Among the few things which one needs to understand to grasp the convulsions, degradation, contradictions and circus as well as tragedy of today's Russia two things stand out--the anti-Russian character of the mafia oligarchy and GLADIO

Here is a proof that Putin's decision not to retaliate to new US sanctions and not to expel US diplomats was made in the Kremlin AGAINST the very opposite proposal and position of the Russian Foreign Ministry and other Russian government bodies. Here, right on Russia TV yesterday in the afternoon, Lavrov stated: "US measures cannot be left without response. Reciprocity is the law of diplomacy in international relations." According to Lavrov, 31 US diplomats were to expelled from the US Embassy in Moscow as personas non grata and 4 diplomats from the US Consulate in Saint Petersburg. Moscow also intended to close one US "dacha" (was it that school?) and one "warehouse." Evidently, the Kremlin overrode this decision. Either the US told them not to or someone from around Trump made a call or someone inside the Kremlin had a change of mind. Anyway, as C.R. noted, approximately from 1991, Russia and its leadership have been part of the extended GLADIO structure. For a number of years, it was namely Berlusconi who was the curator of a part of this NATO program, especially towards Russia.

The video below caught in Lavrov in action directly contradicting the later decision.

Instead of reciprocating, Putin decided instead to impose full arms embargo and new economic sanctions on North Korea( stopping key KPDR exports, ceasing to supply North Korea with fuel for jets, etc.) based on the UN SC Resolution from March (!) of 2016 which Russia also supported and voted for at UN Security Council:

Россия ввела санкции против КНДР. Соответствующий указ подписал российский президент Владимир Путин. Ограничительные меры были приняты в связи с ракетными испытаниями, проведенными Пхеньяном. Об этом сообщают Рамблер/новости со ссылкой на РИА Новости.
Принимая санкции в отношении КНДР, российская сторона исполняет резолюцию 2270 Совета Безопасности Организации объединенных наций
Принимая санкции в отношении КНДР, российская сторона исполняет резолюцию 2270 Совета Безопасности Организации объединенных наций  (ООН) от 2 марта 2016 года. Ограничительные меры против Пхеньяна включают запрет на поставки материалов, оборудования и технологий, используемых северокорейской стороной для осуществления ядерной программы.
Также Россия обязуется прекратить поставки авиационного топлива и топлива для реактивных двигателей и отказывается от покупок титановой руды, угля и железной руды у Северной Кореи.
Также Россия обязуется прекратить поставки авиационного топлива и топлива для реактивных двигателей и отказывается от покупок титановой руды, угля и железной руды у Северной Кореи. Новые санкции против КНДР были введены ООН 30 ноября 2016 года.
 Глава РФ Владимир Путин запретил поставки вСеверную Корею любых видов оружия, в том числе и стрелкового. Соответствующий указ опубликован на интернет-портале правовой информации.
 Также российский президент запретил передачу КНДР материалов, оборудования и технологий, которые могут быть использованы в ядерной и ракетной программах, программах по разработке оружия массового поражения, а также способствовать развитию потенциала вооруженных сил Пхеньяна.
 Указ подписан в связи с принятием Советом Безопасности ООН резолюции 2270, а также в ответ на проведение Северной Кореей ракетно-ядерных испытаний.

  

With Putin's today's full arms embargo on North Korea and Moscow's military assistance to Turkey, a NATO member, in Syria, one may wonder whether some people in Washington are already not drafting a cost analysis and an offer to Moscow for hiring the Russian army or Putin's Nazguard as mercenaries for democratizing North Korea--as part of the joint de-Sovietization efforts. For as D. Trump argued throughout his campaign, he is going to make deals, beautiful deals, which no one even thought could have been possible.

With Putin's full arms embargo imposed on North Korea,North Korea has moved closer to an Iraqi scenario with Putinists looking the other way.

Thus, in response to/right after new US sanctions, Putin retaliated against North Korea instead! Is this move also part of US sanctions?

One only needs to ask a simple, but very important question: What role and functions is Russian ruling oligarchy playing in this brave new world order? And/or how much or how truly do Russian oligarchs care about the people or humanity?

One of the key reasons for the Kremlin's late direct involvement in Syria was to divert attention from struggling and suffering Donbass, and, indeed, the Russian state media quickly and almost totally forgot about the Russians there and what they have been actually fighting for (hint: not for the Minsk deal). 

If Donbass was mentioned, then just to repeat to them that there is only way is the Minsk way--back into the lap of the Banderite regime and that this is what they are also fighting for. Now, as we can see, the Kremlin wants to extricate itself from Syria. 

The notion of "moderate" rebels used by the West in the war on Syria are a lie, which, interestingly, Moscow itself adopted almost right away after its limited intervention there last year, which came out as part of its ongoing talks with the Obama administration and as a key element in trying to foster on Syria a “joint” US-Russian “peace plan.”

The "moderate rebels" are a lie because al Qaeda and/or its allies have never been "moderate." Moreover, however, to claim that "moderate rebels" (either as a fiction or as a deliberately misnamed force of militants) has been "gotten rid of" is a lie too. These "moderate rebels" are now made a key part of the new ceasefire and "peace" announced from Moscow. Thus Putin did not remove these “moderate rebels” from Syria, but adopted the lie as if it is a truth and built its "peace" on this foundation.

The reasons why Putin negotiated with the US and Saudi Arabia Russia's late and limited entry into the Syrian conflict four years into the fighting has a similar logic and roots which are also in the foundation of the Minsk deal.

The main ambition and intent behind this joint Russian-US cunning move was to legitimize the fiction of the “moderate” rebels and to make these Qaeda allies a “legitimate” part of the new regime that was supposed to emerge by handing to them the rest of still free (of al Qaeda) Syria together with the state apparatus and the army. In word, the idea was to use Russia much in the same way Russia was used with respect to Yugoslavia and Milosevic—to have Russia as a supposed friend and ally deliver the victim, Russia’s nominal friend and ally, to “consensual” capitulation.

At the same time, the real fundamental news, which the Kremlin tried to push away, is that Russia has been now in a serious economic and social crisis for the last three years which again Moscow has tried to hide or cover up as much as possible. Russia's social and economic condition is mainly due to the mafia oligarchic mismanagement, (im)morality, plunder and greed. Putin is part of the oligarchic system, its flag and face.

Step by step, the Kremlin is running out of fictitious and fake triumphs, while ever more openly moving toward one of its final supposed triumphs--the struggle against and defeat of Russian patriotism, dignity and honor. The massive attempts to lie, deceive, and hide are massive and ongoing.

One cannot truly love Russia if one loves Russian (so radically anti-Russian) oligarchs, and if one loves or adores the oligarch-in-chief, VVP, then one would also need to “love” his mafia mismanagement and systemic degradation of Russia … as well as his lies.

Putin continues to work hard to inflict on Syria his own Munich-like deal. And Erdogan is climbing to a seat of a new regional hegemon, who is effectively appropriating parts of Syria, on Putin's back

The end-of the year's "ceasefire" and new plan for remaking Syria by Russia, Turkey, and Iran has clearly been rushed in to put it in place and make it a new fact before Trump is sworn in as President. Here, seemingly strangely, Russia as well as Turkey and Iran all shared the urge to lock in their regional collusion. 

In acting this way, Moscow is now too openly acting as a hopeful stand-in and middleman for new colonialism in Syria.

As Reuters reports citing Russian sources close to the negotiations: 

Syria would be divided into informal zones of regional power influence and Bashar al-Assad would remain president for at least a few years under an outline deal between Russia, Turkey and Iran, sources say.
Such a deal, which would allow regional autonomy within a federal structure controlled by Assad's Alawite sect, is in its infancy, subject to change and would need the buy-in of Assad and the rebels and, eventually, the Gulf states and the United States, sources familiar with Russia's thinking say.

"There has been a move toward a compromise," said Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think tank close to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

"A final deal will be hard, but stances have shifted."

Assad's powers would be cut under a deal between the three nations, say several sources. Russia and Turkey would allow him to stay until the next presidential election when he would quit in favor of a less polarizing Alawite candidate.

Iran has yet to be persuaded of that, say the sources. But either way Assad would eventually go, in a face-saving way, with guarantees for him and his family.

"A couple of names in the leadership have been mentioned (as potential successors)," said Kortunov, declining to name names. ... 

... one senior Turkish government official: "It doesn't mean we approve of Assad. But we have come to an understanding. When Islamic State is wiped out, Russia may support Turkey in Syria finishing off the PKK." ...
Turkey wants to informally control a swathe of northern Syria giving it a safe zone to house refugees, a base for the anti-Assad opposition, and a bulwark against Kurdish influence."

After Reuters and also citing Reuters, RT in Russian also reports that Russia, Turkey, Iran negotiate possible split of Syria into zones of influence. “The zones of influence” even figure in the RT’s headline.  

New Russian "ceasefire" is to "include all areas that do not have a jihadist presence. Can Putin name these areas? Actually, the wording says that the ceasefire should cover "all areas of Syria."  However, in all these areas, al Qaeda/Nusra/etc. is thickly intertwined with its fictitiously “moderate” allies. The old worn-off tactic of the West and other sponsors of al Qaeda and "not-so-al Qaeda" has always being mixing these two together and then pretending that despite any "trying" (really?) these cannot (duh) be separated. 

The Kremlin has joined this game a while ago, and now even expanded the umbrella of the fictitious "moderation" over now some admitted 62,000 Qaeda-allied force. In doing so, the Kremlin now calls Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam "moderate rebels" despite designating them as terrorists just a month ago. 

Russia'sDefense Ministry even unveiled the list and the manpower of the "good" orsupposedly "moderate" anti-government militants in Syria who ought to be part of Syria's new political future:

Министерство обороны России опубликовало список присоединившихся к перемирию в Сирии группировок умеренной оппозиции, которые контролируют значительные территории северной и центрально части САР. Об этом сообщается на сайте российского военного ведомства.

По его данным к перемирию присоединилась семь группировок. К ним относятся «Фейлак аш-Шам», в которую входят 19 отрядов общей численностью четыре тысячи человек, «Ахрар аш-Шам», в которую входит около 16 тыс. человек, а в нее входят более 80 отрядов. Также перемирие решили соблюдать «Джейш иль-Ислам», за которую воюют 64 отряда численностью около 12 тыс. человек, «Сувар аги-Шам», «Джейш аль-Муджахидин», «Джейш» и «Алъ-Джабхат аьи-Шамия».

О подписании соглашении о прекращении огня между сирийский правительством и оппозицией объявил президент России Владимир Путин 29 декабря на встрече с министром обороны России Сергеем Шойгу. Кроме того, отметил российский лидер, стороны выразили готовности к началу мирных переговоров по урегулировании сирийского конфликта.

В свою очередь Шойгу заявил, что режим прекращения огня начнет действовать с полуночи в пятницу, 30 декабря. Он отметил, что Министерство обороны России вело переговоры в течение двух месяцев с представителями умеренной сирийской оппозиции, которая контролирует большую часть центральной Сирии. Шойгу рассказал, что ее отряды насчитывают 60 тыс. человек.

Министр обороны России отметил, что те, группировки, которые не прекратят боевые действия во время режима прекращения огня, будут считаться террористическими. Шойгу отметил, что «против них будут действовать также, как против ИГИЛ и Джабхат ан-Нусры» (обе террористические группировки запрещены на территории Российской Федерации).

The list of the new "moderates" according to Moscow now: 

Formations of the "moderate" (which as cynical as it is also utterly false) opposition, which control vast territories in the northern and central part of Syria and which have joined the ceasefire:

1. Feilak al-Sham19 detachments, total strength: over 4,000 people.Its formations conduct combat actions in the Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Homs provinces.2. Ahrar al-ShamThe full name is Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya.Over 80 detachments, total strength: about 16,000 people.Formations of the grouping conduct combat actions in the Aleppo, Damascus, Daraa, Idlib, Latakia, Hama and Homs provinces.3. Jaysh al-Islam64 detachments, total strength: about 12,000 people.Jaysh al-Islam formations conduct combat actions in the Aleppo, Damascus, Daraa, Deir ez-Zor, Latakia, Hama and Homs provinces.4.  Thuwar al-Sham8 battalions, total strength: about 2,500 people.Armed formations conduct combat actions in the Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia provinces.5.  Jaysh al-Mujahideen13 detachments, total strength: about 8,000 people.Armed formations conduct combat actions in the Aleppo city and provinces of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama.6. Jaysh Idlib3 large detachments, total strength: more than 6,000 people.Jaysh Idlib conducts combat actions in the Idlib province.7.   Jabhat al-Shamiyah5 large detachments, total strength: about 3,000 people.The grouping detachments conduct combat actions in the Aleppo, Idlib and Damascus

According to Russia, the number of the fictitious moderate allies of al Qaeda in Syria is 62,000: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says the truce will include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria, and that the Russian military has established a hotline with its Turkish counterpart to monitor compliance. 

With the announcement of"ceasefire,"Russia is reducing its military presence in Syria ("Bye Palmyra").This Russian military withdrawal might be in my view actually the main goal of this new hasty plan. 

Cease-fireagreement for Syria says the truce will include all areas where the "moderate opposition" has a presence, including those where al-Qaida's branch in Syria exists. But The Syrian army said the truce does not include al-Qaida's branch in Syria and the Islamic State group, two of the most powerful armed factions. 

President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military to scale down its presence in Syria before the ceasefire even officially started, where it has provided crucial support to Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

Turkey says Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group should withdraw from Syria and a nationwide cease-fire should come into effect before the end of the year.

Putin's "ceasefire" and "settlement" for Syria then appears chiefly as a negotiated cover for (partial?) Russian pull-out. And Moscow can't wait. The pullout was ordered even before the ceasefire officially started yet, which is to be only tomorrow. And then we will see how this will work. Not well as before is the best possible guess.

Apparently, Russia negotiated/bought political transition and change of Syria with a promise of or demand for its own military pullout and possibly also with a promise of Hezbollah's (and Iran's?) withdrawal as well.

Putin's "ceasefire" and "settlement" for Syria also serves as an attempt to freeze conflict (in theory) and to divide/federalize Syria. Thus Reuters (twitter) also reported: "Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies approve blueprint for federal government in northern Syria - federal official." 

Politically and symbolically, the new "ceasefire" for Syria also confirms Russia's recognition of/respect for the rising power of Turkey. And not just as a rising new power. Russia's actions and cozening up to Erdogan is a tale-tell sign that Turkey began to act and is in this also supported by Putin as a new regional hegemon and a new effective ruler who controls through its jihadist proxies (and al Qaeda) northern Syria (minus the SDF-controlled areas).

Russia is now even assisting Turkish attack on strategic Al-Bab with Russian air strikes (one year after losing a SU-25 to Turkey).

On The TU-154 Lost near Sochi

The probability that the Russian TU-154 was brought down by a man-made explosion, that's by a terror action, is quite high (right after a stopover in Sochi and the plane fell just 1.5 km off the shore). And if so then the terrorists or special forces involved knew what plane and whom precisely they were targeting. In other words, if this was a terrorist attack, it would mean and require a professional intelligence operation with access to info from Russian's Ministry of Defense. The very likely terrorists—if this was a terror attack—must have known both the plan and the real time information about the plane's flight, its schedule, route, and stopovers. The security of the flight did most likely require its special protection, which, to repeat again if this was a terror attack, would have been breached. In this case, the attack would have required intel, several teams, and very effective communication.

So far the handling of the tragedy of TU-154 near Sochi follows the script of the Russian tourist charter plane over Sinai. At first the pilot is blamed (neither fair nor respectful of the crew) and almost immediately the plane is derided as being poorly maintained, which, in this case, is also insensible before any debris, not to mention any black box, has been retrieved, and no technical investigation has even started. On the other hand, there is at least one video that shows what appears like an explosion at the time the plane was lost in the very same location. As in the case of the terror attack on the Russian plane over Sinai, so here too a terrorist attack does appear as the most pressing and very likely possibility. However, it is this possibility which Moscow again tries to downplay and minimize before anything else. This reminds of the death of Karimov, which happened, but before the Uzbek authorities figured out how to respond and handle it, it was kept as a state secret. In the case of the attack in Sinai, Moscow was very much the last one to call it the terror attack.

Why is that? One of possible reasons is that the Kremlin believes that the immediate downplaying or even negation of a terror attack suits better its objectives in handling the public and public perception. In particular, Moscow has been very anxious over perceived public backlash or critique of its actions in Syria. That's also why the cutting of a head of a small girl by a pro-ISIS radicalized "nanny" in Moscow was framed as a psychiatric breakdown of a deranged person and not as terrorism.

The other apparent reason is that the Kremlin does not have good ways of responding. The Kremlin provided no effective response to the downing of its SU-25 by Turkish Air Force; the temporary ban of Turkish vegetables did not cut it, and Putin's recent suggestion that somehow ISIS was behind the attack and not the Turkish government, which ordered the attack, also leaves a lot to be desired. Similarly, with the attack on the Russian tourist airliner. Russian tourism to Egypt was temporarily curtailed, but the terrorist organization with links to Qatar that is believed to be behind the attack appears to have fallen of the Kremlin's radars just as did the organizers of the massive massacre of the pro-Russian activists in Odessa on May 2, 2014. Except that one year later, the Kremlin chose Qatar as a party to go to in its bid to "privatize" 20% of Rosneft basically back to itself.

Russian comprador oligarchy has clearly its owns set of priorities and protocols with respect to protecting what it values most--its own rule and its image, as the oligarchic system understands it, and, then, in its own very particular ways, the rest.

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On second thought, another strange, admittedly perverse political and psychological pattern emerges:

1. very soon--just few weeks after the Odessa massacre--Putin and the Kremlin officially recognized and approved the regime under Poroshenko, started calling it "partners," "dear partners," "respected partners" and the "best choice/chance of the Ukrainian people."

2. Less than a year passed after the downing of the Russian SU-25 when the Kremlin and its media began calling Erdogan a friend and almost an ally with Putin himself exchanges with Erdogan avowals and gestures of honors and sympathies (Dugin was quick to construct a whole new geopolitical theory around it).

3. Neither did Moscow skip much time or any beat in trying to woo Qatar, offer it weapons and deals--just as generous Moscow became in relation to Turkey with its sweet new gas and nuclear cooperation deals.

4. Here into this pattern--when the Kremlin is trying to teach the Russians how to love its "punishers" or backstabbers--is also the Kremlin's "strategic," politico-psychological move of bringing the "honorary plaque" dedicated to fascist Marshall, invader and occupier Mannerheim right on the wall of the Russian military school in the former Leningrad, which Mannerheim tried to destroy and annihilate. In doing so, the Kremlin tried hard and continues to say (viz very recent statements by Medinsky) that Mannerheim was a "hero" and a "model Russian officer." 

Yesterday or several months ago, those who killed or were killing Russians are being re-branded and served to the Russian people by the Kremlin itself as the Kremlin's esteemed partners or even as friends and allies--without the latter changing their intentions or character in the slightest.

Peskov declares Putin the greatest liberal of them all. In the style of the Czar Gun and the Czar Bell

According to Dmitry Peskov, Putin is not only a true liberal, but the greatest, "absolute liberal." Moreover, according to Peskov, to call Putin a "conservative" now means to side with Russia's enemies. Earlier (before 2014), Putin declared himself "the greatest nationalist in Russia." In 2013, Putin himself defined his position as "conservative." Basically, Putin the greatest, whatever ideology or label he espouses any given year.

Президент России Владимир Путин – «абсолютный либерал», а не консерватор, рассказал пресс-секретарь главы государства Дмитрий Песков в интервью телеканалу «Мир». Об этом сообщает «Интерфакс».

«Вы знаете, недруги – в первую очередь за рубежом, но и некоторые недруги внутри России – они считают, что Путин, скорее, консерватор и такой государственник, которому чуждо слово “свобода”. Но Путин абсолютный либерал по своей натуре, и гораздо больший либерал, нежели назывные либералы, которые именуют себя оппозицией», – заявил Песков.

Президент проявляет либеральность в экономике, социальной политике и других сферах, пояснил пресс-секретарь.

Песков заявил, что не знает, будет ли Путин баллотироваться на пост президента на будущих выборах. Он также рассказал, что выборы президента 2018 года не стоят на повестке дня в Кремле из-за «каждодневной работы».

В 2014 году Путин подтвердил, что придерживается либеральных взглядов, а сам он «настоящий либерал». Ранее он назвал себя «самым большим националистом в России». При этом Путин напомнил, что национализм должен выстраиваться на благо народа.

В 2013 году Владимир Путин признал свою позицию консервативной, уточнив, что «смысл консерватизма не в том, что он препятствует движению вперед и вверх, а в том, что он препятствует движению назад и вниз».

https://republic.ru/posts/77729

As Aristotle said every man is a tool, and so the masters of mankind keep choosing the right tools to the jobs at hand--each of them meant for their particular purpose or telos; Brezhnev for reducing the signs of live on the body of Soviet society; Gorbachev, as his name indicates, to be its anti-Soviet gravedigger; Yeltsin, the alcoholic buffoon, to stage the tragedy scripted by master villains as a comedy of a village idiot; and Putin, Marshal Pétain, the Petit, to make the "puta" way (Put), the only way open and left to Russia as a civilization and country

First there was a street hooligan and thug growing into a small man sent to be a director of a cultural center where he found East Germans to be culturally and politically very backward. His small network of snitches was quickly squealed. Except for him. His friends called him "the Mole."

Then from a "guardian of the socialist revolution and principles," he became a manager of Leningrad and the KGB turned into a mafia kingdom. Then the Yeltsin mafia family called him to the rescue. And G.W. Bush approved.

Then out of his commonly photoshopped visage a vision of the "last hope" and "savior of mankind" has been created thanks to the many daily fake stories made both in the West and Russia while guys and gals in Langley have been falling off their chairs dying of laughter, vaguely recalling Machiavelli's aphorism that "people are so dumb and vulgar that not to tap into such a vast resource and not to use would be the greatest stupidity and the most egregious sin which the Prince is liable to; but then he would be no Prince.

1. Of course, to say that a C/D student does world class strategizing has always been an overstatement
2. Nova Shpakova ‏@NovaShpakova  13m13 minutes ago

   @ieee_english Also, I dont see, even at best, that Putin is over there strategizing all these events - his advisors do that

Once upon a time

Once upon a time (a long time ago) Washington tried to make this case for its "moderate" rebels (read al Qaeda) in Syria: If everything goes well and President Assad and the Syrian government is deposed, then the best we can hope for would be a society similar or at least remotely close to the multi-confessional and multi-ethnic society which existed under President Assad. Only this time it would be run by jihadists, Wahhabists, the Muslim Brotherhood and their death squads whom the Western imperial left fell in love with.

Trump versus Hillary: What "peace" and which wars will it be? A thymos of a banqueter versus Hillary's Trumping/Triumph of the Will to the Id and Its Splendid, Beastly Regression

The difference(s) between Hillary and Trump are sufficient and sufficiently significant for a notable part of the establishment and most of the corporate media to continue their delegitimizing campaign on Trump, including an attempted electoral college coup. This indicates that the clash here is politically and possibly even ideologically and philosophically significant. However, to appraise the deep and real nature of this conflict and what is at stake would require either more time or better inside information or rather both.

With Hillary, we would have a guaranteed continuation of the strategies of Bill Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama the key ideological and strategic direction of whose was neo-liberalism as a whole with a neo-conservative, Straussian core. Its key method is changing and ruling the world by means of deliberate, diabolical chaos where forces like al Qaed and ISIS are used as the battering ram and an ingenious way of how to flip the rising revolutionary potential into its very opposite--into a stark, dark, reactionary counter-revolutionary force, one of those unleashed that is making again the world "safe" and ripe for fascism and Nazism. For Nazism 2.0.

At this moment, it seems that the establishment fears that Trump is philosophically opposed to their love affair with chaos and forces like ISIS. At least that's what Trump himself has been saying. So far it also appears that Trump does not see Russia as an existential threat or a new Rome's Carthage that must be destroyed. Possibly, for him, securing Russian oil, gas, resources might be more important and more sensible than G.W. Bush's or Hillary's crafty use and misuse of the Russian ruling mafia. Trump's handling of the mafia in construction business or in Las Vegas might serve as some indicators of how we would want to help transform Russia.

However, the inertia or moment of the system and what is already in the pipelines is significant. The ship of the Empire cannot turn immediately or quickly into any new direction at will. Even though there is no doubt that Trump does have his plans and ideas under his sleeves and that he is adamant to move or start moving rather fast. He cannot start soon enough.

The other evident difference between Trump on the one hand and Hillary or Obama or Bush on the other is that the latter did not really care about the welfare of the common Americans that much or rather quite little. They are globalists, and in this concern the ruling Russian oligarchs are perfectly at home with them, and, due to today's Russian specifics even more and more crudely so. In this regard, Trump does appear to be concerned about US internal stability and he would like to strengthen and reset the US internally.

There are contingencies. One of them is to wage a war against China with Russia on the side of Japan and the US. The other is a war with Iran with Russia standing aside at least. With Hillary Russia would have been the priority. One difference that seems to be there is that al Qaeda and ISIS would have been a big part of the strategy. Trump does not like ISIS (al Qaeda) that much. However, more immediately pressing is the question of the still ongoing war on Syria, which ought to have been (as planned) finished a while ago. In this respect, Syrian resistance turned out to be tougher than resistance of Libya, Iraq or Yugoslavia. The fall of Syria should have been the start of the war against Iran. Iranian involvement in Syria (as well as in Iraq) significantly altered the schedule and the effectiveness of the regime change plans. Thus, instead of finishing off Syria and then moving on Iran, the dilemma for the US is now either to move ahead with a conflict with Iran for Iran is one of the key pillars that is helping Syria to endure in the face of the massive alliance of the West, local Arab despots and al Qaedas. But a war without contained Syria amplifies difficulties.

In this respect, the current attempted rapprochement between Putin's Russia and Japan and Moscow's concessions over the Kurils (planned a long time ago) do have unmistakable anti-Chinese undertones. As a minimum, in trying to have a "peace treaty" with Japan, Putin's Russia is effectively breaking ranks with China who does not have any such treaty either. In other words, Russia tries to conclude its own separate peace in a way that would strengthen Japan's position in the region together with the US. In the meantime, China is very busy effectively arming as much of the South Chinese Sea she can--turning as many islands there into stationary aircraft carriers and thus extending the line of its first defense. Putin's Russia "matches" this with the dramatic social and economic deterioration and degradation of its security and the lives of the Russians in the Far East and much anywhere else outside of Moscow and Petersburg. The result of this process created by deliberate as well as incompetent (mis)management and plunder is making Russia not only into a weak and even dying developing country in the growing number of indicators, but also ready for collapse or defeat.

Provisionally, it may then be suggested that, while Hillary and her Company represent that part of the liberal and neo-liberal establishment which is in love with and in awe of dark chaos for humanity and thus in illicit (and still much illegal) relation with mainstreaming new fascism, Trump and his generals do understand better, much better, the nuts and bolts of running the world as a tough, construction (and constructive) business as opposed to the emphasis on deconstruction, destruction or Schumpeterian fascist "creative destruction." In addition, it does appear that Trump does also harbor certain "aesthetic" objections to Hillary's way. Possibly, in this regard, Trump has deep down a certain (almost old fashioned) striving for immortality by means of "architecture," understood both very concretely (as physical buildings) and as an enduring system as opposed to Hillary's mud pool where the ego tries at least to be united and assimilated with its Freudian Id.

Putin has already crossed his Rubicon with Minsk 1 and 2, but, thanks to inertia, PR, propaganda, and political and moral cowardice, the moment of Rubicon may dawn on the many only now when he expressly initiated the process of surrender of the Kuril Islands to Japan as one part of and consequence of the defeat and betrayal of the Soviet Union in the Cold War

Putin's Kurils deal with Japan may show the way (Put--in Russian). Perhaps shortly we will hear that the Kremlin discovered that a peace treaty with Germany is missing too and that creating open borders around Kaliningrad/Konigsburg and some "common activity" there, especially in the light of Russian oligarchs' mismanagement, is what is needed to create new "trust" (and thrust). Similarly, if Putin discovered that the 1956 declaration penned under Khrushchev needed to serve as the basis for the surrender of the Kurils, then the "gift" of Crimea to Ukraine by the same Khrushchev from 1954 may also serve as an additional basis for the Minsk deal and a good starting point for filling the vacuum or absence of a "peace treaty" with Poroshenko's Ukraine. Then too Moscow might decide that it no longer needs to puzzle over where Russia's borders begin and where they end, when the circle of the borders can be cut through, and when the severely impoverished population would finally see the wisdom in Miss Poklonskaya's new doctrine that says that it does not matter to what kind of state or which (anti-Russian) state the Russians belong as long as it is (comparatively) peaceful and somewhat (at least probably) more prosperous than the existence of being fleeced by "one's own" oligarchs. Then, while still maintaining a principal anti-Soviet position, Putin might also as well recall the Brest-Litevsk Peace and make that a basis for a new "peace treaty" with the EU. From there it would be then a much smaller step to a new "realization" that the Cold War is missing a real, actual "peace treaty" as well and that Russia as a party defeated in the Cold War through the wise decisions of its own leaders needs to deliver all that remains of the once great country and civilization.

Putin's intent to surrender (some of) the Kurils to Japan neatly accords with G. Friedman's of Stratfor ("private" CIA) prediction, even time schedule, for Japan to start taking over parts of Russia's Pacific. More importantly, it also precisely coincides with Friedman's (CIA) forecast or plan for the "second and final collapse of Russia"--a process the beginning of which he put into the mid 2010s and which is then to taken some ten years to run and unfold its course. Putin's presumed surrender of some of the Kurils is thus meant not so much to be "buying" the "peace treaty" with Japan, which is over 70 years too late, but to be the first critical and symbolically needed step to kick off the "second and final collapse" of the existing Russian state. In this respect, both Friedman's "train and the CIA's pipeline of events appear to be well on time and on the track. For this and other reasons, it is also possible to propose that, if Trump and his presidency were not planned, then Hillary was and so was Putin. And so was this second, delayed phase in Russia's Cold War defeat. And if the USSR offered in 1956 two small Kuril Islands to Japan it was meant in exchange for Japan's neutrality and removal of all US bases from Japan, Putin has been just haggling--in the spirit of the mafia oligarchy--just for a racket or $$$.

Back in 2009, George Friedman wrote: 

Between their geopolitical, economic, and demographic problems, the Russians have to make a fundamental shift. For a hundred years the Russians sought to modernize their country through industrialization, trying to catch up to the rest of Europe. They never managed to pull it off. Around 2000 Russia shifted its strategy. Instead of focusing on industrial development as they had in the past century, the Russians reinvented themselves as exporters of natural resources, particularly energy, but also minerals, agricultural products, lumber, and precious metals. By de-emphasizing industrial development, and emphasizing raw materials, the Russians took a very different path, one more common to countries in the developing world. But given the unexpected rise of energy and commodity prices, this move not only saved the Russian economy but also strengthened it to the point where Russia could afford to drive its own selective reindustrialization. Most important, since natural resource production is less manpower-intensive than industrial production, it gave Russia an economic base that could be sustained with a declining population. … A low-grade global confrontation will be under way by 2015 and will intensify by 2020. Neither side will risk war, but both sides will be maneuvering. By 2020 this confrontation will be the dominant global issue— and everyone will think of it as a permanent problem. The confrontation will not be as comprehensive as the first cold war. The Russians will lack the power to seize all of Eurasia, and they will not be a true global threat. They will, however, be a regional threat, and that is the context in which the United States will respond. There will be tension all along the Russian frontier, but the United States will not be able to (or need to) impose a complete cordon around Russia as it did around the Soviet Union. Given the confrontation, the European dependence on hydrocarbons, much of it derived from Russia, will become a strategic issue. The American strategy will be to de-emphasize the focus on hydrocarbon energy sources. This will kick into high gear the American interest in developing alternative sources of energy. Russia, as before, will focus on its existing industries rather than on the development of new ones. That will mean increased oil and natural gas production rather than new energy sources. As a result, Russia is not going to be in the forefront of the technological developments that will dominate the later portions of the century. … By the middle of the 2010s, the United States will again be obsessed with Russia. … The causes that ignited this confrontation— and the Cold War before it— will impose the same outcome as the Cold War, this time with less effort for the United States. The last confrontation occurred in Central Europe. This one will take place much farther to the east. In the last confrontation China was an ally of Russia, at least in the beginning. In this case China will be out of the game. Last time, Russia was in complete control of the Caucasus, but now it will not be, and it will be facing American and Turkish pressure northward. In the last confrontation Russia had a large population, but this time around it has a smaller and declining population. Internal pressure, particularly in the south, will divert Russian attention from the west and eventually, without war, it will break. Russia broke in 1917, and again in 1991. And the country’s military will collapse once more shortly after 2020. … The second collapse of Russia will appear to open the door to a golden age for the United States. But a massive internal economic crisis caused by a shortage of labor will emerge just as the confrontation with Russia is ending. … The collapse of Russia in the early 2020s will leave Eurasia as a whole in chaos. The Russian Federation itself will crack open as Moscow’s grip shatters. Regions, perhaps even the thinly populated Pacific region, will break away, its interests in the Pacific Basin far outweighing its interest in or connection to Russia proper. Chechnya and the other Muslim regions will break off. Karelia, with close ties to Scandinavia, will secede. Such disintegration will not be confined to Russia. Other countries of the former Soviet Union will fragment as well. The burdens imposed by Moscow will be entirely unsustainable. Where previously the collapse of the Soviet Union led to oligarchs controlling the Russian economy, the collapse of the 2020s will lead to regional leaders going their own way. This disintegration will take place during a period of Chinese regionalism. China’s economic crisis will kick off a regional phase in Chinese history that, during the 2020s, will intensify. The Eurasian landmass east of the Carpathians will become disorganized and chaotic as regions struggle for local political and economic advantage, with uncertain borders and shifting alliances. In fact, fragmentation on both sides of the Chinese border, from Kazakhstan to the Pacific, will start to render the boundaries meaningless. From the United States’ point of view, this will represent a superb outcome. … First, Japan will be in a position to exploit opportunities in the Russian maritime region and in eastern China. Second, Turkey will be in a position to press northward into the Caucasus and potentially beyond. Finally, an alliance of Eastern European countries, led by Poland, and including the Baltic states, Hungary, and Romania, together will regard this as an opportunity not only to return to older borders but also to protect themselves against any future Russian state. … Therefore, with Russia fragmenting, it would seem to make a great deal of sense for the Japanese to seek, at the very least, economic control over Pacific Russia. Japan will respond whenever its access to raw materials is threatened. ...

By the 2020s, Japan will be facing energy problems and a continued dependence on the Persian Gulf, which in turn would mean being entangled with the United States. Given American hubris after the second fall of Russia, Japan, like the rest of the world, will be increasingly uneasy about America’s next move. Therefore, with Russia fragmenting, it would seem to make a great deal of sense for the Japanese to seek, at the very least, economic control over Pacific Russia. Japan will respond whenever its access to raw materials is threatened.

Friedman, George. The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century (pp. 104-105, 117-121, 136- 140). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Putin's yet another "brilliant" and "strategic success"--selling Rosneft to a sponsor of terrorism in the MENA and back to the privatized KGB

Aleksandr Rodzhers, one of Surkovian shills, hails the sale of a portion of Rosneft to Qatar unsurprisingly as Putin's "brilliant success." What is surprising though is one of the two main reasons for saying so (besides claiming that Rosneft could now tap into Qatar's own oil fields ... well) is his other bold revelation that the second buyer next to Qatar is Swiss company Гленкор or Global Energy Commodities and Resources created by Mark Rich who reportedly had to run from the US in 1974. Rodzhers (or Rogers) then goes to state that this company has always been a shell company of the KGB. According to Rodzhers, Putin (or Sechin) thereby simply sold Rosneft from one pocket of the Kremlin (or KGB) to another. In today's Putin's Russia this is a "brilliant success" (Rodzhers). It is the same "[Communist] party's gold" (Rodzhers' article title) which the Soviet leadership and the KGB successfully privatized.

Источник: http://rusnext.ru/recent_opinions/1481320327

As Reuters reported, the real source that is financing the now controversial and even scandalous "privatization" of a portion of Rosneft by Qatar is actually the Italian bank, Banca Intesa. It is this bank that is supposed to provide the bulk of money for the deal.

Note the connection of this Italian bank to Berlusconi, P2, and Gladio.

Banca Intesa S.p.A. was an Italian bank formed in 1998 from the merger of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (aka Cariplo) and Banco Ambrosiano Veneto (former Banco Ambrosiano). The Banco Ambrosiano Veneto is the new version of Banco Ambrosiano, the bank that went bankrupt in 1981 during the P2 scandal and was taken over by the Anton Veneta, the bank of the Venetian Masons. CARIPLO was one of the banks that funded Berlusconi. In 2007 Banca San Paolo (a bank indirectly owned by the Vatican) merges into Banca Intesa changing the name into Banca Intesa San Paolo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intesa_Sanpaolo.

(As if to celebrate the deal--today, the very next day after the deal was announced and officially hailed as a "strategic achievement," the Italian Embassy offered to the Moscowites at its fair open to the public the very Italian cheeses the import of which Putin banned as part of his principled and bold ant-sanctions in response to the Western anti-Russian sanctions; people made a kilometer long line to get them).

Истинным источником финансирования приватизации "Роснефти", а с ней - и федерального бюджета РФ станет итальянский банк Intesa - он предоставит основную часть средств, сообщает со ссылкой на источники Reuters.

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Сила в правде, брат©

Vis recte vivere? Quis non?

  1  

Афера Сечина

miggerrtis

December 12th, 5:56

5 декабря «Роснефть» выпустила облигаций на сумму ₽600 млрд, и держала книгу заявок открытой всего полчаса. Публичного объявления параметров (конкретного объёма и ставок купонов) до момента открытия книги и в течение сбора заявок не было. Другими словами, размещение облигаций было проведено по т.н. «закрытой подписке», т.е. среди заранее выбранных «инвесторов». Про себя отмечаем, для целей текста чуть ниже, что ₽600 млрд – это немногих менее €10 млрд. 10 млрд евро, шоб их разорвало! 


        Любой нормальный человек, разбирающийся в финансах, скажет вам, что ни в России, ни за пределами России, во всём мире, нет инвестора, или инвесторов, которые хотели бы одолжить закредитованной по самые помидоры государственной компании «Роснефть» €10 млрд в рублёвом эквиваленте по закрытой подписке за полчаса.

        Эти деньги – свеженапечатанные Центральным банком России рубли, вот что я думаю. По приказу ОПГ Сечина-Путина напечатанные. И выданы они 4-5 российским госбанкам, для целей покупки ими же, только что выпущенных облигаций «Роснефти», которые они, в свою очередь, могут заложить в ЦБ. А «Роснефть» эти деньги получила и… положила в какой-то секретный кредитный фонд, который, в свою очередь, прокредитовал неизвестный консорциум из неназванных российских банков. Сейчас вы поймёте, к чему это я…

        8 декабря «Роснефть» объявляет о сделке по «приватизации» 19,5% своего акционерного капитала – что, якобы, консорциум Гленкора и QIA выкупил эти акции «Роснефти» у российского государства за €10,5 млрд, и что российский бюджет получит именно эти деньги. Как вы видели по ссылкам выше, я уже тогда, 8 декабря, высказывал свой скептицизм… и правда не заставила себя долго ждать, перед появлением на свет новой информации…

        Во-первых, Гленкор не только почти не использовал своих собственных средств, но и закладывает (!!!) более 50% «покупаемых» им акций – закладывает… ну да, в качестве залога, банку или банкам. Сейчас это мне неизвестно – то ли одному единственному итальянскому банку Intesa, то ли нескольким банкам, стоящим «за ним» в некоем консорциуме финансирующих эту т.н. «сделку» банкам. Причём российским банкам.

        Сумма сделки составила ₽692 млрд – почти столько, сколько «Роснефть» только что «привлекла» через фиктивную продажу своих облигаций. Вроде как Гленкор платит €300 млн, QIA платит €2,5 млрд (пока мне непонятно, своим капиталом, или тоже при помощи полного или частичного кредитования), а остальные деньги – кредитные! Большая часть остатка всей суммы сделки – банк Intesa, плюс ещё синдикат из порядка пяти банков – интересно, каких? Нам не говорят. И за самим банком Intesa – ещё раз спрошу – кто стоит? Тоже какой-то синдикат?

        В федеральный бюджет от «приватизации» этого куска «Роснефти» должно поступить ₽710,8 млрд, или €10,5 млрд. Но от этой сделки поступят только ₽692 млрд от т.н. «иностранцев» (которые просто фронтуют). Откуда взять недостающие ₽18 млрд? Очень просто – за счёт дополнительного дивиденда, который государству выплатит государственный же «Роснефтегаз», т.е. государственный продавец этой государственной доли в государственной «Роснефти».

        Вот таков круговорот денег в путинской России. ЦБ печатает почти €10 млрд в рублёвом эквиваленте и одалживает эти деньги 4-5 российским госбанкам, которые, в свою очередь, одалживают эти деньги фиктивному консорциуму Гленкора и QIA, который просто «фронтит». Государственная лавочка «Роснефтегаз», деньги и акции которой и так принадлежает государству, даёт государству недостающие ₽18 млрд, чтобы просто «добить» сумму до нужной цифры, раз уж какое-то там количество миллиардов рублей (почти два десятка?) по дороге этой гениальной транзакции исчезло благодаря усушке и утруске.

        И, вроде, денег никто не заплатил (кроме ЦБ, изначально), и акции «Роснефти» в нужном месте, в залоге, и «бюджет деньги получил», да так, что можно по телевизору отчитаться – помните, как ОПГ Сечина-Путина это делала на днях?

        Это вам – не залоговые аукционы середины 90-х! Здесь комбинаторика похлеще будет! В США она потянула бы лет на 150 тюрьмы каждому из этой ОПГ. Из этой ОПГ Сечина-Путина, которую сейчас фронтует консорциум из Гленкора и QIA.