Mike Whitney – The Unz Review Oct 12, 2023
Question 1— In many parts of the world, Vladimir Putin is admired for his outspoken defense of national sovereignty. But on the domestic front, many of Putin’s policies seem to align with those of the Western globalists. As you note in a recent post at Substack Putin just “signed a decree on the creation of a ‘digital’ domestic passport,” which many people think will pave the way to technocratic tyranny. Am I exaggerating the risks of digital ID here, or is this development pose a serious threat to personal freedom?
Riley Waggaman— Imagine if the United States started issuing digital driver’s licenses that could be used as an official form of ID. What would the reaction be? I suspect a lot of Americans would feel “worried”, for lack of a better term. And not without good reason.
The digital passport system being implemented in Russia is deserving of the same skepticism.
First some context: Russia has a “domestic passport” that basically functions as a national ID. You use your domestic passport to open up a bank account, when you have to interact with the local bureaucracy, etc. etc. It’s an important document that you need to do ordinary, everyday things.
The digital passport has been billed as an electronic copy of the domestic passport, accessible via smartphone (via the State Services portal, Gosuslugi). The government is still deciding in what situations/scenarios the digital passport will be accepted as a valid form of ID.
Proponents of this digital document say it’s more convenient than a paper ID, and perhaps they’re right. The problem of course is that modern conveniences can lead to all sorts of unpleasantness, and with time these unpleasant things can even become “normal”.
The fact that this ID will be linked to the State Services portal (Gosuslugi) is certainly cause for concern and it’s easy to imagine how digital passports could be used (and abused) by the Russian government—or any government, for that matter. All in the name of convenience.
Of course, the authorities promise that digital IDs will never be made mandatory. Well, I’m old enough to remember when the Russian government promised that Covid vaccination would be 100% voluntary…
Question 2— Russia appears to be spearheading the transition to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) with its creation of the “digital ruble”. In your opinion, what are the potential pitfalls of such a plan?
Riley Waggaman— Excluding the possibility of imposing a full-spectrum digital gulag, the digital ruble has no obvious benefits. I would say the same of all CBDCs, of course.
Some claim that the digital ruble is a very necessary, prudent, and brilliant way to bypass Western sanctions. This is untrue. The Bank of Russia has a fully functional Financial Messaging System (SPFS) that operates independently from SWIFT. Here are a few RT.com headlines for your consideration:
- March 2017: “Russia’s banking system has SWIFT alternative ready”
- February 2018: “Russian banks ready to switch off SWIFT – official”
- October 2019: Russia, China & India to set up alternative to SWIFT payment system to connect 3 billion people”
All of these articles are about SPFS and were published long before the Bank of Russia announced its intention to develop the digital ruble in October 2020.
I’m puzzled as to why so many westerners who claim to understand the dangers of CBDCs think the digital ruble is somehow “different”. The Bank of Russia’s CBDC has been almost unanimously condemned by the country’s most prominent commentators in the alternative/conservative media space. Even mainstream outlets like Tsargrad have published scathing take-downs of the digital ruble.
Meanwhile, in English-language “alternative media”, we are blessed with the profound postulations of deep thinkers like Simplicius who write nipple-hardening purple prose about how amazing and anti-globalist the Bank of Russia is, and why the digital ruble is super hip and cool.
I just don’t understand why English-language commentary (all non-Russian commentary, actually) is so far removed from what patriotic Russians living in Russia are saying about their own country, in Russian.
By the way: The Bank of Russia has already reneged on its promise that it will never, ever “color” digital rubles so that they can only be used to purchase certain items. The central bank’s deputy chairman recently said that placing restrictions on how digital rubles can be spent is a real possibility—and one that will be explored in the future. (link) The digital ruble hasn’t even entered circulation yet, and the Bank of Russia is already open to “exploring” how this fun new tool of total control—endorsed by Davos, the IMF, the G20, etc. etc.–can be used to curb-stomp basic human dignity.
Question 3— Is Russia moving closer to mandatory vaccinations?
(Note: Here’s a quote from one of your recent posts:
Russia’s Ministry of Health wants to amend the National Preventive Immunization Calendar so that COVID vaccination could be mandatory for “vulnerable categories of citizens” whenever the country’s benevolent health authorities believe the “epidemiological” situation warrants another round of coercive injections…..
Of course, any new mandatory vaccination decrees would also apply to state employees, including teachers, doctors, military personnel, etc. Edward Slavsquat, Substack
Riley Waggaman— If Russia’s enterprising health ministry—which works tirelessly to safeguard public health—decides that “Covid” is “spreading” at an unacceptable rate, various categories of citizens will have to choose between getting vaxxed or losing their jobs. This is of course still voluntary vaccination because Russians get to choose whether they want to be employed or inject themselves with an unproven genetic goo developed in cooperation with AstraZeneca.
There are many highly intelligent intellectuals—like Aussie Cossack —who continue to pretend that Russia never had mandatory Covid vaccination, which is very brave considering that as of January 2023, there were still hundreds of Russians who were barred from working because they refused to be injected.
The Gamaleya Center continues to “update” its Covid vaccine, and the Russian government continues to shill this dangerous and barely tested trash to children Whether Covid vaccination will become as ubiquitous and “normal” as the annual flu shot (which is even shoved into the little arms of Russian children every year; I know because I had to sign a document forbidding the kindergarten nurse from injecting my 6-year-old son) is an open question. But you have to be impressively credulous to believe that the Russian government wants to keep Covid vaccination a purely voluntary affair. Russia’s health bureaucracy has a very poor track record when it comes to calling out Big Pharma/WHO scams. Did you know that you have to get an HIV test (an old school 80s Fauci scam) to get a work visa in Russia? Well, now you know.
Question 4— Here’s an excerpt from one of your recent posts that will surprise many readers who think that President Putin actually opposes the Davos crowd and their globalist agenda:
“To defeat globalism, Moscow is reluctantly but responsibly adopting the globalist agenda….
There is no way to stop the technological “progress” promoted by Davos, the G20, the IMF, the World Bank, the UN, and the WHO, which is why Moscow must closely collaborate with all of these globalist organizations in order to maintain globalist parity with the Collective West—otherwise Russia won’t be able to protect herself from the globalists.”
And, here’s more from another post:
“…almost every joint declaration Moscow signs (whether it be a G20 Declaration, a BRICS Declaration, or just some word salad authored with the help of Beijing) includes a passage praising the vital roles of the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund? This seems like relevant information.
The Russian government has repeatedly said it has no intention of withdrawing from the WHO, the WTO, or even the IMF. It would be nice if Cerise could update his article to reflect this undeniable reality. Edward Slavsquat, Substack
You appear to be saying that—even though Russia is fighting the western oligarchy in Ukraine—it is still marching in lockstep with the globalists on matters of social policy. Can you expand on this a bit? And how does Putin fit in with all of this? Is he an unwitting accomplice or an eager participant?
Riley Waggaman— Is Moscow fighting the western oligarchy in Ukraine? Gazprom has been pumping gas across Ukraine since Day 1 of the SMO. And that’s not the only natural resource that Russian “entrepreneurs” are desperately transiting through Ukrainian territory.
I have yet to read about a western-backed Ukrainian oligarch having his home vaporized by a Russian missile. Actually, it’s a doubtful that a single western oligarch, anywhere, has been inconvenienced by the SMO. On the contrary, it has been a wonderful money-making opportunity—for Russian oligarchs as well.
But to address the second part of your question: Anyone who follows Russian-language media knows that Moscow is in near-total lockstep with the West when it comes to soul-crushing technocracy and other forms “safe and convenient” societal progress. Actually, an objective observer would recognize that Russia is far ahead of the West in implementing “digitalization” shilled by Davos and other celebrated anti-globalist organizations.
Putin has done nothing meaningful to slow this process down. Actually, by allowing glorious patriots like Herman Gref to spearhead AI, biometrics, QR-coded cattle-tagging, facial recognition systems, “sustainable development”, and other trendy tech-development in Russia, Putin is an unapologetic accomplice in all the unsavory madness pestering Russia and every other country.
Seriously, just look at how the Russian government treats schoolchildren (like diseased, suspicious cattle), and you will begin to understand where this country is headed. Children are the future, after all!
Question 5— Can you summarize your views on the Covid-19 vaccine?
It’s bad.
Question 6— You say that “Russians are not too keen on Russia’s Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina”. According to you: “The socialists, the monarchists, the neo-soviets, the conservatives, the military hardliners—with few exceptions,… all despise Elvira and her digital rubles.”
Later in your article you say: “(Elvira) Nabiullina is a symbol of pursuing an economic policy contrary to Russia’s interests.”
That’s pretty harsh criticism. Can you explain what’s going on? Why would Putin reappoint someone to such an important position who –many feel– is implementing a globalist agenda?
Riley Waggaman— The second quote is actually from Nakanune.ru, which is a left-leaning independent news outlet based in Yekaterinburg. Excluding state-funded media, every news outlet in Russia hates Elvira Nabiullina and thinks she’s a globalist stooge who is actively working to destroy Russia. The conservatives, the Orthodox hardliners, the Communists, the Neo-Bolshiviks, the nationalists—they all despite Nabiullina. This is a fact and why it is never conveyed to non-Russian “alternative news” consumers is a massive mystery.
I haven’t the slightest idea why Putin nominated this Yale World Fellow graduate for another term as the Bank of Russia’s governor, even though she is awful and nobody likes her. Probably this is part of Putin’s ingenious strategy to defeat the globalists with a programmable CBDC 100% controlled by an IMF-obedient central bank that operates independently from the Russian state.
Question 7— In our last interview, you delivered a stirring summary of our current epoch saying:
“I am often reminded of that unsettling line from Alexis de Tocqueville: “I go back from age to age up to the remotest antiquity; but I find no parallel to what is occurring before my eyes: as the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.”
With each passing day it seems we are being forcibly severed from our own past. We are being “retrained” to accept a new civilizational model. It’s happening at the local, regional, national and global level. It is tearing apart families.
I do believe we are facing an evil that has no equal in human history.” Edward Slavsquat Substack
Judging from the response, I think there are a great number of people who feel the same as you do… My final question to you is this: Do you still feel as pessimistic as you did then?
Riley Waggaman— Mike, I would like to thank you (again) for that interview—it remains the most-read post on my blog. As you probably recall, the realities of Russia’s “public health” policies lacked “accuracy” (I’m trying to be charitable here) in 2021, and I think our internet exchange paved the way for a more fact-based, nuanced discussion about Russia’s “Covid response”.
Actually, I’m quite optimistic in the sense that I have accepted that there isn’t a 5-dimensional omnipotent white hat Twitter account that will save me from the Western Satanists, and I will have to save myself—which is actually relatively painless, easy, and even fun. I would even describe my current outlook as hopeful. But
I fully understand the pessimism of someone who is sick of the US government, or any western government; someone who looks longingly at the Russian government as an alternative. The problem with this curious way of thinking is that according to official data,around 30% of Russians live on less than $10 a day, Russia is facing a catastrophic demographic crisis (and it’s hard to think of a more basic metric for gauging the health and of a nation), and the Russian government is a fanatical proponent of policies that are chipping away at the last vestiges of basic human dignity. It’s true that the Russian government isn’t on board with the tranny agenda; that’s a nice footnote to admire as Russia’s birthrate circles the drain.
But again, I am an optimist. I have been able to connect with like-minded individuals here in Russia, and all over the world, and my life has greatly improved as a result. I am able to live the life I want to live without having to make obscene excuses for the inexcusable.
We should all be guided by truth, friendship, and love, and why the so-called “alternative media” is so obsessed with carrying water for governments who offer the world nothing but more of the same (sadness) is truly amazing. Enough already. We have everything we need.
I’ve been reading Riley Waggaman’s column for some months now and never once seen anything but continuous, unrelenting puking all over the Kremlin cohort and Putin in particular, to an extent that would do über-shylocks like Bill Browder, Adam Schiff, Bellingcat or Masha Gessen proud.
Jews have been hating on Russia unreservedly for centuries, regardless of the ruling model, tsarist, soviet or post-soviet and this guy Waggaman seems to fall in step with that sentiment.
Why, what motivates such toxicity, I don’t know but am free to speculate.
Of course Putin is part of Satan’s scam, He support the covodd BS and vax poisonings.
We see this Nazi trope at least once a week on this site.
“Putin just “signed a decree on the creation of a ‘digital’ domestic passport,” which many people think will pave the way to technocratic tyranny.”
Putin and the Russian regime/country is saturated with 5th columns. There are SAS Nazi terrorists inside Russia right now. There are UKrainian terrorist cells waiting for the order to attack a nuclear power station, and if they do, it won’t be with conventional explosives. Aside from these little details, the Nazi NWO sect wants Russia crushed and Putin deposed, so they can steal Russian resources.
The other Nazi trope, vaccine mandates. Russia uses a classic double vector vaccine, developed by Porton Down, for British Nazi elites. We must thank Sergei Skripal for getting the Covid bioweapon and these vaccines to Moscow.
No vaccine is safe, but Sputnik V is many times safer than any M-RNA gene therapy jab. I wonder why the Nazis didn’t want their thicko sheeple to have access to Sputnik V??
We even had NaziTube Dr Sam Bailey telling us there’s bad stuff in Sputnik V, but she’s a terrible liar. lol
Russia has bioweapons labs on its borders, they are still in Western UKraine, and the US military has been caught collecting Russian DNA… if this doesn’t prove the NWO West is a Nazi sect, then I don’t know what you need as evidence.
We know Israel is a Nazi foundation stone, and back in the day, they worked with Apartheid South Africa, another Nazi regime, developing race specific bioweapons.
THEY ARE ALL FECKING NAZIS, and the Nazi royals have been making pro Nazi comments.
Yes
There is a mountain the aspiring political initiate has to climb…
At the base, the political world is made up of “Labour” versus “Conservative”. At this altitude there seem to be “differences”…
But after a while, it is observed they are the same, and the aspirant climbs up further…He discerns a Farage or a Trump say, who promise differentiation from the politics of the lower level. After some consideration, and maybe political activism himself, the pilgrim begins to discern similarity again…He climbs higher…
In his own nation, the seeker of political truth has become exasperated. Maybe in other nations there are those who are genuinely different….He climbs higher…
As he climbs, the journey become more difficult, but also predictable. It is a lonely journey too, because those fellow climbers find a certain comfort in remaining at the level they have climbed too…And it must be said, the political reality at each level materially rewards the mountaineer who simply “accepts” the level he is on…
Toward the top of his climb, the political mountaineer passes through “The Truthseeker” website. Far below in Labour and Conservative land, the derisory cat calling of the Daily Mail commenters are drowned out by the higher level Trumpsters, who in their turn are drowned out by the even higher level Putineers…
And so upward we endeavour to climb…
Whitney’s gone Wacko.
I think you would have rocks in the head, if you can’t see that Vlad is very much in with the globalists. Notice that the WEF crowd, carry on with their plans without any worries about Putin. And Putin with his BRICS is getting the rest of the world ready for the Agenda 2030 deadline. At the right moment, a huge announcement will be made, that the world can’t be doing with enemies and wars. World Government is here everybody, and the world is going to have a big party. Beware if you’re not happy to celebrate!
What’s new? Nico has been saying this for years. Along with Putin, most if not all of the cabinet members of the Russian government are Jews as well.
This Putin guy looks like a ghoul.
Elvira Nabiullina is a Tatar, like Putin. As Napoleon once said, “Scratch a Russian, and you will find a Tatar”.
“Many historians recognise the importance of the rule of the Golden Horde in the development of Russian society. The word money, dénʹgi (деньги), comes from Mongolian and survives in the memory of the taxes that Russians had to pay to the Khans to obtain formal diplomas, Jarliq (ярлык), which today means label, price tag, in modern Russian. Thus, today’s Russia is more the offspring of the Golden Horde than Kievan Rus. Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who conquered the last Kazan khanate in the 1500s, incorporated the main Mongolian leaders into the Russian administration.”
“Putin: heir to the Mongol Great Khans”
https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Putin,-heir-to-the-Mongol-Grand-Khans-43688.html
Putin also ditched his Orthodox Russian wife for a young Muslim athlete, who bore him two sons, who have been quietly raised as Muslims. He’s had no more trouble from Chechens since then. Some reports said that he imprisoned his wife in an Orthodox nunnery years ago, under guard by the nuns.
in Stalins times ordinary people could not travel .
tsheka had everything in control . the times of russians
freedom are now over again specialy in regard to new
western spies + saboteurs . independ to WEF + NWO
security reasons dictate more control in russia .
Carl Jones–you still put the cart before the horse: “the Jews” includes Nazism, not the other way round
Waggerman may be an ugly imbecile..but putting that aside and moving on..all he does is aggregate Russian media… of course this information freely and openly available to even the most challenged of intellects..can be easily verified…
Waggerman doesn’t tell you the Russkies are racing ahead with their bio-digital Q coded injectable Gulag..He lets people like Herman Gref and Flvira and Ginsberg and digital roubles do the fact checking for him…
Now… this information wont make much difference to the opinions and hopes and dreams of the committed Z anon cultist..because they are too far gone and suffering from the inability to think clearly or objectively..unable to process evident facts…
Presumably that would bweak their little tiny hearts…diddums… Well that’s just too bad because going forward…. and it’s going to get messy…going forward… these fools will be the first to fall… (no doubt crying themselves to death)..
As Charlie Manson said “they ain’t intelligent enough to change”.. and he knew all about cults and cultists…
Yesiree..
Putin spent billions if not trillions of Russia’s public money on propping up the US dollar, by purchasing vast amounts of T-bills.
In 2014 he agreed to pull the bottom from under oil & other commodity prices, once again decimating the value of the ruble and the size of the Russian middle class.
So analyze away, analysts. But this is all I ever needed to know.
NB: I may as well add..most cultists are also virus believers..in fact the stupidest of them will tell you that the ‘viwuss’ was actually a lab manufactured bio weapon…
Yes that’s right… that only killed octogenarians with brain cancer and aids and thirty other ‘co-morbiditys’.. and still required the administering of highly dangerous drugs and intubation to see ’em off…
Raise this point with a cultist and they will pivot to..”the best biological weapon is one that incapacitates”…
Which brings us back to the common cold..
dear dear deary me…utter imbeciles…
Lots of speculation here. But what are we supposed to do when there is no real truth or disclosure from anyone anywhere in a position of power?
We can either repose like good little boys and girls, sucking up to our leaders in nice uniforms, and doing what we are told to allow all of our systems to work without any flack, with continued rule through mass deceptions, brainwashing, and fear mongering while they lead us to their slaughter pens, or we can spend our lives exposing, opposing, and deposing all of the fakery and rot in a kind of never-ending Marxian revolution fighting in a constate of oppression and anarchy.
Seems like these extremes could be resolved by having checks and rules over all those in power requiring of them to provide full disclosure of the facts to us on all issues dealing with our interests, along with severe penalties for lying and failing to make proper disclosure before decisions on those issues are made. In that way they would have to be much more wise in their decision making, less able to lie and conceal crucial information on relevant issues, while being better able to take credit for their good decisions and responsibility for their bad ones. With less evil and deception coming down the pike to us, there would be less to expose, less disruption, more good government, and also most likely less government.
Clearly, this solution is what no one in power wants as it would lessen their powers, and that is why we have to overthrow the present regimes in all of our nations – first by drafting Declarations demanding these reforms, and from there, constitutions which will enshrine them and the other reforms which are needed.
In the documentary, “America: From Freedom To Fascism,” Michael Ruppert explains the easiest way to help people understand the differences between Democrats and Republicans. He advises, “it’s simple. Just think of the Democrats as the Gambinos and think of the Republicans as the Genovese.”
Some excellent posts here. Among the many, a novel insight and an interesting perspective from Gordon Bennett.
The title asks, “Is Putin in Cahoots with the Globalists?” The short, simple answer is a resounding “YES!”
Russia and eastern Jewrope was the epicenter of Talmudic Jewry for quite some time, then tens of millions of Russian Christians were slaughtered by maniacal Jews. Despite that, Jews have not been chased through the streets and ripped to pieces in Russia as they damn well should have. Now we have Chabad Vlad Poopstain posing as a nationalist patriot, while grabbing his ankles and getting it from both ends from Yakov and the Yid Boyz. Chabad Vlad is just another ass puppet actor in the theatrical production of Goys Must Go directed by Shlomo and the satanic tribe of homicidal maniacs.
An interesting observation from Dayne…
I can’t say my knowledge of that allows me to fully understand the observation about treasury bills, but I do know from experience the power of the media and an appointed “leader” to stir the crowd.
Back in the day, the British National Party made a bigger splash in media terms than reaching for genuine power. My very brief but intense political career is something that a theoretical study alone could never replace. I do know the failure of its predominately blue collar membership to “follow the money” and press Nick Griffin to come clean on accounts, allowed his public rhetoric to obscure what I have increasingly realised was a safety valve psyop wrt to nationalist sentiment.
Those enamoured of Putin remind me of how many of us were enamoured of Griffin in the early 2000s. Being new to the political world Griffin’s patter weighed heavier than the resignation of an outgoing treasurer. Among the idealistic, the hope of a “champion” forever entices. (Among other things Griffin had embezzled party funds for an extension to his home on the pretext that “party meetings could take place there.”) And to our shame, we defended Griffin like the politically illiterate and inexperienced in these comments section defend Putin. But some of us learn eventually…
This is the thing, accountancy and finance are “not very sexy”, but pontificating about the visible and sensual world are. Looking at a table of figures, or even requiring them to be provided, demonstrates the questioners understand how power is mediated – through money. Money is everyone’s dirty secret.
Over twenty five years ago, my first rabbit holes journey took me to the JFK assassination forums. A guy wrote the importance of “following the money”. As a councillor a years later, it was a lesson I still had not learnt. I wrongly assumed Labour councillors were ideologically opposed to me. They were opposed to me because I decreased the number of them claiming their allowance. The real action was not ideological but in the awarding of contracts and the relationship between councillors and property developers. The real action was in the corrupt subterranean flow of dirty money. It took me years to realise this. This is not something that can be learnt from doing a degree in politics.
So on the world stage, when Putin might say, “oppose LGBT etc.” it is an entirely vacuous observation; let’s look at the money instead because that’s where the truth will reside.
Ideology is the flim flam that herds the sheeple. The lazy will avoid the numbers and money and buy into the soap opera. Many buy the soap opera here because they will not and cannot move beyond their ideological framing of the world.
A treasury bill is a government bond, issued to secure debt but it is a short maturity bond. You can only hold them for a maximum of one year, depending on the contract offered. When they’re bought back, any money, surplus to the price paid for the bond, is its yield.
Here, if Russia invested in US oil industry bonds and the US oil exchange was then deliberately deflated, the bonds lose value and the bearer of the bond is obliged to pay more than the cost of the T-bill back to the US Treasury. It is both fraudulent activity and political strategem, intending to destabilize Russia fiscally.
It would have been better said, that when treasury bills are bought back, in a deflated market, there is a net loss to the buyer.