Ufa – Why It Both Matters And Doesn’t

Michael Noonan – To almost all Americans mentioning Ufa will bring a blank response.  What is Ufa?  None would ask, “Where is it?” for there has been no mention of it anywhere in the mainstream media.  Does Ufa matter?  Yes, but in this country it does not.

Here is a primer on understanding many acronyms the average American has no clue even of their existence.  First of all, Ufa is not an acronym, it is the capital and administrative center of Bashkortostan Republic, Russia. It is one of the largest Russian cities with a population over one million people.  It was founded in 1574.  Now you know more than 99.9% of the average American, with just two sentences.

On to the acronyms: BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the core nations creating an alternative to Western [destructive] domination.  SCO, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, originally organized as a military cooperative in Asia, akin to NATO, but has since taken on some additional economic importance, as well.  EEU, the Eurasion Economic Union, akin to the EU, European Union.  [This may begin to seem like a refrain from the East to the West: “Anything you can do, we can do better.”]   AIIB, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and NDB, the BRICS’ New Development Bank, counterparts to the IMF and World Bank, but without the required onerous debt burdens. Finally, CRA, Contingency Reserve Agreement, yet another layer of reducing the importance of Western financial domination.

It would not be an unfair comparison to state that next to world chess player, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama is an ordinary checkers player with just moderate skills. In mid-July, while Obama was forcing an unnecessary nuclear restraint against Iran, a country with no nuclear capabilities, except according to the neocons in the United States, Putin convened a summit of the BRICS members, [while 5 nations, it has associate members in excess of 100, those tired of the American version of how the world should be run, or better said, ruled.], combined with the EEU members. Continue reading

Greece’s Lesson For Russia

“Greece’s debt can now only be made sustainable through debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far.” International Monetary Fund

washingtonPaul Craig Roberts – Greece’s lesson for Russia, and for China and Iran, is to avoid all financial relationships with the West. The West simply cannot be trusted. Washington is committed to economic and political hegemony over every other country and uses the Western financial system for asset freezes, confiscations, and sanctions. Countries that have independent foreign policies and also have assets in the West cannot expect Washington to respect their property rights or their ownership. Washington freezes or steals countries’ assets, or in the case of France imposes multi-billion dollar fines, in order to force compliance with Washington’s policies. Iran, for example, lost the use of $100 billion, approximately one-fourth of the Iranian GDP, for years simply because Iran insisted on its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Russian journalists are asking me if Obama’s willingness to reach a deal with Iran means there is hope a deal can be reached over Ukraine. The answer is No. Moreover, as I will later explain, the deal with Iran doesn’t mean much as far as Washington is concerned.

Three days ago (July 14) a high ranking military officer, Gen. Paul Selva, the third in about as many days, told the US Senate that Russia is “an existential threat to this nation (the US).” Only a few days prior the Senate had heard the same thing from US Marine commander Joseph Dunford and from the Secretary of the Air Force. A few days before that, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned of a Russian “hybrid threat.”

Washington is invested heavily in using Ukraine against Russia. All the conflict there originates with Washington’s puppet government in Kiev. Russia is blamed for everything, including the destruction of the Malaysian airliner. Washington has used false charges to coerce the EU into sanctions against Russia that are not in the EU’s interest. As Washington has succeeded in coercing all of Europe to harm Europe’s political and economic relationships with Russia and to enter into a state of conflict with Russia, certainly Washington is not going to agree to an Ukrainian settlement. Even if Washington wanted to do so, as Washington’s entire position rests on nothing but propaganda, Washington would have to disavow itself in order to come to an agreement. Continue reading