Armstrong Economics Blog/Russia Re-Posted May 10, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

The West keeps getting Putin wrong mainly because they have taken the Blue Pill and just repeat the propaganda put out by primarily the United States government. They told all journalists that Putin would formally declare war on Ukraine, institute a draft, and call up all reservists. The Western Press continually denies the existence of any Ukrainian Nazis despite the fact that they are well documented and claims Zelensky could not be a neo-Nazi because he is Jewish and omits the fact that (1) his children were baptized and he is a non-practicing Jew, and (2) the Ukrainian Nazis were exterminating not just Jews, but Polish and Russians. No doubt, Zelensky became Christian because of the prejudice against Jews in Ukraine. But the US never prosecuted any Ukrainian Nazis because they were also ethnically cleansing Russians. Only the German Nazis were put on trial for killing the Jews — Ukrainian Nazis got a free pass.

Of course, Putin did nothing of the kind. But the stories in the Western press are continually pushing for World War III. They are always painting the picture that Russia is being defeated in order to pretend that the West can crush Russia. Nancy Pelosi declared a virtual war in Kyiv, making it clear that there would be no peace talks, and she will not accept anything but victory against Russia. Nowhere do we find the Western Press even acknowledging the existence of the Minsk Agreement that was also to allow the Donbas to secede if they held a free election since they objected to the revolution carried out by the West.

While the West reports that Russia is losing, they hide the stories that show the failure inside the Ukrainian Army. The elite Candian Sharpshooter who made headlines that he was going to Ukraine to support freedom against tyranny, has turned around and returned to Canada. He returned to Quebec, telling local media that his experience there was a “terrible disappointment.” He claimed there was poor training and heavy losses among the Ukrainians, but there was profiteering and desertion in the ranks.

Walli, as he was known, was described by Spanish media as “the best sniper in the world” and praised by the New York Post for “grabbing anti-tank missiles in a warehouse to kill real people.”  But he told La Presse that his Ukrainian commanders initially “didn’t know what to do” with foreign fighters like himself. He grew tired of waiting for an opportunity to fight, so he joined the ‘Norman Brigade,’ which was a private unit led by another former soldier from Quebec. He said that the weapons and armor promised never showed up. He reported that about 60 members of the brigade have since deserted. Others told La Presse that some soldiers “schemed” to steal a $500,000 shipment of American-supplied weapons and form their own unit. The speculation is that the American weapons going to Ukraine may find themselves on the black market as was the case in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

When Zelensky was elected, he promised to reduce the tensions with Russia, for even CNN said back in 2019 that “Ukraine has been locked in a proxy war with Russia for five years, and the conflict has claimed around 13,000 lives in the country’s east.” Of course, now nobody will report the truth that the United States has been fueling this civil war in Ukraine all to stab Russia in the gut – the hated enemies of the Neocons who see all Russians as Stalin.

Interestingly, the Kremlin was hopeful that Zelensky would end the proxy war of the United States against Russia. His predecessor, Poroshenko, was seen as pro-war. In fact, CNN also reported that Russia was optimistic. They wrote:

“There are chances to improve Ukraine’s interaction with our country,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Facebook. “What is needed for this? Honesty. And we need a pragmatic and responsible approach.”

CNN further reported that Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had suggested Kyiv could actually change the direction of the country. CNN quoted her saying, “With all the understanding of how the world works behind the scenes, I’ll still say: Ukraine can go for a reset.” The hope in Russia that Zelensky would carry out his campaign promise to seek peace and end the civil war died very quickly.

The propaganda is overwhelming and is desperately following what Ben Franklin warned about war is when the government tells you who is the bad guy and revolution is when you decide for yourself. The Western Press is always desperate to paint Puttin and Russia as the bad guy. That is classic state propaganda. There are never saints and ethics on the battlefield. You do what you must to survive.

The Telegraph put out the propaganda that Putin’s invasion had failed because it had not gone as planned since he was not “reviewing today’s Victory Day parade in Kyiv’s Independence Square.” From the outset, Putin made it clear he was not interested in conquering Ukraine and was there only to liberate the Russian region of Donbas. When the US invades to take over a country, they first destroy the power grid, communications, and water. Putin has done none of them showing he never intended to conquer Ukraine but just liberate the Donbas as he stated.  The question is rather clear. Why is the press putting out complete propaganda? The May 9th Victory Day Parade is always held in Moscow, and often Americans travel there to celebrate the victory over Hitler’s Nazis.

Putin addressed Russia’s military operation in Ukraine as a preemptive move against future aggression. He outlined this during his Victory Day parade speech in Red Square in Moscow on Monday, which the reviews in the West I read omitted. Putin praised the achievement of the Soviet people during World War II, however, he also addressed the reasons for the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kyiv stating that Russia had to take action because of the large-scale offensive against the republics in the eastern Donbas which has been supported by the American Neocons since 2016. Putin said:

“We saw the military infrastructure unfolding [in Ukraine]; hundreds of foreign advisers starting their work; there were regular deliveries of the most modern weapons from NATO countries. The danger grew every day,” he further explained.

“Russia gave a preemptive rebuff to aggression – this was a forced, timely, and the only right decision by a sovereign, strong and independent country.”

“Despite all the disagreements in international relations, Russia has always advocated the creation of a system of equal and indivisible security.”

Putin also cited Moscow’s many attempts to engage in a peaceful dialogue on security guarantees with Washington since the Biden Administration came to power, which he outright admitted failed to yield any results.  He stated: “NATO countries didn’t want to hear us, which means that, in fact, they harbored completely different plans, and we saw it.” Putin also stated that their intelligence saw open preparations for a punitive operation in the Donbas under Zelensky and “an invasion of our historical lands, including Crimea.” All of this is absolutely true. Putin’s December 2021 effort to prevent the war the West called his “ultimatum” which was unacceptable.

Naturally, the Western press all seem to have omitted much of the substance of Putin’s speech, for it ran counter to the West’s propaganda. Putin also stated that his decision to act was also that Kyiv had announced plans to restore its nuclear capabilities, which made the press the day before the invasion on February 23, 2022. The US invaded Iraq claiming they intended to create nuclear weapons. I also found it very strange that at the Munich Security Conference on February 20, 2022, the United States sent the VP rather than the Secretary of State, who blurted out that Ukraine should join NATO. Even the trade agreement that Yanukovich rejected which led to the Maidan Revolution for not joining the EU had a clause that he agreed to all the rules and regulations of NATO without formally joining NATO which would have been a violation of the Belgrade Agreement. The West has been clearly pushing for war since 2014.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US has increasingly spoken of ‘American exceptionalism,’ Putin pointed out. By spreading those ideas, Washington is “humiliating not only the whole world, but also its satellites, which have to pretend that they don’t notice anything and humbly accept it all. But we are a different country,” he insisted.

Russia has a different character, we’ll never give up on our love for our Motherland, on our faith and traditional values and customs of our ancestors; on respect for all peoples and cultures.

But the West has apparently decided to “cancel” those values, with such “moral degradation becoming the basis for cynical falsifications of the history of World War II, and the incitement of Russophobia,” Putin said.

“We know that American veterans, who wanted to come to the parade in Moscow, were basically banned from doing so,” Putin emphasized, trying not to invoke hatred of the American people as is taking place in the West with the demonization of the Russian people. Putin clearly emphasized that Russia remembered the efforts of the US servicemen and their contribution to victory in World War II.

Putin then pointed out  that “the self-defense forces of the Donbas Republics together with the Russian military are fighting on their land… for the Motherland, for its future, to make sure that no one forgets the lessons of World War II so that there would be no place in the world for butchers, punishers, and Nazis.”

Putin further made it clear that Moscow should not repeat the mistakes of the Soviet leadership of 1940-1941. Back then, he explained, the USSR tried not to provoke Nazi Germany by “refraining or postponing the most urgent and obvious preparations it had to make to defend itself from an imminent attack.” As a result of that delay, Russia was not prepared to counter the invasion. Putin continued: “The attempt to appease the aggressor ahead of the Great Patriotic War proved to be a mistake which came at a high cost for our people…We will not make this mistake the second time. We have no right to do so.”

After looking at the Western Press, I find the reporting very disturbing. They try desperately to paint Russia as losing right down to counting the number of troops parading and reporting it was 1 to 2 thousand less than last year, proving Putin is losing. They fail to point out that on December 21, 2021, Putin laid out the issues causing tension and what needed to be resolved. The West laughed and refused to do anything to defend the ethnic Russians in the Donbas.

Ron Paul wrote in his column on April 22nd, 2022: “War is a racket, wrote US Maj. General Smedley Butler in 1935. He explained: “A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war, a few people make huge fortunes.”

Col. Richard H. Black is a former Republican member of the Virginia State Senate from 2011 to 2020. He did not seek re-election in 2019. The West is putting out nothing but propaganda, and that is obviously a setup for one thing – the overthrow of Russia. Suddenly, the WHO is pushing for total control of the world, forcing digital IDs and vaccination requirements to stop the free movement of people. This is the pre-stage for the push for a one-world government to be under the United Nations.

We face the collapse of Keynesian Economics and the fiscal mismanagement that has taken place since World War II with this constant borrowing with no intention of paying anything back. Combined with the old idea that increasing the money supply is inflationary so it is better to borrow than print, has led to the solution of war because lowering interest rates to NEGATIVE by the European Central Bank in 2014, has wiped out all the pension funds. Without war, the people will be storming the parliaments and probably hanging politicians or carrying their heads on spikes as in the old days.

This is why the West is pushing so desperately for war. My father fought in World War II under General Patton. He let me know that Patton warned back then that Russia was the real enemy and argued to march to Moscow. The reasoning was that they were communists. Those days are long gone. Communism fell and crumbled to the grown for it attempted to alter human nature. But the Neocons do not care if Russia and China are communists anymore. They were enemies back then and they are still enemies today because this is really about ethnic hatred. China may still retain the name the Communist Party, but communism means the government owns everything. Neither China nor Russia are communist today. Instead of building peace, they must now fall because the elites have once again adopted the idea if there is only one government, that will end wars. So we need a war, to end future wars?

Here is the former president of France making that very statement that the purpose of the EU was to end any European war – one government = no war. They forgot their history of Rome. One government, many civil wars.

So while our fearless leaders plot our demise on the battlefield so they do not have to confront the economic nightmare that they have created, the market LIQUIDITY is collapsing rapidly. I would estimate it has imploded by 33% since 2021 and we are headed into a sharp economic recession into 2023. Instead of rational solutions and a public debate, they keep the doors closed to hide the truth from the people while blaming the economic decline and rising inflation on Putin.