Illustrative Image
Written by Eric Zuesse
There is a U.S.-and-allied proxy war against Russia that since 24 February 2022 has been raging upon the battlefields of Ukraine, and every single aspect of it (this Ukraine-v.-Russia war that’s actually a U.S.-v.-Russia war, because America’s Government has controlled Ukraine’s government ever since February 2014) is thus far failing.
Militarily, the consensus of expert opinion within the U.S.-and-allied countries has changed from Russia’s losing the war in 2022 when Russian forces pulled back from Kharkiv in the spring and Kherson in the fall, to the U.S.-and-allied forces (these are Ukrainian soldiers who are equipped with U.S.-and-allied financing and weaponry) losing the war while NATO runs out of weapons and ammunition to send there and yet Russia unrelentingly continues to supply new weaponry and ammunition and slowly to take new ground in Ukraine. This war of attrition is going very badly now against The West (the U.S. imperial Government and its foreign ‘allies’ or colonies — especially the ones in Europe: EU and NATO).
Economically, expert opinion in The West is increasingly saying their sanctions that were meant to strangle Russia’s economy have been, thus far, a massive and stunning failure, which has probably been doing more damage to America’s European ‘allies’ than to Russia. If this turns out to be true, then the entire belief-system that has been standing behind The West’s anti-Russia sanctions (which had started being applied actually with the Obama-era Magnitsky Act sanctions in 2012) is going to collapse.
On January 31st, the New York Times headlined “Russia Sidesteps Western Punishments, With Help From Friends: A surge in trade by Russia’s neighbors and allies hints at one reason its economy remains so resilient after sweeping sanctions.” It reported:
Russian trade appears to have largely bounced back to where it was before the invasion of Ukraine last February. Analysts estimate that Russia’s imports may have already recovered to prewar levels, or will soon do so, depending on their models.
In part, that could be because many nations have found Russia hard to quit. Recent research showed that fewer than 9 percent of companies based in the European Union and Group of 7 nations had divested one of their Russian subsidiaries. And maritime tracking firms have seen a surge in activity by shipping fleets that may be helping Russia to export its energy, apparently bypassing Western restrictions on those sales. …
Some companies, including H&M, IBM, Volkswagen and Maersk, halted operations in Russia after the invasion, citing moral and logistical reasons. But the Russian economy has proved surprisingly resilient, raising questions about the efficacy of the West’s sanctions. Countries have had difficulty reducing their reliance on Russia for energy and other basic commodities, and the Russian central bank has managed to prop up the value of the ruble and keep financial markets stable.
On Monday, the International Monetary Fund said it now expected the Russian economy to grow 0.3 percent this year, a sharp improvement from its previous estimate of a 2.3 percent contraction. …
Matthew Klein, an economics writer and a co-author of “Trade Wars Are Class Wars,” is one [of the pro-U.S. experts who finds the data disturbing]. … Global exports to Russia most likely fully recovered in December, though many countries have not yet issued their trade data for the month, he said.
“Most of that recovery has been driven overall by China and Turkey particularly,” Mr. Klein said.
It’s unclear how much of this trade violates sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe, but the patterns are “suspicious,” he said. “It would be consistent with the idea that there are ways of trying to get around some of the sanctions.”
Silverado Policy Accelerator, a Washington nonprofit, recently issued a similar analysis, estimating that the value of Russian imports from the rest of the world had exceeded prewar levels by September.
… Samsung and Apple, previously major suppliers of Russian cellphones, pulled out of the Russian market after the invasion. Exports of popular Chinese phone brands, like Xiaomi, Realme and Honor, also initially dipped as companies struggled to understand and cope with new restrictions on sending technology or making international payments to Russia.
But after an “adjustment period,” Chinese brands started to take off in Russia. … Overall Chinese exports to Russia reached a record high in December, helping to offset a steep drop in trade with Europe. … Shipments to Russia of other products, like passenger vehicles, have also rebounded. And China has increased exports of semiconductors to Russia, though Russia’s total chip imports remain below prewar levels. …
Ami Daniel, the chief executive of Windward, a maritime data company, said he had seen hundreds of instances in which people from countries like the United Arab Emirates, India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia bought vessels to try to set up what appeared to be a non-Western trading framework for Russia.
“Basically, Russia has been gearing up toward being able to trade outside of the rule of law,” he said.
The New York Times is one of the American Government’s top propaganda-merchants, and so all of the experts whom it interviewed for that article were ones that the U.S. Government approves, and they aren’t on any of the CIA’s, Google’s, or any other of its lists as being people who are not to be interviewed. For example: the allegation there that “Basically, Russia has been gearing up toward being able to trade outside of the rule of law” is false, because in order for any international sanction to be in accord with and part of international law, that sanction must first be approved by the U.N. Security Council. The October-November 2013 article “Effectiveness Of Economic Sanctions: Empirical Research Revisited” (also here), published by the Clute Institute, provides a good summary of the international-law status of sanctions; and on this article’s pdf’s 4th page it says:
The [U.N.] Security Council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and its powers include establishment of “sanctions” as a measure to be taken against a state to promote international peace and security. Within Chapter VII, Articles 41 and 25, taken together, make any economic sanctions authorized by the Security Council mandatory on all members.
Otherwise, it’s not “mandatory” but only voluntary. No U.S. sanction against Russia (and both nations are among the five permanent members of the Security Council) has ever been “authorized by the Security Council.” Consequently, that sentence in the NYT’s article was a lie — this international trade between Russia and other nations isn’t “trade outside of the rule of law.” It’s only outside America’s law (and these sanctions started to be imposed by America under Obama in 2012, on the basis of lies, even at that time), but America isn’t an international organization, and has no authorization to act as-if it’s the U.N.; so, no nation has any international legal obligation to adhere to what is, in essence, coercion from the U.S. regime. The NYT’s statement that this is “trade outside of the rule of law” is a lie.
Despite the NYT being a U.S. propaganda-merchant and thus having in the past been pumping the idea that Russia is losing its war in Ukraine, it now is yielding to the new instructions it has from agents of its Government, and these instructions appear to be to soften up the American public for a defeat coming in Ukraine. It won’t be like the defeats America had experienced in such places as Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Venezuela, and Afghanistan, because this will clearly be — if it happens at all — a defeat against Russia, the nation that ever since 24 February 1990 the U.S. Government has been trying ultimately to defeat. A defeat of that magnitude would be a turning-point in world history.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
Germany will sit back and let americunts fight and die, and strategically Germany will lead BRICS.
Russia can fight but it cant lead.
oh? like german cock do you faggot?
Which Germany are you talking about? The Germany I know, is almost in ruins and can neither fight, nor lead, and in particular not with this monkey puppets of CIA’s grace that have usurped “the government” and most public institutions.
Culturally Im Five Races Germanic like the Paul Smith Towel.
But the Germany Im talking about is the Germany that defeated the filthy jews, and left a few to show the world just how filthy they are.
So any German with that passport is that Germany Im talking about.
I will repeat what was censored, Germany should sit back and let americunt deal with its own mess.
Freudian Analysis:
Someone asking me if I like cock is a faggot, because no straight guy would ask such a disgusting question.
Juifs……Race de vipères comme le disait si justement Jésus .
Oui, vous avez Right.
Bashing the German Jar against the Russian wall.
“which has probably been doing more damage to America’s European ‘allies’ than to Russia.”
Well that was part of the plan from the beginnin.
Weaken russia and weaken europe.
the world is sick and tired of the London-Wash.D.C.-Brussels synarchist cabal, after all it is they which are bankrupt due to their own monetarism and Malthusian behaviors
The West, under the leadership of evil geniuses, now justly fails in all areas! When an empire collapses everything collapses! You call them, if you want, incompetent idiots!
LMAO “Now”?!?!? name a time when they were working….I’ll wait. (P.s. don’t waste my time with the so called “Ukrainian offensive” which was basically filling the vacuum left by retreating Russians to better defensive positions from overextension. the ukropts didnt “Take back” anything, the red carpet to the chopping block was laid and lighted.)
Ukraine is the only country on the planet that celebrates battlefield defeat as victory. of which they have had many from 2014 to 2023, Debaltseve, Crimea, Mariupol, illoviask… soon be adding Artyomovsk to the list.
Belogorovka FREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ukroshits leaved Belogorovka, near Seversk to not be encircled. That’s the real deal which I wanted to see for months. That town is the MAJOR key to take Seversk and encircle all forest in the north where big hohol fascist forces are; and enter the final second chapter of liberating DPR/LPR from nazi bandera pest. Also that means russians CAN now take entire left bank of Oskol river without any danger. When done that, Lyman will be recaptured from Cocalansky piece of shit. Also fall of Belogorovka means a huge retreat of hitlerists begin downside south, where Wagners are destroying everything.
Go Wagner! Thanks Men.
Be careful with such far flung conclusions into the not-jet-to-be-seen-on-the-horizon future! “Everything falling apart” should be issued AFTER everything really started falling apart, not years before.
The factual frontline does not at all talk of “everything falling apart”, but instead of “tiny little successes of the russians there, accompanied by tiny little successes of the ukrainians there”. Over multiple months. And BEFORE those months, there were three big strategic pullbacks (alias “defeats”) of the russians. Despite saving the majority of forces. Only in the very first weeks of the war, there was a major, but limited success of the russian army. That was by far not enough to bring the ukrainian government to a stop of their civil war.
That civil war rages on, uninterrupted. The ukrainians didn’t stop bombing the same destinations they bombed until a year ago – except to the north of lugansk und to the south-west of donetsk.
Your analysis is based on territorial gains only. Other aspects must be taken into consideration. Real casualty figures are difficult to know for sure, but I think this is the key, I mean, the destruction of the live enemy forces that are more difficult to replenish.
Boris on t’a reconnu !!!!
There is nothing more disgusting as German tanks in Eastern Europe!
Not anymore. Germans, Poles are now like brothers. We work together. We live together. Luckily pro russian Merkel and Schroeder are gone forever – long live new EU!
The poles trust the Germans? Ya sure, no one there remembers the war. The leaders may be selling that shit but the people are keeping their backs to the wall.
The EU is an appendage of the CIA. The concept of a united Europe can be traced back in the 50s where American intelligence were instrumental in setting up European Economic Community, which later became the catalyst for the EU. No democracy, No sovereignty, all European officials reporting to one boss, the US. I say to you with absolute relish FUCK THE EU.
What you get up to in a bath-house bears little relation to the global economic and geostrategic situation.
The EU is a house of cards, and when the US house of cards collapses the EU’s will rush to be friends with Russia.
Are you for real? Western energy companies made lifetime record profits last year! Yes, ordinary people pay more for energy but the money stay in the Western system. Unemployment is record low and salaries record high. West – thus Nato and USA- is in the best condition ever for decades.
You forgot to mention that inflation is record high.
Where do you live? Most people over here can’t afford rent let alone food and don’t even talk about fuel. It’s a house of cards, inflation is running wild. [Canada].
Truly you are a brainless fuck. The money go into derivatives. It no stay in “western system”. Citizens have lost buying power to perform as consumers. But you are lick-spittle of international stateless capital. So either you’re a billionaire or you are one stupid cunt.
Why all the strikes actress Europe then for better wages to off set the rising cost of living?
Eric, your delusional babbling consistently offends trolls of all persuasions. Take a hint, goofy guy. Your pen is not mighty.
Let’s hear some more about “shared history” and the “Ukrainian nation”. What you refer to as “history” seems pretty much to consist entirely of a propaganda narrative aimed at controlling the behaviour of some folks while justifying the egregious behaviour of others. How are you people coming with locating your trove of documents that support your Holodomor fairy tale?
“… these instructions appear to be to soften up the American public for a defeat coming in Ukraine. ” As early as 2008 , when the west announced at the NATO summit in Bukarest , they will expand further on Russian ethnic territory , it was clear : it means war , and this war will be existential for Russia. Nobody in the west could expect , Russia would somehow “copy” with it and surrender without a fight. There has been much time to prepare and it seems , Russia did finally a better job. After Napoleon and Hitler it is already visible: the next failed attempt to conquere Russia.
The failed Ukrainian CIA project has run its course for now. Some new phase of the US effort to continue log-rolling as the post-work economy emerges will be the focus. They need a form of Social Credit to stave off the Chinese, so get ready for some batshit crazy antics to justify state intervention in the daily lives of the subjects. Climate change, new pandemic, whatever they can dream up.
The West is failing because for far too long they developed a superiority complex from invading Middle East banana republics and killing Muslim civilians for the benefit of their Israeli masters. Slava Putin.
Perhaps the psychopaths in Washington misunderstood the advice from “The Godather Part Two” – Keep your friends close and your enemies closer – to mean, screw your enemies, but your allies even more.