Another excellent one! One has to wonder if this is part of the script, setting the stage for some sort of "mutual understanding" whereby the US *appears* to be slowly giving up monopoly control over the world order, smoothing the way for a more "multi-polar" approach favored by many in the WEF.
The Great Reset Phase 2: War, “Special Correspondent, 3/9/22. Particularly this.
"6. This war marks a major inflection point in the globalist aspiration for a new international rules based order anchored in Eurasia.
As the ‘father of geopolitics’ Halford Mackinder opined over a century ago, the rise of every global hegemon in the past 500 years has been possible because of dominance over Eurasia. Similarly, their decline has been associated with losing control over that pivotal landmass.
This causal connection between geography and power has not gone unnoticed by the global network of stakeholders representing the WEF, many of whom have anticipated the transition to a multipolar era and return to great power competition amid America’s receding political and economic influence and a pressing need for what technocrats call smart globalisation.
While America tries desperately to cling to its superpower status, China’s economic ascent and Russia’s regional ambitions threaten to upend the strategic axial points of Eurasia (Western Europe and Asia Pacific).
The region in which America previously enjoyed uncontested hegemony is no longer impervious to cracks and we may be witnessing a changing of the guard which dramatically alters the calculus of global force projection.
Although China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has the potential to unify the world-island (Asia, Africa and Europe) and cause a tectonic shift in the locus of global power, the recent invasion of Ukraine will have far-reaching consequences for China-Europe rail freight.
The Ukrainian President Zelensky claimed that Ukraine could function as the BRI’s gateway to Europe. Therefore, we cannot ignore China’s huge stake in the recent tensions over Ukraine, nor can we ignore NATO’s underlying ambition to check China’s rise in the region by limiting the sale of Ukrainian assets to China and doing everything in its capacity to thwart The Modern Silk Road.
As sanctions push Russia towards consolidating bilateral ties with China and fully integrating with the BRI, a Pan-Eurasian trading bloc may be the realignment which forces a shared governance of the global commons and a reset to the age of US exceptionalism."
Another great song! I've never heard any Soviet Synthpop until now. I'm starting to wonder whether I come her for the next gem of a song or the geo-politics.
Apr 11, 2022·edited Apr 12, 2022Liked by Edward Slavsquat
Good morning/evening, Edward ! Thanks for great article :)
"Empty Shelf Syndrome" is produced by the media flowing False Rumor and inciting the public. By the way, electricity, gas, gasoline and grocery prices have risen in Japan too, but there are no signs that citizens are panic buying yet. XD
And, although the government that is troubled with DISPOSAL OF STOCKS makes the most of the media and TV to promote the 3 booster shots, most of the citizens feels suspected and more than 60% reject it. How is the country of readers here ?
Putin will not succeed in his dream of creating a "multipolar world order" if he doesn't sever ties with the past, abandon the neoliberal policies that have kept the developing world under Uncle Sam's bootheel for the last century, and remove the Central Bank albatross that is draped around Russia's neck.
The time to dump Nabiullina is now !
See: Sergey Glazyev, "We don't want to live under Washington's dictatorship anymore", YouTube (19:30 min)
I've discovered a great article by renowned Washington-based geopolitical and social analyst Mike Whitney, so I'd like to share it with your readers :)
＊Russia's Central Bank Smackdown: Glazyev vs. Nabiullina - By Mike Whitney
We can all remember other instances when Central Bankers took advantage of a crisis to enrich themselves and other members of the banking cabal.
Consider 2008, for example, when the global economy was plunged into an unprecedented financial crisis after a handful of Wall Street bankers sold trillions of dollars of fraudulent Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) to credulous investors triggering a series of catastrophic defaults that dominoed through the system taking down everything in its path while ruining the lives of tens of millions of working people. Of course, the present situation isn't really about personal enrichment. It's about politics; geopolitics, to be precise. The kind of politics that obliterate the host country in order to serve the interests of someone else, namely the global puppet-masters who have the Russian Central Bank in their oily grip. Here's more from Glazyev:
"By the way, I proved mathematically and chronologically that the first wave of sanctions was imposed against Russia only after the Central Bank prepared the ground for this, namely, it let the ruble exchange rate float freely... As soon as the Central Bank moved to this strange policy, the Americans immediately imposed sanctions. Their speculators ensured the collapse of the ruble exchange rate, this caused an inflationary wave, and the Central Bank, on the instructions of the IMF, raised the interest rate, which completely paralyzed our economy. The total damage from this policy today has already reached 50 trillion rubles of non-produced products and about 20 trillion rubles of unfinished investments. Now you have to add to this the 300 billion dollars invested in foreign assets, which are now frozen – that's the damage." ("Events Like These Only Happen Once Every Century (Sergey Glazyev)". The Saker)
So, Nabiullina maintained the free-floating exchange rate regime knowing that the ruble would be savaged by speculators. And, then– as soon as the value of the ruble plummeted– she followed the IMF's marching orders to raise rates as high as possible in order to maximize the damage to the economy. In other words, she administered the "double-whammy" which –in Glazyev's words– "completely paralyzed our economy." Here's more from Glazyev:
"..... in our country the weakest point of the entire national security system in general is the Central Bank. Its leadership is hit by the enemy's cognitive-weapon, in other words, zombified by it. In fact, our monetary authorities are doing what the enemy needs."
Check out this quote (Google translate) from the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Mikhail Delyagin:
"Nabiullina is a symbol of money starvation from the country. She is a symbol of a policy that blocks development, that deprives Russia of all prospects. She is only rewarded for this... (She) refuses to fulfill (The Bank of Russia's) constitutional obligations to ensure the stability of the national currency... Nabiullina has provided a gift to our enemies, keeping from 315 to 400 billion dollars so that we have lost this money. In 2013, the appointment of Nabiullina was synonymous with a financial and economic catastrophe.. To get the support of the president, you must destroy the country..." ("Russia's central bank chief: Incompetent or just misunderstood?", Edward Slavsquat)
Nabiullina's policies are starving the economy of desperately-needed capital investment. They're undermining development, growth and employment. Additionally, she exposed Russia's multi-billion-dollar reserves to foreign seizure. For that alone, she should have been terminated, instead, she was allowed to continue at her post overseeing the subsequent battering of the ruble followed by her deranged lifting of key interest rates. The Russian bank chief is a one-man wrecking crew. Here's Glazyev again:
"These interests run counter to the interests of the country, they are directly opposite to them. And, if you look at what the Central Bank is doing today, I have no doubts that it continues the policy of actually pandering to the enemy. It undermines macroeconomic stability by allowing international speculators to manipulate the ruble exchange rate and does not control the foreign exchange position of banks that have become currency speculators, although the Central Bank could easily withdraw banks from the foreign exchange market by fixing their foreign exchange position, forbidding banks to buy foreign currency. And secondly – by raising the interest rate, the Central Bank actually killed investments in the development of the Russian economy, which are very much needed right now, primarily for import substitution and for the restoration of economic sovereignty..." ("Sanctions and sovereignty", Sergei Glazyev, rentry.com)
Overcast day in Belarus -Tuesday April 12 -no rain. My point is Russians/Belarusians WOULD be better served by self-making lemonade from USA/EU/worldwide ANTI-capitalist LEMON sanctions.
1) Forget FIAT dollars. Now is the time for Russians to buy GOLD. (Really wish Belarus would allow us to buy gold as well.) Please correct my math if wrong. At $1900 per ounce that calculates to $60 a gram. Russians would have lost money if gold was bought when ruble dropped to 120 rubles to dollar ($63 per gram). Now at 80 rubles to dollar ($52 per gram). Since ruble is close to 80 rubles to dollar now ( Source>https://www.moex.com/ :> then I recommend Russians to buy gold NOW. Russia sells at 5000 rubles per gram that last time I researched.
2) Belarus has local food stores in so many places. Belarus has NEVER had a food shortage except during the "GREAT RESET" in 1990s when Soviet money became ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS. There is an abundance of mason jar food that locals sell to earn "extra" income near the huge market in Minsk. My point is Russians SHOULD research to find LOCAL sellers.
3) Inflation is a greed factor in Belarus too since prices have risen as well. I can still get 700 grams of delicious buckwheat for under 4 Belarusian rubles. Olives from Greece now cost 28 rubles when olives used to cost 12 rubles last year this time. Higher cost items (>car, laptop) are definitely an issue. >My point is buy BIG ticket items now as inflation in Russia/Belarus may get worse. Personally looking into buying a new laptop now.
4) People OUTSIDE of Russia and Belarus have NO idea of how hard sanctions are for us. Yet we will adapt, be more self-sufficient in our local networks, and RESENT even more those who have unfairly placed ANTI-capitalist sanctions on us. I am hoping to fly out of Belarus this summer to USA if USA/Russia stop this STUPID PCR testing nonsense. The flight cost is 1 thing however flight scheduling is EXTREMELY UNFAIRLY limited.
5) Would Russians contemplate a move to Belarus in order to start a new life/business? I did.
Info only> Russia Central Bank Governor Elvira (mistress of the dark) Nabiullina says Russia holds enough yuan and gold in its reserves to limit the impact of Western sanctions – even after Washington and its allies unilaterally froze half the country’s holdings in dollars and other currencies. Elvira cut the share of dollars in reserves to 10.9% as of January 2022 from 21.2% a year earlier. Meanwhile, euro holdings reportedly rose to 33.9% from 29.2%. At the same time, yuan holdings grew to 17.1% from 12.8% a year earlier, while the share of gold held steady at 21.5% BECAUSE Elvira STOPPED buying gold in March 2020. Coincidence?
Russia's economy has been underestimated in the West.
"If you compare Russia's GDP by converting from rubles to $, you indeed get an economy the size of Spain's. However this is the worst possible way of comparing the size of economies..."
Russia has much more of its own manufacturing and resources than some foolhardy superpower states (you know the ones) that spent the last three decades or so recklessly offshoring everything to where the labor was cheap and the laws lax. Russia was never as thoroughly globalized to begin with, and that may be a big advantage if the rapacious international banksters can be curbed. Good luck!
Many thanks Edward - your reports from inside Russia are most valuable for me in writing my own reports from Great Britain. Combining this with my contact in China and I think I have a chance of cutting through the propaganda on all sides:
Surely the entire thing was scripted decades ago? I view Putin, Xi and Biden as little more than Gauleiters. They really are quite low in the pecking order. If then can take out an American President with impunity, then removing Putin or Xi really isn't a problem. After all they have just liquidated several international leaders in the last two years and a British MP and barely anyone bats an eyelid.
Another excellent one! One has to wonder if this is part of the script, setting the stage for some sort of "mutual understanding" whereby the US *appears* to be slowly giving up monopoly control over the world order, smoothing the way for a more "multi-polar" approach favored by many in the WEF.
https://winteroak.org.uk/2022/03/09/the-great-reset-phase-2-war/
The Great Reset Phase 2: War, “Special Correspondent, 3/9/22. Particularly this.
"6. This war marks a major inflection point in the globalist aspiration for a new international rules based order anchored in Eurasia.
As the ‘father of geopolitics’ Halford Mackinder opined over a century ago, the rise of every global hegemon in the past 500 years has been possible because of dominance over Eurasia. Similarly, their decline has been associated with losing control over that pivotal landmass.
This causal connection between geography and power has not gone unnoticed by the global network of stakeholders representing the WEF, many of whom have anticipated the transition to a multipolar era and return to great power competition amid America’s receding political and economic influence and a pressing need for what technocrats call smart globalisation.
While America tries desperately to cling to its superpower status, China’s economic ascent and Russia’s regional ambitions threaten to upend the strategic axial points of Eurasia (Western Europe and Asia Pacific).
The region in which America previously enjoyed uncontested hegemony is no longer impervious to cracks and we may be witnessing a changing of the guard which dramatically alters the calculus of global force projection.
Although China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has the potential to unify the world-island (Asia, Africa and Europe) and cause a tectonic shift in the locus of global power, the recent invasion of Ukraine will have far-reaching consequences for China-Europe rail freight.
The Ukrainian President Zelensky claimed that Ukraine could function as the BRI’s gateway to Europe. Therefore, we cannot ignore China’s huge stake in the recent tensions over Ukraine, nor can we ignore NATO’s underlying ambition to check China’s rise in the region by limiting the sale of Ukrainian assets to China and doing everything in its capacity to thwart The Modern Silk Road.
As sanctions push Russia towards consolidating bilateral ties with China and fully integrating with the BRI, a Pan-Eurasian trading bloc may be the realignment which forces a shared governance of the global commons and a reset to the age of US exceptionalism."
Another great song! I've never heard any Soviet Synthpop until now. I'm starting to wonder whether I come her for the next gem of a song or the geo-politics.
Good morning/evening, Edward ! Thanks for great article :)
"Empty Shelf Syndrome" is produced by the media flowing False Rumor and inciting the public. By the way, electricity, gas, gasoline and grocery prices have risen in Japan too, but there are no signs that citizens are panic buying yet. XD
And, although the government that is troubled with DISPOSAL OF STOCKS makes the most of the media and TV to promote the 3 booster shots, most of the citizens feels suspected and more than 60% reject it. How is the country of readers here ?
Putin will not succeed in his dream of creating a "multipolar world order" if he doesn't sever ties with the past, abandon the neoliberal policies that have kept the developing world under Uncle Sam's bootheel for the last century, and remove the Central Bank albatross that is draped around Russia's neck.
The time to dump Nabiullina is now !
See: Sergey Glazyev, "We don't want to live under Washington's dictatorship anymore", YouTube (19:30 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHhpZ9XaYSo&t=203s
I've discovered a great article by renowned Washington-based geopolitical and social analyst Mike Whitney, so I'd like to share it with your readers :)
＊Russia's Central Bank Smackdown: Glazyev vs. Nabiullina - By Mike Whitney
https://www.globalresearch.ca/central-bank-smackdown-glazyev-vs-nabiullina/5776835
We can all remember other instances when Central Bankers took advantage of a crisis to enrich themselves and other members of the banking cabal.
Consider 2008, for example, when the global economy was plunged into an unprecedented financial crisis after a handful of Wall Street bankers sold trillions of dollars of fraudulent Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) to credulous investors triggering a series of catastrophic defaults that dominoed through the system taking down everything in its path while ruining the lives of tens of millions of working people. Of course, the present situation isn't really about personal enrichment. It's about politics; geopolitics, to be precise. The kind of politics that obliterate the host country in order to serve the interests of someone else, namely the global puppet-masters who have the Russian Central Bank in their oily grip. Here's more from Glazyev:
"By the way, I proved mathematically and chronologically that the first wave of sanctions was imposed against Russia only after the Central Bank prepared the ground for this, namely, it let the ruble exchange rate float freely... As soon as the Central Bank moved to this strange policy, the Americans immediately imposed sanctions. Their speculators ensured the collapse of the ruble exchange rate, this caused an inflationary wave, and the Central Bank, on the instructions of the IMF, raised the interest rate, which completely paralyzed our economy. The total damage from this policy today has already reached 50 trillion rubles of non-produced products and about 20 trillion rubles of unfinished investments. Now you have to add to this the 300 billion dollars invested in foreign assets, which are now frozen – that's the damage." ("Events Like These Only Happen Once Every Century (Sergey Glazyev)". The Saker)
So, Nabiullina maintained the free-floating exchange rate regime knowing that the ruble would be savaged by speculators. And, then– as soon as the value of the ruble plummeted– she followed the IMF's marching orders to raise rates as high as possible in order to maximize the damage to the economy. In other words, she administered the "double-whammy" which –in Glazyev's words– "completely paralyzed our economy." Here's more from Glazyev:
"..... in our country the weakest point of the entire national security system in general is the Central Bank. Its leadership is hit by the enemy's cognitive-weapon, in other words, zombified by it. In fact, our monetary authorities are doing what the enemy needs."
Check out this quote (Google translate) from the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Mikhail Delyagin:
"Nabiullina is a symbol of money starvation from the country. She is a symbol of a policy that blocks development, that deprives Russia of all prospects. She is only rewarded for this... (She) refuses to fulfill (The Bank of Russia's) constitutional obligations to ensure the stability of the national currency... Nabiullina has provided a gift to our enemies, keeping from 315 to 400 billion dollars so that we have lost this money. In 2013, the appointment of Nabiullina was synonymous with a financial and economic catastrophe.. To get the support of the president, you must destroy the country..." ("Russia's central bank chief: Incompetent or just misunderstood?", Edward Slavsquat)
Nabiullina's policies are starving the economy of desperately-needed capital investment. They're undermining development, growth and employment. Additionally, she exposed Russia's multi-billion-dollar reserves to foreign seizure. For that alone, she should have been terminated, instead, she was allowed to continue at her post overseeing the subsequent battering of the ruble followed by her deranged lifting of key interest rates. The Russian bank chief is a one-man wrecking crew. Here's Glazyev again:
"These interests run counter to the interests of the country, they are directly opposite to them. And, if you look at what the Central Bank is doing today, I have no doubts that it continues the policy of actually pandering to the enemy. It undermines macroeconomic stability by allowing international speculators to manipulate the ruble exchange rate and does not control the foreign exchange position of banks that have become currency speculators, although the Central Bank could easily withdraw banks from the foreign exchange market by fixing their foreign exchange position, forbidding banks to buy foreign currency. And secondly – by raising the interest rate, the Central Bank actually killed investments in the development of the Russian economy, which are very much needed right now, primarily for import substitution and for the restoration of economic sovereignty..." ("Sanctions and sovereignty", Sergei Glazyev, rentry.com)
Overcast day in Belarus -Tuesday April 12 -no rain. My point is Russians/Belarusians WOULD be better served by self-making lemonade from USA/EU/worldwide ANTI-capitalist LEMON sanctions.
1) Forget FIAT dollars. Now is the time for Russians to buy GOLD. (Really wish Belarus would allow us to buy gold as well.) Please correct my math if wrong. At $1900 per ounce that calculates to $60 a gram. Russians would have lost money if gold was bought when ruble dropped to 120 rubles to dollar ($63 per gram). Now at 80 rubles to dollar ($52 per gram). Since ruble is close to 80 rubles to dollar now ( Source>https://www.moex.com/ :> then I recommend Russians to buy gold NOW. Russia sells at 5000 rubles per gram that last time I researched.
2) Belarus has local food stores in so many places. Belarus has NEVER had a food shortage except during the "GREAT RESET" in 1990s when Soviet money became ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS. There is an abundance of mason jar food that locals sell to earn "extra" income near the huge market in Minsk. My point is Russians SHOULD research to find LOCAL sellers.
3) Inflation is a greed factor in Belarus too since prices have risen as well. I can still get 700 grams of delicious buckwheat for under 4 Belarusian rubles. Olives from Greece now cost 28 rubles when olives used to cost 12 rubles last year this time. Higher cost items (>car, laptop) are definitely an issue. >My point is buy BIG ticket items now as inflation in Russia/Belarus may get worse. Personally looking into buying a new laptop now.
4) People OUTSIDE of Russia and Belarus have NO idea of how hard sanctions are for us. Yet we will adapt, be more self-sufficient in our local networks, and RESENT even more those who have unfairly placed ANTI-capitalist sanctions on us. I am hoping to fly out of Belarus this summer to USA if USA/Russia stop this STUPID PCR testing nonsense. The flight cost is 1 thing however flight scheduling is EXTREMELY UNFAIRLY limited.
5) Would Russians contemplate a move to Belarus in order to start a new life/business? I did.
Info only> Russia Central Bank Governor Elvira (mistress of the dark) Nabiullina says Russia holds enough yuan and gold in its reserves to limit the impact of Western sanctions – even after Washington and its allies unilaterally froze half the country’s holdings in dollars and other currencies. Elvira cut the share of dollars in reserves to 10.9% as of January 2022 from 21.2% a year earlier. Meanwhile, euro holdings reportedly rose to 33.9% from 29.2%. At the same time, yuan holdings grew to 17.1% from 12.8% a year earlier, while the share of gold held steady at 21.5% BECAUSE Elvira STOPPED buying gold in March 2020. Coincidence?
"Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told the State Duma it would take six months to 'reorganize' the economy."
That's what I call progress! Under the Soviets, that type of thing used to take five whole years!
Lust makes people do crazy things. The West's lust to crush Russia is destroying the West.
Russia's economy has been underestimated in the West.
"If you compare Russia's GDP by converting from rubles to $, you indeed get an economy the size of Spain's. However this is the worst possible way of comparing the size of economies..."
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1513005692986175498.html
Russia has much more of its own manufacturing and resources than some foolhardy superpower states (you know the ones) that spent the last three decades or so recklessly offshoring everything to where the labor was cheap and the laws lax. Russia was never as thoroughly globalized to begin with, and that may be a big advantage if the rapacious international banksters can be curbed. Good luck!
Many thanks Edward - your reports from inside Russia are most valuable for me in writing my own reports from Great Britain. Combining this with my contact in China and I think I have a chance of cutting through the propaganda on all sides:
https://austrianpeter.substack.com/p/media-complicit-stress-in-germany?s=w
Education costs? I thought Russia didn't have for profit education lol
But then I did see your article about how health care is a mess there
Surely the entire thing was scripted decades ago? I view Putin, Xi and Biden as little more than Gauleiters. They really are quite low in the pecking order. If then can take out an American President with impunity, then removing Putin or Xi really isn't a problem. After all they have just liquidated several international leaders in the last two years and a British MP and barely anyone bats an eyelid.
Very funny. I came across that song just the other day by sheer coincidence and sent the link to Musos in NZ: a brilliant studio video.
“Re At Dawn, 1987
That was awesome, poignant, and the audience; really feeling it. I'm thinking it's post Soviet era though, perhaps, maybe....now hunting for more!”
https://youtu.be/H6wl-EyhXl0