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The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-163
Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:
> Q: Thanks, Jen. There are reports of illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs being used by the Russians. If that’s true, what is the next step of this administration? And is there a red line for how much violence will be tolerated against civilians in this manner that’s illegal and potentially a war crime?
MS. PSAKI: It is — it would be. I don’t have any confirmation of that. We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime. <
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Other issues:
Europe:
Economy:
Spinning:
Use as open (not Ukraine related) thread …
@james, bevin, anyone else talking about Helmer’s latest, S if you’re reading:
The apprehension of the allies in Europe was revealed a few days ago when Jacques Attali answered a telephone call he thought was from former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, but which came instead from the Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus. Attali, French presidential adviser, US retainer, and ex-head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said he knew French President Emmanuel Macron well and that Macron was afraid the US would abandon the Ukrainians to save itself. There was the same fear among the Germans and British, Attali added. “The weak point is what happens in Washington.”
“[This is] a nightmare scenario. That would be the US saying, well, enough is enough. We are not going to help Ukraine more. You have to go to negotiations, to the negotiating table. And that’s it. … Neither France, Germany or the UK can do that. But the US could arm-twist your [Poroshenko’s] government and your country [Ukraine] to say we want a ceasefire whatever it costs and stop [the war]. The most important thing is to avoid that.”
“There is no other way than a total win and to get rid of Putin…We have to take all risks for that. No compromise is possible, no compromise.”
Emphasis (bold) obviously mine. So let’s play doom-and-gloom here and accept that through this man we may divine the real mindset of the highest up among NATO country leaders. Helmer is always meticulous with his details and his short version of Attali’s bio checks out – he is said by some to be the person who actually picked out Emmanuel Macron from his job at Rotschild & Co., introducing him to Hollande and proposing to make him Minister of Economy, so yeah – He probably knows Macron pretty well, and I’m going to assume that he remains “plugged-in” to the goings on in Paris and Brussels, not so much Washington D.C.
Having accepted this, namely that at least some very high ranking NATO and EU officials – certainly along with their American counterparts – view this conflict as existential and that by getting rid of Pootie all their problems will be solved, let me try to dive in a little deeper, both into their mindset, the implications of and for Putin, and the typical wake of death, despair, destruction and chaos that follows most US/NATO wars and proxy wars.
First, I want to think about Putin and Russia and I’ll do so from a cynical and/or fearful frame of reference. Some questions occurred to me over the last 24 hours that I have been unable to completely answer to my own satisfaction. First, I know that Russia is a democracy in the same way that many western countries are and that whoever succeeds Putin will have to ostensibly win the popular vote in an election (assuming no crazy coups). Does Putin or Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia) have a candidate ready to go and likely to win? It occurred to me that by winning so many elections, Putin has had too much of the grand plan vested in himself and his (assumed accurate in reality) image of being tough on the oligarchs, willing to back down to the will of the people over neoliberal economists (on the pensions for example), and in general very staunch in his defense of the RF and its resources & people against western oligarchical private capitalist/financial interests. If he runs and wins again in 2024, this will be even more true. It also crossed my mind that he (or his Yedinaya Rossiya successor) could be subject to the exact same whims of greed, short-sightedness and selfishness that most western politicians are and that he’s prepared to retire in comfort no matter what happens to the RF after his departure from office. Of course if he leaves in 2030, he’ll be 80 years old. That last part probably isn’t the case, however, with him knowing that the ICC issued that joke of a warrant for his arrest, and that only a strong, sympathetic Russian state may stand between him and a show trial in the Netherlands. I suppose I am rambling a bit now.
But back to the question – Has anyone heard from Alexei Kudrin since he resigned as head of the Russian Audit Chamber and took over Yandex? Allegedly this is actually a career path to succeeding Putin for Kudrin as an Independent (I have no idea if such a thing could happen in Russia) or representing another party like LDPR. Helmer wrote about Kudrin’s likely desire to become President of Russia and of the suspiciously favorable view of Washington D.C. of this scenario. Likely because he’d be much more willing to find favor in Brussels and D.C. through corrupting the RF and re-empowering the oligarchs.
https://mronline.org/2022/12/01/alexei-kudrin-starts-his-run-to-succeed-president-vladimir-putin/
Anyway, that part really amounts to a long-winded question about Putin, Russia’s future and (implied not stated) how willing/able the western private finance goons are to play the “long game” in light of Attali’s statement, which echoes many among the Beltway elite (Joe Biden for one) in saying “Putin has to go.” What is the most likely scenario for HOW Putin “goes” and what happens to the RF after? Furthermore, who among the western financial elite will be around to benefit like what happened in the 90s?
Second part of my musings kinda builds off that last bit but hinges more on the success or failure of this NATO-404 proxy war inasmuch as it is 1) existential to the current US-led “world order” (and let’s say the RF as it is currently situated – meaning strongly) and 2) likely or unlikely to push Putin from power earlier than expected. What is the worst case scenario in terms of the RF falling apart/prey to the western “globalist” corpora-financial elites? By that I mean what could realistically happen in the current military political conflict in Ukraine (and beyond?) that could actually cause a major change of direction in Russian leadership and an austerity based rapprochement/genuflection/subjugation with/to the western neoliberal financial parasites?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jul 9 2023 21:45 utc | 60
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