{"id":123122,"date":"2015-10-17T05:57:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T05:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=123122"},"modified":"2015-10-19T06:27:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T06:27:07","slug":"moscow-doubles-down-on-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=123122","title":{"rendered":"Moscow doubles down on Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Pepe Escobar &#8212; Russia Today Oct 16, 2015<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">History may eventually decide the \u2018New World Order\u2019 started on September 28, when Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama had a 90-minute face off at the UN in New York.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Irrespective of spin \u2013 <em>\u201cproductive\u201d<\/em> according to the White House, <em>\u201ctense\u201d<\/em> according to a source close to the Kremlin \u2013 facts on the ground accumulated almost immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Putin did press Obama for the US to join Russia in a real grand coalition bent on smashing ISIS\/ISIL\/Daesh. The Obama administration, once again, relented. I detailed <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/atimes.com\/2015\/10\/say-hello-to-my-cruise-missiles-escobar\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>what happened next: an earth-shattering game-changer in the <em>\u2018New Great Game\u2019<\/em> in Eurasia, straight out of the Caspian Sea, that caught the acronym fest of US intelligence \u2013 not to mention the Pentagon &#8211; completely off-guard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">So this was Putin\u2019s first message to Washington, and the Pentagon\/NATO combo in particular; your fancy ideas of stationing tactical nuclear weapons or expanding missile defense to Eastern Europe, or even Asia-Pacific, are just a mirage. Our cruise missiles are capable of wreaking real effective havoc; and soon, as <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/orientalreview.org\/2015\/10\/13\/kalibrating-the-foe-political-implications-of-the-russian-cruise-missiles-launch\/\">this piece <\/a><\/strong><\/span>argues, there will be more hypersonic, high-precision long-range missiles added to the mix.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Old habits don\u2019t die hard \u2013 they remain in a coma forever. The Pentagon\u2019s response to the facts launched from the Caspian Sea was to conduct an airdrop of light weapons to <em>\u201ca select group of vetted leaders and their units,\u201d as in those famously non-existent Syrian \u201cmoderate rebels.\u201d<\/em> The weapons will inevitably be captured by assorted Salafi-jihadi goon outfits in no time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Then the British government was forced to deny a Murdoch-controlled <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thesundaytimes.co.uk\/sto\/news\/uk_news\/Defence\/article1618135.ece\" target=\"_blank\">Sunday Times <em>\u201creport\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0that British Tornadoes in Syria are now armed with air-to-air missiles to counter potential Russian aerial <em>\u201cattacks.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">And to top it off, the proverbial <em>\u201cmilitary experts\u201d<\/em> infesting US corporate media started spinning that we are only 30 seconds from World War III.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Glazyev nuclear plan<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A still apoplectic Pentagon will take time to absorb the new military facts on the Syrian ground \u2013 and skies. That will add to the utter desperation displayed by the <em>\u2018Masters of the Universe\u2019<\/em> in the Washington\/Wall Street axis \u2013 itching to break the China-Russia strategic partnership by all means necessary. Quite a feat when the Pentagon is still fighting World War II, with its weapons, ships and monster aircraft carriers displayed as sitting ducks against Russia\u2019s new batch of missiles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">But then there\u2019s also Putin\u2019s second \u2013 silent &#8211; message to Washington, which didn\u2019t even have to be delivered in person to Obama. US intel though may have a hint about it, as they closely follow Russian media.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It\u2019s about Sergey Glazyev\u2019s (presidential aide) plan for Russia\u2019s immediate economic future <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.business-gazeta.ru\/article\/140998\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is a summary of the plan, in Russian. The plan was formally proposed to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/russia-insider.com\/en\/politics\/russias-security-council-committee-runs-russia\/ri10400\">Russia\u2019s Security Council<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Here is a very good summary on how Russia\u2019s Security Council works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">There are at least three absolutely key points in Glazyev\u2019s plan. We may summarize them like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">1. If the emerging trend of freezing private assets of Russian legal entities and individuals continues, Russia should consider full or a partial moratorium on the servicing of loans and investment from the countries involved in the freezing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">2. The amount of foreign currency assets of the Russian Federation located in the jurisdiction of NATO countries accounts to more than $1.2 trillion, including short-term debt of about $800 billion. Their freeze may be partially offset by retaliation against NATO assets in Russia, which amounts to $1.1 trillion, including over $400 billion long-term. So this threat would be neutralized if Russian monetary authorities organized a timely withdrawal of Russian short-term assets in the US and the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">3.\u00a0 Glazyev is adamant that the Russian Central Bank continues to serve the interests of foreign capital \u2013 as in the financial powers in London and New York. He contends that the high interest rates practiced by the Russian Central Bank led Russian oligarchs to borrow more cheaply from the West, making the Russian economy dependent, a debt trap which the West used to slowly squeeze Russia. Then the rigged Western oil and ruble collapse increased the pressure as debt service in ruble cost and interest doubled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">So what Glazyev proposes, essentially, is that Moscow must gain total control of its Central Bank, preventing speculators to move their credit around for non-productive purposes; Moscow should also establish currency controls; and must create a central organization of technological research to replace the loss of Western technology, imitating the US methodology of rolling out from its centralized military research those technologies that can be commercialized for the consumer market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The fact is Russia has lost access to Western credit and cannot roll over its debt with the creditors. So Russia will have to pay the principle and the interest as it comes due. That is a trillion dollars plus interest. Russia also cannot import anything from the West without paying double for it.\u00a0 So arguably the country may be now in the very position it will be if Moscow opts for default. Thus, Russia would have nothing to lose by a default &#8211; as the damage is already done.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">A shock to the system<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Essentially, once again, a Russian default on a $1 trillion-plus debt to private Western parties remains a possible scenario discussed at the highest level \u2013 assuming Washington will persist in its anti-Russia demonization campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It\u2019s clear the squeeze Russia is feeling has less to do with sanctions than the grip maintained by Western financial powers over the Russian Central Bank. The Russian Central Bank did create a debt trap by maintaining high interest rates in Russia while the West was lending at low interest rates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Needless to add, such a default, if it ever happened, would collapse the entire Western financial system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">One should never forget the Big Picture; the Syria\/Ukraine\/sanctions saga runs in parallel to Russia-China and closer BRICS integration shifting the balance of geopolitical power. For the <em>\u2018Masters of the Universe\u2019<\/em>, this is beyond anathema. Enter, for instance, the use of cash settlement through their Wall Street proxies to raise the A shares of China to hysterical highs and then try to crash their entire stock market by a reverse cash settlement rig as in 1987.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">China is moving toward their own SWIFT payment system, not to mention a whole new Chinese-led set of international institutions independent of US control. Russia, for its part, recently passed a bill that would allow the seizing of foreign assets if Russian assets in the West are seized. As Glazyev pointed out, investment in Russia by the West are more or less equivalent to investments of Russia in the West.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The <em>\u2018Masters of the Universe\u2019<\/em> may keep insisting on using financial weapons of mass destruction. Russia, silently and with a few key facts in the Caspian Sea, is letting them know it\u2019s ready for whatever scenario they can come up with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A less apocalyptic ending may be healthy. So here\u2019s a popular joke in Moscow nowadays, as told by William Engdahl. Putin is back in the Kremlin after his meeting with Obama in New York. He tells an aide he invited Obama for a game of chess. And then he tells it how it works: <em>\u201cIt\u2019s like playing with a pigeon. First it knocks over all the pieces, then it shits on the board and finally struts around like it won.<\/em>&#8220;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/op-edge\/318753-moscow-washington-war-syria\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pentagon is still fighting World War II, with its monster aircraft carriers sitting ducks against Russia\u2019s new batch of missiles. Pepe Escobar explains<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123124,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123122\/revisions\/123124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}