The Empire is Crumbling, That is Why it Needs War

A POETIC CALL TO ACTION AND TRUTH BY OUR SPECIAL ROAMING CORRESPONDENT
2015 Will See Decisive Battles 
Opening Plenary of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009: Vladimir PutinPutin in Davos, 2009, still very much enmeshed in Western claptrap. The pivot toward the East should have commenced earlier.  The triumph of multipolarity depends on the Russia-China alliance, both nations in the crosshairs of the Empire. (Flickr/WEF)


[dropcap]in Beijing, I sat in a historic Szechuan restaurant with a friend who happens to be a Chinese diplomat. We exchanged some stories, ordered food, and then, suddenly, my throat felt dry and my eyes got misty.

I bowed and thanked her for the heartfelt offer China made to rescue Russia.

Just before leaving my hotel, I read the news on the RT:

“China’s foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in Yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing’s commerce minister.

‘Russia has the capability and the wisdom to overcome the existing hardship in the economic situation,’ Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists. China Daily reported Monday: ‘If the Russian side needs it, we will provide necessary assistance within our capacity.’”

By no means was I representing the Russian Federation here, in Beijing, nor was my friend representing China that night, at the dining table. It was an informal meeting attended by just a few friends, nothing more.

Not to mention that I am not really, ‘technically’ a Russian. Yes, I was born in Leningrad but almost my entire life I spent elsewhere… all over the world, to be precise. And in my veins, not that it really matters; it is also all confused… there circulates an explosive mixture of Russian, Chinese and European blood.

But lately, to be Russian, to me and to many others, is much more than just about blood. ‘I am a rebel; therefore I am Russian’, to paraphrase Albert Camus. Or: ‘I am Russian because I refuse to abandon the struggle.’

‘Ya Russkii!’ or ‘Cubano soy!’ It simply feels good, and makes one proud, and stronger.

***

The world is in turmoil. Like in the early 1940’s, something tremendous is gaining shape, something irreversible.

Almost all of us who have been analyzing the Empire fighting against the propaganda and nihilism it spreads, and its venomous tentacles extending to every corner of the globe, know that ‘appeasing’ Western imperialism is clearly impossible, as it is impractical, and even immoral.

Just as George W. Bush (clearly borrowing from fundamentalist Christian rhetoric), liked to say: “You are either with us or against us”. Countries are now evidently put on the spot: ‘they either accept the Western neo-colonialist doctrine’, or they get destroyed, one after another, as were Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

No logic can help, no negotiations, no international mediation from the United Nations. The willingness to compromise is mocked. Appeals for simple human compassion do not move the rulers of the Empire even an inch.

It is clear that the Empire is preparing for the final assault. It will not back down. It will attack, destroy and annihilate. No idea when, but it will. And it will happen sooner rather than later, and with tremendous force.

Some would ask, why now? Why is there suddenly such a rush to fight the final battle for the total control over the planet?

The answer is very clear: for the first time disgust with the Empire is widespread, and worldwide. Many people are getting cured from blindness.

The mask of benevolence and rationality has been torn off by powerful media outlets based in the countries of Latin America, in Russia, China, Iran, but also in North America where the independent media is playing an increasingly important role. It is not even a matter of some elaborate ‘objectivity’, anymore. To get things right, it is enough to call fascism by its real name, as it is sufficient to identify mass murder perpetrated by the Empire on all continents!

The mask has fallen and what is now exposed is horrifying: the face of a monster, with blood and pus, a greedy grin and merciless fangs. It is a monster that is still in love with itself, unable to see its dreadfulness. It remains proud of its fundamental religious dogma, which it often doesn’t even see as ‘religious’. It dwells on self-righteousness, and at the same time, on its twisted market-fundamentalist faith that everything and everybody are for sale. It is a monster full of complexes – both those of superiority and inferiority.


russiaDesklogo1-350x81

It is not a happy monster and the people it produces are mostly miserable, lonely and scared. But it cannot change, it cannot back-up, it cannot let go. It would rather destroy its children and the world, than to admit that it went totally wrong, for years, decades and centuries.

Now many people have had enough, and some have even forgotten how to be scared! And the monster knows it, and it is actually scared itself, of those who are not scared of it.

The voices of the voiceless are now resonating louder and louder – we make sure that they are!

Except in the countries where the intellectuals and ‘elites’ have totally sold out, like in Indonesia or Malaysia, the horrendous deeds of the colonialism and neo-colonialism of Europe and North America, are finally being discussed, analyzed, and understood.

And the monster, the Empire, knows that it is the beginning of the end.

It cannot live as an equal. Therefore, it will fight its final battle. It will try to win. Or, it will try to destroy the world. Because life is not worth living for it, if it is not in full control; if its God is not in control, if it is not perceived as the enforcer of the divine manifesto.

***

When I visit a barbershop in Beirut or Amman, and am asked ‘where are you from?’ (It used to be a painfully confusing and complex question to answer, just a few years ago), I now simply reply: “Russia,” and people come and hug me and say, “Thank you.”


“Appeals for simple human compassion do not move the rulers of the Empire even an inch.”


It is not because Russia is perfect. It is not perfect – as no country on Earth could or should be. But it is because it is standing once more against the Empire, and the Empire has brought so many horrors, so much humiliation, to so many people; to billions of people around the world… and to them, to so many of them, anyone who is standing against the Empire, is a hero. This I heard recently, first hand, from people in Eritrea, China, Russia, Palestine, Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela, and South Africa, to name just a few places.

Alexander Nevsky-filmStill (1937)wiki
Alexander Nevsky: The hero refuses the mongol ambassador’s invitation to join the Golden Horde. [From Eisenstein’s classic, Alexander Nevsky (1933)]. ]The Russian nation has a long history of resistance —and triumph—against would-be conquerors.

And that is why the Empire is now ‘in such a hurry’, unwilling to wait any longer, trying to provoke Russia, to bring it, metaphorically speaking, into yet another open epic battle, like the one that was fought in ancient times, on the thick ice, by Alexander Nevski.

The Empire is in too much of a rush, it is too scared to think, to understand, to remember, what every invader had to learn the hard way: Russia can be attacked and the Russian people can be murdered by millions. There can be devastation and fire; there can be ruins, tears and graves, graves, graves… Mothers burying their sons, and sons returning back home, to only encounter ashes. But Russia cannot be defeated. When the survival of the world is at stake, Russia stands up, enormous, powerful and frightening. And it fights as no other nation can; it fights for humanity, not only for itself. And it wins.

When such a moment comes, there is only one possible way how to defeat Russia: it is to destroy the entire world.

Are you ready for that, Mr. Obama? Are you ready for it, corporate America and Europe? Are you ready for it, Pentecostal Christians, Televangelists and other morally defunct beings?


Still from Alexander Nevsky: The Teutonic knights prepare to hang a rebel. (Wikipedia)

Still from Alexander Nevsky: The Teutonic knights prepare to hang a Russian rebel. (Wikipedia)

Think twice. One more step, and you will find yourself facing two enormous nations, and dozens of smaller ones, ready to fight for the survival of  mankind.

Your only strength is in your weapons of mass destruction, and therefore in spreading fear. And most of your arguments have no foundations in truth, only in deception and lies.

This year, I witnessed your deeds in Iraq, in Eritrea, China, Ukraine, all over Africa and the Middle East.

This year, somehow, it appears that you went too far, that the proverbial drop has fallen on Earth.

Stop! And stop torturing this Earth. Do not provoke, do not trigger yet another world war!

Stop, or there will be a fight. And you will lose, or we will all lose, but you will lose no matter what, because this time, Russia and China, Venezuela and Cuba, and others and many others, will not back down, anymore, while others will join.

***

Despite all of its terror, propaganda and brainwashing called ‘education’—or news, or entertainment—the Empire is well aware that it is losing its grip on global power. And it is horrified, because it does not know how else to live, except with a whip in its hand. Planet Earth realizes that the ruler is sinister, ruthless and degenerate – some people realize it clearly using logic, others just sense it, intuitively. If there was really a global democracy, the people of our planet would throw the existing power structure straight to the dogs. But there isn’t, there still isn’t! Just look at the toothless, constantly humiliated United Nations. Almost everywhere, voting has become nothing more than an act of sticking a piece of paper into a box, and not much more.

***

The year 2015 is approaching. During that year, it will become clear who is fighting for the survival of our human race, and who is on the side of oppression, of imperialism, and of the Empire.

Next year, more and more countries will get destabilized or attacked. Perhaps millions of people will get killed, as they get killed every year, but most likely, this time, many more will. The ‘opposition movements’ manufactured by the West, as well as various Christian groups and other right-wing religious factions, will continue standing firmly on the side of imperialist oppression and market fundamentalism. The conservative petite bourgeoisie in the West and in almost all ‘client states’ will be battling to uphold their privileges. Fascist family structures and cultures will continue intimidating children and young people, preventing them from thinking, from rebelling and from living.

The Empire has many allies, all over the world, but most of them are of an extremely sinister nature. But their closest allies are always ignorance, servility and fear.

While our revolutions, the true ones, as well as the resistance and battles for a better world, are always based on knowledge, and in summary are nothing else other than an act of love.

***

The fight ahead of us will be extremely tough; it will be an epic struggle, involving great nation states, as well as groups and movements.

As the grungy Russian bear is being battered and provoked into a military conflict, great Chinese dragons are determined to form a protective circle, and this time, are declaring indirectly but clearly that they will come to the rescue of weaker nations attacked by the West. As even The New York Times reported:

“Mr. Xi did not mention the United States by name but took an unmistakable jab at Washington, saying, ‘The growing trend toward a multi-polar world will not change’, a reference to the Chinese view that America’s post-Cold War role as the sole superpower is drawing to a close.”

The goal is to never allow Western imperialism and colonialism to take control over the planet again, as it mercilessly did at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, at the cost of tens of millions of human lives.

After centuries of plunder, rape and occupations, the West has no mandate to govern the world.


“Peace can only be based on justice, on social justice especially; otherwise it is not peace.”


After constantly justifying and glorifying its terrible deeds, brainwashing our planet into believing that it actually brings progress and rationality to the savages (the rest of the planet), it cannot be trusted with ‘informing’ and ‘educating’ the people.

That is why we now have independent media, as well as powerful state-controlled media outlets based in the countries that are not willing to succumb to European and North American propaganda and indoctrination.

These media and education institutions should and will redraw the entire historical and contemporary narrative.

Some examples?

Instead of glorifying the wisdom of Founding Fathers of the United States, we should recall that North America was created on the unimaginable suffering of the indigenous people, on Christian bigotry and forced conversions, on genocide, and on theft of the land. And that it was not done by some new and extraterrestrial breed or race called ‘Americans’, but by the same European puritans and religious hordes that had already murdered for centuries, all over Asia, Africa and the Middle East—not to mention each other.

‘New America’, both North and South, was predictably created on fear, violence, glorified superstition, and  theft.

We should recall the slaves who were brought in shackles from Africa. Most of them died when traversing the Ocean, women raped and humiliated, children raped and marked forever, men with their dignity taken away from them.

Women and young girls were then chained in the fields, becoming sexual toys for those ‘puritan’ white farmers. Men and children, at least those who survived, were made to work days and nights, until falling dead from exhaustion.

All this done under the shadow of the cross, progress, and ‘democracy’!

This is how America was built. This is the true story, the true narrative, of those ‘great beginnings of the land of the free’!

And those theatres of Europe, cathedrals and churches, palaces and parks –far too many created from loot and genocides, colonialism and the Crusades, ‘military adventures’.

This is how the regime, how the Western establishment always functioned. Rape is love. Indoctrination is education and information. Fear is belief. Slavery is freedom!

Do we want this kind of world for several more decades, even centuries?

I am not asking Parisians, Londoners or New Yorkers. I am not asking corrupt businessmen in Jakarta or deranged preachers in Kinshasa, top military brass in Kigali or the murderous feudal lords in Guatemala.

No humanist, no compassionate human being wants this sort of shit!

And for the first time, people are not afraid to say it, or at least to hear it, or read it!

I am not afraid to write this. Are you scared to read it? I don’t think so.

***

The ‘peace’, we were told about again and again, is something that has to be achieved and upheld by all means.

But what kind of peace are we aiming at, and peace for whom?

The Empire wants a ‘peace’ arrangement, in which countries like Cuba and Russia, Venezuela and China, just back down, give up, and surrender. That is not peace!

We are asked, ordered, to live peacefully in a world ruled by European and North American masters, as some slaves crawling in filth.

Are we expected to succumb to the one and only religious dogma on which this entire racist, imperialist and capitalist system is built?

What a prospect, what a peace!

To them, to the imperialist West, peace means only one thing: unopposed rule over the planet.

If one fights for his people, he is a terrorist, a bandit. Then, it is a war!

The Nazis called resistance fighters in Ukraine or France, ‘terrorists’.

The Israeli military calls Palestinian resistance by the same name.

The West calls any legitimate rebellion, ‘terrorist’. Even MRTA in Peru was a ‘terrorist group’; MIR resistance against Pinochet was ‘terrorist’. The mainly social movement in Lebanon – Hezbollah – is defined as ‘terrorist’, and so is the entire proud Eritrean state.

Shia Muslims are ‘terrorists’, because the West is supporting Sunni monsters in the Gulf.

Che Guevara was a terrorist, and so were Fidel and sub-commandant Marcos. So was Lumumba.

To the West, to its lackey regimes and NGOs, true peace will come only if all natural resources were offered to the multi-national companies. All left-wing, Communist and socialist movements would be butchered, if Russia were to return to that humiliated and shapeless shit it was converted into, for a short time, under the sneaky and brutal alcoholic Boris Yeltsin, if China turned back to the Deng Xiaoping days of only providing cheap products, labor and almost no global fight against imperialism! If Venezuela was to supply crude and fuck its own people, as it used to, before the heroic revolution of Hugo Chavez, if Cuba sold its women and booze and cigars for a pittance, before its most dignified revolution took place!

‘Peace’ would be, if billions of miserably poor people were quietly and un-confrontationally dying in their slums, while the capitalists, preachers and landowners several neighborhoods further were enjoying their private clinics and private schools!

But such peace will never again be accepted!

To fight for a better world, and for the oppressed, is like writing a poem.

War is when you plunder and rape, when you murder in order to oppress, and to control others!

Peace can only be based on justice, on social justice especially; otherwise it is not peace.

***

Russia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics fought for its survival on many occasions. Germans attacked it, then after the Revolution in 1917, the West Europeans and North Americans attacked, and then the Germans again. Tens of millions vanished defending the Motherland. Not one apology ever came from Washington or London!

China was forced open, humiliated, ransacked, including its capital city Beijing. Those who did it, the Brits and French, are now lecturing China about ‘human rights’ and ‘freedom’. It is truly grotesque!

Look at the other nations that are now standing up against Western imperialism!

Iran, colonized, destroyed when it took a socialist path, and then infected by a Suharto-style maniac, the Shah, later attacked by Iraq, after the West had armed Baghdad.

Latin America – was ruined by colonial and neo-colonial expeditions, for centuries, reduced to nothing by the ‘Monroe Doctrine’, with death squads trained in the US; trained how to kidnap and torture, and how to rape children in front of their parents.

Should we go on? Korea: tens of thousands of civilians were burned alive by US troops in tunnels. It was one of the most brutal wars in the history of mankind, aptly described by the most brilliant investigative journalist of the 20th century – Wilfred Burchett.

Indochina – 7 million were killed, bombed to death, or burned alive. Will we ever know how many? Vietnam is now an ally!

South Africa, Zimbabwe, Eritrea…

Yes, this is our alliance. Some 2 billion people who are living in the countries that were terrorized, brutalized, reduced to ashes, but that stood again and decided to fight, rather to live like slaves.

These are all imperfect countries, but countries peaceful to the core, countries that exist mainly in order to improve the lives of their men, women and children… and those all over the world.

And look at the other nations that are resisting Western attacks against their sovereignty– Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea – ostracized, surviving countless terrorist attacks, subversions, propaganda, and destabilizing campaigns. And then, when they mobilize, ready to protect themselves, they are designated, and defined as ‘hermit states’ or ‘beastly dictatorships’!

Who forced them into a corner?

It is all twisted. Never again! Enough!

***

Do you hear that silence, after the US decided to ‘normalize’ its relationship with Cuba? We all know why there is such a terrible silence, don’t we? Because we realize that, based on the centuries of US involvement in Latin America, this will be part of a new destructive tactic, a new attack: that Cuba may now actually be facing the greatest danger in decades! We don’t know exactly what will happen, but we are somehow certain, that something very terrible will.

Is the West going to manufacture a ‘Cigar Opposition Movement’ in Cuba? Or is it going to be yet another color?

2015 will see many battles.

But the most important first step has just been made.

China made a great symbolic gesture: calmly, respectfully, but decisively. The message is clear: “You shall not be allowed to destroy others!” Not anymore.

The Empire is decomposing; it is sick, unsustainable.

But it is also toxic, and its illness is contagious. Its propaganda is mighty and its dogmas are violent.

Let us make sure that it goes away, crumbles, step by step, without destroying the world, without dragging it into WWIII.

Let us unite, individuals and nations, movements and parties. At least until the most dangerous period passes.


ANDRE VLTCHEK54674Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. The result is his latest book: “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. ‘Pluto’ published his discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. His critically acclaimed political novel Point of No Return is re-edited and available. Oceania is his book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia and the market-fundamentalist model is called “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. His feature documentary, “Rwanda Gambit” is about Rwandan history and the plunder of DR Congo. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and Africa. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.




 

And now a word from the Editors of The Greanville Post


FRIENDS AND FELLOW ACTIVISTS—

AS YOU KNOW, THERE’S A COLOSSAL INFORMATION WAR GOING ON, AND THE FATE OF THE WORLD LITERALLY HANGS ON THE OUTCOME.

THEIR LIES.
THEIR CONSTANT PROPAGANDA.

OUR TRUTH.

HUGE ISSUES ARE BEING DECIDED: Nuclear war, whether we’ll live in democracy or tyranny, dignity or destitution, planetary salvation or doom…
It’s a battle of communications we can’t afford to lose. 


So, we request that you do something.
Reading is not enough. Action of some sort is needed.

Start with something simple: Share our posts.
If you don’t, how can we ever neutralize the power of the corporate media?

And if you took the time to read this article, and found it worth SHARING, then why not sign up with our special bulletin to be included in our future distributions? And please tell others about The Greanville Post. 


YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS (SIGNUPS TO THE GREANVILLE POST BULLETIN, SEE BELOW) ARE COMPLETELY FREE, ALWAYS. AND WE DO NOT SELL OR RENT OUR EMAIL ADDRESS DATABASES—EVER. That’s a guarantee.

 




Russia’s Vulnerability to EU – US Sanctions and Military Encroachments

Axis of Logic | Indispensable Reads
This article is being reposted as a result of recent events
Finding Clarity in the 21st Century Mediaplex

Putin: Quo Vadis?

Putin: Quo Vadis?

By James Petras, Axis of Logic


[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he US-EU sponsored coup in the Ukraine and its conversion from a stable Russian trading partner, to a devastated EU economic client and NATO launch pad, as well as the subsequent economic sanctions against Russia for supporting the Russian ethnic majority in the Donbas region and Crimea, illustrate the dangerous vulnerability of the Russian economy and state. The current effort to increase Russia’s national security and economic viability in the face of these challenges requires a critical analysis of the policies and structures emerging in the post-Soviet era.

Pillage as Privatization….
Over the past quarter century, several trillion dollars worth of public property in every sector of the Russian economy was illegally transferred or violently seized by gangster-oligarchs acting through armed gangs, especially during its ‘transition to capitalism’.From 1990 to 1999, over 6 million Russian citizens died prematurely as a result of the catastrophic collapse of the economy; life expectancy for males declined from 67 years during the Soviet era to 55 year during the Yeltsin period. Russia’s GNP declined sixty percent – a historic first for a country not at war. Following Yeltsin’s violent seizure of power and his bombing of the Russian parliament, the regime proceeded to ‘prioritize’ the privatization of the economy, selling off the energy, natural resources, banking, transport and communication sectors at one-tenth or less of their real value to well-connected cronies and foreign entities. Armed thugs, organized by emerging oligarchs “completed” the program of privatization by assaulting, murdering and threatening rivals. Hundreds of thousands of elderly pensioners were tossed out of their homes and apartments in a vicious land-grab by violent property speculators. US and European academic financial consultants “advised” rival oligarchs and government ministers on the most “efficient” market techniques for pillaging the economy, while skimming off lucrative fees and commissions –fortunes were made for the well-connected. Meanwhile, living standards collapsed, impoverishing two thirds of Russian households, suicides quadrupled and deaths from alcoholism, drug addiction, HIV and venereal diseases became rampant. Syphilis and tuberculosis reached epidemic proportions – diseases fully controlled during the Soviet era remerged with the closure of clinics and hospitals.


putin-Russian_President-dailyMailOf course, the respectable western media celebrated the pillage of Russia as the transition to “free elections and a free market economy”.


They wrote glowing articles describing the political power and dominance of gangster oligarchs as the reflection of a rising “liberal democracy”. The Russian state was thus converted from a global superpower into an abject client regime penetrated by western intelligence agencies and unable to govern and enforce its treaties and agreements with Western powers. The US and EU rapidly displaced Russian influence in Eastern Europe and quickly snapped up former state-owned industries, the mass media and financial institutions. Communist and leftist and even nationalist officials were ousted and replaced by pliant and subservient ‘free market’ pro-NATO politicians. The US and EU violated every single agreement signed by Gorbachev and the West: Eastern European regimes became NATO members; West Germany annexed the East and military bases were expanded right up to Russia’s borders. Pro-NATO “think tanks” were established and supplied intelligence and anti-Russian propaganda. Hundreds of NGOs, funded by the US, operated within Russia as propaganda and organizing instruments for “subservient” neo-liberal politicians. In the former Soviet Caucuses and Far East, the West fomented separatist sectarian movements and armed uprisings, especially in Chechnya; the US sponsored dictators in the Caucuses and corrupt neo-liberal puppets in Georgia. The Russian state was colonized and its putative ruler, Boris Yeltsin, often in a drunken stupor, was propped up and manipulated to scratch out executive fiats . . . further disintegrating the state and society.russiaDesklogo1

Pro-Russian separatists guard Donetsk airport.

Pro-Russian separatists guard Donetsk airport, which was overrun by Kiev’s forces earlier this year.

 

 CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGES

The Yeltsin decade is observed and remembered by the Russian people as a disaster and by the US-EU, the Russian oligarchs and their followers as a ‘Golden Age’… of pillage.
.
For the immense majority of Russians it was the Dark Ages when Russian science and culture were ravaged; world-class scientists, artists and engineers were starved of incomes and driven to despair, flight and poverty. For the US, the EU and the oligarchs it was the era of ‘easy pickings’: economic, cultural and intellectual pillage, billion dollar fortunes, political impunity, unbridled criminality and subservience to Western dictates. Agreements with the Russian state were violated even before the ink was dry. It was the era of the unipolar US-centered world, the ‘New World Order’ where Washington could influence and invade nationalist adversaries and Russian allies with impunity.

Novorossiya Soldier.

Novorossiya Soldier.

The Golden Era of unchallenged world domination became the Western ‘standard’ for judging Russia after Yeltsin. Every domestic and foreign policy, adopted during the Putin years 2000 – 2014, has been judged by Washington according to whether it conformed or deviated from the Yeltsin decade of unchallenged pillage and manipulation.

The Putin Era: State and Economic Reconstruction and EU-US Belligerence

President Putin’s first and foremost task was to end Russia’s collapse into nothingness. Over time, the state and economy recovered some semblance of order and legality. The economy began to recover and grow; employment, wages and living standards, and mortality rates improved. Trade, investment and financial transactions with the West were normalized – unadulterated pillage was prosecuted. Russia’s recovery was viewed by the West with ambiguity: Many legitimate business people and MNCs welcomed the re-establishment of law and order and the end of gangsterism; in contrast, policymakers in Washington and Brussels as well as the vulture capitalists of Wall Street and the City of London quickly condemned what they termed Putin’s ‘rising authoritarianism’ and ‘statism’, as Russian authorities began to investigate the oligarchs for tax evasion, large-scale money laundering, the corruption of public officials and even murder.

Putin’s rise to power coincided with the worldwide commodity boom. The spectacular rise in the price of Russian oil and gas and metals (2003-2013) allowed the Russian economy to grow at a rapid rate while the Russian state increased its regulation of the economy and began to restore its military. Putin’s success in ending the most egregious forms of pillage of the Russian economy and re-establishing Russian sovereignty made him popular with the electorate: he was repeatedly re-elected by a robust majority. As Russia distanced itself from the quasi-satellite policies, personnel and practices of the Yeltsin years, the US and EU launched a multi-prong hostile political strategy designed to undermine President Putin and restore pliant Yeltsin-like neo-liberal clones to power. Russian NGOs funded by US foundations and acting as CIA fronts, organized mass protests targeting the elected officials. Western-backed ultra-liberal political parties competed unsuccessfully for national and local offices. The US-funded Carnegie Center, a notorious propaganda mill, churned out virulent tracts purporting to describe Putin’s demonic ‘authoritarian’ policies, his ‘persecution’ of dissident oligarchs and his ‘return’ to a ‘Soviet style command economy’.


 

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile the West sought to restore the ‘Golden Age of Pillage’ via internal political surrogates, it pursued an aggressive foreign policy designed to eliminate Russian allies and trading partners, especially in the Middle East. The US invaded Iraq, murdered Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party leadership, and established a sectarian puppet regime, eliminating Moscow’s key secular-nationalist ally in the region. The US decreed sanctions on Iran, a major lucrative trading partner with Russia. The US and the EU backed a large-scale armed insurgency to overthrow President Bashaar Assad in Syria, another Russian ally, and to deprive the Russian Navy of a friendly port on the Mediterranean. The US and the EU bombed Libya, a major oil and trade partner of Russia (and China) hoping to install a pro-Western client regime.

Goading Russia in the Caucasus and on the Black Sea, the US backed-Georgian regime invaded a Russian protectorate, South Ossetia, in 2008, killing scores of Russian peacekeepers and hundreds of civilians, but was repelled by a furious Russian counter-attack.

In 2014, the Western offensive to isolate, encircle and eventually undermine any possibility of an independent Russian state went into high gear. The US financed a civil-military coup ousting the elected regime of President Viktor Yanukovytch, who had opposed EU annexation and NATO affiliation. Washington imposed a puppet regime deeply hostile to Russia and ethnic Russian-Ukrainian citizens in the southeast and Crimea. Russian opposition to the coup and support for pro-democracy federalists in the south-east and Crimea served as a pretext for Western sanctions in an effort to undermine Russia’s oil, banking and manufacturing sectors and to cripple its economy.

Imperial strategists in Washington and Brussels broke all previous agreements with the Putin Administration and tried to turn Putin’s oligarch allies against the Russian president by threatening their holdings in the West (especially laundered bank accounts and properties).  Russian state oil companies, engaged in joint ventures with Chevron, Exxon, and Total, were suddenly cut off from Western capital markets.

The cumulative impact of this decade-long Western offensive culminating in the current wave of severe sanctions was to provoke a recession in Russia, to undermine the currency (the ruble declined 23% in 2014), drive up the cost of imports and hurt local consumers. Russian industries, dependent on foreign equipment and parts, as well as oil companies dependent on imported technology for exploiting the Arctic reserves were made to feel the pain of ‘Putin’s intransigence’.

Despite the short-term successes of the US-EU war against the Russian economy, the Putin Administration has remained extremely popular among the Russian electorate, with approval ratings exceeding 80%. This has relegated Putin’s pro-Western opposition to the dustbin of history. Nevertheless the Western sanctions policy and the aggressive political – NATO military encirclement of Russia, has exposed the vulnerabilities of Moscow.

Russian Vulnerabilities: The Limits of Putin’s Restoration of Russian Sovereignty


In the aftermath of the Western and Russian oligarch’s pillage of the Russian economy and the savage degradation of Russian society, President Putin pursued a complex strategy.

First, he sought to differentiate between ‘political’ and ‘economic’ oligarchs: the latter included oligarchs willing to co-operate with the government in rebuilding the economy and willing to confine their activity to the generous guidelines set forth by President Putin. They retained enormous economic power and profits, but not political power. In exchange, Putin allowed the ‘economic’ oligarchs to maintain their dubiously acquired business empires. In contrast, those oligarchs who sought political power and financed Yeltsin-era politicians were targeted – some were stripped of their fortunes and others were prosecuted for crimes, ranging from money laundering, tax evasion, swindles and illegal transfer of funds overseas up to financing the murder of their rivals.

The second focus of President Putin’s early political strategy was to deepen Russian cooperation with Western states and economies but on the basis of reciprocal market exchanges rather than one-sided, Western appropriation of Russian resources prevalent under Yeltsin. Putin sought to secure greater political-military integration with the US and EU to ensure Russian borders and spheres of influence. To that end, President Putin opened Russian military bases and supply lines for the US-EU military forces engaged in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and he did not oppose the EU-US sanctions against Iran. Putin acquiesced to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, despite Russia’s longstanding economic ties with Baghdad. He joined the five powers ‘overseeing” the Palestine – Israeli ‘peace’ talks and went along with Washington’s one-sided support of Israel. He even gave the ‘green light’ to the NATO bombing of Libya, naively assuming it would be a limited affair – a ‘humanitarian’intervention.

As a result of Putin’s political and diplomatic collusion with the Washington-NATO military expansion, Russian trade, investment and finance with the West prospered. Russian firms raised loans in Western capital markets; foreign investors flocked to the Russian stock market and multi-nationals formed joint ventures. Major oil and gas ventures flourished. The Russian economy recovered the living standards of the Soviet era; consumer spending boomed; unemployment fell from double to single digit; salaries and back wages were paid and research centers, universities, schools and cultural institutions began to recover.

The third component of Putin’s strategy was the state recovery (re-nationalization) of the strategic oil and gas sector. By outright purchase and buy-outs, through financial audits and the confiscation of the assets of gangster oligarchs, the Russian state takeover of oil and gas was successful. These re-nationalized sectors formed joint ventures with Western oil giants and led Russian exports during a period of peak energy demand. With the rise in oil prices over the Putin decade, Russia experienced a consumer-driven import boom – from agricultural commodities to luxury jewelry and autos… Putin consolidated his electoral support and deepened Russia’s ‘integration’ in Western markets.

Putin’s expansion and growth strategy looked exclusively westward to the EU and US, and not east to Asia/China or south to Latin America.

With this focus on the West, Putin’s initial tactical success began to expose Russia’s strategic vulnerabilities. The first signs were evident in the Western support for the corrupt oligarchs’ anti-Putin campaign and the media’s demonization of the Russian judicial system which prosecuted and convicted gangster oligarchs, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The second sign was the West’s financial and political support of the Yeltsin-era neo-liberals competing against Putin’s United Russia Party and candidates…It became clear that Putin’s effort to restore Russian sovereignty conflicted with the West’s plans to maintain Russia as a vassal state. The West favorably counterpoised the Golden Years of unrestrained pillage and domination of the Yeltsin period to the Putin era of an independent and dynamic Russia – by constantly tying the Russian president to the defunct Soviet Union and the KGB.

In 2010, the US encouraged its client, President Sakashvili of Georgia to invade Russia’s protectorate in South Ossetia. This was the first major indication that Putin’s accommodation with the West was counter-productive. Russian territorial borders, its allies and spheres of influence became Western targets. The US and EU condemned Russia’s defensive response even as Moscow withdrew its troops from Georgia after applying a sound beating.

Georgia was a militarist dress rehearsal; one of several western planned and financed coups – some dubbed ‘color revolutions’ other’s NATO ‘humanitarian interventions’. Yugoslavia in the Balkans was fragmented by NATO bombing and Ukraine had several ‘color’ uprisings up to the present bloody ‘civil war’. Washington and Brussels interpreted Putin’s series of conciliatory measures as weakness and felt free to encroach further on Russia’s frontier and to knock off regimes friendly to Russia.

By the middle of the second decade of the new century, the US and EU made a major strategic decision to weaken Russia’s security and its economy sovereignty: to seize control over Ukraine, expel Russia from its Black Sea military base in Crimea, convert the Ukraine into an advanced NATO outpost and cut Eastern Ukraine’s economic ties with Russia – especially the Russian market for the strategic Ukrainian military weaponry. The coup was financed by the West, while far-right and neo-Nazi Ukraine gangs provided the shock troops .The Kiev junta organized a war of conquest directed at purging the anti-coup, pro-democracy forces in the southeast Donbas region with its Russian ethnic majority and heavy industrial ties to Russia.

When Putin finally recognized the clear danger to Russia’s national security, his government responded by annexing Crimea after a popular referendum and started to provide sanctuary and supply lines for the embattled anti-Kiev federalists in eastern Ukraine. The West exploited the vulnerabilities in the Russian economy, which had resulted from Putin’s development model, and imposed wide-reaching economic sanctions designed to cripple Russia’s economy.

Western Sanctions, Russian Weakness: Rethinking Putin’s Strategic Approach


Western aggressive militarism and the sanctions against Russia exposed several critical vulnerabilities of Putin’s economic and political strategy. These include (1) his dependence on Western-oriented ‘economic oligarchs’ to promote his strategy for Russian economic growth; (2) his acceptance of most of the privatizations of the Yeltsin era; (3) his decision to focus on trade with the West, ignoring the China market, (4) his embrace of a gas and oil export strategy instead of developing a diversified economy; (5) his dependence on his allied robber-baron oligarchs – with no real experience in developing industry, no true financial skills, scant technological expertise and no concept of marketing – to restore and run the peak manufacturing sector. In contrast to the Chinese, the Russian oligarchs have been totally dependent on Western markets, finance and technology and have done little to develop domestic markets, implement self-financing by re-investing their profits or upgrade productivity via Russian technology and research.

In the face of Western sanctions Putin’s leading oligarch-allies are his weakest link in formulating an effective response. They press Putin to give in to Washington as they plead with Western banks to have their properties and accounts exempt from the sanctions. They are desperate to protect their assets in London and New York. In a word, they are desperate for President Putin to abandon the freedom fighters in southeast Ukraine and cut a deal with the Kiev junta.

This highlights the contradiction within Putin’s strategy of working with the ‘economic’ oligarchs, who have agreed not to oppose Putin within Russia, while transferring their massive wealth to Western banks, investing in luxury real estate in London, Paris and Manhattan and forming loyalties outside of Russia. In effect, they are closely tied to Russia’s current political enemies. Putin’s tactical success in harnessing oligarchs to his project of growth via stability has turned into a strategic weakness in defending the country from crippling economic reprisals.

Putin’s acceptance of the Yeltsin-era privatizations provided a certain stability in the short-run but it led to the massive flight of private capital overseas rather than remaining to be invested in projects to insure greater self-sufficiency. Today the capacity of the Russian government to mobilize and convert its economy into an engine of growth and to withstand imperial pressure is much weaker than the economy would have been if it was under greater state control. Putin will have a difficult time convincing private owners of major Russian industries to make sacrifices – they are too accustomed to receiving favors, subsidies and government contracts. Moreover, as their financial counterparts in the West press for payments on debts and deny new credits, the private elites are threatening to declare bankruptcy or to cut back production and discharge workers.

The rising tide of Western military encroachments on Russia’s borders, the string of broken promises regarding the incorporation of Eastern Europe into NATO and the bombing and destruction of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, should have shown Putin that no amount of unilateral concessions was likely to win Western acceptance as a bona fide “partner”. Washington and Brussels were unwavering in their strategy to encircle and maintain Russia as a client.

Instead of turning west and offering support for US-NATO wars, Russia would have been in a far better position to resist sanctions and current military threats if it had diversified and oriented its economy and markets toward Asia, in particular China, with its dynamic economic growth and expanding domestic market, investment capacity and growing technical expertise. Clearly, China’s foreign policy has not been accompanied by wars and invasion of Russian allies and encroachment on Russia’s borders. While Russia has now turned to increase economic ties with Asia in the face of growing NATO threats, a great deal of time and space has been lost over the past 15 years. It will take another decade to reorient the Russian economy, with its major industries still controlled by the mediocre oligarchs and kleptocrats, holdovers from the Yeltsin period.

With the closure of Western markets, Putin has had to ‘pivot’ to China, other Asian nations and Latin America to find new markets and economic partners. But his growth strategy still depends on oil and gas exports and most of Russia’s private ‘business leaders’ are not real entrepreneurs capable of developing new competitive products, substituting Russian technology and inputs and identifying profitable markets. This generation of Russian ‘business leaders’ did not build their economic empires or conglomerates from the ‘bottom up’ – they seized and pillaged their assets from the public sector and they grew their wealth through state contracts and protection. Moscow now asks them to find alternative overseas markets, to innovate, compete and replace their dependence on German machinery.

The bulk of what passes for the Russian industrial capitalist class are not entrepreneurs, they are more like rent collectors and cronies – oriented to the West. Their origins are more often as gangsters and warlords who early on strong- armed their rivals out of the public giveaways of the 1990’s. While these oligarchs have sought to gain respectability after consolidating their economic empires and hired public relations agencies to polish their images and economic consultants to advise them on investments, they have never demonstrated any capacity to grow their firms into competitive enterprises. Instead they remained wholly dependent on capital, technology and intermediary imports from the West and subsidies from the Putin Administration.

The so-called Russian “capitalist” rentiers stand in sharp contrast to the dynamic Chinese public and private entrepreneurs – who borrowed overseas technology from the US, Japan, Taiwan and Germany, adapted and improved on the technology and are producing advanced highly competitive products. When the US-EU sanctions came into force, Russian industry found itself unprepared to substitute local production and President Putin had to arrange trade and import agreements with China and other sources for inputs.

The biggest strategic flaw in Putin’s economic strategy was his decision to concentrate on gas and oil exports to the West as his ‘engine of growth’. This resulted in Russia’s dependency on high prices for commodity exports and Western markets. With this in mind the US and EU exploited Russia’s vulnerability to any drop in the world price for energy and its dependence on Western oil extraction technology, equipment and joint ventures.

Putin’s policy has relied on a vision of economic integration with the West alongside greater co-operation and political connections with the NATO powers. These assumptions have been proven wrong by the march of events: US and EU cooperation was tactical and contingent on asymmetrical, indeed unilateral, concessions from Russia – especially its continued willingness to sacrifice its traditional allies in the Balkans, Middle East, North Africa and especially the Caucuses. Once Russia began to assert its own interests, the West turned hostile and confrontational. Ever since Russia opposed the coup regime in Kiev, the West’s goal has been the overthrow of Putin’s Russia. The ongoing Western offensive against Russia is not a passing phase: it is the beginning of a prolonged, intensified economic and political confrontation.

Though Russia is vulnerable, it is not without resources and capacity to resist, defend its national security and advance its economy.

Conclusion: What is to be Done?


First and foremost Russia must diversify its economy; it must industrialize its raw materials and invest heavily in substituting local production for Western imports. While shifting its trade to China is a positive step, it must not replicate the previous commodities (oil and gas) for manufactured goods trading pattern of the past.

Secondly, Russia must re-nationalize its banking, foreign trade and strategic industries, ending the dubious political and economic loyalties and rentier behavior of the current dysfunctional private ‘capitalist’ class. The Putin Administration must shift from oligarchs to technocrats, from rentiers to entrepreneurs, from speculators who earn in Russia and invest in the West to workers co-participation– in a word it must deepen the national, public, and productive character of the economy. It is not enough to claim that oligarchs who remain in Russia and declare loyalty to the Putin Administration are legitimate economic agents. They have generally disinvested from Russia, transferred their wealth abroad and have questioned legitimate state authority under pressure from Western sanctions.

Russia needs a new economic and political revolution – in which the government recognizes the West as an imperial threat and in which it counts on the organized Russian working class and not on dubious oligarchs. The Putin Administration has pulled Russia from the abyss and has instilled dignity and self-respect among Russians at home and abroad by standing up to Western aggression in the Ukraine. From this point on, President Putin needs to move forward and dismantle the entire Yeltsin klepto-state and economy and re-industrialize, diversify and develop its own high technology for a diversified economy. And above all Russia needs to create new democratic, popular forms of democracy to sustain the transition to a secure, anti-imperialist and sovereign state. President Putin has the backing of the vast majority of Russian people; he has the scientific and professional cadre; he has allies in China and among the BRICs; and he has the will and the power to “do the right thing”. The question remains whether Putin will succeed in this historical mission or whether, out of fear and indecision, he will capitulate before the threats of a dangerous and decaying West.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.

He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, Le Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

© Copyright 2014 by AxisofLogic.com

This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a “live link” to the article. Thank you!


NOTICE: YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS (SIGNUPS TO OUR PERIODICAL BULLETIN) ARE COMPLETELY FREE, ALWAYS. AND WE DO NOT SELL OR RENT OUR EMAIL ADDRESS DATABASES.  




Vladimir Putin: “We are strong because we are right”

Putin-TASS

In the TASS special project Top Officials, Vladimir Putin talks about a healthy lifestyle, the “fifth column” and the oil prices “plot” and argues with Russian philosopher Nikolay Berdyayev. 



On health, wrong statements and the other side of the coin—

– What’s your health status now, Vladimir Vladimirovich?
– All worries are in foes’ dreams!
– The foes are making hints…
– Really? It’s the first time I hear about it. What are they saying? Just fantasizing?
– I won’t retell it to you. As a matter of fact, I’ve come to the firsthand source.
– Let them think this way. It’ll make them relaxed and will bring us benefits, too. 

– But this isn’t idle curiosity, you know. The country’s health depends on your physical, moral and psychological condition. In a way…
– Do they call into question my bodily or psychic status?
– Their assumptions differ.
– I’m OK, all’s fine… And what sport are you doing?
– No sport for quite some time. Only sports on TV.
– That’s bad. No, TV surfing is no sport… And work requires certain energy, strength and physical activity. 
– But why did you ask about it? Just because you…
– I do sports regularly.
– On a daily basis?
– Exactly. Absolutely on a daily basis. Frankly, though, I stopped doing it during trips. When the flight is long and the time difference is big you don’t sleep yourself out…
– By the way, do you adapt easily to local time zones or do you live by the Moscow time?
– I don’t adapt well. And when you’ve gotten adapted, it’s time to return home… Therefore, I try to live mainly by the Moscow time but long trips make it impossible, of course.
– Let’s go back to the issue I started with. Vyacheslav Volodin (first deputy chief of the presidential staff) said at the Valdai Forum, “No Putin, no Russia.” But you later said that the statement was absolutely wrong.
– Yes.
– But this was a formula having a particular connotation, nowadays at least. Many people inside and outside of the country associate Russia with you personally.
– I think that’s natural. The head of state, person number one in a nation is always associated with his country in one way or another. And not only in Russia. The individual is elected by direct secret balloting, people have delegated him certain powers, he is charged with conducting policy on people’s behalf. And, of course, the nation expects a definite conduct from its leader. The voters proceed from the assumption that they elected the head of state and trusted him and he will meet their expectations, defend their interests and struggle to improve their living in the economy, in the social sphere, in the international arena, and in the matters of security. There are many tasks. There is nothing unusual or anything specifically Russian in the fact associations of the kind spring up.

– Still very few leaders can boast the popularity ratings you have.

– That’s true but the problem is you’ll be unable to work if you think about ratings all the time. The worst thing of all is to get enslaved by contemplation of one’s ratings. As soon as someone starts doing it, he immediately turns into a loser. Instead of engaging in real business and moving forward with no fear of stumbling along the way, one who thinks about ratings abandons all activity. Then the rating begins a downhill slide. Vice versa, if a person thinks of the essence and results of his work, as well as the interests of the people, then even a mistake does not look so terrible. And he can speak of it straightforwardly and confess his blunder. And you know, this won’t affect the rating much, people will understand perfectly well the true intentions, sincerity and honesty, and especially, a direct dialogue. It is really valuable and people will always appreciate it.

– But still, when the level of support exceeds 80 percent after 15 years in power… This is both obvious and incredible.

– I’ve already said that I feel myself a part of Russia. It’s more than just love. Each of us can speak of loving his Motherland. We all love it but I really feel being part of our people and I can’t imagine for a second living outside Russia.

Getting the support of compatriots for a long time, one cannot but make every effort to justify their trust. Quite possibly, that’s the key principle and groundwork for relations between the people and the leaders whom they elect.

– But every coin has two sides. At a certain period, all achievements are linked to the leader but as times change, all the misfortunes may also be ascribed to him.

– Sure thing.

– And what’s next?

– As the saying goes, once you pledge, don’t hedge. One has to work. 

– We see that Uralvagonzavod (Russia’s main manufacturer of tanks) is with you.


putin-TASSintervu

– It’s not one or another enterprise that matters.

– It’s a collective image.

– People who declared their position openly and put forward certain initiative appeared at Uralvagonzavod at some point. But were the enterprises few in number that got the assistance of the government that I headed during the crisis in 2008? The problem was actually bigger than our help or the system of effective measures, which we had devised and implemented. The Russian government and your most obedient servant never shunned responsibility. In late 2008, at one of the United Russia party’s public events I recalled the crisis of 1998 and said baldly, “We won’t admit it ever again, take my word!” This was a very risky statement. Putting responsibility of this kind on oneself without knowing all the components of the new crisis and controlling all the instruments that had sparked it and were developing it… But it was extremely important at that time to give members of the cabinet, administrative crews in the regions and, most importantly, the man in the street the feeling that the Russian leadership understood the situation and assessed it appropriately and had the clues to what was to be done. In such cases this is even more important than concrete actions. But our actions, too, were quite adequate to the state of things at the moment.

On Uralvagonzavod, the “fifth column,” “death-active” movies and monarchy

– But I mentioned Uralvagonzavod as an example, meaning that you have a big group of supporters. But there are people that don’t accept your politics or vocabulary. How do you treat them?

– Very well. 

– The hell with them, yeah?

– You see, we can call one another hurtful names endlessly. I’ve faced the situation for quite a few years and I think that all depends on overall culture and on political culture. We can struggle with opponents but refrain from insults and scuffles, etc. Yet this doesn’t mean we cannot defend our viewpoints. We can and must do it but within the confines of law, as I’ve always said. If we break out of these brackets we’ll dash into destruction. And then it’ll be too difficult for us to reassemble the things we hold dear. 

– But do you want to turn your opponents into allies or let them alone?

– You can’t turn everyone into your allies and you shouldn’t even dream of it. On the contrary, it’s good to have around some people who have doubts. But they should propose constructive solutions. If we face opponents of this type, they are very useful. But others who act along the “Worse is Better” formula exist, too. And this is also inescapable, unfortunately. 

The problem is centrifugal forces seeking to pull the state down get into play every time when its basic parameters become feeble. Just like in the human body – if your immune resistance is down, you immediately catch the flu. These bacilli and bacteria are seeded in the organism and reside there all the time but if the organism is strong, you suppress the flu with your immunodefense. Doing sports is a must!

– This is indisputable but there are people who don’t agree with you on some other points. Doesn’t this necessarily mean they are “the fifth column” and enemies?

– No, of course not. And still this doesn’t mean there are no people who are serving foreign interests in Russia. They exist, too. Who are they? They use money from foreign countries in domestic political struggle and don’t have scruples when they take the money. 

– But our Motherland is making such borrowings increasingly more difficult. Let me name the laws making NGOs equal with foreign agents, restricting foreign ownership in Russia mass media…

– No. It may look more difficult but it is still possible. One will always find channels to get the money and use it for intended purposes. Of course, the recent decisions restrict the use of foreign funds in domestic political struggle in Russia. They kind of put up certain barriers but these barriers are bypassed and we should watch closely to prevent this. None of the foreign countries with a sense of self-respect will ever let the use of outside finances in internal political struggle. Try and do something like this in the US and you’ll land in jail at once. They have far more rigid state agencies there than we do here. On the surface, everything looks dignified and democratic but all chances vanish as soon as you get down to such things.

Here in Russia everything is far more liberal. Everything is possible. And the issues of the progress of democracy are as crucial for Russia as for any other state. But we must understand that this isn’t democracy for the sake of democracy. This is for the people, for their better life and real access to the levers of practical control over the country. We should not create conditions letting foreign countries make us weaker, subdue us to their will and put pressure on us from the inside, impacting our policy in their own petty interests. It’s like they push us and we agree on Syria, the Iranian nuclear program, the Middle East settlement, and wind up some or other defense policy programs. And that’s what these instruments and this money are used for…

– Throwing stones into whose kitchen garden?

– No stones, no one’s kitchen garden. I just explain my position. You asked me and I am simply telling what I think. If people have genuine interest in improving the structure of governance, public control over their work, citizens’ access to power agencies, law enforcing, administrative and all sorts of other things, this is absolutely right and should be supported. And I will always support it. But if I see something is done exclusively to satisfy someone “over there,” to dance to the alien tunes and to force us to do the same, I will definitely fight back. 

– And doesn’t this fuel hatred in our society?

– But I don’t see it today. It usually occurs everywhere during election campaigns but as far as I can see we don’t have it today.

– But take a look at social networks’ stormy reaction to any landmark event, for example, events in Ukraine or the premiere of Nikita Mikhalkov’s new movies. Sometimes people are not ready to respect or even listen to some other viewpoint that comments have to be shut off on the Internet pages and websites.

– This has no link to our actions to ensure internal security or to the cleansing of our domestic policies from foreign influence.

– I mean the condition of our civil society.

– That’s what I am talking about. Our common culture. People still lack something. And would you say everything’s OK in other countries? If it were, there wouldn’t be any events like football fan brawls. There wouldn’t have been the recent attack on the immigrants’ camps in Italy where people were killed. We wouldn’t see a multitude of other events taking place all around the world and, unfortunately, here in Russia as well. We have to work towards making people with totally different outlooks sort out their relations and contest their opinions in a civilized way. 

– But still, as I said in the beginning of our conversation, much depends on you in the moral climate.

– No, that’s not true.

– Yes, that’s true, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

– No, the situation just seems to be that way. People like you and your fellow-journalists find it easier to lay blame on someone for it. Just look at yourselves! Look at how the media dish out information, how you influence the mindset of millions of people, and what kind of programs our central TV channels put on air. Are we the country where federal channels only have to earn money and to think about the price of a minute of advertising time and hence to fill the schedules with the so-called “death-active” movies from the early morning hours through to late night?

And do we have to confine all the positive, encouraging things, the ones that set the standards of worldview, the fundamental philosophical and aesthetical things to Kultura (Culture) channel? I don’t think so. And note one thing: state agencies are watching this situation as outside observers would do. We do not interfere with the editorial policy of even the state-run TV channels. From the point of view of liberal values, it’s most likely good. And unfortunately we see the results. 

– Judging by the news reports and political talk shows of federal TV channels, we’ve been living in Ukraine. This is the main topic of the recent year.

– But this doesn’t mean that all is related to me. This is a false notion, a delusion. This is wrong. Even absolutely wrong! It only seems that everything is hinged on the country’s man number one. It’s true there are things of a fundamental nature. But clashes of different opinions occur all the time. Very frequently my colleagues come to me and say, we need your final opinion on this or that problem. Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev) and I meet to draft a unified position. Such things are really difficult to do without the president’s participation in them. In addition to the government, we have the Central Bank, the presidential staff, the parliament… The work has to be coordinated. And I have to interfere. But it’s definitely wrong to claim that the president always decides on everything and that everything always depends on him. 

– I think bewilderment will be short-lived if you declare imposition of a monarchy tomorrow.

– In the first place, I’m not sure if bewilderment will be short-lived and if people will approve of it.

– I am not calling for it, I say if it’s experimental.

– I see what you mean. That’s in the first place.

In the second, you asked about rating. I don’t know if I managed to answer your questions and remarks in full but it seems to me another explanation is people put trust in the personalities they elect, including your obedient servant. People obviously proceed from the assumption no reckless steps will be made. Fortunately or unfortunately – and let’s stay away from assessments now – we’re past that stage. We’ve closed the monarchic chapter of our history. 

On renaming streets, the Ukrainian passport and oil prices plot

– It’s not necessary to proclaim monarchic rule. It’s enough for you to move a finger and tomorrow they’ll revive the GULAG or, for example, the cult of personality so that a street named after Vladimir Putin appeared in every town. A steering committee that demands renaming of Sacco and Vanzetti Street named after the Italian anarchists who were electrocuted in America surfaced in Yekaterinburg recently. They said Sacco and Vanzetti had nothing to do with Yekaterinburg, while Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) prevented destruction of the country in 1990s and stopped the rampage of gangsters and oligarchs, and so on… And what do you think about it?

– I think people are doing it out of good and fair intentions. 

– And such intentions will be displayed in any city if you give them a signal with your eyebrows.

– I see but it’s too early to put up monuments to each other yet. I mean myself. There is still some work ahead and the future generations will assess the contribution to Russia’s development each of us will have made. 

– But what’s your attitude to such initiatives in general?

– As I’ve said, it’s too early to erect monuments…

– Yes, but streets?

– The same applies to streets and squares.

– But one street exists already.

– You mean Grozny?

– Yeah, Grozny (the capital of Chechnya)…

– Yes, and I won’t conceal it they didn’t ask me. But still Chechnya occupies a special place in our most recent history. There are many links to the activity of the first President of the Chechen Republic, Akhmat-Hajji Kadyrov. Everything was tangled so tightly there… But what’s done is done now.

– No one in the West has proposed monuments to you either?

– You recalled the early 2000s here, didn’t you? I haven’t forgotten how all of that was unfolding. The West would give even tougher assessments of my activity then. I lived through it all and I remember it.

What do we see? As soon as Russia rises to its feet, gets stronger and claims its right to defend its interests outside its territory, the attitude to the state and its leaders changes in the twinkle of an eye. Recall how it was with Boris Nikolayevich (Yeltsin). In the first stages, the world approved everything. The West received everything he did with unequivocal cheers. But as soon as he spoke up in defense of Yugoslavia, he immediately turned into a drinker and a carrier of all vices in the mind of the Westerners. It’s an open secret, of course, that Yeltsin loved to give himself a damp. And was there anyone who did not know about it before? Everyone knew it, but it did not hinder his contacts with the world. And as soon as the moment came to defend Russia’s interests in the Balkans and he stated it openly, he turned almost into an enemy of the West. Such was the reality in not so distant past. And I have fresh memories of it.

We’re speaking about developments in Ukraine today and our partners tell us all the time about the importance of observing the territorial integrity of that country. They say that all those fighting for their rights and interests in the east of Ukraine are pro-Russian separatists. While those who fought against us in the Caucasus, including those who did it under al-Qaeda guidance, for its money and with its weapons in the hands and even the al-Qaeda militants involved in combat actions were fighters for democracy. It’s incredible, but it’s a proven fact. We were rebuked for a disproportionate use of force then. We were told then, “You’re firing from tanks and using artillery. It’s no way!” And in Ukraine? Aviation, tanks, heavy artillery, and salvo systems. They’ve even used cluster bombs and ballistic missiles and the latter fact simply defies belief! And no one has said a word about the disproportionate use of force. 

– Because it is assumed the Ukrainian troops are counteracting Russia.

– Because it is assumed that Russia has interests there but our right to defend them and the people living in those territories is denied. You personally come from Kharkiv, don’t you?

– From Luhansk.

– OK, from Luhansk. You definitely know that if you ask a person, whose ethnicity is identified in his passport as Ukrainian, you’ll see he doesn’t give much thought to it. People there perceive themselves as parts of the greater Russian world. No doubt, the Ukrainian nation has its original culture, language, and self-identity – unique, with marvelous sounding, and very beautiful. But fairly recently a colleague of mine showed me documents dating back to 1924. The word ‘Velikoross’ (‘Great Russian’) was entered in a passport. And today Ukrainians would have written ‘Maloross’ (‘Little Russian’). There was no difference in practical terms. We are told, why are you pressing forward with the idea of the Russian world all the time, what if people don’t want to live in it? No one is pressing forward with it, which doesn’t mean however that it does not exist.

When I speak to people from Crimea, for example, or from the east of Ukraine, I ask them “What is your nationality?” Some of them tell me, “We don’t draw any difference.” But when Russia begins to speak about it and to defend people and its own interests, it turns into a bad guy at once. And do you think it’s the east of Ukraine that really matters? Does the problem lurk in our position on eastern Ukraine or Crimea? Not at all. Were it not this particular pretext, any other would be found. And this has always been so. 

Take a look at our millennium-long history. As soon as we rise, some other nations immediately feel the urge to push Russia aside, to put it “where it belongs,” to slow it down. How old is the theory of containment? We tend to think it dates back to the Soviet era but, however, it is centuries-old. But we shouldn’t fan any passions over it on our side because that’s how the world is functioning. It implies the struggle for geopolitical interests and, consequently, the nation’s significance, as well as the ability to generate a new economy, to resolve social problems, and to improve living standards. This position is not aggressive a bit. But if you take the United States, our American friends…

– Friends?

– Surely, they’re all our friends. Americans are printing dollars and have turned their national currency into a global currency, although they gave up the gold equivalent several decades ago. But all the same, the printing machine is held by them and they’re obviously capitalizing on this.

– Good guys!

– Good guys. But why did this happen? The US achieved a certain position after World War Two. Why do I say this? The struggle for geopolitical interests leads to the situation when a country either becomes stronger, resolving its financial, defense, economic and subsequently social issues more effectively, or slides into the category of third-, fifth-rate countries, losing a possibility to safeguard the interests of its people. 

– And what about our attempt to contest with the West?

– We don’t need to contest.

– Will we have enough strength?

– We don’t need to contest. We simply don’t need to contest. 

– What are we doing now?

– We simply need to calmly implement our agenda. Many say that oil prices are falling, including because a tie-up is possible between traditional producers, in particular, between Saudi Arabia and the United States. They say this is being done specially to sink the Russian economy.

If you talk to specialists now, I mean true specialists and not specialists like me…

– Who are true specialists, if not you?

– We have such specialists as the Economic Development Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank. What will they tell you? Some things lie on the surface. Look, oil prices have fallen. Why did they fall, by the way? Supply has increased. Libya is producing more, as well as Iraq, no matter how strange it may seem, despite all its problems. Illegal oil has appeared at $30 per barrel, which the Islamic State is selling on the black market. Saudi Arabia has increased extraction. Meanwhile, consumption has contracted due to the period of certain stagnation or, say, slower-than-projected global economic growth. There are fundamental factors. Let’s assume that there are also partners’ purposeful steps on the world energy market. Can we presume this? Yes, we can. What is the result? This leads to the depreciation of the ruble, our national currency. This is one of the factors, not the sole one, but one of them. And what does this mean for the Russian budget? We don’t calculate the budget in dollars. The ruble’s value has fallen and it has depreciated a little.

– By a third.

– By 30 percent… But look: we earlier sold a product that was worth one dollar and got 32 rubles for it. And now we’ll get 45 rubles for the same product costing one dollar. Budget revenues have increased and not decreased. Yes, certain corridors and curbs exist related to the fact that the situation is deteriorating for production sectors and enterprises oriented to purchases abroad with foreign currency. But this is not so for the budget and we’re confidently resolving social problems. This also relates to the tasks of the defense industry. Russia has its own base for import substitution. Thank God, we have inherited a lot from the previous generations and we have also done much in the past 15 years for the industry’s modernization. Does this do us damage? Partial but not fatal. If deliberate efforts are being taken to lower energy prices, they also affect those who introduce these constraints.

Contemporary world is interdependent. This does not at all mean that the sanctions, a sharp fall in oil prices and the depreciation of the national currency will bring about negative results or disastrous consequences solely for us. Nothing of this kind will happen! Problems arise, they are present and they will increase, deteriorating the situation but not only in Russia but also in our partners’ countries, including in oil and gas producing countries. We talk about falling oil prices. This occurs, among other things, because the United States has started to extract shale oil and shale gas. The US now provides itself with its own raw materials to a considerable extent. Not fully so far, but to a considerable extent. But what is the breakeven point of this production? It differs in various regions of the United States. Estimates range from $65 per barrel to $83. Now the oil price has fallen below $80 per barrel. Shale gas production is becoming unprofitable. Perhaps, the Saudis specially want to “kill” their rivals… 

– But would it be better for us, if a neighbor’s horse died?

– It depends on the neighbor, his horse and how he used it. 

On Forbes list, corruption level and about who steals from whom

– Forbes has put you at the top of the list of the world’s most influential people for the second consecutive year…

– You know, this is still less significant that internal ratings. 

– But it’s a pleasant thing, don’t you agree?

– No, I can’t say, pleasant or unpleasant. The point is that world leadership is determined by a state’s economic and defense capabilities.

– We are obviously not No. 1 by these indicators.

– This is what I’m talking about. If we turn to interpersonal evaluations, I don’t know how Forbes made these assessments, it is their business. Perhaps, they do this on purpose to exacerbate my relations with Barack Obama, placing him second. The President of the United States and I know each other. I can’t say that we have quite close relationships but he is a clever person and can evaluate all this. This could be a method of internal political struggle in the United States, especially on the eve of the elections to the Senate. Let them sort out these things themselves…

Everything that is done in the course of electoral campaigns has sense and significance. I don’t want now to give an assessment of the US President’s steps on the international scene, and we have a lot of contradictions and our views frequently diverge and, all the more so, I don’t want to assess his internal political initiatives as this is a separate theme but I know that Obama realistically assesses what is going on in his country. I’m confident that he considers these ratings as an element of struggle aimed at causing him damage. 

Comment: Putin sure is polite!

– This is what the US independent press means: it writes to spite the president.

– How can it be independent, if it works in pair with the political opponents of the head of the White House? There is no independence in this regard. This is full dependence and the servicing of certain forces. But these are my assumptions. 

– We don’t have even this pair.

– We have everything. If you read our certain publications, and you surely do this, then you’ll see what expressions they use to characterize my activity or the work of the Russian government. Frequently, they descend to personalities…

– Do you read this?

– Sometimes my spokesman Dmitry Peskov brings all sorts of dirtiness.

– What do you do in response?

– Listen, those who do this want me to respond.

– They’ll never get this as you have said?

– This is also a method of self-promotion. If you assail a higher-ranking person and he responds, this means that the assailant is a tough guy. All these techniques are well known. But I have no time for such things because I try to do real work rather than to confront someone. If I see something really reasonable in criticism, I take note of this so that I can use it. 

– For example?

– It is difficult to give an example right now. These are things related to the organization of power, the activity of political parties and society’s control of the presidential administration’s work. Or this concerns work for creating a more favorable business environment, the registration of enterprises. Please note that we have done much in this regard in recent years. Perhaps, not everything and we need to intensify work but much has been implemented.

– Another question about the rating. According to the latest data, Russia was given some 130th place in the ranking of 170 countries by the level of corruption. It stands close to Benin in the rating.

– You know, you need first to see who draws these ratings. 

– These ratings are largely drawn abroad, not in our country. This rating was compiled by the TRACE International association.

– Well, that’s clear. Take the ratings of higher educational institutions. Who draws them and which criteria are used? We struggle ourselves to raise the quality of our education but the ratings of higher educational institutions are drawn by the corresponding agencies, proceeding from the volume of endowment and the accumulated purposeful capital, which a higher school can use. But we have a completely different pre-history of the development of higher education! It is therefore possible to assign zero ratings to our higher educational institutions. And this rating is effectively used in the struggle for the market of educational services!

– Please, don’t get away from the question.

– I’m just approaching it… The same can be seen in geopolitics. Various instruments are used: accusations of the undemocratic nature of the state, the suppression of press freedom and weak struggle with the manifestations of terrorism and separatism. All methods are used, including ratings… 

But this does not mean we don’t have corruption. We constantly speak about it ourselves. I believe this is one of very serious problems, which we have inherited from the past when the administration at any level thought it had the right to do everything and no one could have the right to encroach on its powers and control it somehow. But then something else was added to this, which only aggravated the situation. I mean non-transparent privatization. This was awful and this was a big mistake. We’re all clever persons with hindsight. Perhaps those who made decisions then would have now done many things differently. Incidentally, this was also in the 1990s when the Europeans told us that we needn’t listen to American experts. But we went along this road… The non-transparent privatization made people think: well, if some are allowed to steal billions from the state, then why can’t we take away something cheaper? Why some are allowed and others are not?

– You are talking about the 1990s but we are living in late 2014.

– But mentally all this has remained and has never got out of people’s minds… 

There is also another aspect. When decisions were taken on the creation of market mechanisms and the functioning of society’s democratic institutions, we somehow forgot that democracy and a careless attitude to law were different stories. Law has to be observed by everyone. There is no unbridgeable abyss between a market economy and state regulation. Incidentally, as soon as crisis manifestations emerge, everyone recalls the state. But it is not even a matter of the principles of building economic life. The point is that we failed to create control instruments during the transition to a market economy.

Sometimes, we have to observe strange situations even at large joint stock companies. It is believed that owners won’t steal from themselves. This is hardly so! They steal in large amounts. Why? Those who hold a controlling stake don’t very much want to share with minority shareholders. That is why, they create hundreds of schemes for the withdrawal of resources from companies. And this can be observed in many spheres!

We’ll have not only to tighten fiscal policy or law-enforcement sanctions. We need educative work and work for creating an effective, modern and certainly market system of relations in the economy, which should actually limit a possibility of the emergence of corruption. We need to work on this, look at world best practices and introduce them. Of course, this requires time, efforts, persistence and the will but we have no other way.

– And there should be no untouchable persons.

– I absolutely agree with you, this is one of the components. 

– There are no such persons?

– I don’t know. It seemed to me there were none. We need to seek to achieve this. If I see that such persons and situations appear, we’ll certainly struggle with this. By the way, we have created public control on the platform of the all-Russian People’s Front for this purpose. It works quite effectively.

On friends, offences, attempts to sow discord and discomfort

– I’ve mentioned Uralvagonzavod as a collective image. And there is also an idiomatic expression – “the friends of Putin.”

– Yes, please.

– This expression is used not only by our internal opposition but also by the State Department.

– In what connection?

– The US intention was that the first package of sanctions hit exactly President Putin.

– I understand. The Americans have made one very pleasant for me and systematic error. 

– “Pleasant” in quotes?

– No, literally. What does this error mean? They proceeded from a false assumption that I have some personal business interests due to ties with the people on the list. And by pinching them, they were kind of hitting me. This does not absolutely correspond to reality. I believe, we have to a great degree put an end to the so-called oligarchy. What is this? This is money influencing upon power. Today I can definitely say that we have no such situation in Russia. No oligarchic structures substitute state power or influence upon state decisions in their interests. This fully refers to those people whom you have mentioned. All of them are rich and they made their fortunes a long time ago…

– In different ways.

– I agree but mainly a long time ago, and absolutely within the legal framework. They took nothing, they privatized nothing like what had been done in the 1990s.

– Are we talking about the Rotenbergs, Kovalchuks, Timchenko?

– Yes. What state property did Timchenko get? Please name at least one asset. Nothing.

– I will say another thing.

– Yes, please.

– I quote the newswire. Gennady Timchenko believes the US investigation against oil trader Gunvor and money-laundering allegations seek to target the president of Russia. Then word-for-word, “I am 100 percent sure that this is the case.”

– This is good that you quote Gennady Nikolayevich. Probably, this is so. But I told you what the systematic error is. The US believes some of my financial interests are seated there and they are rootling.

– But did they aim at you?

– Probably, yes. 

– Do you feel bitter for your friends?

– They are Russian nationals, they consider themselves patriots of this country and this is true. Someone has decided they should be punished for this. And it just strengthens the acknowledgement of such their quality. There is nothing offensive in this. I believe this is a gross violation of human rights. Some of those blacklisted, as far as I know, have filed lawsuits but not in order to protect themselves but to show the unlawfulness of the taken decisions. What relation does anyone of them have towards the relative decisions which I took on Crimea, sorry for tautology? Nothing of the kind. They did not know anything in the very least. They read about it in a TASS story or heard it in a TV news report. They were being chased for nothing… This is a direct violation of human rights. That’s why they have turned to court. If courts in the United States and Europe are indeed independent and unbiased, the decisions will be taken in their favor, and if not… This is a very good litmus paper.

– Vladimir Vladimirovich, you have a reputation of a person who does not denounce “your” men.

– Yes, I try, if they behave decently and do not violate anything. And if they act to evade law, then they are no more “my” people. 

– But if the friends are offended…I meant this when I asked whether you felt bitter for them?

– On the contrary, I am a kind of glad about this. I am glad that I do have such friends, whom our opponents, let’s call them so, blame for the fact that Crimea has become part of the Russian territory. This does credit to my friends. They have no relation to this, but this does credit to them. 

– Isn’t this the reason to take a different attitude to those who offended close friends?

– I believe this is a result of wrongful decisions based on false information, including inside Russia itself. They throw something and say, “These are the friends of Putin and they should be punished, they will revolt and there will be a mutiny aboard.” There will be nothing like that. 

– Does it reflect on your contacts with the G7 leaders?

– No, this is not so. Listen, during the grave events in the Caucasus I saw and heard beyond these things. I gave you the example: when we were struggling against international terrorism for our territorial integrity, we were refused this right. I heard many things at that time. Those who did so believed that Russia will always be in a vulnerable state. And they went on to always press on the tender spot.

Now the situation is different. We have a consolidated country. Despite the natural presence of the opposition and people who do not accept what we are doing, the society is still consolidated. I assure you that the West doesn’t like it much. And the attempt to punish my friends, whom I am not going to abandon, is a desire to sow discord within the elites, and then maybe into the society. 

– Now I am talking not about friends, but about you. When you were spending a night at Bush’s ranch, who looked into your eyes and then saw something …

– The soul.

– Exactly! He saw the soul. And you and Obama now talk “on feet.”

– So what? You know, if we want just to clap each other on the shoulder, call each other friends, pay visits and go to G8 summits but the only value of informal communication is the permission to sit near, with no account for our interests and no attention to Russia’s position in solving these or those key issues, then what is this for? I became the president of Russia not to satisfy personal ambitions. I do not need this if Russia’s interests are neglected. Therefore, we will not pay visits to each other and will meet at these or other venues and in a business-like atmosphere. But we need to principally but openly and even we can say like partners, if not friends, discuss all problems and search for solutions. I hope this will be like this in the practical work.

– So you feel no discomfort about the fact that there has been a cooldown?

– No, I do not feel anything. What discomfort should I have? I need the result. 

– It turns out that you were right when you said that after Gandhi’s death, there had been no one to talk to.

– You understand, I said this with a certain irony.

– You say many things with irony.

– Yes, but your colleagues preferred to ignore it. By the way, then they also cited ratings (I do not remember what year this was) and asked, “Don’t you feel that you have no one to talk to?” That’s utter nonsense! I am well aware that the leaders of both Western and developing countries are people who have gone through an ordeal of inter-political fight and through a process of making up of a personality. All of them are distinguished figures in international politics. They defend the national interests like I am trying to do the same for the sake of this country.

On loneliness, daughters, personal environment and ability to say “No”

– If I am wrong, please correct me, but it seems to me that when a person holds the post like yours, he is lonely. That’s his destiny.

– They always say like this.

– And in fact?

– In fact, to some part, this is so. You have mentioned my friends. I do not blatantly reject them but this is also approximate. This does not mean that we meet every day, drink champagne or vodka and “chatter.”

– What do you prefer?

– I prefer tea.

– And what drink are you served while we are talking?

– Ordinary tea. Would you like some? They serve it covered in a special teaware so that it does not get cold.

Moreover, I have a rather tight schedule. I even see my daughters once or twice a month, but I still need to choose time. 

– In what country do they live?

– In Russia, where else?

– Here?

– Of course, they live in Moscow. We meet at home…

Yes, I have good relations with those people whom you have mentioned. I also try to keep in touch with my fellow students from the university.

– Are they not necessarily billionaires?

– Not at all! Ordinary people. They mainly work in the law enforcement sphere, in the Interior Ministry, Prosecutor General’s Office, attorney offices and administrative authorities. 

– Let’s name them all. They will be pleased.

– Well, there are plenty of them, 80 people! Someone will be pleased, others, on the contrary, will be not, as some of them live in the republics of the former Soviet Union, and the mere fact of the contact with me also poses a certain threat for them.

– And in Ukraine?

– Yes, and in Georgia and other countries.

– The agents of influence?

– No, they are not agents, they influence nothing. They live their own lives. They are ordinary citizens in their countries, very loyal and loving. But given the events in their countries, our acquaintance is a certain burden… If the businessmen, whom you have mentioned, were clamped down immediately just due to contacts with me and sanctioned, then those whom I have just spoke about are absolutely ordinary people. They have no capitals and they cannot be subjected to sanctions. But there are other measures of influence, which are very hard-hitting and maybe even dangerous. That’s why we should better not talk much about these people.

– Still if we speak about solitude.

– I have told you, I have such a workload that does not allow having a wide circle of friends.

– Just taking into account that you can learn everything about everyone…

– Yes.

– …and one can learn all sorts of things about anyone…

– Yes.

– …maybe this also affects?

– No, I try not to use my possibilities in this regard.

– In order not to be disappointed in humanity once and for all?

– No, simply… I worked for the KGB for almost 20 years and I know how the fact sheets are written. These reports and materials are not always objective. I try to rely on my personal impression, and direct contact and communication are important for me. And often my impression about a person is different from what I get from official documents. I judge by my own impressions of a person, not by papers.

– Is this intuition?

– Well, this in not even intuition. Only partially. Personal contacts are more important. Although, especially, when we talk about making decisions, in particular, those related to personnel, there are certain rules. First one certainly needs to get information from various sources. This is natural. But in the long run, I try to make a conclusion based on my own impression of a person.

– What’s your immediate environment?

-You know, I don’t feel lonely at all. Odd as it may seem, the opportunities to socialize and the contacts I have are possibly few, and the time to see even those people who are regarded as my friends, the ones under sanctions, is scarce. That’s true. But loneliness, I believe, is something very different. It is not an opportunity or lack of an opportunity to see people. It’s a state of one’s soul. I feel no such loneliness of the soul at all.

– The people around you are very eager to find favor in your eyes. They are expecting something from you, waiting or maybe asking for something…

– I’ve long got accustomed to that, and I don’t believe that these people do something wrong. When people get in touch with me, they are waiting for certain decisions to be made or some action taken. That’s absolutely normal. Many just would like to discuss something, but there always is the wish to have something done and an expectation of reply. That’s true and it could hardly have been otherwise.

– You are said to be an excellent listener. And you often agree with the conversation partner. And the person is leaving with a sense of certainty that Vladimir Putin is an ally, but this is not necessarily so.

– You know, I have been trying to treat people with respect, after all.

– No, I am asking about something different.

– It is a matter of respect for other people, for people’s opinions, and even for their requests. I will never forget one moment that occurred at the beginning of 2000, when a woman handed me some note. I took a look at it… I won’t say anything about what sort of request it was. It concerned not that woman personally, but some of her close relatives. Then that paper was lost. I still remember that as an impermissible inadvertency on my part. Possibly, there had been no way of meeting her request, but everything should have been done then to have that petition worked on properly. Possibly, I would have been told, “No, there is no way of settling it!” Then I would have given instructions to write back to that lady to explain why there was no way of helping her. But just losing it was very careless … You know, I still feel remorse. I feel awkward. Let me say once again, this does not mean that all grievances and requests that I get from people looking at me with hope must be sustained. Certain things cannot be resolved the way the people would like them to. It is impossible and against the law.

– Did it take you long to learn to say “No”?

– As far as I know, in Chinese there are sixteen ways of expressing negation. And yet none of them sounds literally.

– And how many synonyms are there in your vocabulary?

– It is not a question of form, it is a question of meaning. It is impossible to always say “Yes”, although I feel like replying in this way very often. I am forced to refuse…

– Who can object to you, and what consequences may follow?

– Only myself and the law. Nobody is allowed to violate the law, even the top officials.

– I am asking about others. Are there any bold guys who don’t just listen humbly, but dare argue?

– There are independent people, with an opinion of their own. I appreciate people who can say, “I believe that you are wrong.”

– What if we name some of these heroes?

– Let’s avoid bolstering their publicity. But there are such people.

On low sense of danger, mistakes, opposite lane driving and philosopher Nikolay Berdyayev

– In the book called First Person you mentioned your low sense of danger. For an intelligence officer it is a weakness.

– That’s what a psychologist wrote down in my character reference.

– Is it a weakness for the President?

– This is not exactly what one can call a great merit. You should possess the skill of gauging all the likely effects. In making decisions you must take into account all possible scenarios in order to rule out the unfavorable ones.

– In other words, reckless moves?

-That’s it. Reckless moves should be avoided. The cost of a mistake is too high.

– Have there done any during your presidencies?

– No.

– Have you gauged them this time? The consequences of the actions taken in Crimea and the following ones?

– Yes. It was a strategic decision.

– Good. All’s well that ends well.

– You are quite right. I believe it will be precisely this way. Because we are stronger.

– Stronger than who?

– Everybody. Because we are right. Truth is power. When a Russian feels he is right, he is invincible. I am saying this with absolute sincerity, not for boasting’s sake. Had we known we had done something bad and unfair some place, then everything would be hanging by a thread. When you lack the inner certainty your cause is right, some hesitations are bound to follow, and these are dangerous. In this particular case I have none.

– But there are no people who never make mistakes.

– True. As for me, I did commit some flaws, of course.

– For instance?

– I won’t be discussing them now, but when some major, large-scale undertaking is in progress, there is always something that possibly should have been handled differently. But there has been nothing global or strategic in this sense, and I do hope nothing like that will happen in the future. You know, I have a certain style of my own that has developed over years. I never take arbitrary decisions, decisions that may entail consequences I don’t foresee. And if I cannot see the consequences, I prefer to wait for the time being. It’s like overtaking another car on the road: never try unless you are certain. You must be pretty sure there is nobody down there on your way. The road may look empty because it goes down in front of you and then up and you may be just unaware another vehicle is speeding in the opposite direction. You have to be absolutely sure that nobody is driving the other way, that you really see the whole road in front. That you are in control of the situation. If you are sure, go ahead.

– And we are not in the opposite lane at the moment, are we?

– It’s those trying to race us who are in the opposite lane now. We keep driving along ours at a steady speed. If you do everything right, it’s no use hurrying or making a fuss. It is like in the world of sports which you are so reluctant to join. Certain things are perceived on the basis of the first-signal system, but then with reliance on the previous experience and your understanding of how the situation should evolve, you’ve got to react fast.

– That’s a judo wrestler’s viewpoint. The philosophy of judo leaves no room for hustle and bustle.

– Basically, yes. But if you indulge in reflections for too long, you will reach nowhere. A specific result is an outcome of not just good research, but of a specific decision, of real action that follows, and not mere reflections on the subject.

– Before our conversation I had the deepest impression that this year is has been the hardest for you.

– It hasn’t. When were things easy in Russia?

– Let’s recall the “affluent years.”

– Affluent they may have been for some, but we had a war on in the Caucasus. Affluent! What was it so easy about them? Take Russia’s recent history, starting from 2000.

– I am referring to this particular period.

– OK, and what about the earlier days? Take any moment in the Russian history. Take the Soviet era. Take the pre-Soviet era.

– No, we shall not journey back in time that far. The focus is on you. You surely remember 1996, don’t you?

– Oh, yes, of course, we then lost the election, Sobchak lost the post of St. Petersburg’s mayor, and I went jobless… In that sense, yes, I spent a while thinking how to arrange my life, where to look for a job, and how to earn a living for the family. Literally, without an exaggeration. Of course, it was not easy. But you know, such things, such moments do happen in everybody’s life. One may also recall 2000, when a decision was to be made on how to act in response to the militants’ attack on Dagestan. There were proposals for building a wall around Chechnya. A real wall. But that was absolutely unacceptable. Both for the people in Chechnya who trusted us and for Russia it would have been absolutely counterproductive, dangerous and harmful. Then there would have cropped up other walls and other separation lines. That would’ve been the end of it all. The country would have been lost…

You’ve mentioned the “affluent years.” We had to rebuild the economy, at least the basics of it. There was much criticism we were doing it all wrong. We were told we had given the people too much, that we had raised wages too high. That’s a reproach addressed to me. Our labor productivity falls behind wages. I am being told, “That shouldn’t have been done!”



russiaDesklogo1-350x81


 

But could I have acted otherwise? You know, it is very good when our capabilities match our expectations. But the situation we had in the country in the 1990s and the early 2000 required we should show the people we were moving in the right direction and their life was getting better somehow. Hadn’t we done that, we would have possibly missed the chance of consolidating society and achieving certain results in restoring the country. We were repeatedly told by our colleagues in the liberal market economy-oriented bloc, “You shouldn’t by any means adopt the maternity capital program.” I myself heard many times, “It’ll be like pouring huge funds into a black hole. There’s no way of calculating!” And the result will be nought, we were warned. The program would cause no effect on the birth rates. And we were given the examples of some West European countries where very large child birth benefits are paid to little avail. When I heard the opinions of almost everybody who was for and who was against, when I reviewed the results and situations in the European countries, I finally arrived at the conclusion that our situation was different. We should give our people a different family planning horizon. The quality of life in Europe is different. In Russia an extremely low level of incomes was one of the brakes on birth rates. The family just could not afford to have a child, let alone two. It is most important for us, in particular, in the regions.

There had been fears if the budget would cope with the extra payments, if the people wouldn’t be deceived. Now we can see we have not deceived anyone and succeeded. In combination with the other birthrate support measures it worked. Russia has not had a birth rate like that over the past decades.

– But aren’t we canceling the maternity capital now?

– It is a different question. I shall speak about that in the message to the Federal Assembly. I would not like to announce anything beforehand. One has to be very precise and careful here. The program is ending in one year’s time from now, and everybody should remember that. But, of course, it is necessary to give thought to mechanisms of supporting population growth. We have the perinatal centers, we have the maternity capital, we have a network of extra medical institutions, and we have benefits not only for families but also for medical establishments for the quality of services provided to expectant mothers. A great deal depends on their opinion… The package of measures has brought about a result that has surpassed our expectations. The demographic rates are positive and stable. Why am I discussing this in detail? I was the one who made a final decision, because there were votes for and against.

– Vladimir Vladimirovich, you confirm what I said in the very beginning. No matter which way you look at it but it all eventually rests on a single person.

– No, no. Not everything.

– Yes, but a lot.

– But I say that not everything and I repeat it. Yes, I often take part in the strategic decision-making. Eventually, what is the use of the person number one if he is doing nothing at all? If he just sits and reigns?

– One more quote. Nikolay Berdyayev, “A Russian loves Russia, but is not used to feel responsible for Russia.”

– He was a genius man and well respected.

– His words can be addressed to state officials and businessmen.

– There is no such nationality as a state official or a businessman as they mean the fields of expertise. And people’s mentality is definitely…

– We will wait to see the feudal – he will tell us what to do, of course.

– If you let me finish my thought you will find out my stance… Where does it all root from? A common Russian person as a rule had nothing to own and always worked for his feudal. So what was left over for him was a blessing. He knew that everything could be snatched away. It all takes roots from the times of serfdom.

We cannot say that there was no responsibility for the country. There could have been no proper attitude to current affairs, business and property. It had not been formed just like in the countries with the developed market system, when a person is aware that he must struggle for his and his family’s wealth. Our set of mind and mentality are hinging on community life. This is good and not so good at the same time. It is good because there is a sense of community. It is not so good because there is no individual responsibility. But saying that a Russian is not valuing… Or what did Berdyayev said exactly?

– “Not used to feeling himself responsible for Russia.”

– I would say that I personally feel responsible. All depends on a person on the whole. The simpler the person is, the more responsibility he has for his Motherland.

– I am talking about big-shot bosses, who are used to, you know, to…

– Berdyayev was not implying bosses, he was speaking about a typical Russian man.

– It is just simpler when there is only one person to make all decisions, while others are implementing them.

– Perhaps this is so, but you have quoted Berdyayev and I may even allow myself some impudence and argue with the classic. I am repeating it again, that the simpler the person is, the closer is to his roots, the more responsibility he holds for his Motherland. I will also explain why. He has no other Motherland, he is not going to either board a plane, train or mount a horse to take a leave or buzz off from here. He knows that he will be living here on this land, his children, grandchildren and grand-grandchildren will be living here as well. He must take care of them. If he does not take care of them, then nobody will. This is the foundation of the nationhood and patriotism of an ordinary Russian person, as well as of a person of any other nationality living here. We know well who initiated the people’s militia in 1612: an ethnic Tatar gathered people, gave away all his money on the militia and became a savior of Moscow and Russia. “The force is in the unification!” – and such personal patriotism of an ordinary Russian citizen is very strong.

– You are speaking about an ordinary person, as if separating the elite…

– No, no. I said that an ordinary person has it more, but in general this is the common mentality of all Russian people. Yes, those who have billions feel themselves as citizens of the world. They feel more freely, particularly if their money is in off-shore banking accounts. They’ve gone abroad and stay there, feeling good…

– Is this bad?

– I believe this is bad. This is certainly bad. A man who is cut off his roots eventually starts regretting about it. There is nothing more near-and-dear than your native land, friends, relatives and the culture, in which one was raised.

– The world is without the borders now.

– It has always been. Was it different in the times of Lermontov or, for example, Pushkin? Just pack your bags and go. People went to spa resorts in Europe, travelled by sea to America. This is what we see today again. On the whole, nothing has changed a lot. There was a relatively short period of time in history, when the world was isolated with borders.

– Aren’t we trying now to build new walls?

-We are not and will not. We realize the malignity of the ‘iron curtain’ for us. There were periods in the history of other countries, which tried to isolate themselves from the rest of the world and paid very dearly for that, practically by degradation and collapse. Undoubtedly we are not taking this path. And nobody is going to build a wall around us. It is impossible!

On God, the absence of secret desires and the year of 2018

– Have you been thinking about what comes afterwards?

-When afterwards?

– When Heaven calls you for an answer.

– You know if one gets there, there is only one phrase that is appropriate to say, “Glory to you o Lord!” What else?

– Is the president’s chair forever with you?

– No. This is not good and detrimental for the country and I do not need it as well. There are terms defined by the Russian Constitution. I believe it is important to observe requirements stipulated by the supreme law. We will see what the situation will be like, but in any case the term of my work is restricted by the Constitution.

– But the Constitution allows re-election in 2018.

– Yes it indeed allows but it does not mean that I will make such decision. I will proceed from the general context, domestic understanding and my personal feelings. Isn’t it too early to think about it right now? We are still in the year of 2014, and you are talking of 2018. There’s much time ahead and a lot can change…

– Do you have any secret desires?

– No. You see I am in such position that there is nothing secret…

– Are you tired of all this?

– No, this is not the case. I proceed from the present-day realities and mid-term perspectives. There is no sense for me… 

– To stare beyond the horizon?

– …to clutch at anything. You must understand there is no sense at all.

– You already have everything one may dream of?

– In terms of serving for my Motherland. I know that I have sincerely served and keep serving, and I do everything possible to realize myself in this. But I repeat that clutching at something is counterproductive, detrimental and in no way interesting. There is the Constitution and it is necessary to act and live within its framework. Yes, there is a possibility of my nomination for a new term. But I don’t know for the moment if it will be realized.

 


 

[box type=”bio”] Interviewed by Andrei Vandenko

Born November 8, 1959 in Luhansk, Ukraine. In 1982, Andrei Vandenko graduated from the Kiev National University of Taras Shevchenko specializing in journalism. Since 1989, he lives and works in Moscow.  Vandenko has more than 20 years of experience in the interview genre. He was published in the major part of top Russian media outlets and is a winner of professional awards. [/box]


 

Comment: As usual, Vladimir Putin shows himself to be an intelligent, humble, diplomatic, no-nonsense human being, and a force to be reckoned with. There have been very few incorruptible politicians and statesmen in the last century.  At the very least, Putin is the best this planet has at the moment. And ordinary people realize it.

See:




 

And now a word from the Editors of The Greanville Post


FRIENDS AND FELLOW ACTIVISTS—

AS YOU KNOW, THERE’S A COLOSSAL INFORMATION WAR GOING ON, AND THE FATE OF THE WORLD LITERALLY HANGS ON THE OUTCOME.

THEIR LIES.
THEIR CONSTANT PROPAGANDA.

OUR TRUTH.

HUGE ISSUES ARE BEING DECIDED: Nuclear war, whether we’ll live in democracy or tyranny, dignity or destitution, planetary salvation or doom…
It’s a battle of communications we can’t afford to lose. 


So, we request that you do something.
Reading is not enough. Action of some sort is needed.

Start with something simple: Share our posts.
If you don’t, how can we ever neutralize the power of the corporate media?

And if you took the time to read this article, and found it worth SHARING, then why not sign up with our special bulletin to be included in our future distributions? And please tell others about The Greanville Post. 


YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS (SIGNUPS TO THE GREANVILLE POST BULLETIN, SEE BELOW) ARE COMPLETELY FREE, ALWAYS. AND WE DO NOT SELL OR RENT OUR EMAIL ADDRESS DATABASES—EVER. That’s a guarantee.

 




Paul Craig Roberts – Russia’s black swan card(s) and the end of NATO

Paul Craig Roberts
King World News

[dropcap]TODAY[/dropcap] Dr. Roberts: “I was listening to the news today and there were all these self-righteous people just happy as all get out that they had finally stomped Russia into the ground and ‘Russia is now finished,’ and Russia was broken and ‘would soon be an American vassal state where it belongs.’ And I was listening to this rot and got to thinking, ‘How can people be so utterly stupid?’ But they are, and they are just as stupid in Washington.

And in the meantime, as part of this process, Eric, we may see Russia unleash the predicted black swans that bring down the Western house of cards…

“Suppose the Russian government says, ‘Well, since the attack on the ruble is political and you guys are attacking the ruble and causing us so much trouble, we are just not going to pay off the next tranche of our debt that comes due early in 2015.’ 

Well, the European banking system would collapse because those banks are terribly under-capitalized. Some of them have loans to Russia that almost absorb the entire capital base. So the Russians don’t even have to default. They can just say, ‘We’re not going to pay this year. We will do it later. We’ll do it when the ruble stabilizes.’ (Laughter).

You can understand the impact of such a decision by the Russians on the West. And given all the linkages and the interconnections – when Lehman Brothers went down it had just about as much adverse affect on Europe as it did the United States.
[…]
What would come from that? Who knows? There are all kinds of derivatives and credit default swaps everywhere. We know these derivatives now are some multiple of the world’s Gross Domestic Product. And nobody really knows who all the counterparties are. If the European banks start going down, who knows what the impact on this pile of derivatives would be? But the whole Western system is a house of cards. It’s not based on anything other than market manipulation. So it doesn’t take much of a push to knock it down.
[…]
The biggest black swan of all, Eric, if the Russians get thoroughly angry, all they have to do is call up the European governments and say, ‘We no longer sell natural gas or any other form of energy to members of NATO.’ The consequence would be the utter and total collapse of NATO. Not even a puppet state like Germany is going to let the people freeze to death, let the factories be closed down, and let the unemployment rate hit 40 percent. It’s just not going to happen – it would be the end of NATO.

So whenever the Russians want to destroy NATO, that’s all they have to do. Just call up the puppet Merkel, call up the puppet Hollande, the puppet Cameron, and say, ‘You guys really enjoy being in NATO, well let me tell you what, we no longer sell energy to NATO members.’ That’s the end of NATO and that’s the end of the cover for American power.

That would set off so many black swans. Every banking system would probably collapse because if the German banks are faced with German industry closing down, what the hell is going to happen to the banks? So all the cards are in Putin’s hands. None of them are in Washington’s hands. Putin is going to ignore it and reorient Russia to the East. Then you are going to see Russia, India, and China, take over the leadership of the world. That will start in 2015.” 

Listen to the entire interview:

[box type=”bio”] Comment: Paul Craig Roberts gives a shrewd assessment of the political and economic maneuvering between Russia and Washington. When the facts are laid out it’s clear Washington is operating from a fantasy world. Unfortunately, the rest of us in the real world will have to live with the consequences.[/box]



 

And now a word from the Editors of The Greanville Post


FRIENDS AND FELLOW ACTIVISTS—

AS YOU KNOW, THERE’S A COLOSSAL INFORMATION WAR GOING ON, AND THE FATE OF THE WORLD LITERALLY HANGS ON THE OUTCOME.

THEIR LIES.
THEIR CONSTANT PROPAGANDA.

OUR TRUTH.

HUGE ISSUES ARE BEING DECIDED: Nuclear war, whether we’ll live in democracy or tyranny, dignity or destitution, planetary salvation or doom…
It’s a battle of communications we can’t afford to lose. 


So, we request that you do something.
Reading is not enough. Action of some sort is needed.

Start with something simple: Share our posts.
If you don’t, how can we ever neutralize the power of the corporate media?

And if you took the time to read this article, and found it worth SHARING, then why not sign up with our special bulletin to be included in our future distributions? And please tell others about The Greanville Post. 


YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS (SIGNUPS TO THE GREANVILLE POST BULLETIN, SEE BELOW) ARE COMPLETELY FREE, ALWAYS. AND WE DO NOT SELL OR RENT OUR EMAIL ADDRESS DATABASES—EVER. That’s a guarantee.

 




Russia’s Vulnerability invites attack. It must be reversed at the deepest level if the nation is to survive.

Russia’s Vulnerability to EU/USA Sanctions and Military Encroachments


From 1990 to 1999, over 6 million Russian citizens died prematurely as a result of the catastrophic collapse of the economy; life expectancy for males declined from 67 years during the Soviet era to 55 years during the Yeltsin period.

Yeltsin: A filthy and corrupt politician that opened the gates to Western carpetbaggers and the internal capitalist mafia. Fondly remembered by the West as a golden age.

Yeltsin: He opened the gates to Western carpetbaggers and the internal capitalist mafia. Fondly remembered by the West and the Fifth Columnists as a golden age.

(Original draft 11.08.2014 :: Analysis)
JAMES PETRAS
An indispensable daily read

[box type=”bio”] Introduction: The US-EU sponsored coup in the Ukraine and its conversion from a stable Russian trading partner, to a devastated EU economic client and NATO launch pad, as well as the subsequent economic sanctions against Russia for supporting the Russian ethnic majority in the Donbas region and Crimea, illustrate the dangerous vulnerability of the Russian economy and state.[/box] 

[dropcap]The current effort[/dropcap] to increase Russia’s national security and economic viability in the face of these challenges requires a critical analysis of the policies and structures emerging in the post-Soviet era.

Pillage as Privatization

Over the past quarter century, several trillion dollars worth of public property in every sector of the Russian economy was illegally transferred or violently seized by gangster-oligarchs acting through armed gangs, especially during its ‘transition to capitalism’.

From 1990 to 1999, over 6 million Russian citizens died prematurely as a result of the catastrophic collapse of the economy; life expectancy for males declined from 67 years during the Soviet era to 55 year during the Yeltsin period. Russia’s GNP declined sixty percent – a historic first for a country not at war. Following Yeltsin’s violent seizure of power and his bombing of the Russian parliament, the regime proceeded to ‘prioritize’ the privatization of the economy, selling off the energy, natural resources, banking, transport and communication sectors at one-tenth or less of their real value to well-connected cronies and foreign entities. Armed thugs, organized by emerging oligarchs “completed” the program of privatization by assaulting, murdering and threatening rivals. Hundreds of thousands of elderly pensioners were tossed out of their homes and apartments in a vicious land-grab by violent property speculators. US and European academic financial consultants “advised” rival oligarchs and government ministers on the most “efficient” market techniques for pillaging the economy, while skimming off lucrative fees and commissions –fortunes were made for the well-connected. Meanwhile, living standards collapsed, impoverishing two thirds of Russian households, suicides quadrupled and deaths from alcoholism, drug addiction, HIV and venereal diseases became rampant. Syphilis and tuberculosis reached epidemic proportions – diseases fully controlled during the Soviet era remerged with the closure of clinics and hospitals.russiaDesklogo1-350x81

Of course, the respectable western media celebrated the pillage of Russia as the transition to “free elections and a free market economy”. They wrote glowing articles describing the political power and dominance of gangster oligarchs as the reflection of a rising “liberal democracy”. The Russian state was thus converted from a global superpower into an abject client regime penetrated by western intelligence agencies and unable to govern and enforce its treaties and agreements with Western powers. The US and EU rapidly displaced Russian influence in Eastern Europe and quickly snapped up former state-owned industries, the mass media and financial institutions. Communist and leftist and even nationalist officials were ousted and replaced by pliant and subservient ‘free market’ pro-NATO politicians. The US and EU violated every single agreement signed by Gorbachev and the West: Eastern European regimes became NATO members; West Germany annexed the East and military bases were expanded right up to Russia’s borders. Pro-NATO “think tanks” were established and supplied intelligence and anti-Russian propaganda. Hundreds of NGOs, funded by the US, operated within Russia as propaganda and organizing instruments for “subservient” neo-liberal politicians. In the former Soviet Caucuses and Far East, the West fomented separatist sectarian movements and armed uprisings, especially in Chechnya; the US sponsored dictators in the Caucuses and corrupt neo-liberal puppets in Georgia. The Russian state was colonized and its putative ruler, Boris Yeltsin, often in a drunken stupor, was propped up and manipulated to scratch out executive fiats . . . further disintegrating the state and society.

The Yeltsin decade is observed and remembered by the Russian people as a disaster and by the US-EU, the Russian oligarchs and their followers as a ‘Golden Age’… of pillage. For the immense majority of Russians it was the Dark Ages when Russian science and culture were ravaged; world-class scientists, artists and engineers were starved of incomes and driven to despair, flight and poverty. For the US, the EU and the oligarchs it was the era of ‘easy pickings’: economic, cultural and intellectual pillage, billion dollar fortunes, political impunity, unbridled criminality and subservience to Western dictates. Agreements with the Russian state were violated even before the ink was dry. It was the era of the unipolar US-centered world, the ‘New World Order’ where Washington could influence and invade nationalist adversaries and Russian allies with impunity.

The Golden Era of unchallenged world domination became the Western ‘standard’ for judgingRussia after Yeltsin. Every domestic and foreign policy, adopted during the Putin years 2000 – 2014, has been judged by Washington according to whether it conformed or deviated from the Yeltsin decade of unchallenged pillage and manipulation.

The Putin Era: State and Economic Reconstruction and EU-US Belligerence

President Putin’s first and foremost task was to end Russia’s collapse into nothingness. Over time, the state and economy recovered some semblance of order and legality. The economy began to recover and grow; employment, wages and living standards, and mortality rates improved. Trade, investment and financial transactions with the West were normalized – unadulterated pillage was prosecuted. Russia’s recovery was viewed by the West with ambiguity: Many legitimate business people and MNCs welcomed the re-establishment of law and order and the end of gangsterism; in contrast, policymakers in Washington and Brussels as well as the vulture capitalists of Wall Street and the City of London quickly condemned what they termed Putin’s ‘rising authoritarianism’ and ‘statism’, as Russian authorities began to investigate the oligarchs for tax evasion, large-scale money laundering, the corruption of public officials and even murder.

Putin’s rise to power coincided with the world-wide commodity boom. The spectacular rise in the price of Russian oil and gas and metals (2003-2013) allowed the Russian economy to grow at a rapid rate while the Russian state increased its regulation of the economy and began to restore its military. Putin’s success in ending the most egregious forms of pillage of the Russian economy and re-establishing Russian sovereignty made him popular with the electorate: he was repeatedly re-elected by a robust majority. As Russia distanced itself from the quasi-satellite policies, personnel and practices of the Yeltsin years, the US and EU launched a multi-prong hostile political strategy designed to undermine President Putin and restore pliant Yeltsin-like neo-liberal clones to power. Russian NGOs funded by US foundations and acting as CIA fronts, organized mass protests targeting the elected officials. Western-backed ultra-liberal political parties competed unsuccessfully for national and local offices. The US-funded Carnegie Center, a notorious propaganda mill, churned out virulent tracts purporting to describe Putin’s demonic ‘authoritarian’ policies, his ‘persecution’ of dissident oligarchs and his ‘return’ to a ‘Soviet style command economy’.

While the West sought to restore the ‘Golden Age of Pillage’ via internal political surrogates, it pursued an aggressive foreign policy designed to eliminate Russian allies and trading partners, especially in the Middle East. The US invaded Iraq, murdered Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party leadership, and established a sectarian puppet regime, eliminating Moscow’s key secular-nationalist ally in the region. The US decreed sanctions on Iran, a major lucrative trading partner with Russia. The US and the EU backed a large-scale armed insurgency to overthrow President Bashaar Assad in Syria, another Russian ally, and to deprive the Russian Navy of a friendly port on the Mediterranean. The US and the EU bombed Libya, a major oil and trade partner of Russia (and China) hoping to install a pro-Western client regime.

Goading Russia in the Caucasus and on the Black Sea, the US backed-Georgian regime invaded a Russian protectorate, South Ossetia, in 2008, killing scores of Russian peace keepers and hundreds of civilians, but was repelled by a furious Russian counter-attack.

In 2014, the Western offensive to isolate, encircle and eventually undermine any possibility of an independent Russian state went into high gear. The US financed a civil-military coup ousting the elected regime of President Viktor Yanukovytch, who had opposed EU annexation and NATO affiliation. Washington imposed a puppet regime deeply hostile to Russia and ethnic Russian-Ukrainian citizens in the southeast and Crimea. Russian opposition to the coup and support for pro-democracy federalists in the south-east and Crimea served as a pretext for Western sanctions in an effort to undermine Russia’s oil, banking and manufacturing sectors and to cripple its economy.

Imperial strategists in Washington and Brussels broke all previous agreements with the Putin Administration and tried to turn Putin’s oligarch allies against the Russian president by threatening their holdings in the West (especially laundered bank accounts and properties). Russian state oil companies, engaged in joint ventures with Chevron, Exxon, and Total, were suddenly cut off from Western capital markets.

The cumulative impact of this decade-long Western offensive culminating in the current wave of severe sanctions was to provoke a recession in Russia, to undermine the currency (the ruble declined 23% in 2014), drive up the cost of imports and hurt local consumers. Russian industries, dependent on foreign equipment and parts, as well as oil companies dependent on imported technology for exploiting the Arctic reserves were made to feel the pain of ‘Putin’s intransigence’.

Despite the short-term successes of the US-EU war against the Russian economy, the Putin Administration has remained extremely popular among the Russian electorate, with approval ratings exceeding 80%. This has relegated Putin’s pro-Western opposition to the dust bin of history. Nevertheless the Western sanctions policy and the aggressive political – NATO military encirclement of Russia, has exposed the vulnerabilities of Moscow.

Russian Vulnerabilities: The Limits of Putin’s Restoration of Russian Sovereignty

In the aftermath of the Western and Russian oligarch’s pillage of the Russian economy and the savage degradation of Russian society, President Putin pursued a complex strategy.

First, he sought to differentiate between ‘political’ and ‘economic’ oligarchs: the latter included oligarchs willing to co-operate with the government in rebuilding the economy and willing to confine their activity to the generous guidelines set forth by President Putin. They retained enormous economic power and profits, but not political power.
In exchange, Putin allowed the ‘economic’ oligarchs to maintain their dubiously-acquired business empires. In contrast, those oligarchs who sought political power and financed Yeltsin-era politicians were targeted – some were stripped of their fortunes and others were prosecuted for crimes, ranging from money laundering, tax evasion, swindles and illegal transfer of funds overseas up to financing the murder of their rivals.

The second focus of President Putin’s early political strategy was to deepen Russian cooperation with Western states and economies but on the basis of reciprocal market exchanges rather than one-sided, Western appropriation of Russian resources prevalent under Yeltsin. Putin sought to secure greater political-military integration with the US and EU to ensure Russian borders and spheres of influence. To that end, President Putin opened Russian military bases and supply lines for the US-EU military forces engaged in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and he did not oppose the EU-US sanctions against Iran. Putin acquiesced to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, despite Russia’s long standing economic ties with Baghdad. He joined the five powers ‘overseeing” the Palestine – Israeli ‘peace’ talks and went along with Washington’s one-sided support of Israel. He even gave the ‘green light’ to the NATO bombing of Libya, naively assuming it would be a limited affair – a ‘humanitarian’ intervention.

As a result of Putin’s political and diplomatic collusion with the Washington-NATO military expansion, Russian trade, investment and finance with the West prospered. Russian firms raised loans in Western capital markets; foreign investors flocked to the Russian stock market and multi-nationals formed joint ventures. Major oil and gas ventures flourished. The Russian economy recovered the living standards of the Soviet era; consumer spending boomed; unemployment fell from double to single digit; salaries and back wages were paid and research centers, universities, schools and cultural institutions began to recover.

The third component of Putin’s strategy was the state recovery (re-nationalization) of the strategic oil and gas sector. By outright purchase and buy-outs, through financial audits and the confiscation of the assets of gangster oligarchs, the Russian state takeover of oil and gas was successful. These re-nationalized sectors formed joint ventures with Western oil giants and led Russian exports during a period of peak energy demand. With the rise in oil prices over the Putin decade, Russia experienced a consumer-driven import boom – from agricultural commodities to luxury jewelry and autos… Putin consolidated his electoral support and deepened Russia’s ‘integration’ in Western markets.

Putin’s expansion and growth strategy looked exclusively westward to the EU and US, and not east to Asia/China or south to Latin America.

With this focus on the West, Putin’s initial tactical success began to expose Russia’s strategic vulnerabilities. The first signs were evident in the Western support for the corrupt oligarchs’ anti-Putin campaign and the media’s demonization of the Russian judicial system which prosecuted and convicted gangster oligarchs, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky . The second sign was the West’s financial and political support of the Yeltsin-era neo-liberals competing against Putin’s United Russia Party and candidates…It became clear that Putin’s effort to restore Russian sovereignty conflicted with the West’s plans to maintain Russia as a vassal state. The West favorably counterpoised the Golden Years of unrestrained pillage and domination of the Yeltsin period to the Putin era of an independent and dynamic Russia – by constantly tying the Russian president to the defunct Soviet Union and the KGB.

In 2010, the US encouraged its client, President Saakashvili of Georgia to invade Russia’s protectorate in South Ossetia. This was the first major indication that Putin’s accommodation with the West was counter-productive. Russian territorial borders, its allies and spheres of influence became Western targets. The US and EU condemned Russia’s defensive response even as Moscow withdrew its troops from Georgia after applying a sound beating.

Georgia was a militarist dress rehearsal; one of several western planned and financed coups – some dubbed ‘color revolutions’ other’s NATO ‘humanitarian interventions’. Yugoslavia in the Balkans was fragmented by NATO bombing and Ukraine had several ‘color’ uprisings up to the present bloody ‘civil war’. Washington and Brussels interpreted Putin’s series of conciliatory measures as weakness and felt free to encroach further on Russia’s frontier and to knock off regimes friendly to Russia.

By the middle of the second decade of the new century, the US and EU made a major strategic decision to weaken Russia’s security and its economy sovereignty: to seize control over Ukraine, expel Russia from its Black Sea military base in Crimea, convert the Ukraine into an advanced NATO outpost and cut Eastern Ukraine’s economic ties with Russia – especially the Russian market for the strategic Ukrainian military weaponry. The coup was financed by the West, while far-right and neo-Nazi Ukraine gangs provided the shock troops .The Kiev junta organized a war of conquest directed at purging the anti-coup, pro-democracy forces in the southeast Donbas region with its Russian ethnic majority and heavy industrial ties to Russia.

When Putin finally recognized the clear danger to Russia’s national security, his government responded by annexing Crimea after a popular referendum and started to provide sanctuary and supply lines for the embattled anti-Kiev federalists in eastern Ukraine. The West exploited the vulnerabilities in the Russian economy, which had resulted from Putin’s development model, and imposed wide-reaching economic sanctions designed to cripple Russia’s economy.

Western Sanctions, Russian Weakness: Rethinking Putin’s Strategic Approach

Western aggressive militarism and the sanctions against Russia exposed several critical vulnerabilities of Putin’s economic and political strategy. These include (1) his dependence on Western-oriented ‘economic oligarchs’ to promote his strategy for Russian economic growth; (2) his acceptance of most of the privatizations of the Yeltsin era; (3) his decision to focus on trade with the West, ignoring the China market, (4) his embrace of a gas and oil export strategy instead of developing a diversified economy; (5) his dependence on his allied robber-baron oligarchs – with no real experience in developing industry, no true financial skills, scant technological expertise and no concept of marketing – to restore and run the peak manufacturing sector. In contrast to the Chinese, the Russian oligarchs have been totally dependent on Western markets, finance and technology and have done little to develop domestic markets, implement self-financing by re-investing their profits or upgrade productivity via Russian technology and research.

In the face of Western sanctions Putin’s leading oligarch-allies are his weakest link in formulating an effective response. They press Putin to give in to Washington as they plead with Western banks to have their properties and accounts exempt from the sanctions. They are desperate to protect their assets in London and New York. In a word, they are desperate for President Putin to abandon the freedom fighters in southeast Ukraine and cut a deal with the Kiev junta.

This highlights the contradiction within Putin’s strategy of working with the ‘economic’ oligarchs, who have agreed not to oppose Putin within Russia, while transferring their massive wealth to Western banks, investing in luxury real estate in London, Paris and Manhattan and forming loyalties outside of Russia. In effect, they are closely tied to Russia’s current political enemies. Putin’s tactical success in harnessing oligarchs to his project of growth via stability has turned into a strategic weakness in defending the country from crippling economic reprisals.

Putin’s acceptance of the Yeltsin-era privatizations provided a certain stability in the short-run but it led to the massive flight of private capital overseas rather than remaining to be invested in projects to insure greater self-sufficiency. Today the capacity of the Russian government to mobilize and convert its economy into an engine of growth and to withstand imperial pressure is much weaker than the economy would have been if it was under greater state control. Putin will have a difficult time convincing private owners of major Russian industries to make sacrifices – they are too accustomed to receiving favors, subsidies and government contracts. Moreover, as their financial counterparts in the West press for payments on debts and deny new credits, the private elites are threatening to declare bankruptcy or to cut back production and discharge workers.

The rising tide of Western military encroachments on Russia’s borders, the string of broken promises regarding the incorporation of Eastern Europe into NATO and the bombing and destruction of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, should have shown Putin that no amount of unilateral concessions was likely to win Western acceptance as a bona fide “partner”. Washington and Brussels were unwavering in their strategy to encircle and maintain Russia as a client.

Instead of turning west and offering support for US-NATO wars, Russia would have been in a far better position to resist sanctions and current military threats if it had diversified and oriented its economy and markets toward Asia, in particular China, with its dynamic economic growth and expanding domestic market, investment capacity and growing technical expertise. Clearly, China’s foreign policy has not been accompanied by wars and invasion of Russian allies and encroachment on Russia’s borders. While Russia has now turned to increase economic ties with Asia in the face of growing NATO threats, a great deal of time and space has been lost over the past 15 years. It will take another decade to reorient the Russian economy, with its major industries still controlled by the mediocre oligarchs and kleptocrats, holdovers from the Yeltsin period.

With the closure of Western markets, Putin has had to ‘pivot’ to China, other Asian nations and Latin America to find new markets and economic partners. But his growth strategy still depends on oil and gas exports and most of Russia’s private ‘business leaders’ are not real entrepreneurs capable of developing new competitive products, substituting Russian technology and inputs and identifying profitable markets. This generation of Russian ‘business leaders’ did not build their economic empires or conglomerates from the ‘bottom up’ – they seized and pillaged their assets from the public sector and they grew their wealth through state contracts and protection. Moscow now asks them to find alternative overseas markets, to innovate, compete and replace their dependence on German machinery.

The bulk of what passes for the Russian industrial capitalist class are not entrepreneurs, they are more like rent collectors and cronies – oriented to the West. Their origins are more often as gangsters and warlords who early on strong- armed their rivals out of the public giveaways of the 1990’s. While these oligarchs have sought to gain respectability after consolidating their economic empires and hired public relations agencies to polish their images and economic consultants to advise them on investments, they have never demonstrated any capacity to grow their firms into competitive enterprises. Instead they remained wholly dependent on capital, technology and intermediary imports from the West and subsidies from the Putin Administration.

The so-called Russian “capitalist” rentiers stand in sharp contrast to the dynamic Chinese public and private entrepreneurs – who borrowed overseas technology from the US, Japan, Taiwan and Germany, adapted and improved on the technology and are producing advanced highly competitive products. When the US-EU sanctions came into force, Russian industry found itself unprepared to substitute local production and President Putin had to arrange trade and import agreements with China and other sources for inputs.

The biggest strategic flaw in Putin’s economic strategy was his decision to concentrate on gas and oil exports to the West as his ‘engine of growth’. This resulted in Russia’s dependency on high prices for commodity exports and Western markets. With this in mind the US and EU exploited Russia’s vulnerability to any drop in the world price for energy and its dependence on Western oil extraction technology, equipment and joint ventures.

Putin’s policy has relied on a vision of economic integration with the West alongside greater co-operation and political connections with the NATO powers. These assumptions have been proven wrong by the march of events: US and EU cooperation was tactical and contingent on asymmetrical, indeed unilateral, concessions from Russia – especially its continued willingness to sacrifice its traditional allies in the Balkans, Middle East, North Africa and especially the Caucuses. Once Russia began to assert its own interests, the West turned hostile and confrontational. Ever since Russia opposed the coup regime in Kiev, the West’s goal has been the overthrow of Putin’s Russia. The ongoing Western offensive against Russia is not a passing phase: it is the beginning of a prolonged, intensified economic and political confrontation.

Though Russia is vulnerable, it is not without resources and capacity to resist, defend its national security and advance its economy.

Conclusion: What is to be Done?

First and foremost Russia must diversify its economy; it must industrialize its raw materials and invest heavily in substituting local production for Western imports. While shifting its trade to China is a positive step, it must not replicate the previous commodities (oil and gas) for manufactured goods trading pattern of the past.

Secondly, Russia must re-nationalize its banking, foreign trade and strategic industries, ending the dubious political and economic loyalties and rentier behavior of the current dysfunctional private ‘capitalist’ class. The Putin Administration must shift from oligarchs to technocrats, from rentiers to entrepreneurs, from speculators who earn in Russia and invest in the West to workers co-participation– in a word it must deepen the national, public, and productive character of the economy. It is not enough to claim that oligarchs who remain in Russia and declare loyalty to the Putin Administration are legitimate economic agents. They have generally disinvested from Russia, transferred their wealth abroad and have questioned legitimate state authority under pressure from Western sanctions.

Russia needs a new economic and political revolution – in which the government recognizes the West as an imperial threat and in which it counts on the organized Russian working class and not on dubious oligarchs. The Putin Administration has pulled Russia from the abyss and has instilled dignity and self-respect among Russians at home and abroad by standing up to Western aggression in the Ukraine. >From this point on, President Putin needs to move forward and dismantle the entire Yeltsin klepto-state and economy and re-industrialize, diversify and develop its own high technology for a diversified economy. And above all Russia needs to create new democratic, popular forms of democracy to sustain the transition to a secure, anti-imperialist and sovereign state. President Putin has the backing of the vast majority of Russian people; he has the scientific and professional cadre; he has allies in China and among the BRICs; and he has the will and the power to “do the right thing”. The question remains whether Putin will succeed in this historical mission or whether, out of fear and indecision, he will capitulate before the threats of a dangerous and decaying West.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

jim_petras with_dogsJames Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.

 




 

And now a word from the Editors of The Greanville Post


FRIENDS AND FELLOW ACTIVISTS—

AS YOU KNOW, THERE’S A COLOSSAL INFORMATION WAR GOING ON, AND THE FATE OF THE WORLD LITERALLY HANGS ON THE OUTCOME.

THEIR LIES.
THEIR CONSTANT PROPAGANDA.

OUR TRUTH.

HUGE ISSUES ARE BEING DECIDED: Nuclear war, whether we’ll live in democracy or tyranny, dignity or destitution, planetary salvation or doom…
It’s a battle of communications we can’t afford to lose. 


So, we request that you do something.
Reading is not enough. Action of some sort is needed.

Start with something simple: Share our posts.
If you don’t, how can we ever neutralize the power of the corporate media?

And if you took the time to read this article, and found it worth SHARING, then why not sign up with our special bulletin to be included in our future distributions? And please tell others about The Greanville Post. 


YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS (SIGNUPS TO THE GREANVILLE POST BULLETIN, SEE BELOW) ARE COMPLETELY FREE, ALWAYS. AND WE DO NOT SELL OR RENT OUR EMAIL ADDRESS DATABASES—EVER. That’s a guarantee.