obligations is estimated differently, but it can range from 250 to 300 billion dollars, this is completely different history, but in principle it is asymmetrical; the answer in this case will not be fulfilled by the private investor, although we would frankly not really want to go down this path. But this is still just reasoning out loud. Moreover, no decisions have been made there either, even regarding income for our assets but most likely this will happen I think. We are preparing for this.

1:06:25 Question:  About Texas you said but about the Texas problem I aggravated a little the marketplace losses were quite large and again raised a painful issue around the topic of migration – this is ethnic crime and unwillingness to follow the norms of our society and in the current conditions There are risks of using the migrants who are here with us for sabotage purposes. You yourself said that the situation should not be allowed to destabilize due to conflicts between migrants and the local population. Now maybe it’s time to tighten the migration policy in your opinion.

DM:  Well, if we talk about various types of criminal actions. Here you are they mentioned sabotage and so on in fact Unfortunately, not all acts of sabotage are committed by migrants, we understand that some of them will be committed by our criminals who did not migrate at all and who were bought by traitors, which is why we should immediately say here that it all came from there incorrectly and the migration problem is complex American — here is an example that we just spoke to you proves that there are migration problems that are much more complex than those that face our country.

So, in short, I will say that those who commit crimes on the territory of Russia among migrants are subject to strict criminal liability in this There can be no doubt about those who are legally obedient participants in trade relations of economic relations in our country. Well, that means they can actually come and work. You and I understand that without this source of labor resources we also very often cannot survive.

But what needs to be done? And this is this probably the main thing is to put everything under control. And this can be done through digital services that are now being actively implemented and such a task has now been set, because what is the problem, some people are moving in under someone else’s name, there is even such a topic as the difficulties of transliteration, one letter changes And we no longer understand the same person is not the same person whether he has an entry ban or not. He has a ban.

This database needs to be digitized by the Armed Forces and then the situation will become much more manageable, in other words, these processes need to be managed competently. We are learning to do this. Although there are problems here, this is true, but without any doubt, we will have to do this precisely because our situation as a whole is not the simplest right now. [Q: That is, like in Europe.] Yes, yes, I mean this, including biometrics.

But this is an even broader statement of the problem in addition to biometrics. just so that all this is in a single database and not scattered across different sources because often in one place they don’t know what was done in another, such a universal database with elements of biometric information that you are talking about will allow you to put it under control And of course In general, the practice of applying Russian administrative and criminal law should also be used with all its might; those who were told at some point goodbye should no longer return.

1:10:10 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich I’ll touch on the military topic again, but from a slightly different angle, all the form of armature in parades, but the WTO when qi old tanks Really someone threw dust in the eyes of the management by talking about the successes of the Russian defense industry and now you are visiting enterprises, inspecting in your opinion whether there is enough capacity to realize your goals and whether there are problems with personnel because the enterprises work 24/7, enough for specialists?

DM:  Clear means, (well parades are parades and war is war). These mean completely different things. And here you just need to understand the different criteria that are used. The Armata tank is a new tank, it has not yet been fully tested, it is not the cheapest Tank. We have other tanks that are brilliant have proven themselves during their period, this is
the T90m breakthrough, which the president recently called the best tank in the world. I would like to completely share this position. All my conversations, for example, with those who take part in it both at the training grounds and, in fact, on the line of combat contact prove that it is just that simple. I’m here

When I came to inspect individual recruitment units under a contract, the commanders, the combat commanders who were in the front line, they are forming a unit then they will leave, they asked, they say, help us get the T90, this is a very good weapon, but also other tanks . Well, if we started talking about tanks, the T-80 BVM and T-72 B 3M Why do I call these letters with numbers modernized Tanks? Yes, their project is, well, the eighties and seventies, so to speak. But these tanks definitely show themselves no worse and better than Western ones, especially in the modernized version. But the most important thing is that we were able to supply armored vehicles to the Armed Forces and this equipment is used, these are thousands and thousands of armored vehicles.

1:12:54 Now regarding the military-industrial complex. Well, you need to understand that the military-industrial complex or the defense-industrial complex works differently during military operations and in ordinary life; no one ever produces weapons of destruction only to the warehouse This is absolutely obvious during the period of hostilities. It takes completely different forms as with work in three shifts are huge. We have a defense order for individual positions, but about tanks. I said through defeat. I mean missiles, shells, bombs, production there has increased from DH to 10 or 15 times, that is, by 1%, this allows us to actively use them in combat work and in general, to achieve results, therefore, the defense industry In my opinion, it passed the test, it has proven itself in the best way, quite

By the way, read Western analytics, at first they scoffed, they said, they are pulling out something old, they are missing this, this is not enough, and now we have piled on everyone with NATO and we will be them supplying all this means tanks and shells and walkie-talkies, and that means UAVs and so on, but now they don’t laugh anymore. They see that in a significant part of a significant part of the components we are superior to them.

A separate issue is unmanned aerial vehicles, before we really started ours, this component was not really was well developed, this is true, but to the credit of the agro-industrial complex, it must be admitted that over the last year and a half, this gap has been bridged and now our drones operate in all segments, from large vehicles to loitering supplies, that is, one-time drones that perform a single task, destroy an object and are disappearing and all this is also put on stream, so I can only say that our Code of Criminal Procedure has passed the test of a special military operation and I can thank everyone who works in this complex, these are actually enthusiasts of their work, this is how

1:15:26 Question:  Dmitry Anatolyevich the Western media wrote that in what year the expenses Russia’s federal budget for defense will increase, while the head of the Ministry of Finance, Anton Siluanov, insists that the country’s budget cannot be called military, so whether the Russian economy has switched to a war footing has not been left out. Social issues have been ignored. And what is more important now, at the moment, military or social spending?

DM:  Igor I think that Silanov is right, Anton Germanovich, our budget is not military in the narrowly special sense of the word. Well, for example, if we compare it with the budget of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Great Patriotic War, we have so easy to understand the numbers and approximately 30 trillion rubles in expenditure are social expenses all education health care not a single social obligation is lost; money for everyone salaries are paid in this sector;  benefits are paid and even for individual positions they are growing. this is a third

The second third this is just the development of the country this is the economy this means transport; this is the development of cities; the development of communications of all kinds and knowledge the remaining part of the budget or is otherwise related to its own in the broad sense of the word, this is not in the narrow sense defense spending.

But in the broad sense it means, well, this is exactly what the Minister of Finance said, this is the budget of a developing state. But of course with very significant defense spending needs, this is true. We’ll see , we’ll just say that for this component, even after the completion of the active part of the special military operation, we will, of course, still have to work on defense for a very long time so that everyone understands that our reserves are very strong and no one even thought about encroaching on them, on our interests, plus returning to the Code of Criminal Procedure, this means that I am sure that after what has been done, our military equipment will be in demand on world markets, more than it was before; it’s one thing to just show beautiful pictures, but another thing to actually fight, and in this sense that’s all this is very proof.

1:18:06 Question:  Let me continue the series of tense and probably not very convenient questions for you, but I have to ask after the death of Alexei Navalny in the colony, many people at once PAMM acted tactfully, let’s call it that in St. Petersburg, packs of people grabbed a man in a paddy wagon in Sali Cardi brought flowers separately to the monument, brought the police station, presented a VK pistol to his head and demanded to explain why he brought Flowers.

And Navalny’s mother cannot receive the body yesterday, she appealed to the president, did not receive an answer, they did not explain the actions, but it turns out that this only raises additional questions about the reasons for his death and uh, additional seething Well, among Navalny’s supporters, I have a question: why is it that the authorities continue to fight Navalny? And even after his death, and Why are people given 15 days for silent laying of flowers for pickets at monuments that, in fact, are not even monuments to Navalny, they are monuments victims of political repression

DM:  Well, regarding what is being done in the regions, I’ll say frankly. I’m just not ready to comment on it, there are always some costs. If we are talking about laying flowers, then probably there is no corpus delicti or even an administrative offense. No one is fighting it right now, that’s also It’s clear. Therefore, no, I won’t develop this idea further, because it’s customary for us to talk about the departed either good or nothing good about him, I can’t say anything bad, I won’t say it, it means if there are supporters. Well, this is also part of life, this must be taken into account, but don’t add this fact to your friends I was talking more about something else, here’s how they reacted to it not in our country.

In the end, this man was trying to work here and conduct his political activity. And abroad, this is the same barrel that I was talking about, it was agreed upon that they need to name sanctions packages there by His name and so on, it all looks so surprising because they don’t even have data about what happened, however, it’s all already turned into a political program, it’s all turned into Propaganda, although the same barrel is not about him to reason about this, if I were in his place, I would generally prepare for the earth, which means bearing in mind his venerable age, and somewhere there in the Madrid Polytechnic Institute of Technology, in my opinion, which he graduated from, already negotiated scholarships in his name and would not think about naming the sanctions lists in the name of a person unfamiliar to him, in general, such incidents are always tragic, of course they give rise to very different emotions once you started talking about it.

Look at the smiling happy face of Navalny’s widow, it feels like she’s been waiting for this event all these years to unfold her love and she’s already said about it, but that’s all sad. It seems quite sad to me, but I won’t comment on this anymore.

1:22:05 Question:  I’m just drawing attention to the second question. It coincided that two such high-profile fatalities in Spain killed a former Russian military pilot, defector Maxim Kuzminov, who six months ago hijacked an Mi-8 helicopter to Ukraine, previously Russian the military threatened Kuzminov with death Well, now IT corias from the Rhone of Russia from the West Everyone says everything is so interesting, everyone agrees on one version that this is Retribution, but the main question is Whose Retribution is this, how do you comment on this whole situation?

DM:  Very briefly dogs dog death. [Q: doesn’t matter. DM: affirmative]

Question:  from chkh spoke harshly about the rela ants, but at the same time you did not comment at all but not about everyone I if you are quoted there from a post known to him in the telegram, yes, then it applied [DM: Not to everyone] Yes, who speak out about Russia, but you did not comment in any way, for example, on the same naked party of Nastya Ivleeva Although even the president in his speeches made a remark about a weirdo showing his genitals What do you think, after all, will the people’s love return to the participants of this party and the trust of the concert venues, have they apologized enough?

DM:  Can I not talk about this [liberal exhibitionist club] party, it has set my teeth on edge, it is such a dregs compared to what is happening in the country, in the world. It’s just a pity our time with you, but I’m commenting on something else in relation to those who are moving the company abroad. You called them relocation, and among them there are different people, look at those people who just went there, scared of something, without fully feeling what was happening. Well, for some reason for their own reasons And they just sit there and sit there. Well, God be with them. Let them sit.

That means there are no legal claims against them at the moment and there cannot be any moral ones, but these are already categories: moral, this is a separate story, but among them there is a small part of famous people who moved there or after the start of their own or even before their own they lead an aggressive anti-Russian company, not just an anti-Russian company that directly wish the death of our military personnel, participate in programs to support the Armed Forces that wish the defeat of Russia and its division into parts.

But these people are these [… ryokan …] and they should be subject to criminal liability in any way case, as I wrote, I will repeat once again, we will have a reason in some situation to spit on their graves, these are different people, so they need to be separated from each other, but about what you asked about Let me just not even comment on

1:25:53 Question:  Anato, they have been very tough lately changes occur in legislation almost every week, such news reaches us, deputies accept and tighten them, including, well, I’ll list a few of these and the confiscation of property from those who criticize their own, here’s the recent ban on advertising on the pages of those who are recognized by agents and recognizing writers as extremists even to think we couldn’t even be there 2 years ago Why, they will end up with criminal cases against directors and screenwriters who are sitting in pre-trial detention centers and it’s as if nothing is happening and society in society is happening in response to this, also an interesting phenomenon, society in general begins to denounce its neighbors or colleagues and so on there are no Yani company turned out to be So, but such a witch hunt has already happened, you know the history very well and it didn’t bring anything good, [DM: it wasn’t dangerous, it didn’t inform anyone, thank God,] don’t you think this phenomenon is dangerous and this kind of reaction of the people is dangerous knife shadow

DM:  Guys, look , that means, well, this is a continuation of what we just talked about, because even those who are accused of criminal offenses will not be accused systematically, let’s take some Akunin here, his value system and the words that he said there in relation to that that I understand everything and it is necessary to bomb Russian cities, these are absolutely different things, a person can you can you can you can never do it, it is to wish for the defeat of your fatherland.

Even if you are disappointed with something and the death of your military personnel is both a terrible sin and, according to current laws, a criminal offense and such people need to be persecuted and very strict laws should be adopted and this is lowly depravity. The man sits on
the edge and says yes, bomb Russian cities on the other side of his book there are their scripts being sold or are they being bought? Well, it shouldn’t be like that, but let’s get back to reality. This is, so to speak, that during the Great Patriotic War we would have had some fees go to Berlin??

From the department about denunciation and everything connected with it, you understand this This problem is also partly philosophical and worldview, depending on what is meant by this. I also agree that we don’t need the atmosphere of the [nineteen] thirties, this is absolutely obvious, on the other hand, attention to what is happening must be, otherwise the enemies will take advantage of it, the same saboteurs, terrorists, I think that any citizen should report this to the special services to law enforcement agencies

1:29:22 This is completely normal by the way. Here we are far from ahead of the rest. Look at the number of signal messages that occur every day in the United States of America. In Europe I was once amazed in the nineties I went to Finland while I was still a completely private person with my comrades, there were no cameras on the roads, nothing. Well, the roads are good. It’s not like our roads at that time, they were 40 kilometers faster than the standard, they were driving fast in 10 minutes, they slowed us down. Why, I emphasize, there were no cameras they didn’t measure anything there, some vigilant person has already called there, there’s a car with Russian license plates going at pig speed So not every message to law enforcement agencies or intelligence services is Well, morally condemns the mosfete Swa is not needed You are right, such a spirit does not need to be supported but to react especially in a situation where your country is at war, it is necessary both in the sense of adopting tough laws and in the sense of controlling what is happening even among your neighbors. You can, of course, about the holiday that was stolen from us.

Question:  I mean soon the Olympics in which we will not participate because war has been declared on Russian sports and we cannot influence the governing bodies of world sports in any way because everyone who governs there is all supporters of the West, which we see in the decisions of the respective appeal commissions. Well, it seems to me that our allies who did not help them participate there in Asian associations and tournaments, for example We also don’t really need it, so in this case we need to isolate ourselves and conduct your favorite rowing in inland waters.

1:31:30 DM:  Well, they are now holding it in inland waters and they are trying to hold competitions there, including in your favorite rowing and in other sports, you know, in this situation, of course, I’m very sorry for our professional athletes. Well, they dedicated their whole lives to this, they were preparing for this holiday, they were deprived of this holiday, and this is an absolutely disgusting story that characterizes the International Olympic Committee and international sports structures on the other hand, when I think about it, it’s an honor to say so at such a level the first reaction is to slam the door and say, well, live by your own laws, try to create something of your own, but it’s very difficult. You’re right.

Obviously, SPO [International Olympic Committee] lies absolutely does not correspond to the precepts of Pierre Coubertin. Sport is business. Sport is politics, and sport in some cases is crime. And this also needs to be kept in mind when we make individual decisions, it means we participate and participate in those iht life sports Our athletes and it’s really a pity for them.

1:32:57 When everything returns to normal I don’t know because ahead of these great testaments of the founding fathers of international sports there is politics in life, but it’s absolutely obvious, it showed up. By the way, not during your period, remember very well. When we were at the Olympics Yes, no one is sinless No one says that we didn’t have doping there Of course there was, but it was in volume I think Well, it’s certainly comparable to the doping that athletes in other countries used,

But they pulled us out first because it was part of a political program because the leadership of all these structures like WADA and so on had people who were aggressive towards our country, then the opportunity arose to isolate us for something after the Crimean events, after other events. And after the start of theirs, they were just everywhere so to speak, freeze our participation, but I don’t know, I’ll say this thing. Maybe not everyone will agree with me ahead of this Olympics in Paris. Yes, to be honest, I don’t want to watch it, I don’t even want to look at the performance of our athletes under a neutral flag who swore an oath that they do not support the Russian state, this is their choice, I don’t blame them from a legal point of view, but from a moral point of view this is such a very complex topic. So I think that in the end the Olympics in Paris will be very sad. Well, we’ll wait and see

1:34:44 Question:  Dmitrich in one resonant message in Telegram you explained why your posts are so harsh; “I answer I hate them” you wrote. Who you had in mind and who in the political arena you, on the contrary, could call a friend?

DM:  well here everything is just I hate those whom I consider enemies of our country and today this category is not virtual, not evaluative but it is objective. Unfortunately, what about our friends, there are many of them, they live in different countries, they are ordinary people, millions of hundreds of millions of them, just look at social networks, these are the leaders of large countries who are friendly towards Russia, let’s say this. Among our friends we can conditionally include everyone who is not {refers to the political class} of the Anglo-Saxon world, this is a very large number of leading countries. I’m not talking about ordinary people, that’s why everything is simple here.

Thank you Dmitry Anatolyevich

Question:  Well, I’m finishing I propose, but on a satirical note, probably such a satirical cinematic note, I wanted to know if you’ve watched the American satirical film Don’t watch to the top and it came out a long time ago Yes, but it raises the topic of the destruction of humanity and a very important topic of how people manage to massively reject the truth that would seem obvious Well, first of all, if you watched it Did you like the film and don’t you actually think that it’s very relevant today

1:36:19 DM:  I’ll start from the last. Unfortunately very relevant now is another film Oppenheimer. The clock is ticking. As for the film “Don’t Look Up,” I really watched this film. The film is witty ironic showing the ravs of the elite their ravs ru their character there are memorable images, for example the image of the president who plays if not both Meryl Streep who is such a very interesting, completely cynical girl, I don’t know who to compare her with in a modern panopticon, but she probably reminds me partly of a gynecologist Ursula von der Leyen in terms of the degree of deceit and desire to fool the brains of a huge number of people

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Galloway: Israel Has DESTROYED Itself

Par : AHH — 22 février 2024 à 16:56

Host of the Mother of All Talk [MOAT] Shows and former UK MP George Galloway came on the show to discuss the situation in the Middle East and how the growing opposition to Israel’s war spells doom for Netanyahu and the regime. This conversation took place last month but is just as prescient as Yemen’s Red Sea blockage continues and Iran, Lebanon prepare for broader regional war.

 

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Swans of the Apocalypse

Par : AHH — 22 février 2024 à 16:23

🔹Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kazan Aviation Plant named after S. P. Gorbunov, a branch of PJSC Tupolev, during his visit to the capital of Tatarstan. During the inspection of the new aircraft, the head of State suggested naming one of the Tu-160M missile carriers in honor of the first President of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev.

“We are in Tatarstan. Let’s call the new missile carrier Mintimer Shaimiev, ” Putin said, addressing RT President Rustam Minnikhanov. The Tatarstan leader enthusiastically accepted the proposal of the Russian President: “Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich. He deserved it.”

The Head of State was accompanied by Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia, Sergey Shoigu, Minister of Defense of Russia, Igor Komarov, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District, Rustam Minnikhanov, Rais of Tatarstan, Yuri Slyusar, General Director of United Aircraft Corporation, and Nikolay Savitskikh, Director of KAZ.

The Russian leader was shown the aircraft that are being built and upgraded at the enterprise. These are Tu-22M3M strategic bombers, Tu-160M (M2) strategic bombers, and Tu-214 medium-haul narrow-body passenger airliners (as well as special versions of this model).

Kazan Aviation Plant is at a new stage of development, it is stably provided with loading capacity for the future until 2030. The most important stage of a large-scale program of modernization and technical re-equipment of production has already been implemented, which is being implemented with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and in close cooperation with institutes and enterprises of the construction complex of Tatarstan. This made it possible to restore a unique technological cycle on a modern production base, purchase new equipment, and build a new flight test base.

In addition, the unique technology of production of titanium aggregates, which is used in the manufacture of the rotary wing mechanism and welding of the Tu-160M center section beam, has been restored. A deep modernization of the electron beam welding unit and vacuum furnace for titanium products was carried out. The largest complex for processing titanium products in the world has been recreated.

All this has become a reliable base for launching mass production of new deeply modernized strategic bombers-Tu-160M missile carriers, the company notes.


🔹Four deeply modernized, handsome Tu-160Ms in the final assembly shop of the Kazan Aviation Plant during Vladimir Putin’s visit to the enterprise.

The resumption of serial production of missile carriers started in December 2018, and already on January 12, 2022, the newly produced Tu-160M made its first flight.

An earlier trip abroad the White Swan:

🔹🇷🇺 Footage from Kazan before President Vladimir Putin’s flight on the Tu-160M. The motorcade of the head of state drove straight up to the missile carrier. |video| [see following video too] 

The Tu-160M, known as “White Swans” are one of largest and most graceful warplanes on earth, a supersonic strategic bomber of the nuclear triad of the Russian Armed Forces. Putin wasn’t taking a joyride. This was another vivid reminder to the combined West. A message onboard “the Swan of the Apocalypse,” to the possessed supremacist — and dead-on-arrival — Old Order.

☐ ☆ ✇ Global South

Nordstream 3 unter Avdeevka

Par : AHH — 21 février 2024 à 11:28

“Nord Stream Three” and the Russian capture of Avdeevka

by Gilbert Doctorow

In the past several weeks, I have complained that the Vesti news programs on Russian state television had become formulaic. They opened with micro-snapshots of the war from the front without giving an overview. They then featured the misery of civilians in Donbas under Ukrainian fire. They largely ignored all international news.

This evening’s 20.00 o’clock prime time broadcast was a wholly different story. It opened with interviews taken with those who just completed one of the most daring military operations of modern times, the so-called “Nord Stream Three” which we will discuss in a minute. This operation all by itself helps to explain the sudden loss of Avdeevka by Ukraine over the past weekend. And then the program moved on to show lengthy excerpts from a video of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s report earlier in the day to Vladimir Putin that covered a great many topics and will be studied in detail by the global intelligence community. Naturally, I ask why the CIA alone should know this:  I use this opportunity to share with you what I heard and saw. I caught all of this on the fly and cannot say that every number I record below is perfectly correct, but in the contest between speed and accuracy, tonight I knowingly opt for speed.

*****

In my preceding report on Russia’s capture of Avdeevka, I repeated the emphasis on their artillery shell advantage that you will see and hear in Western media accounts.  However, there is another very important side to the victory: outstanding bravery and inventiveness.

Anyone listening to Western media has heard the constant refrain about the outstanding bravery of Ukrainian soldiers.  And there is certainly truth to that assertion.  What you will not have heard at all is the incredible courage of Russian soldiers and officers, who are highly motivated, know why they are fighting and are ready to defend their country’s interests at all costs. The “Nord Stream 3” adventure this past weekend demonstrates that point perfectly. And it further shows that brains are very much at work to complement the brawn.

What we are talking about was the passage of a full Russian brigade through a 3-km long pipe measuring 1.2 to 1.5 meters in diameter leading from their positions outside Avdeevka straight under the enemy lines into the city center.  They managed this passage unheard and unsuspected, so that when they emerged from the pipe-tunnel they overwhelmed the nearby Ukrainian troops and took possession of 19 buildings from which they fought on.  Because of the pipe as conduit, it has been dubbed “Nord Stream 3” but the principle involved was pure “Trojan horse’ tactics.

As the soldier interviewed by Vesti insisted, this operation has the makings of a great film. No doubt one or another producer at Mosfilm will follow this up.

*****

In his report to Putin, Shoigu said that Kiev’s assertions that the surrender of Avdeevka was an orderly strategic withdrawal are a bald-faced lie. This was бегство, chaotic flight in which the Ukrainian troops left behind their hand weapons, not to mention armored personnel carriers and other military equipment. They also left their many wounded behind to die.  Shoigu estimates that the Ukrainians lost 2,300 men in Avdeevka in the two days 17-18 February.

As for Avdeevka itself, he remarked that it had been built and re-built over the course of 9 years to be one of the strongest defense sites in Ukraine, with extensive use of reinforced concrete and defense lines.

Shoigu went on to speak about the latest intelligence conclusions regarding Ukraine’s spring and summer long Counter-Offensive. It is now clear that the entire Counter-Offensive was planned and directed from the United States, which used NATO instructors to instill in the Ukrainians NATO military doctrine and techniques.  The result was an unmitigated military disaster which cost Ukraine 130,000 soldiers dead and seriously wounded. The whole experience left the States and its NATO allies in shock: their doctrine, techniques and hardware had all been overwhelmed and destroyed by the Russians!

Shoigu also reported on the dismal results for Ukraine of its repeated efforts to establish a bridgehead on the Eastern (Left) bank of the Dnieper river in the area of Krynki.  He explained that the hopelessness of this mission did not prevent multiple repetitions of the same landing parties which were first cut off from their supplies by the Russians and then were decimated. The entire area is now fully under RF control.

For his part, Putin moved the discussion to the latest howls coming out of Washington over alleged Russian development of nuclear devices to be stationed in earth orbit.  He rejected this as pure imagination. ‘We don’t have such weapons or such plans.’ Putin believes this sounding of the alarm is intended to frighten legislators into passing the requested new appropriations for Ukraine. Meanwhile, Washington says nothing about the genuinely threatening cutting-edge strategic weapons systems that Russia is developing and deploying, such as the Poseidon underwater nuclear armed drone, the Sarmat and Burevestnik ICBMs and much more that have no equivalent in the West, that overcome all existing and planned defensive equipment and that constitute Russia’s true deterrent.

In conclusion, Putin reiterated recent statements that Russia is always ready to enter into strategic arms limitations talks as a matter of principle, however the talks must take into account all factors. The unacceptable present day factor is that the United States is openly seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the field of battle. Putin is wary of what he calls the never-ending attempts of the United States and its allies to impose one-sided solutions favorable to themselves in all negotiations.

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