Category Archives: Eurasian Axis

Meet the New Boss; Putin Reroutes Critical Hydrocarbons Eastward Leaving Europe High-and-Dry, by Mike Whitney

Posted on June 16, 2022 | Leave a comment

Putin is indeed giving Europe the energy middle finger. From Mike Whitney at unz.com:

“Rejection of Russian energy resources means that Europe will become the region with the highest energy costs in the world. This will seriously undermine the competitiveness of European industry which is already losing the competition to companies in other parts of the world…. Our Western colleagues seem to have forgotten the elementary laws of economics, or simply prefer to ignore them.” Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation

On Tuesday, Russia announced a 40% reduction in the flow of natural gas to Germany through the Nord Stream pipeline. The announcement, that was made by Gazprom officials, sent tremors through the European gas market where prices quickly soared to new highs. In Germany—where prices have tripled in the last three months—the news was met with gasps of horror. With inflation already running at a 40-year high, this latest reduction in supply is certain to tip the German economy into recession or worse. All of Europe is now feeling the impact of Washington’s misguided sanctions on Russia. Here’s more from Oil Price website:

“Russia’s Gazprom said on Tuesday that it would limit natural gas supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany by 40 percent compared to planned flows because of a delay in equipment repairs… The lower supply of gas via Nord Stream to the biggest European economy, Germany, sent Europe’s gas prices surging by double digits...

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Posted in Economics, Economy, Energy, Eurasian Axis, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Politics, Propaganda, Trade, War

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The ‘New G8’ Meets China’s ‘Three Rings’, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on June 16, 2022 | Leave a comment

Much of the world is not just turning its back on the U.S., it is constructing an alternative order. From Pepe Escobar at thesaker.is:

The coming of the new G8 points to the inevitable advent of BRICS +, one of the key themes to be discussed in the upcoming BRICS summit in China.

The speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, may have created the defining acronym for the emerging multipolar world: “the new G8”.

As Volodin noted, “the United States has created conditions with its own hands so that countries wishing to build an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial relations will actually form a ‘new G8’ together with Russia.”

This non Russia-sanctioning G8, he added, is 24.4% ahead of the old one, which is in fact the G7, in terms of GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP), as G7 economies are on the verge of collapsing and the U.S. registers record inflation.

The power of the acronym was confirmed by one of the researchers on Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergei Fedorov: three BRICS members (Brazil, China and India) alongside Russia, plus Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Mexico, all non adherents to the all-out Western economic war against Russia, will soon dominate global markets.

Fedorov stressed the power of the new G8 in population as well as economically: “If the West, which restricted all international organizations, follows its own policies, and pressures everyone, then why are these organizations necessary? Russia does not follow these rules.”

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Posted in Banking, Business, Economics, Economy, Energy, Eurasian Axis, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Politics, Science, Technology, Trade

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Kiev Regime Admits Grain of Truth in Global Food Crisis, by Karl Haki

Posted on June 10, 2022 | 1 comment

The grain of truth is that Ukraine is saying that perhaps, just maybe, they put down mines in the Black Sea. From Karl Haki at strategic-culture.org:

A regime that commits massacres against its own people as a propaganda device to smear Russia is not going to own up to anything.

The NATO-backed Kiev regime has admitted to blockading its own Black Sea ports by mining the sea lanes for cargo ships exporting vital supplies of wheat and other food staples.

The disruption of civilian shipping – a putative war crime – has unleashed fears of a global food crisis from soaring price inflation and critical shortages of wheat and other grains. Ukraine and Russia account for about one-third of the global supply of cereals.

Of course, Western governments and media have repeatedly blamed Russia and its four-month-old military intervention in Ukraine for wreaking havoc on global food markets. Washington and its European allies have accused Moscow of holding the world hostage to fears of famine and using global food supplies as “blackmail”.

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Posted in Energy, Eurasian Axis, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Horseshit, Media, Military, Money, Politics, Propaganda, War

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Will the Global South break free from dollarized debt?By Pepe Escobar

Posted on June 10, 2022 | Leave a comment

If the South can break free, it’s a whole new world. From Pepe Escobar at thesaker.is:

n his latest book, economist Michael Hudson pits socialism against finance capitalism and tears apart the ‘dream civilization’ imposed by the 1 percent.

By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and cross-posted with The Cradle

Michael Hudson’s new book on the world’s urgent global economic re-set is sure to ruffle some Atlanticist feathers. Photo Credit: The Cradle

With The Destiny of Civilization: Finance Capitalism, Industrial Capitalism or Socialism, Michael Hudson, one of the world’s leading independent economists, has given us arguably the ultimate handbook on where we’re at, who’s in charge, and whether we can bypass them.

Let’s jump straight into the fray. Hudson begins with an analysis of the “take the money and run” ethos, complete with de-industrialization, as 90 percent of US corporate revenue is “used to share buybacks and dividend payouts to support company stock prices.”

That represents the apex of “Finance Capitalism’s” political strategy: to “capture the public sector and shift monetary and banking power” to Wall Street, the City of London and other western financial centers.

The whole Global South will easily recognize the imperial modus operandi: “The strategy of US military and financial imperialism is to install client oligarchies and dictatorships, and arm-twist allies to join the fight against designated adversaries by subsidizing not only the empire’s costs of war-making (“defense”) but even the imperial nation’s domestic spending programs.” This is the antithesis of the multipolar world advocated by Russia and China.

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Posted in Book Reviews, Business, Currencies, Debt, demographics, Economics, Eurasian Axis, Geopolitics, Governments, Imperialism, Intelligence, Military, Nonfiction, Politics, Propaganda

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Washington Starts Blame Game Over Defeat In Ukraine, by Moon of Alabama

Posted on June 10, 2022 | 1 comment

Failure is an orphan and there are a lot of media and government stalwarts who are trying to back away from the failed Ukraine initiative they championed. From Moon of Alabama at moonofalabama.org:

The New York Times, here via Yahoo, has some rather weird piece over alleged lack of intelligence on Ukrainian warplanes:

U.S. Lacks a Clear Picture of Ukraine’s War Strategy, Officials Say

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has provided near-daily updates of Russia’s invasion on social media; viral video posts have shown the effectiveness of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian forces; and the Pentagon has regularly held briefings on developments in the war.

But despite the flow of all this news to the public, U.S. intelligence agencies have less information than they would like about Ukraine’s operations and possess a far better picture of Russia’s military, its planned operations and its successes and failures, according to current and former officials.

Governments often withhold information from the public for operational security. But these information gaps within the U.S. government could make it more difficult for the Biden administration to decide how to target military aid as it sends billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine.
…
Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, testified at a Senate hearing last month that “it was very hard to tell” how much additional aid Ukraine could absorb.

She added: “We have, in fact, more insight, probably, on the Russian side than we do on the Ukrainian side.”

One key question is what measures Zelenskyy intends to call for in Donbas. Ukraine faces a strategic choice there: withdraw its forces or risk having them encircled by Russia.

Andrei Martyanov rants about the piece:

Well, NYT decided to start steering clear of this whole Russia “lost in Ukraine” BS it promoted together with neocon crazies, and begins this ever familiar tune of the “intel failure”. Right.

U.S. Lacks a Clear Picture of Ukraine’s War Strategy, Officials Say

Hm, how about I put it bluntly–the U.S. never had clear picture on anything, especially on Russia, or, as a private case, [the Special Military Operation] and completely bought into Ukie propaganda, which shows a complete incompetence of the “intel” in the US.

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Posted in Collapse, Eurasian Axis, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Intelligence, Military, Politics, Propaganda, War

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The Coming Global Fracture as Economic Orders Clash, by Michael Hudson

Posted on June 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

It’s a battle between state-directed economic philosophies. From Michael Hudson at unz.com:

“Taken from an interview with the newly founded German magazine “ViER” which will be published in August 2022.” ViER (FOUR), stands for the media as fourth power in checks and balances).

(1.) Prof. Hudson, your new book “The Destiny of Civilization” is out now. This lecture series on finance capitalism and the New Cold War presents an overview of your unique geo-political perspective.

You talk about an ongoing ideological and material conflict between financialized and de-industrialized countries like United States against the mixed-economies of China and Russia. What is this conflict about and why is the world right now at a unique “point of fracture” as your book states?

Today’s global fracture is dividing the world between two different economic philosophies: In the US/NATO West, finance capitalism is de-industrializing economies and has shifted manufacturing to Eurasian leadership, above all China, India and other Asian countries in conjunction with Russia providing basic raw materials and arms.

These countries are a basic extension of industrial capitalism evolving into socialism, that is, into a mixed economy with strong government infrastructure investment to provide education, health care, transportation and other basic needs by treating them as public utilities with subsidized or free services for these needs.

In the neoliberal US/NATO West, by contrast, this basic infrastructure is privatized as a rent-extracting natural monopoly.

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Posted in Business, Capitalism, Currencies, Debt, Economics, Economy, Energy, Eurasian Axis, Financial markets, Geopolitics, Governments, Trade

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Bilderberg does China, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on June 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Bilderberg worthies ponder the rise of China. From Pepe Escobar at thesaker.is:

When Davos and Bilderberg messenger boys look at The Grand Chessboard, they realize that their era of perpetual free lunch is over.

Discreetly, as under the radar as a looming virus, the 68th Bilderberg meeting  is currently underway in Washington, D.C. Nothing to see here. No conspiracy theories about a “secret cabal”, please. This is just a docile, “diverse group of political leaders and experts” having a chat, a laugh, and a bubbly.

Still, one cannot but notice that the choice of venue speaks more volumes than the entire – burned to the ground – Library of Alexandria. In the year heralding the explosion of a much-awaited NATO vs. Russia proxy war, discussing its myriad ramifications does suit the capital of the Empire of Lies, much more than Davos a few weeks ago, where one Henry Kissinger sent them into a frenzy by advancing the necessity of a toxic compromise named “diplomacy”.

The list of Bilderberg 2022 participants is a joy to peruse. Here are just some of the stalwarts:

James Baker, Consigliere extraordinaire, now a mere Director of the Office of Net Assessment at the Pentagon.

José Manuel Barroso, former head of the European Commission, later the recipient of a golden parachute in the form of Chairman of Goldman Sachs International.

Albert Bourla, the Pfizer Big Guy.

William Burns, CIA director.

Kurt Campbell, the guy who invented the Obama/Hillary “pivot to Asia”, now White House Coordinator for Indo-Pacific.

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Posted in Eurasian Axis, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Media, Politics, Propaganda

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Russia Sends Record Volumes Of Oil To India, China, by Tsvetana Paraskova

Posted on May 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

The U.S. is just killing Russia with its sanctions. From Tsvetana Paraskova at oilprice.com:

  • India and China have stepped up purchases and are importing record volumes of Russian crude.
  • some Chinese state giants haven’t ramped up imports of spot cargoes from Russia despite steep discounts.
  • China registered in April its first annual increase in crude oil imports.

While Europe shuns Russian oil amid sanctions and expectations of an oil embargo on Russian oil imports, India and China have stepped up purchases and are importing record volumes of Russian crude, according to data from energy analytics company Kpler cited by Bloomberg on Friday.

Russia had up to 79 million barrels of crude either traveling on tankers or held in floating storage over the past week, Kpler’s estimates have shown. That’s more than double the 27 million barrels of crude Russia had seaborne in February, just before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

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The Eurasian Economic Union Steps Up, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on May 28, 2022 | Leave a comment

There’s quite a contrast between what participants in the Eurasion Economic Union are offered and what the U.S. offers: bullets, bombs, and regime change. From Pepe Escobar at strategic-culture.org:

The Eurasian Economic Forum has shown once again that this high-speed – economic integration – train has already left the station.

The first Eurasian Economic Forum, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, took place this week at a very sensitive geopolitical juncture, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov keeps stressing that, “the West has declared total war against us, against the entire Russian world. Nobody even hides this now.”

It’s always important to remember that before Maidan in 2014, Ukraine had the option to become a full member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and even balance it with a loose association with the EU.

The EAEU comprises five full members – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia – yet 14 nations sent delegations to the forum, including China, Vietnam and Latin American nations.

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Posted in Banking, Business, Economics, Economy, Eurasian Axis, Geopolitics, Governments, History

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The Ongoing Economic War, by Michael Hudson

Posted on May 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Ukraine-Russia war is the U.S.’s effort to prevent Europe from aligning economically with Russia and China. From Michael Hudson at unz.com:

Peter Scott, RT anchor: Joining us now is Michael Hudson, economist and author of “Super-Imperialism” and the recently-published “Destiny of Civilization”. Welcome to the programme, Michael.

Michael Hudson: It’s good to be back.

PS: Let’s say all these European programmes like the REPOWER Programme come into effect, how do you expect the EU standing to be on the stage after that?

MH: Well, the EU standing will be squeezed economically. It was trying to be a powerhouse in the world economy but in the last month the euro has been declining steadily against the dollar and it’s on the way to one dollar per euro. That’s because it’s having to pay much foreign exchange for energy, for food, for weapons. It’s shrinking in terms of other economies.

PS: Where do you think the EU’s standing will be in relation to powerhouses such as China?

MH: Well, it’s obviously out of the game. Instead of putting its own interests first, it’s really putting the US interests first. It’s acting more like a satellite of the United States thank trying to its own destiny. The whole plan of the EU 20 years ago was to get rich by investing in Russia, investing in China and a mutual exchange. And now it’s decided to stop that. The US has absorbed Europe. The war in Ukraine is a war by the US primarily to pull Europe into the US orbit, prevent European transactions with Russia or China. So Western Europe is being left out, while Russia, China and Eurasia are going with the rest of Asia. Europe is simply going to be left behind. It’s losing its export markets, it’s being squeezed and -as you just mentioned- it’s pushed up the retirement age because it’s spending its budget on replenishing American military arms instead of investing in industry as it had been doing since 1945.

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Posted in Business, Economics, Economy, Eurasian Axis, Geopolitics, Governments, War

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