Posted 0riginally on May 6, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Russia is changing its game. I have been warned that Putin has been under pressure to deal with the real threat to Russia, the US, the UK, and NATO. Ukraine is just a mercenary soldier who is expendable as far as the West is concerned. Nobody cares about Ukrainians. They are just there to kill Russians. As I have warned, nobody in Washington has EVER expected Ukraine to win. The real powers, the US, the UK, and NATO, are all stepping up the game, and they are preparing for World War III and want to destroy Russia utterly.
The game is changing here on May 7th. All I can pray is that Ukraine does not do something really stupid because, on May 7th, Putin will be inaugurated.
Posted originally on the CTH on May 1, 2024 | Sundance
Aleksandr Dugin is the most famous political philosopher in Russia. His ideas are considered so dangerous the Ukrainian government murdered his daughter, and Amazon won’t sell his books. Tucker Carlson talked to him in Moscow.
Watching this interview while sitting in a kitchen in Russia is a little odd, however, what Dugin explains does seem to lineup with my perspective as an American in Russia. The explanation for why leftists (progressives) in the USA seemingly reversed their entire worldview about Russia in a decade does seem to make sense.
I have shared that modern Russian social society is much more traditional than the expressed Western value system you find embodied in progressives. Russia is far more nationalistic and less globalist; meanwhile, the USA has moved far closer to globalism and is less nationalistic. Within this shift, the change in democracy also reconciles.
As Dugin notes, Western democracy is no longer about the majority of the citizens; the national identity has been erased in favor of governing rules by a minority. The commonality of sex (two genders) has been erased in favor of multiple-gender identity, expanded individualism, which is simply a reflection of the fractured bond of commonality. It is an interesting conversation. WATCH:
It should be noted before people in the USA and English speaking “West” start running around with romantic images of Russia, that the Russian people do not think about such issues… AT ALL. The average Russian thinks about social politics about as much as the average American, which is to say – not much at all.
However, all of that said, someone asked me about COVID-19 in Russia and what was the general sensibility of the issue. I have had some rather fascinating discussions thanks to that question.
I never thought I would find a population more cynical about COVID-19, the “pandemic of ’20/’21” and the vaccine protocol than Americans on average. I was wrong. In my conversations with Russians about it, the average person in Russia was far more cynical than the average American.
I’m not sure why, but a larger than 50% group of the Russian people did not buy into the fear and hype. From the conversations I have encountered, more than half the population didn’t trust the claims by the Western medical establishment.
Additionally, fewer than half the population of Russia appear to have accepted the vaccine. We are told the vaccine compliance rate for the first injection in the USA was around 65 to 70%. It does not seem like 70% of Russians took the vaccine; it seems that Russia had a much lower compliance rate based on responses to the question.
I’m not exactly sure why the biggest segment of the Russian population didn’t fall for the COVID-19 pandemic hype; perhaps their cynicism against “institutions” of a totalitarian state helped them on this subject, I don’t know. However, the most frequent response is the average Russian just didn’t believe COVID-19 was as dangerous as the various health agencies were saying it was.
The government of Russia pushed the vaccine, perhaps not as aggressively as the USA and other Western countries, but they did push it hard. However, it appears much less than half the population followed the govt advice.
I’ll have more later on some granular Russian dynamics as they appear to present.
It really is bizarre being here in Russia. There are zero Western tourists or travelers in this country. The only tourists and/or foreigners Russia has seen for over two years are all from Asia (mostly China). When the average Russian hears my American voice speaking English, the immediate reaction is shock, followed by extreme curiosity – it’s wild.
There’s nothing to be fearful about or worried about. Everywhere seems to be safe, orderly and exceptionally well cultured; maybe even a little annoyingly so. The polite and unwritten social rules are followed by everyone with a general compliance unlike anything I can remember seeing in the USA. Everything from how you cross the street to obeying social standards on subway travel is extraordinarily polite and mannerly; factually it’s a little weird.
Do not romanticize Russia in your mind’s-eye; there are major issues here, and the quality of life in the average USA neighborhood is much higher. However, on the cultural part of polite social norms, most Russian social life is like a step back into the 1950’s USA with perhaps a bigger dose of visible counter-culture evident.
The USA boomer generation would recognize the shallow coldness behind the eyes of Russians who avoid eye contact and appear to be task oriented in life. Oddly, if you grew up as a USA Gen-Xer, socially current Russia is probably more like the place of your fond memories, and going to a large shopping mall is like stepping back in time 30 years. If, however, you have a gen-Z or ‘zoomer’ in the familial crew, they would think modern social Russia is backwards and too regimented.
From what I can tell, those Western (generational) viewpoints are entirely due to the speed of transition that Dugin notes from the rising of Vladimir Putin to the leadership of Russia.
There ain’t no welcoming room for Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Cass Sunstein, Samantha Power and/or any of the progressive crew here. Russian patriotism is probably at the highest generational point in a long time, and I doubt President Putin is going to miss the opportunity to perma-ban all the Western corporations that exited Russia after the sanctions came along.
The reality of the Western sanction regime is really going to take an entire series of articles to explain. T-mobile cell phone service works here (go figure, no blocks at all), as long as you don’t interface your device with Russian internet wifi, which is really funny.
Yes, you can connect to all the banned Western stuff through the cell phone network (value of a yellow phone in Russia), and simultaneously you can connect and access all of the banned stuff the USA government controls and stops Americans from seeing/using if you have a grey zone originating phone and cell phone number. lolol
It really is bizarre how an individual person can operate, in this fragmented communication world, once they teach themselves the tools and techniques. Perhaps the most stunningly obvious difference between Yellow and Grey – anyone with a passport can open a bank account in Russia. The RU banks even have their computers set up to plug in to your device and upload apps, because the Apple/Google app stores don’t permit it (sanctions).
There is a lengthy learning curve, but it is well worth the time figuring out how to navigate the financial matrix the West has constructed. The sanctions against Russia are stunningly irrelevant, and were not designed to keep Russia out of the western financial system. The Sanctions were created to keep Americans, Canadians, AU/NZ, Japan and EU locked into the West.
Posted originally on Apr 25, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Nearly $300 billion worth of confiscated frozen Russian assets have been set to the side by the West. Some of the world’s leading decision-makers have been urging the powers that be to release these funds into Ukraine, arming Russia’s enemy with the private wealth of its own citizens. Russia has finally responded to these threats near our critical turning point during the week of April 19/20, 2024.
Russian authorities released a statement to say that they are fully prepared to implement retaliatory measures.
“We also have a prepared answer,” Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian upper house of parliament, was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA. “We have a draft law, which we are ready to consider immediately, on retaliatory measures.” While the precise retaliatory measures have not been stated, it is safe to assume that Russia will begin to confiscate Western assets. “And the Europeans will lose more than we do,” Matviyenko, who is a member of Russia’s powerful Security Council, said.
The response also comes ahead of the critical target of May 7, which also happens to be the next Russian election. The computer selected the date many years ago. The people want a strong leader who will fight to return what is rightfully theirs. The West has never technically been at war with Russia and Russia has been overly patient in awaiting a response. As it seems the funds will be released in the slush fund which is Ukraine, Russia has been forced to respond.
It is unclear how much Russia holds in foreign assets. Russian Parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said he believes that Russia would be justified in seizing these assets, especially after the US House of Representatives recently voted on legislation that will expand the illegal seizure of private Russian assets. Russia noted that Europe has more to lose than America because Europeans have more invested in Russia. Europe holds the majority of Russian assets, freezing around $224 billion in assets compared to the $5 to $6 trillion held by the US.
Now Volodin is prepared for more than mere economic warfare. In January, he stated that Russia was prepared to unleash a “global catastrophe” upon all unfriendly nations for creating this proxy war in Ukraine. “Arguments that the nuclear powers have not previously used weapons of mass destruction in local conflicts are untenable. This is because these states have not faced a situation in which the security of their citizens and the territorial integrity of their countries were threatened,” he stated in January 2024. He then stated on Telegram: “With their decisions, Washington and Brussels are leading the world to a terrible war … foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand that this could end in a global tragedy that will destroy their countries.”
Now, the amount frozen surpasses Ukraine’s entire GDP, but world leaders are using it as a ruse to cover up the fact that their own nations are in a liquidity crisis. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen falsely claims that sending off these assets to Ukraine would “incentivize [Russia] to come to the table to negotiate a just peace with Ukraine.” She knows that Moscow has been prohibited from seeking a peace treaty since this war began. Putin went on a live stream that was broadcast around the globe and said he would welcome a call from Zelensky at any time to arrange a peace treaty.
The wise have been pouring money out into anything tangible. Everything from collectible cars to art, antiques, coins, and stamps have been rising. Geopolitics have collided with plans for the Great Reset, and private assets will be used on the economic battlefield.
In this wholesale confiscation of private assets, these politicians are using the excuse of Ukraine to implement a completely new normal procedure – the confiscation of billions without asking who the funds belong to and whether there is a connection to the Ukraine war. There is no check or balance for where the money is spent or sent.
For all intents and purposes, the people who lost their life savings are mostly private citizens who have been victims of circumstance. They did not fund Russia’s invasion or have a say in their government’s decisions. Russia now states that they view this as a complete violation of international law as an act of war and they are willing to play the same dirty game.
This will change world trade entirely. People will be wary of international investments in places where they too may face illegal seizures. Why would, say, someone in China continue investing in Europe and the US when hostilities are building with Taiwan? These politicians simply fail to see the longterm damage that their policies create.
The West deliberately pushed Russia to suspend servicing their debts to Western lenders in preparation for their own excuse to suspend their own servicing of debts. As usual with sanctions, not only the person against whom the sanctions are directed, in this case, Russia, is harmed but also this has undermined the entire world economy ensuring its collapse in the years ahead. In this context, it cannot be stressed enough that sanctions historically have never worked and they know that they are generally pointless.
There is absolutely no question that we are headed into a very serious sovereign debt default. Western governments have been engaging in a Ponzi scheme, and the house of cards comes crashing down when they can no longer sell new debt to redeem the old. They need this war as an excuse to cover up their fiscal mismanagement, and they will then start all over again with digital currencies.
Posted originally on Apr 21, 2024 By Martin Armstrong
Russia tested a new missile last week that has many concerned that this is a new supersonic version of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on April 12th, 2024, that is capable of attacking NATO and the USA undetected. The Russian Ministry of Defence only claimed this was part of “state testing of prospective missile systems, as well as confirmation of the stability of missiles in service.” This has caused chatter down the line when the Neocons are pushing for war.
Sanctions and the removal of Russia from SWIFT have not deterred the Russian economy. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that Russia’s economy will grow more in the next year than any other advanced economy.
The IMF believes Russia’s economy will grow by 3.2% in 2024, in comparison, the US is expected to grow by 2.7% while Europe’s top economy, Germany, is expected to grow by a mere 0.2%. Cutting off Europe from Russian energy backfired in a major way. Foreign investments have been pouring into Russia from the rest of the world, which is eager to join the rank of “advanced nation.”
Trade between China and Russia has spiked to $240 billion in the last year alone. World leaders have learned absolutely nothing from the previous three years. US President Joe Biden just announced new tariffs against China on steel, aluminum, and shipbuilding supplies that will be potentially raised to 7.5%, triple the current rate for steel and aluminum. “The president understands we must invest in American manufacturing, but we also have to protect those investments and those workers from unfair exports associated with China’s industrial overcapacity,” Lael Brainerd, director of the White House’s National Economic Council. The president of the US and other world leaders simply do not understand how the economy operates. Brainerd believes China is simply overproducing, and these tariffs will cause China to change its policy as it wishes to continue trade with the US, its previous top trading partner.
China does not need the US to excel at trade. China’s adopted capitalistic style of business is causing nations to line up to sell to China in the same manner that they once did to the US. Now, Americans are strapped for cash, and its consumer population is declining. Biden just made it less appealed for nations like China to sell to the US. Germany is failing to grow because it continued its mercantile system of business where it feels it must increase manufacturing. German manufacturing may be of higher quality than that of China but China’s middle class is growing, and with it, so are the number of consumers amid a population of nearly 1.4 billion people.
Russia does not need the US, Canada, or Europe for trade either, as they have a precious natural resource that is in higher demand than supply. The world needs energy and fossil fuels and cannot operate without them. As hard as the climate change zealots try, they cannot eliminate the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. Instead, the West is imposing regulations and taxing its people in an effort to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, but the demand is not there, and the infrastructure does not exist. There is no reliable alternative to fossil fuels on a wide scale.
Russia does not need to adhere to the G7 nation’s price capping regulations. Russia has effectively been selling oil to nations like India who then turn around and sell it to the West at a premium. Pettiness is poor business, and simply attempting to ostracize a necessary trade partner from the global market has backfired in a major way. Now nations like those under BRICS are trading freely without Western interference and it is becoming overtly apparent that sanctions do not work.
Russia’s ties to North Korea have strained its relationship with South Korea. South Korea has placed sanctions on Russian entities and individuals, with Russia responding by deeming South Korea an “unfriendly nation,” or in other words, an enemy.
“This is an unfriendly move by Seoul and is deeply regrettable. The imposition of – I emphasize – illegitimate sanctions will have a negative impact on relations with Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated. South Korea has said that Russia violated the Security Council resolutions by engaging in arms trade and military cooperation with its northern neighbor in a move that “threatens peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but around the world,” per an official statement. South Korea has demanded that Russia immediately cease all military cooperation with North Korea, but Russia is keeping its strategic alliance.
The Security Council measure in question was implemented in 2017, banning trade on weapons with North Korea and limiting trade on fuel. Moscow insists it is keeping its commitment but then stated that the sanctions simply failed. “It is clearly seen that endless sanctions are completely useless for achieving the designated goals. They lead to a financial and economic blockade of an entire state with all the ensuing consequences for the population,” Zakharova said.
Russia has not confirmed if it is supplying oil to North Korea in exchange for military support, nor is it responding to rumors it has helped to provide the hermit kingdom with previously blocked $9 million in frozen funds. There is no evidence that Russia helped North Korea unblock these funds aside from the New York Times’ anonymous source who allegedly works for the CIA. This is quite a small sum of money in the scheme of things as well but they are looking for anything they can use against Russia.
Even world leaders are under the invisible hand where they are only looking out for their self-interest. It would not be in the self-interest of Russia to allow North Korea to run amuck in the Korean Peninsula or attempt to wage World War III by attacking its southern neighbor. North Korea has long been in survival mode and only exists because other nations are afraid that Kim-Jung Un will launch nukes into the abyss if cornered. This seems more to be a strategic trade partnership for these shunned nations.
“South Korea apparently lacks the immunity to protect itself from Washington’s external influence,” Zakharova added to her earlier comments, as South Korea followed the US in implementing sanctions. What do all these nations have to gain by involving themselves in the dispute between Ukraine and Russia? All of this is being done at the request of NATO and the West, who are demanding all their allies fall in line and blindly support this endless war despite the clear economic consequences.
Russia is not taking any chances after the senseless terrorist attack that claimed 144 lives. The four men arrested for the attack were from Tajikistan, and ISIS is now claiming responsibility. No one in charge believes that ISIS is responsible for these attacks but Russia is taking precautions and beginning a mass deportation is Islamic migrants.
President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, claimed the men who carried out the attack have “no nationality, no homeland and no religion.” President Putin believes that Ukraine and Western intelligence is responsible for the attack. Russia supports Iran. Why would they carry out a mass shooting on Russian soil of all places? The West is desperate to create a false flag to claim that Russia is the oppressive enemy so they can send in NATO.
Zelensky basically said that Russia deserved this mass shooting incident. He is attempting to instigate Moscow to act. “They (Russia) came to Ukraine, they are burning our cities – and they are trying to blame Ukraine,” Zelensky said one day after the attack. “Putin and his thugs are just trying to blame somebody else… It has happened before. There have been blown-up houses, shootings, explosions, and they always blame others,” Zelensky later stated without empathy. “They sent hundreds of thousands of terrorists here, on Ukrainian soil, they are fighting against us and don’t care what happens in their country.” Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) believes Russia carried out the attack on its own citizens in an effort to blame Ukraine.
Now, look at how Russia responded with the trial. All four men appeared in the courtroom in horrible condition, badly beaten. One man was forced to stand trial while in a coma. There were videos of Russian forces cutting off one man’s ear and forcing him to eat it. Russia is making a clear statement that anyone who carries out any act of terrorism will receive no grace. The Russian people want migrants who do not mesh with their own society out of their country.
The Tajikistan embassy warned its citizens to stay in their houses. Kyrgyzstan is warning its citizens not to travel to Russia. Russia is cracking down on migration and making it more difficult to obtain work permits.
Buses filled with migrants were spotted en route to St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo International Airport shortly after the attack. Hundreds of migrants have been places in temporary detention centers and/or deported.
There are cries of human rights abuse, stating that Russia is acting unfairly toward a collective group when only a few are responsible. The issue is that Russian culture does not align with the culture of these migrants. Worse, their motives are unknown and no one knows who they are truly reporting back to be it the CIA or ISIS. We see terrorists sitting comfortably in courtrooms in other nations, given the opportunity to prove innocence despite clearly carrying out horrific atrocities. Russia will not allow that to happen. They are taking no chances and putting their citizens first
Posted originally on the CTH on March 24, 2024 | Sundance
According to the latest information from Moscow, the death toll in Russia has climbed to 137, with more than 150 people still being treated for serious injuries as a result of a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall theater in Moscow.
Today is a National Day of Mourning across the nation. Events at cultural institutions were canceled and closed, flags were lowered to half-staff, and television entertainment and advertising were suspended. A steady stream of people brought flowers adding to a massive makeshift memorial near the burned-out concert hall. The entire region is still in a state of shock. [CBS NEWS Report]
Dear God, bring these grieving families to Your throne of comfort. Their pain is unimaginable as they anguish the loss of their wives, husbands, children and loved ones.
Father of mercy and comfort wrap Your loving arms around them. Help them to breathe and overcome the choking knot of despair in their throat. Please provide strength for their continued faith in You even through this unfathomable pain. Lavish them with Your love, and fill the void in their crushed and broken hearts.
In Jesus’ powerful name, I believe and pray.
Amen.
Дорогой Господь, приведи эти скорбящие семьи к Своему престолу утешения. Их боль невообразима, поскольку они переживают потерю своих жен, мужей, детей и близких.
Отец милосердия и утешения, обними их Своими любящими объятиями. Помогите им дышать и преодолеть удушливый узел отчаяния в горле. Прошу Тебя, дай им силы для их непоколебимой веры в Тебя, даже несмотря на эту непостижимую боль. Одари их Своей любовью и заполни пустоту в их раздавленных и разбитых сердцах.
“People came to a concert, some people came to relax with their families, and any one of us could have been in that situation. And I want to express my condolences to all the families that were affected here, and I want to pay tribute to these people,” Andrey Kondakov, one of the mourners who came to lay flowers at the memorial, told The Associated Press.
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