Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
August 16, 2022
A Multipolar Expo Shows Unipolar Wreckage

Currently the 10th Moscow Conference for International Security is taking place. Russia's president Vladimir Putin gave a speech there during which he painted the big picture of international dynamism that is driving the war in Ukraine and elsewhere:

The situation in the world is changing dynamically and the outlines of a multipolar world order are taking shape. An increasing number of countries and peoples are choosing a path of free and sovereign development based on their own distinct identity, traditions and values.

These objective processes are being opposed by the Western globalist elites, who provoke chaos, fanning long-standing and new conflicts and pursuing the so-called containment policy, which in fact amounts to the subversion of any alternative, sovereign development options. Thus, they are doing all they can to keep hold onto the hegemony and power that are slipping from their hands; they are attempting to retain countries and peoples in the grip of what is essentially a neocolonial order. Their hegemony means stagnation for the rest of the world and for the entire civilisation; it means obscurantism, cancellation of culture, and neoliberal totalitarianism.

They are using all expedients. The United States and its vassals grossly interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states by staging provocations, organising coups, or inciting civil wars. By threats, blackmail, and pressure, they are trying to force independent states to submit to their will and follow rules that are alien to them. This is being done with just one aim in view, which is to preserve their domination, the centuries-old model that enables them to sponge on everything in the world. But a model of this sort can only be retained by force.

They need conflicts to retain their hegemony. It is for this reason that they have destined the Ukrainian people to being used as cannon fodder.

It is obvious that it is only possible to reduce tensions in the world, overcome military-political threats and risks, improve trust between countries and ensure their sustainable development through a radical strengthening of the contemporary system of a multipolar world.

I reiterate that the era of the unipolar world is becoming a thing of the past. No matter how strongly the beneficiaries of the current globalist model cling to the familiar state of affairs, it is doomed. The historic geopolitical changes are going in a totally different direction.

In parallel to the conference the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum, an international weapon sales show, is taking place.

Next to Russian weapons, all battle tested in real wars, the exhibition showed a few pieces weapons that visitor should better not buy.

Here is a U.S. M-777 howitzer in very pristine conditions. It was most likely purchased for little money from some Ukrainian patriot.


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A short video of the gun can be seen here.

There was more such captured or otherwise acquired stuff, partly in a bad state, on display:

Maya @MayaSashenka – 4:34 PM · Aug 16, 2022

They have opened an extra exhibition dedicated to the captured weapons today. It will be soon open for public too.
Sadly I missed it, but RIA made a short video for public.
Video

I am pretty sure that multipolar visitors will make some fine jokes about those unipolar exhibition pieces.

Comments

I am pretty sure that multipolar visitors will make some fine jokes about those unipolar exhibition pieces.

… and I’m pretty sure that anyone who did a tour of the recent strike sites in Crimea would see similar damaged Russian equipment

Posted by: observer | Aug 16 2022 16:45 utc | 1

US arms development history in last 70 years, and especially last 30 yrs back is full of this “wunderwaffe” projects than usually fail before single test item is even built. Purpose is not to make functioning, effective systems, but something that can be charged enormous sums of money for protracted development, purchase and maintenance costs.
Fact that US specialized in “asymmetrical” warfare (read: attacking weak or unarmed opponents only) since breakup of USSR only strengthened their degenerate development approach.
Their system must be complicated, exotic, reinvent wheel, use numerous untested technologies and buzzword friendly solutions.
NATO/EU systems sometime have some rationale for technically unsound decisions (eg. reduce man requirements -> peacetime costs -> so build over complicated automated artillery systems that fail in real war), but US devel. decisions are bats hit insane and serve only to fill MIC shareholders pockets, per tradition of never having to actually defend own country with those tools.
TLDR: artillery is technology refined for centuries through wars. Using light alloys in arty piece only yield one crappy M-777 result.

Posted by: Abe | Aug 16 2022 16:54 utc | 2

Observer #1
.. and I’m pretty sure you won’t be seeing any Russian equipment damaged in Crimea on display at an international trade show anytime soon.

Posted by: Krypton | Aug 16 2022 16:59 utc | 3

Russians also displayed a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.
I wonder if it has been captured intact, or was it glued together from the bits and pieces that fell down?
(That is what I would have done. Plus a paint job.)

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 16 2022 17:00 utc | 4

Another posting right on the money b (pun intended)
“…the centuries-old model that lets them sponge on everything in the world. But a model of this sort can only be retained by force.”
Those words by Putin strike at the heart of the issue as does our commenter karlof1’s latest at his VK site linked below
https://vk.com/@580896205-the-plundering-nations-last-stand
The shit show continues until it doesn’t…and it is nice to see it being called into question more clearly at least

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 17:04 utc | 5

Washington Post today just published a revisionist history of the running up to Ukraine war. Bunch of reports wrote it.
The gist of this PR material is that Biden officials claimed that they had warned Ukraine, EU, UK, NATO, and everybody else who had been beholden to the US hegemony, about the possibility of Russian invasion. Did anybody listen to Uncle Biden? Nope !!!!!!!!
Not US fault, it is the combined West’s fault.
How to shame the shameless????

Posted by: KitaySupporter | Aug 16 2022 17:05 utc | 6

If Colonel Putin’s KGB training had included even the briefest course in elementary Marxism he would not so shamelessly promote the falsehood that “countries” and “peoples” (including the “country” Russia and the supposed “Russian People”) are real entities, not arenas of class struggle by workers and peasants against their capitalist ruling classes and state apparatuses.

Posted by: Bruno | Aug 16 2022 17:12 utc | 7

Reading Putin, it seems he thinks the new world organization will be about countries working for their self interest. They will find, he thinks, that going along with the planners in the US does not support their self interest, and so, will go other ways.
I’m not sure the uni-polar world will collapse so easily. It seems the US has been able to control many many countries and get them to do many things against their self interest for a long long time. What a country does depends, to a great extent, on who is calculating self interest. The military or business interests of a country might believe one thing about a country’s self interest, whereas, the majority of the people of a country might have different ideas.
So long as US planners have the ears of the movers and shakers of the world, Putin’s multi-polar world will have trouble getting started.
In the quote above, Putin does not explain how to “radically strengthen” the beginnings of his new multi-polar world. It’s my understanding he has been working on this question for awhile. Maybe he’ll keep that part to himself for awhile longer.

Posted by: quackyquackysteve | Aug 16 2022 17:12 utc | 8

Abe@2
Another aspect of the NATO procurement policy is that it has wiped out most of the arms industries in member countries which are, more or less, forced to buy US equipment. This leads to lack of competition and technological stagnation in a system in which the market rules, and that market is monopolised.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2022 17:14 utc | 9

To the new MoA barflys that don’t seem to understand what is happening
Our world is in a civilization war about public/private control of global/sovereign finance. One could say that finance has been private for about 500 years and now that private human cult of control is being challenged by sovereign nations….about 85% of the world population currently.
Do try to catch up.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 17:19 utc | 10

.. and I’m pretty sure that anyone who did a tour of the recent strike sites in Crimea would see similar damaged Russian equipment
Posted by: observer | Aug 16 2022 16:45 utc

First comment is a troll. Shouldn’t you be in the comments section of RT.com or something?
Anyway, here’s one of those jokes.
Joe Biden: What do you mean that’s all? We sent over 700 artilery pieces to Ukraine. Russia destroyed just 80 of them. There are 500 or 600 left? Right?
Lloyd Austin: No sir, we have sent about a hundred. It’s M777 Howitzers. Not 777 Howitzers. That was a typo on your teleprompter.
Joe Biden: Oh!…. I’ll be right back.
My comedy skills might need work.

Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Aug 16 2022 17:19 utc | 11

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 16 2022 17:00 utc | 4
Petri, Apparently it was assembled from parts from a number of craft.

Posted by: Barofsky | Aug 16 2022 17:22 utc | 12

Bruno@7
The point is that, while every country is an arena of class struggle, where the ruling class is firmly in control, politically, it decides how ‘the country’ will act in the international arena.
Which leads to quackyquackysteve@8’s point: the main buttresses of the Empire are the satellite powers – themselves former imperial metropoli- which reinforce the imperial ‘message’ in their own spheres of influence. This is the case, particularly, of the UK whose declining influence over the ‘commonwealth’ particularly the settler dominions, still adds to the ability of the US to dominate in the “Five Eyes” and even the Quad and Aukus.
It is this which makes the eruptions of radical crticism of imperialism, exemplified by France Insoummise (?) and Corbyn’s project, particularly dangerous to Washington and their suppression a major imperial priority.
Back to Bruno@7: the great merit of his point is to register the denial of the Identity Politics view of Empire as national enterprises in which all classes benefit, rather than extensions abroad of the exploitative regimes from which ruling classes accumulate the capital and other means of armed long distance trade/plunder.
It is one of the weaknesses of the routine critiques of imperialism posted here that they forget the point, made recently by psychohistorian and myself, that it is lazy thinking to attribute to, for example the ‘American people’ either the gains or the crimes of Empire.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2022 17:31 utc | 13

Shit Happens!

Zaluzhny Pushes Zelensky Out of Power: The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Kicks Out “Team Ze”
8 mins ago
NEW – August 16, 2022
Signals of an imminent military coup were sent from Ukraine

I would not be surprised. Apparently, the fall of the ‘impregnable’ Peski has triggered what looks like a coup in the making.
https://www.stalkerzone.org/zaluzhny-pushes-zelensky-out-of-power-the-general-staff-of-the-ukrainian-armed-forces-kicks-out-team-ze/

Posted by: Barofsky | Aug 16 2022 17:40 utc | 14

Some people above are saying ‘the US’ is doing this or that etc. but I don’t think anybody has any clear idea anymore about what ‘the US’ is, who or what is running it, indeed whether or not it is even a bona fide sovereign republic (I think not). Looks to me like ‘the US’ is just one of many – probably all – captured nation states in the West none of which at this point are truly sovereign. They have been colonized by their own colonialism whose principle agent is the Money Power.
They remind me of Sauron’s Ringwraiths, ‘neither living nor dead.’ But if ‘the US’ is not Sauron but merely the Captain of the wraiths, then who or what is? And will we ever be able to name it more precisely or are we going to keep calling it vague things like ‘the US?’
In any case, the multipolar axis of sovereign states has a challenge: how to confront, reduce or otherwise prevent the Empire of Lies from further hampering their natural development without simply causing them to go underground for a while only to re-emerge from within their midst in a decade or so and then the whole corrupt parasitical take-over process begins yet again.
Hopefully the sovereignty principle will be enough, meaning that they do not create a supra-sovereign single world body which can easily be infiltrated and corrupted. If all nations in the sovereignty alliance remain independent and sovereign then perhaps that is the anti-corruption mechanism that will work globally even if on occasional individual nations on occasion succumb to bad periods which take a few decades to work through.

Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 16 2022 17:42 utc | 15

‘elensky has been Diemed ?

Posted by: Exile | Aug 16 2022 17:43 utc | 16

@ Posted by: quackyquackysteve | Aug 16 2022 17:12 utc | 8
& the many newly deployed flying blue monkey army at the bar.
Maybe a small quote that is presented is not going to contain all that you need to know before you are ready to even consider it’s merits? Have you actually ever bothered to read any of his speeches? They put them out in English you know? So that you don’t have to worry about translating. There’s also Lavrovs words and Sharakovas and Xi’s etc – ALL IN CLEAR PLAIN ENGLISH.
They are making the greater efforts to make sure they are clearly understood. Because they don’t want you complaining you weren’t told later.
Will you listen? Do you have the attention span greater than the maligned goldfish in a bowl?
I’ll happily put it in simple Godsplaining words if you want me to, just ask, ok?

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 16 2022 17:46 utc | 17

neocolonial order”?
Not new. G7, The Great Powers, has been running colonial racketeering operations around the globe for 600 years to feed private banks and their envious proletariate such that there’s not a one among ’em who doesn’t imagine they/them/their selves born on third base defending supply chains of their precious body fluids, metals, bananas, and trade secrets from greedy autocrats OPPRESSING STARVING African-like savages populating their overseas territories from Vanuatu to COMMUNIST Cuba and Palastine.
Y’all give me a headache.

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 16 2022 17:58 utc | 18

thanks b…. putins commentary at the top is particularly insightful…. it reminds me of karlof1’s commentary on a link he shared in a previous thread..
here is karlof1’s post for anyone who missed it – The Plundering Nations Last Stand
@ Barofsky | Aug 16 2022 17:40 utc | 14
thanks.. if true, i am about 2 weeks out with my prediction..

Posted by: james | Aug 16 2022 17:59 utc | 19

President Putin makes some interesting points which might guide future geopolitics. There are things there which might lead to cooperation if we can somehow relieve ourselves of globalist oppresors. MultiLateralism promotes diversity.

Posted by: jared | Aug 16 2022 18:03 utc | 20

Interesting, the BBC News here is actually entertaining the idea that it’s the Kiev regime that’s targeting the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. And the reason? These dummies have just realised that if those Nazi fuckers in succeed, they risk contaminating most of Europe! Duh!

Posted by: Barofsky | Aug 16 2022 18:14 utc | 21

Putin is of course as usual correct, he almost mentioned their logical “reasoning” for hegemony:
“They justify their clawning inanity by claiming to be speaking for “The Rules Based Order.” Which according to them, is at war! with the outlaw non-rules following countries: Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, and whatever other country (or persons) of the month who defy (how bluddy dare they!) the demands of the Uniparty/WallSt/WarInc/Media/IndustrialComplex (see a doctor if you think you have that luv).” From The Current Thing or: A history of how we ended up in this sorry mess

Posted by: Baba | Aug 16 2022 18:18 utc | 22

Kiev will be screaming, that Russia stole Ukraine’s this and that.
On the 2 minute video, at 1:53 something taken from Kherson is shown with a sign “HARRIS TMW 5000 передатчик большо́й мощности” (high-power transmitter)
An image search says it is actually a Harris model DX-50 “50kW Digital Solid State AM Transmitter”. Two similar units are shown on these photos of the WABC 77 radio station from 1997. I do not fully understand why it was taken to Moscow.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 16 2022 18:19 utc | 23

It’s nice to read remarks of grandiloquence about multipolarity – but it looks like a big Smash ‘n’ Grab to me, take the best parts in a war of aggression. I know a little about what a war of aggression looks like cuz I’ve seen so many launched by my own country in the past 20 yrs, Irak, Afghan, Libia, Syria, etc etc etc.
An excerpt of grandiloquence: “It is obvious that it is only possible to reduce tensions in the world, overcome military-political threats and risks, improve trust between countries and ensure their sustainable development through a radical strengthening of the contemporary system of a multipolar world.”
did invading Ukraine (way beyond the regions declaring separation due to the civil war/coup starting 9 yrs ago) “reduce tensions”? did it “improve trust between countries”? and what about “ensuring sustainable development” when Russian artillery flattens Ukrainian business districts and infrastructure? And if so, a follow up: “How?”
Poor Ukrainians – Perverts and war mongers in US State dep’t talking grandly about containing/defeating Russia! Putin grinds on a war of aggression talking grandly about Multipolarity!

Posted by: Patrick Constantine | Aug 16 2022 18:19 utc | 24

Posted by: Patrick Constantine | Aug 16 2022 18:19 utc | 24
it’s not a war of aggression, it’s a reaction to US attempts to change the regime in Russia. you say you know what a war of aggression looks like but somehow are unaware of proxy wars, just one of many tools the US has used repeatedly to expand and maintain its influence on the world as the latest empire.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 16 2022 18:33 utc | 25

@ Patrick Constantine | 24
” … did invading Ukraine (way beyond the regions declaring separation due to the civil war/coup starting 9 yrs ago) “reduce tensions”? did it “improve trust between countries”? and what about “ensuring sustainable development”[?]”
Yes, it reduced tensions by exposing unstated hostilities.
Yes, it improved trust among non-NATO countries by showing them together they can resist ‘western’ hegemony.
Yes, it’s ensuring sustainable development by excising corruption.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | Aug 16 2022 18:35 utc | 26

The full, relatively short Putin speech to the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security is here:
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69166

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Aug 16 2022 18:38 utc | 27

Next year’s expo might have more variaty with a HIMARS, ATACMS and an F-16. And one of those NASAMS too.

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 16 2022 18:42 utc | 28

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 17:19 utc | 10
Hey Psycho! You do seem to have it all figured out, eh? But one could also say that the current confrontation is nothing else but another clash of capital factions, one of the many we have experienced since the genesis of global capitalism. Russia, China, India – you name ’em – are just as much shells of private and institutional capital as the US and its vassals are. Their personified or institutional capital, just as any, does not bother to exploit nature and the working class for surplus value, nor to spill the blood of the latter class in senseless wars; and, in the mean time, in the sphere of production.
There is a civilization war going on indeed, much longer than the 500 years you threw in: it’s class war. And when you’d make the effort to find out how grassroots social movements, be they unionist, environmentalist, or fighting for equal rights, are doing in these courageous sovereign nations you mention, you’ll find out that they are being just as much suppressed there as they are in the fading contemporary epicentre of capitalism. But hey, that’s a different story.
As long as there is capitalism, which by default is global, the capital factions of the world will bitterly fight for their stakes. Just like now, where the West is pretty pissed losing Donbass to the Russkies, while the face of Russkie capital enjoys smearing this in the West’s face. While hundred thousands are dying; peanuts, in their eyes. So back to you, Psycho, what’s there to catch up with again?

Posted by: NoNewsHere | Aug 16 2022 18:44 utc | 29

Zvezda – live, https://rutube.ru/live/video/5ab908fccfac5bb43ef2b1e4182256b0/
There’s a serios discussion going on. Right now, Alina Lipp is speaking.

Posted by: rp | Aug 16 2022 18:53 utc | 30

Patrick Constantine@24
If the SMO is a war of aggression -a ‘smash and grab raid’ then every recourse to force is.
In fact it is, very clearly, a defensive operation mounted on behalf of an oppressed, threatened population which has had its right to self government taken from it by military force and terrorism.
Your viewpoint totally ignores the history of the Maidan coup and the subsequent attacks on Russian speaking regions of Ukraine (largely a Russian speaking country).
It is hard to recollect a war which is more justified than the defence put up by the people of the Lugansk and Donetz republics and the ‘just in time’ intervention of Russia to spare the world, and in particular people like yourself, from bearing the guilt of another genocide.
Your ‘plague on both houses’ politics has been if not the cause then at least an important facilitative factor in campaigns waged by the imperialists for the past seventy five years.
If you cannot tell the difference between what the NATO/Oligarch backed fascist regime in Kiev has been doing to the people of the Donbas and what the Russian military is doing that is a weakness of perception.
Do not mistake blindness for an ability to see things is a different way.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2022 18:57 utc | 31

A Socialist in Canada (may his tribe increase!) publishes a translation of a news article which was published in the Russian edition of Maxim magazine, Aug 11, 2022.
It chronicles the latest stage in the plundering (talk of ‘smash and grab raids’!) of the public property of the Ukrainian people by NATO sponsored neo-liberals and fascists.
“On July 27, the Ukrainian government drew up a list of state-owned enterprises to be privatized or liquidated. There are 420 enterprises targeted, of which 354 are to be liquidated while the remaining 66 will be privatized.
“The list includes the companies ‘Ukrspyrt’ (the state monopoly on the production of alcohol); the State Investment Company; ‘Energostal’ (the Scientific and Technical Center for the Metallurgical Industry), and a metallurgy powder plant. Also, a number of mining enterprises in the east of Ukraine are targeted. All these are mentioned on the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
“It is expected that with the new owners, the enterprises will resume or modernize production, then new jobs will appear. The case seems to be good, but in China they are wary and suspect that, under the guise of good intentions, Vladimir Zelensky is going to put Ukraine under the hammer…”
https://socialistincanada.ca/large-privatization-process-to-begin-in-ukraine-on-september-1-2022-raising-more-questions-than-answers/

Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2022 19:02 utc | 32

@ bevin | Aug 16 2022 18:57 utc | 31
i have to quote you again bevin because i feel you hit the nail on the head directly here…
“If you cannot tell the difference between what the NATO/Oligarch backed fascist regime in Kiev has been doing to the people of the Donbas and what the Russian military is doing that is a weakness of perception.
Do not mistake blindness for an ability to see things is a different way.”
bang on… ditto others response to @24 patrick…
update from rt news on the nuke plant bombing from today..
“One of the guided missiles hit just 10 meters” from the barrels with spent nuclear fuel,” Rogov told Soloviev Live. “Others hit a bit farther away, 50 to 200 meters.”

Posted by: james | Aug 16 2022 19:03 utc | 33

@ NoNewsHere | Aug 16 2022 18:44 utc | 29 who wrote

So back to you, Psycho, what’s there to catch up with again?

I see you continue to miss the point that capitalism does not exist but private and public finance do. China has public banking at the core of its government which is at odds with the mostly privately owned rest of the worlds Central Banks….Russia’s is evolving.
So, please engage in discussion without resorting to useless and obfuscatory “ism” descriptions.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 19:04 utc | 34

Patrick Constantine @24
It will become clearer to you when you accept that the Ukraine, as it existed prior to 2014, no longer exists and has not existed as a country for some time. Look at the events in the Ukraine without the jingoistic haze spewed by imperial presstitutes and from outside your cultural echo chamber and it is quite clear that Russia is building trust and ensuring sustainable development. Not for the Empire of Delusions, of course, but for the rest of the world.
Furthermore, if you paid more attention to the analysis offered by our host here at MoA and some of the posters in the discussions you would know that the aggressor in the Ukraine is the United States, just as was the case in all of the wars you mentioned plus many more since WWII. Russia is absolutely fighting a defensive action and the Ukraine is just the battlegrounds. That Russia wants to harm the Ukraine as little as possible is one of the most confounding problems that the Russians face. Your wunderwaffe are trivial problems for them in comparison.
“…it looks like a big Smash ‘n’ Grab to me”
But of course! You’ve grown up with that. It is how your culture operates. Even though that is diseased behavior it seems normal to you; a universal in human interaction. Since it is the norm for you, you assume it must be the norm for the rest of humanity. You project your own disease unto others who are not infected with it.
Hang around and read more and bitch less. You just might be able to overcome that problem you have with your perspective.

Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 16 2022 19:05 utc | 35

“Some people above are saying ‘the US’ is doing this or that etc. but I don’t think anybody has any clear idea anymore about what ‘the US’ is, who or what is running it – Scorpion”

U.S. foreign policy is remarkably consistent, ‘do what I say or I will [try to] destroy you’, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Venezuela, China, Iran, and even allies like S. Korea, are examples of this.
There is a self-perpetuating Foreign Policy establishment that has a stranglehold on the levers of power in the U.S. when it comes to the Treasury Dept, Dept of Justice, State Dept, and Intel agencies. I’d argue that our Treasure Dept is the tip of the spear.

Posted by: Christian Chuba | Aug 16 2022 19:05 utc | 36

Posted by: NoNewsHere | Aug 16 2022 18:44 utc | 29
“But one could also say that the current confrontation is nothing else but another clash of capital factions, one of the many we have experienced since the genesis of global capitalism”
You could say that, but you would be ignoring or glossing over so many other salient elements as to render the rest of your comment facile and oversimplified.

Posted by: Macmuir | Aug 16 2022 19:08 utc | 37

@Posted by: Abe | Aug 16 2022 16:54 utc | 2
The U.S. Military Industrial Complex fully descended into kleptocratic capitalism when the US Military, run by weapons manufacturer shills hoping for their retirement in corporate board “heaven”, decided to massively reduce the number of suppliers in the 1990s – facilitating a takeover frenzy that left a few oligopolistic suppliers with the financial resources to bribe any politician (and have production plants in every political district) and co-opt the careerist shills that arrogantly claim that they are “Generals” and “Admirals” etc, having spent their whole lives never risking even their pinkies in a real conflict.
Their technical products are “profit centres” not weapons meant to aid a soldier/airman/navyman in their duties. Which idiot would use incredibly expensive titanium (and with a lower melt point than steel) in a howitzer? Only one looking to make it as expensive as possible so the x% graft amounts become even bigger. Same with the F35, Littoral class ships etc. etc., overcomplicating leads to shitty in theatre performance but wonderful profit performance.
The Russians have fought numerous wars for national survival, and their MIC is dedicated to maintaining that survival – the siloviki kept the oligarchs far away from the MIC. Thats why in Real Corruption Terms (RCT – perhaps a new index for assessing MIC comparability) the US may spend nominally much higher than Russia but in RCT adjusted dollars may even be spending less. When we add the Wasted on Useless Foreign Bases and other Easy Targets (WUFBET) adjustment they are definitely spending less adjusted dollars.

Posted by: Roger | Aug 16 2022 19:09 utc | 38

The Global South + friends need to become openly hostile towards the West, ban Western NGO’s, foundations etc, shut Western culture out, like stop teaching English at school, introduce maximum quote for Western music and movies, etc.
Also, completely ban the use of dollar, pound, and euro, except in direct trade with the US, UK, and EU, respectively.

Posted by: Nico | Aug 16 2022 19:15 utc | 39

“But hey, that’s a different story…” NoNewsHere@29
It is a story that differs from the actual history of the last seven odd decades, in which the suppression of social movements (Colombia?) Trade Unions and other struggles for equality and social justice has taken the form of genocidal attacks on socialists, communists and the communities which threw them up.
It is certainly true that imperialism, having become dominant in many countries (see uni-polarity above) has supported, installed and encouraged governments which ape its policies around the world. If you read Putin’s short but eloquent address within the context of his recollection of the days, when he first entered Russian government, when there was a CIA desk in every ministry and a US backed bank behind every theft in the former Union, you might begin to suspect that there are more than two dimensions to politics and a broad palate of tones to colour them with.

Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2022 19:17 utc | 40

Identity Politics view of Empire as national enterprises
Posted by: bevin | Aug 16 2022 17:31 utc | 13
That’s quite a verbose expression for “nationalism” prompted by Code Napoleon. Thank you. I wonder if you won’t share your response to this ummm interpretation of “empire” and “nation” emanating from The Orient might be. Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations (running time 01:53:06)

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 16 2022 19:21 utc | 41

@Posted by: Roger | Aug 16 2022 19:09 utc | 39
I forgot the purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustment to correct for a still deeply undervalued exchange rate – in nominal US$ terms Russian GDP per capita was US$10,000 in 2020 (US$ exchange rate about the same as it is now), in PPP terms (i.e. reality) its US$33,000. So any nominal US$ number for Russian defence expenditures should be multiplied by a factor of 3.3 before adding the RCT and WUFBET adjustments. Things look very different after that.
In nominal US$ terms Russia spent US$66 billion on defence in 2021 (compared to US$800 billion plus lots of hidden black budgets for the US):
– Divide US expenditure by 3.3 for PPP = US$242 billion
– RCT (Real Corruption Terms) adjustment, lets be conservative and assume only 25% theft and profit driven uselessness = US$182 billion
– WUFBET (Wasted on Useless Foreign Bases and other Easy Targets ) adjustment, lets be conservative and take the same US$ adjustment = US$122 billion
So conservatively Russian adjusted defence expenditures are equal to about half that of the US official expenditures. Lets remember also that the Russian military is predominantly a force for national defence, versus one of global domination for the US, and thus Russia has a much less costly remit for its defence forces with many times shorter supply lines.

Posted by: Roger | Aug 16 2022 19:26 utc | 42

If you want to keep an eye on what’s going on ‘Army-2022’ and the 10th Moscow Conference for International Security in Moscow, see the captured weapons from unfriendly countries, and hear interesting discussions etc, watch Zvezda – live TV, https://rutube.ru/live/video/5ab908fccfac5bb43ef2b1e4182256b0/

Posted by: rp | Aug 16 2022 19:27 utc | 43

I think this whole capitalism vs socialism discussion is rather outdated.
People have traded and owned stuff for thousands of years. And they have revolted against excessive concentration. The latter is a problem because these days money is virtual, just a number in a computer. So there is no longer a physical limit to wealth. In an African kingdom the people simply took stuff from kings that amassed too much and could no longer protect it.
I like China’s mixed system, interestingly, the big real estate companies in trouble there are private, not state-run.
Anyway, regarding multipolar, the West uses the word as well, but actually means unipolar by it, namely different countries all doing the same things the same way, i.e. the Western way.
People outside the West need to stand up for their different culture, history, etc. And for their different systems and solutions that result from it. It is ok to be a kingdom, no need to become just another boring Western democracy with all its deficits.

Posted by: Nico | Aug 16 2022 19:28 utc | 44

Russians also displayed a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.
I wonder if it has been captured intact, or was it glued together from the bits and pieces that fell down?
(That is what I would have done. Plus a paint job.)
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 16 2022 17:00 utc | 4

Are you a Finn, by the way?

Posted by: RK | Aug 16 2022 19:35 utc | 45

“By threats, blackmail, and pressure, we are trying to force independent people to submit to our will and follow rules that are alien to them. This is being done with just one aim in view, which is to preserve our domination over them.”

Posted by: ponyal | Aug 16 2022 19:39 utc | 46

In an African kingdom the people simply took stuff from kings that amassed too much and could no longer protect it.
Posted by: Nico | Aug 16 2022 19:28 utc | 45
huh. To which “African kingdom” do you refer?

Posted by: sln2002 | Aug 16 2022 19:41 utc | 47

35
That public banking was criticized by Ma, if I remember correctly.
He had to eat humble pie after that…

Posted by: Nico | Aug 16 2022 19:43 utc | 48

… They have been colonized by their own colonialism whose principle agent is the Money Power. …
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 16 2022 17:42 utc | 15

Bloody hell, ain’t that the truth, nicely put!

Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 16 2022 19:43 utc | 49

46
I read that they put it together from parts of various drones they shot down or otherwise got a hold of.
I don’t get Turkey’s position. On the one hand they seem to get along with Russia, on the other hand they allow deals like the new drone factory in Ukraine.

Posted by: Nico | Aug 16 2022 19:46 utc | 50

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 16 2022 17:46 utc | 17

@ Posted by: quackyquackysteve | Aug 16 2022 17:12 utc | 8
& the many newly deployed flying blue monkey army at the bar.
Maybe a small quote that is presented is not going to contain all that you need to know before you are ready to even consider it’s merits? Have you actually ever bothered to read any of his speeches? They put them out in English you know? So that you don’t have to worry about translating. There’s also Lavrovs words and Sharakovas and Xi’s etc – ALL IN CLEAR PLAIN ENGLISH.
They are making the greater efforts to make sure they are clearly understood. Because they don’t want you complaining you weren’t told later.
Will you listen? Do you have the attention span greater than the maligned goldfish in a bowl?
I’ll happily put it in simple Godsplaining words if you want me to, just ask, ok?

Quackysteve has legitimate questions and I would be interested in hearing what people here have to say about it. Why the animosity?
Let me take you up on your offer and ask: what options are there for third parties to counter the Empire’s influence and how can they regain full sovereignty?

Posted by: robin | Aug 16 2022 19:48 utc | 51

In my experience, a problem must be seen–called out–to be corrected. The Bandung Conference in 1955 was an attempt to do that, but the newly emerging de-colonized world was no where near strong enough, and Russia wasn’t strong enough either. China at the time was a basketcase, and the Plundering Nations still held all the cards. Much of that has now changed. I again suggest reading the Joint Declaration made by Russia and China back in February where they announced in greater detail the plan Putin glossed over today. Its full title signifies its contents, “Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on International Relations entering a New Era and Global Sustainable Development.”
Plunder as THE problem was recognized by the Greeks. St. Augustine wrote his City of God as a pathway out from it. The Roman Empire died from its pursuit. The Founders of the nascent United States fancied themselves as the next Rome–just look at the architecture and statuary in DC. When the Frontier was declared closed after the 1890 census, Frederick Jackson Turner’s 1893 Frontier Thesis asked how the USA would continue its dynamism with the continent exploited. In 1948, the Outlaw US Empire’s policy problem was how to continue to plunder the world at the rate it was doing. The 85% of humanity that lives outside the Plundering Nations are banding together and saying ENOUGH. Not knowing any other path, the Outlaw US Empire continues to Plunder and will surely experience the fate predicted by Bastiat I cited at the top of my essay:
“When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe.”
The Catastrophe is what the Collective West is now undergoing. Several have asked how the Multipolar World will rise above the Plundering Nations. I just wrote the answer–they are now busy Plundering each other, particularly the Outlaw US Empire because that’s the destiny of Neoliberal Parasitism when employed as a political-economy–that’s the Catastrophe. It appears the Golden Billion will realize they were pyrite all along.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 16 2022 19:52 utc | 52

In response to

That public banking was criticized by Ma, if I remember correctly.
He had to eat humble pie after that…
Posted by: Nico | Aug 16 2022 19:43 utc | 49

China is regulating commerce more than in the West currently but all need to remember that corporations being the multinational giant of now were not allowed “in the old days” and there is/was lots of regulation with good intention…the US had a Fairness Doctrine from 1949 to 1986 that forced media to present “all” sides and The League of Women Voters use to run most/all political debates.
I have tried to engage other barflys in discussion of the details of potential future Mixed Economy sectors like education, health care, FOOD, housing, JOBS but it seems most want to discuss their pet “ism” instead of potential future realities….what should a government do for its people and what should be left to “private enterprise”?
If we are to dig our way out of the Western shit show it will be by discussing potential realities, not “isms”…..I want to see the elimination of private finance in all its forms because I see finance as a key government function and responsibility, for example.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 19:59 utc | 53

In the thread about Iranian drones I commented on the RUSI report on Western electronics in Russian weapons. See:

The 1980s called. They want their computer back.
My conclusion is, that the weapons analyzed are based on 1990s technology.

Ukraine has fired British Brimstone missiles at Energodar and the Zaparozhia Nuclear Power Plant. According to Wikipedia, the Brimstone missile entered service in 2005.
Photos of the electronics have been published on Telegram. The two PCBs shown represents 1970s technology: standard 16-pin Schottky integrated circuits, discrete through-hole resistors. Two of the ICs are labeled AM26S02/BEA – a dual monostable multivibrator made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the 1970s.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 16 2022 19:59 utc | 54

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 19:04 utc | 35

I see you continue to miss the point that capitalism does not exist but private and public finance do. China has public banking at the core of its government which is at odds with the mostly privately owned rest of the worlds Central Banks….Russia’s is evolving.

I see you continue to miss the point that public and private finance, as you name them, are the capital factions in that system I call capitalism. Sure, public an private finance exist, but as what? Part of nature? Or a means of power. I do not mind us having different views, but I do mind one side claiming authority on what is and what isn’t.
So, what’s so much different in the goals of private and institutional (to which I count states/nations) capital from the working class’s perspective? You mentioned China, the country that has recently, as reported here and elsewhere, overcome extreme poverty. One might glorify that, and least one should appreciate that, but has it changed anything of the role of the workers in China? Could it also be seen as a means of both, securing and pacifying the labour pool, as it has been in the fading contemporary epicentre of capitalism? Comrades in China report that the union system there is corrupt as foo. The state approved union makes sure that domestic and foreign companies can exploit workers as they wish. Any attempt of breaking the state union’s monopoly is persecuted with arrests and detentions (not as violent as Western media would claim, though). No color revolutions here, just workers fed up with their situation. So, can you report anything glorious the public banking of China does for the (global) working class?
Posted by: Macmuir | Aug 16 2022 19:08 utc | 38

You could say that, but you would be ignoring or glossing over so many other salient elements as to render the rest of your comment facile and oversimplified.

Care to elaborate?

Posted by: NoNewsHere | Aug 16 2022 20:03 utc | 55

For those who find it problematic to state that the US does this or that I think a document from 2005 may have interest
‘The Neo-Cons Are British Liberal Imperialists’ by Mary Burdman
https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2005/eirv32n42-20051028/eirv32n42-20051028_066-the_neo_cons_are_british_liberal.pdf

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Aug 16 2022 20:10 utc | 56

C is for chuzpah…
https://t.me/mod_russia_en/3369
⚡️The United Kingdom has submitted a flight plan application for a British RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft to fly along a route including over Russian Federation territory.
▫️We consider this action to be a deliberate provocation.
▫️Russian Aerospace Forces have been tasked with preventing the violation of Russian Federation airspace.
▫️All the possible consequences of this deliberate provocation will be borne solely by the United Kingdom.
@mod_russia_en

Posted by: Arioch | Aug 16 2022 20:16 utc | 57

robin @52–
The non-Plundering Nations are banding together in solidarity via the plethora of recently formed international organizations, like the SCO. Some like ASEAN have existed longer but are just now linking with other organizations. As I’ve chronicled over the last several years, Russia, China and their partners in their joint statements have consistently demanded upholding the UN Charter and its institutions. Yes, the UN’s been co-opted by the Outlaw US Empire for most of its existence and refuses to follow its tenets. There’s nothing wrong with the Charter or its institutions some deep democratizing won’t solve. There’s one main impediment that must be toppled which it’s currently doing to itself. No Dark Age will follow the collapse of the Outlaw US Empire as a vibrant world is well on its way to being formulated. The development projects aimed at lifting the rest of humanity out of poverty are grand and meant to last. As Putin noted, the Plundering Nations aim is to prevent that, to enforce dependency, and further exploitation. The great mass of humanity is saying such behavior no longer has any place in our world.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 16 2022 20:24 utc | 58

@ NoNewsHere | Aug 16 2022 20:03 utc | 56 who must be paid well
You wrote

I see you continue to miss the point that public and private finance, as you name them, are the capital factions in that system I call capitalism. Sure, public an private finance exist, but as what? Part of nature? Or a means of power. I do not mind us having different views, but I do mind one side claiming authority on what is and what isn’t.

Where is this thing you call capitalism that I call a myth?
The PBOC is a reality, a physical part of China’s government and you conflate it as a type of capitalism, how stupid and/or obfuscatory is that?
You can claim authority on any myth you want but please take your textual white noise of such to another bar.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 20:27 utc | 59

It appears NoNewsHere has no clue as to the type of Capitalism now being practiced by the Plundering Nations reminding me of several trolls we’ve entertained over the years. I’ll write this once: There’s Industrial Capitalism and there’s Finance Capitalism, the latter being based on Fantasyland “economics” that posits there’s no such thing as unearned income when that’s what it thrives on. For your edification, here’s an excellent essay on the topic, “Finance Capitalism versus Industrial Capitalism: The Rentier Resurgence and Takeover”.

Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 16 2022 20:31 utc | 60

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Aug 16 2022 19:59 utc | 55

I’m sure you are a Finn now. You have that subtle attack at the Russians.

Posted by: RK | Aug 16 2022 20:32 utc | 61

The only thing Putin retained from Soviet ideology was what ultimately destroyed the Soviet Union itself: the principle of national sovereignty and “national self-determination,” which is what cloaks his government’s aspiration to imperialist status.
A couple days ago, Michael Roberts released a blog post arguing that Russia is not presently imperialist – as it stands in more of a neo-colonial relationship with other powers, primarily exporting raw materials and with relatively weak export of capital to other countries. He noted, however, that Russia has higher aspirations than bog standard neo-colonialism. In any case, whether he’s a comprador or a populist, Putin is an enemy of the Russian proletariat, whose exploitation is the basis of Russian “national greatness.”
This is an area where anarchists were always clearly right. While, originally for reasons of political expediency, the Marxists have tried to be the greatest defenders of the Westphalian order, anarchists have always clearly understood that nationalist struggles are a subversion of class struggle, and that struggle must be directed against nationalism and nationalist political consciousness. Nationalism in the twenty-first century is distinctly reactionary, which is why the most renowned defenders of Westphalianism – Trump, Buchanan, and Putin – are reactionary figures. It is an attempt to turn back the clock – an attempt that will end like all such attempts in the past, in imperialist war. What imperialist power is not descended from the ancestors of a once oppressed people?
On a certain level every transgression against the global commercial order will appear atavistic, but then the multipolaristas are not even inherently opposed to this commercial order. Like Proudhon, they just want to see equal and autonomous nations create free and equal contracts with one another, utilizing their own comparative advantages to make mutually . There’s no question of the overcoming of the nation-state, that’s a category that has become fixed and eternal – like Proudhon’s “eternal justice.”

Posted by: anti-nationalist | Aug 16 2022 20:33 utc | 62

One more poke at NoNewsHere who wrote

I see you continue to miss the point that public and private finance, as you name them, are the capital factions in that system I call capitalism.

I think China would have a problem with you calling their banking system capitalism when they might think of it more like socialism or such.
And what is China doing for the global public? Taking down the God of Mammon global private finance cult, so far without getting us nuked by the poor losers of the Western anti-humanistic social system.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 16 2022 20:42 utc | 63