Authored by Pepe Escobar,
Nobody ever misplaced cash betting on the batshit loopy “insurance policies” of the ferociously yapping Baltic chihuahuas. Their newest energy play of kinds is a drive to show the Baltic Sea right into a NATO lake.
The notion {that a} bunch of Russophobic sub-entities have what it takes to expel the Russian superpower from the Baltic Sea and pose a risk to St. Petersburg doesn’t even qualify as cartoonish. But that’s certainly half and parcel of NATO’s re-configured obsessions, as their warmongering “vanguard” has been relocated to a London-Warsaw-Baltic chihuahuas-Ukraine axis.
What sort of black gap rump “Ukraine” will develop into after the tip of the conflict – which can not even occur in 2025 – stays to be seen. What’s sure is that within the case of a Ukraine exit – regardless of the modalities – enter Romania.
The entire electoral farce in Romania – full with the demonization of election front-runner Calin Georgescu – revolves across the upgrading of the Mihail Kogalniceanu base, which is able to turn out to be the most important NATO navy base in Europe.
So, as soon as once more, that is all in regards to the Black Sea. NATO wreaking havoc within the Black Sea carries far more savory prospects than NATO through chihuahuas monopolizing the Baltic Sea.
Ilya Fabrichnikov, a member of Russia’s Council on International and Protection Coverage, has printed a outstanding essay primarily specializing in the Black Sea (this can be a quick model on the Kommersant each day).
Fabrichnikov convincingly argues that from an European – UE/NATO – angle, what actually mattered in Ukraine was “to maneuver its borders, together with its navy, political and financial infrastructure, near Russia’s, to place below full management the strategic Black Sea commerce hall – which simply stretches additional north alongside the Odessa-Gdansk route – so as to extra conveniently and rapidly discover the financial areas of Asia and North Africa, and to start dictating its phrases to Russian provides of oil, gasoline and different sources wanted by the European economic system.”
As this centered energy play instrumentalizing Ukraine is unravelling in actual time, a substitute is required – at the same time as warmongering Eurocrats preserve peddling their Orwellian “peace is conflict” dementia continuous, full with a continuous tsunami of sanctions and renewed guarantees of avalanches of weapons to Kiev.
It is a basic Brussels vassals affair – even because the poisonous Medusa von der Lugen as head of the EC and Rutti-Frutti as the brand new head of NATO had been primarily appointed by Washington and London. Collectively, Europe has pumped far more military-political funds into black gap Ukraine than the Individuals.
The reason being easy. For Europe there’s no Plan B aside from that mirific “strategic defeat” of Russia.
The EU/NATO Black Sea energy play would make it much more crucial for Russia to attach with Transnistria. The one one who can reply whether or not that is half of the present planning is in fact President Putin.
Neo-nazis go pipeline bombing
Russian intel may be very a lot conscious that the Europeans should some extent already carved up their very own areas in Ukraine – from ports to mines. Not surprisingly the Brits, through MI6, are forward of the “continentals”, principally Germany.
All that intertwines with the extraordinarily murky weapons-for-metals deal clinched by Trump 2.0 with the completely illegitimate sweatshirt actor-turned-gangster in Kiev. The one factor that issues for Trump is to get U.S. a reimbursement – whether or not the whole invoice is $500 billion or much less (really, a lot much less).
Into this kabuki steps in the true energy in Kiev after the proclamation of martial regulation: the Nationwide Protection and Safety Council of Ukraine. The unelected, really unlawful actor will not be taking any main selections for a while now. These are issued by the previous head of the international secret service, Oleksandr Lytvynenko.
It was the council that on February 17 ordered the bombing of the essential pipeline owned by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) linking Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk, exporting a great deal of Kazakh and Russian oil.
Crucially, CPC shareholders included Italy’s ENI (2%); the Caspian Pipeline Co., which is a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil (7.5%); and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium Co., a subsidiary of Chevron (15%).
Nicely, that’s not very vibrant; the “integral nationalists”, code for neo-nazis in Kiev determined to bomb {a partially} owned American asset. Not solely there will likely be blowback by Trump 2.0; it’s already on.
On the equally murky uncommon earths entrance, Putin’s current interview to Channel One appears to have thrown everybody off stability. Russia, he mentioned, has far more uncommon earths than Ukraine and is “able to work with our international companions, together with the U.S.” to develop these deposits. That’s basic Solar Tzu Putin: the Individuals gained’t have uncommon earths to use sooner or later rump Ukraine – as a result of they don’t exist. However they are often companions with Russia in Novorossiya.
The entire above in fact would presuppose a strong U.S.-Russia negotiation on Ukraine. And but Staff Trump 2.0 nonetheless doesn’t appear to know the true Russian pink traces:
1. No momentary ceasefire “alongside the entrance line”.
2. No buying and selling of recent territories acquired within the battlefield.
3. No NATO or European “peacekeepers” within the western borders of Russia.
Putin discombobulating Trump
Because it stands, Washington and Moscow stay divided by an abyss.
Mr. Disco Inferno merely can not make critical concessions – or de facto acknowledge the strategic defeat of the Empire of Chaos. As a result of that might seal the Definitive Finish of Unilateral Hegemony.
Putin for his half merely won’t give away the hard-won victories on the battlefield. Russian public opinion expects nothing much less. In spite of everything Russia holds all of the playing cards resulting in a doable negotiation.
The EU/NATO won’t ever admit their very own, self-inflicted strategic defeat; therefore these Baltic/Black Sea goals, which carry the additional self-inflicted fantasy of disrupting China’s New Silk Roads as a lot as “isolating” Russia.
Putin is definitely performing digital somersaults to instill some widespread sense. In his Mr. Disco Inferno he famous how, on U.S.-Russia relations, “this first step ought to concentrate on rising the extent of belief between the 2 nations. That is precisely what now we have been doing in Riyadh, and that is what our subsequent high-level contacts will likely be dedicated to. With out this, it’s unattainable to resolve any subject, together with one as complicated and acute because the Ukrainian disaster.”
Belief is way from being re-established, particularly vis a vis a Lavrov-defined “non-agreement succesful” Empire of Chaos with its international credibility in tatters. Add to it bombast after bombast manufactured to regulate the information cycle 24/7: the popular Trump 2.0 modus operandi. None of it results in that prime diplomatic mantra: “confidence constructing”.
And it’ll get even murkier – and far more harmful – if Russian public opinion is confronted with the truth that after 11 years combating a vicious proxy conflict with the Empire of Chaos, they might turn out to be companions in strategic trade sectors that Putin himself outlined as important to Russia’s nationwide safety.
Identical to that. Or that could be simply Putin discombobulating Trump with some unexpected Solar Tzu gambit.
Earlier this week I had a wonderful off the document dialog with Sergey Glazyev, previously with the Eurasian Financial Union (EAEU) and now main the consolidation of the Union State (Russia-Belarus). It was as much as Mr. Glazyev to provide you with the definitive abstract of all the pieces unrolling earlier than our eyes: “It is a very unusual conflict”.
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Views expressed on this article are opinions of the writer and don’t essentially mirror the views of ZeroHedge.
