Posted by seumasach on February 1, 2016
The possibility of a close German-Russian alliance would certainly send shivers down the spine of representatives of the Anglo-American hegemonic interests. It also implies that what we are looking at is not so much a European Union but a Eurasian one with Germany,Russia and China at its core.
Sputnik
31st January, 2016
Washington is closely monitoring the relations between Russia and Germany and will do anything to prevent the union between the two countries, founder of the global intelligence company Stratfor, George Friedman, said.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Germany-Russia-China alliance, New Eurasian Century | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 31, 2016
Another dark cloud arrived courtesy of a ridiculous interview from Britain’s state-controlled BBC last week where Putin was accused of corruption by a US Treasury official. No actual evidence was presented and the Kremlin labelled it “pure fiction.” Of course, this programme was filmed long before the recent improvement in dialogue between Russia and the West.
Despite these concerns, due to the seniority of the European officials publicly discussing a reversal in policy, feelings of hope seem well founded. Germany’s vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel also called for detente in early January. He admitted that some “forces” in Europe and the US wanted sanctions to cripple Russia, which would “risk a conflagration.”
Bryan MacDonald
RT
30th January, 2016
When there’s a natural rapport between leaders, relationships are easy. In such an atmosphere, negotiating is a doddle. Of course, when the opposite is the case, the reverse often happens. Small disagreements can explode into furious arguments.
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Posted in Battle for Europe, Syria, Ukraine War | Tagged: detente with Russia, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 30, 2016
The significance of Lavrov’s remarks is not that we are heading to a showdown between Russia and the US but, rather, that Russia now assesses that it has sufficient sympathy and support for its viewpoint inside the USA to feel able to move more aggressively to sideline the neocons. Lavrov’s comments on the Litvinenko affair showed that Russia has reach the limit in terms of accommodation with imperial redoubts like the UK, or, at least, with the Cameron leadership
Russia Insider
On Tuesday, 26 January Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held his annual press conference before an audience of about 150 journalists, including the BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg and many other well-known representatives of mainstream Western media. The purpose of this traditional event is to review issues faced by his Ministry in the past year and to give his appraisal of results achieved.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 15, 2016
M.K.Bhadrakumar
Asia Times
14th January, 2016
The US President Barack Obama sprang a New Year surprise on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by telephoning him Wednesday night. It was a double surprise since the Russian New Year Holiday Week is ending on Thursday, January 14, and Obama rarely makes such gestures; and, secondly, the call signified a virtual U-turn just a day after the US president had made some unfriendly remarks about the Kremlin’s policies and caricatured Russia as undermining the international system.
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Posted in Global peace process | Tagged: US Russia cooperation | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 12, 2016
The exposure of the chronic weakness of the UK economy is long overdue: a bombed-out high street, empty pubs, falling share prices, the collapse of the property bubble and local government insolvency are all on the horizon. But the negative current account is the icing on the cake. Presumably, this reflects lack of interest in UK government bonds and the continued need to monetise them i.e print money to buy them: hence the inevitability of a sterling crisis with an accompanying inflationary surge or rising interest rates which will trigger the collapse of the financial sector. We are indeed cursed by interesting times!
Telegraph
12th January, 2016
Sterling plunged to a five-and-a-half year low against the US dollar on Tuesday, as the UK’s manufacturing sector shrunk unexpectedly.
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Posted in UK economy, Uncategorized | Tagged: bankrupt Britain | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 11, 2016
Telegraph
10th January, 2016
Asset prices around the world are collapsing as the global economy slows and UK housing will not escape
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Posted in UK economy | Tagged: bankrupt Britain | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 10, 2016
Alasdair Macleod
Gold Money
7th January, 2015
Advance signs of a global slump in economic activity emerged in 2015
Furthermore, the dollar’s strength, coupled with widening credit spreads confirms a global tendency for dollar-denominated debt to contract. These developments typically precede an economic and financial crisis that could manifest itself in 2016, partially confirmed by the disappointing performance of equity markets. If so, demand for physical gold can be expected to escalate rapidly as a financial crisis unfolds.
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Posted in Currency Wars | Tagged: Chinese soft power, dollar collapse, gold-backed yuan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 10, 2016
Just the Beginning: Iran, India Dump Petrodollar, Settle Oil Payments in Rupees
Russia Insider
6th January, 2015
Iran and India have announced that they intend to settle all oustanding crude oil payments in rupees, as part of a joint strategy to dump the dollar and trade instead in national currencies.
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Posted in Currency Wars | Tagged: dollar collapse, End of empire | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 4, 2016
The imperial periphery , sensing imperial retrenchment, is trying to force a strengthened NATO commitment. This would also be why the Polish government launched a police raid against a NATO intelligence centre. In effect, they are saying : turn us into a forward NATO base against Russia or we’ll turn our back on NATO. But Poland is playing a very weak hand : the New Cold War is running out of steam and who is Poland to breathe new life into it? Furthermore, Britain is no longer the influencial force it pretends to be.
Telegraph
3rd January, 2016
Poland is ready to drop its fierce opposition to David Cameron’s welfare plans if he supports a call to permanently base Nato troops in the country.
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Posted in Disband NATO!, New Cold War | Tagged: Britain into Europe-Europe out of NATO | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 4, 2016
M.K.Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
31st December, 2015
The Russian-Turkish tensions following the shooting down of a Russian warplane on November 24 are nearing a new threshold of mutual hostility. An interview by a Turkish dailythree days ago with a Turkish citizen by name Alparslan Celik who apparently had killed the Russian pilot in cold blood, cannot but be seen as taunt by Ankara, virtually hinting at its complicity in the killing.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: neo-Ottoman imperialism, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on January 3, 2016
As Obama’s retreat from empire becomes more evident the revolt on the imperial periphery gains momentum : Turkey, Saudi and now Poland- it’s everyone for himself.
Guardian
18th December, 2015
Polish military police have raided a Nato-affiliated counterintelligence centre in Warsaw in the latest of a series of moves by the country’s new rightwing government to consolidate its hold on power.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Death of Nato, disband nato, retreat from empire | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 