March 1 (EIRNS)—In the atmosphere of a “Captain Ahab-like” increasingly unhinged recklessness being expressed by several trans-Atlantic governments, and their reluctant but captured “allies,” all now driving the world, wittingly or not, to thermonuclear war, it is essential not to divert from the policy proposal: “Convoke an International Conference to Establish A New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations” authored by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp LaRouche. That way lies a restoration of sanity.The problem we are facing is the addiction to the dying, imperial monetarist world order that the City of London and Wall Street still insist must be saved. That axiomatic, unachievable obsession is the actual underlying impulse for war, for which the surface conflict called “the Ukraine crisis” is but today’s most momentarily prominent symptom. Notice how no one is now talking about the unfolding deliberate deaths of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions in Afghanistan—far more people than are in danger of death in Ukraine. There is no uniformity, no standing together with the “forces of democracy” to save those people’s lives. Insight into the “Bertrand Russell” mind-set in play in the drunken judgmental processes of the “Hooray For Doomsday” crowd is provided by considering the evaluation offered Monday by General Sir Richard Barrons, ex-head of the British Joint Forces Command. He stated (despite what had been said by White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki—see slug) that Ukraine’s “no-fly zone” request might be granted by NATO, leading to a war with Russia by the end of the week: “A no-fly zone is feasible. So, it’s Monday night. By Wednesday, Russian heavy artillery will be around these Ukrainian cities. And they may be firing indiscriminately, and destroying large chunks of the city, and killing civilians, and when they do this, they will be 300 miles from the border with NATO and the European Union, a day’s drive, or half an hour in a military jet. So I think one of the issues, for about Thursday or Friday of this week, is, how does public opinion in the UK and other countries react, to seeing people who look and live like us being slaughtered. And at that stage, I think there will be a different conversation, led by public opinion, about the application of NATO military power—perhaps through the sky, and definitely against heavy weapons.” In another example of manic, potentially-fatal hubris, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire was caused to quickly withdraw recklessly arrogant statements he made in an interview concerning the use of sanctions against Russia. "I do not want to leave any ambiguity about the European determination on this issue. We are going to wage an all-out financial and economic war against Russia. Q: "Against Russia or against Vladimir Putin? BLM: “Against Russia, against Vladimir Putin, against his government. But the Russian people will also pay the consequences. Let’s be clear. We want to target the heart of the Russian system, we target Vladimir Putin, we target the oligarchs, but we also target the entire Russian economy.” Le Maire was answered with a stern response from former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, and withdrew the statement. But as American analyst Scott Ritter recently stated, “President Putin has often complained that the West does not listen to him when he speaks of issues Russia deems to be of critical importance to its national security…The question is, is [the West] capable of comprehending the seriousness of the situation? So far, the answer seems to be no.” This present path, no matter the wishful thinking otherwise, must surely lead, sooner or later, to total war. Another road must be taken. “The fault behind the onrushing doom of the world’s present financial system, lies not with individual policy decisions, but in an ultimately fatal pattern of policy shaping innovations…. That point should be repeated. The fault lies not in any particular decision, as such; the fault lies in the social and ideological characteristics of today’s ‘Atlantic establishment,’ just as the collapse of the Soviet system flowed from the ideological and related characteristics of its establishment. The fault lies in the habituated, ideologically charged pattern of changes of decision, and ordering of changes which shape the ‘planetary orbit’ of the net affects so produced. We say, therefore, that the fatal trajectory of events is, like a planet’s orbit, essentially systemic, not the result of several isolable policy decisions on direction made along the way…. “The rabbit who is killed by the automobile, had the physical ability to avoid that risk: it was the characteristic of the rabbit’s nature, to choose the new decision which then doomed it to serve the pleasure of the waiting crows.” Lyndon LaRouche wrote that in his November,1988 preface to the book Genocide: Russia and the New World Order, written by economist Sergei Glaziev. Glaziev, for decades a prominent minister in government in Russia, wrote on Feb. 25 that “sanctions are the agony of the outgoing imperial world economic system based on the use of force. In order to minimize the dangers associated with it, it is necessary to accelerate the formation of a new—integral—world economic order which restores international law, national sovereignty, equality of countries, diversity of national economic models, principles of mutual benefit and voluntariness in international economic cooperation.” For such a design to occur, the worst of enemies will have to decide that the choice is neither “my way, or no way,” nor even the more civilized “nonviolence or nonexistence.” The choice is between the destruction of all mankind, or the development of all mankind. Economic development is the only pathway to peace, and the LaRouche Four Laws, discussed at the conclusion of the Zepp-LaRouche proposal, are the standpoint from which the International Conference to Establish A New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations can succeed.
The economic/financial warfare unleashed by the U.S., NATO and the EU against Russia has been planned for months, a leading U.S. "senior" official admitted yesterday. This proves Putin's point, that the U.S. had no intent to address his demands that Russia be given legally-binding security guarantees. The Schiller Institute is calling for a commitment to such guarantees for all nations, in a petition linked below -- something which is not acceptable to the arrogant beneficiaries of the unipolar order, who demand that all nations submit to their Great Reset. They are now resorting to psychological warfare and censorship to blind you to the danger humanity faces if there is no move to a new security and financial architecture. Sign and circulate this petition: Convoke an International Conference to Establish A New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations.
“A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” affirmed the five nuclear powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council on Jan. 3 of this year. But conditions for nuclear war — intentional or “accidental” are growing.
Feb. 28—UPDATE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28 called, through an advisor according to Axios, for the United States and “the West” to establish a no-fly zone against Russian aircraft over significant parts of Ukraine. White House press spokesperson Jen Psaki had to scramble, not jets, but a fast rejection. Psaki said, “Here’s what’s important for everybody to know about a no-fly zone: What that would require is implementation by the U.S. military. It would essentially mean the U.S. military would be shooting down Russian planes.” In short, World War III—with Russia’s strategic nuclear missile force already placed on heightened alert Sunday, Feb. 27. Will this break the illusion so many Europeans and Americans have developed from non-stop war propaganda, that NATO is involved in a painless and heroic defense of heroic Ukraine against evil Russia?Feb. 28: At first view all the economic austerity and suffering from the financial and economic “extreme sanctions” on Russia imposed this weekend, seems to devastate only Russia. Its central bank had to raise its repo rate drastically Monday morning, Feb. 28, from 9.25% to 20% to stop an ongoing 50% collapse of the ruble. That interest rate will contract and do great damage to the Russian economy. The head of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Adam Posen, characterized the economic attacks on Russia on Sunday: “You are essentially directing a financial and economic crisis in another country.” Bank runs which were occurring with perhaps 1 trillion rubles withdrawn by Russians over the weekend. The Bank of Russia central bank barred foreign residents from selling out investments in Russia (capital controls) and required export firms to convert 80% of their sales revenues to rubles as received. The European divisions of major Russian banks are going under. EIR has informed you, with the quotes from senior U.S. officials to document it, that crushing the Russian economy was the objective of NATO’s daring Russia into a war over Ukraine or some other Eastern European nation on the Russian border with potential nuclear missile launchers, like Poland or Romania. China is the other, even bigger obstacle to the trans-Atlantic nations’ as they face a financial crash worse than that of 2008. They cannot drag their dominant City of London- and Wall Street-centered banks through the crisis without imposing the drastic austerity of “the Great Reset” on their people and businesses. They have to eliminate the economic alternative for nations all over the world, represented by the China-Russia partnership. The outcomes now triggered by an economic takedown of Russia will be serious, highly inflationary, and deadly for the world economy and the developing nations in particular. A UN representative of Brazil was right to say on Feb. 27, in the UN Security Council discussion of calling an emergency General Assembly session to condemn Russia, that the effect of these economic attacks on one of the world’s leading fertilizer-producing nations would be famines—fertilizer is already hyperinflating out of the reach of farmers around the world. But also in the NATO nations’ their leaders, suddenly self-righteous warriors for at least the sixth time since they bombed Serbia in 1999, are going to impose serious economic austerity on their people, with bigger and bigger war spending, rapidly rising inflation, shortages of vital products including enough heat, electricity and food. Unless a nuclear war intervenes—and it may. We are in a form of Cuban Missile Crisis “in reverse” right now. The one way out of that is the Schiller Institute’s proposed “strategic architecture” based on the economic development principles of Lyndon LaRouche’s “four economic laws” prescribed in 2014. This petition, calls for an immediate international conference to get nations to cooperate on those principles. Signing it, and discussing it with other people, is the best action you can take to get mankind off the downward slope toward world war, which it is now on.
Events have taken an ominous turn in the last 24 hours. The sanctions imposed against Russia and the accelerating flow of weapons into Ukraine have convinced Putin that it is necessary to put Russia's nuclear forces on alert. What happens next cannot be left to the corrupt leaders of the Trans-Atlantic nations, who are prepared to risk global nuclear war to protect their collapsing financial/economic system. Join our mobilization to demand the convening, immediately, of a conference to adopt a new strategic and financial architecture, rather than allowing a sleepwalk into war. Make sure to sign and spread the Schiller Institute petition "Convoke and International Conference to Establish A New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations."
Statement recorded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche on February 28, 2022. Sign the Schiller Institute petition, "Convoke an International Conference to Establish A New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations."
Feb. 27 (EIRNS)—Large steps down the slope toward a world war—a thermonuclear war—were taken over this weekend. The most widely publicized was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement this morning that he had told his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Military Staff Valery Gerasimov to put the Russian strategic nuclear forces on high alert.He made his announcement following economic attacks on the Russian banking system, attempting to freeze and steal Russia’s financial reserves and crash its currency and banks, and bans on all Russian flights and all Russian media, while European high-tech arms and soldiers of fortune poured into Ukraine to fight. RIA Novosti quoted Putin as follows: “Western countries are not only taking hostile actions towards our country in the economic realm, by which I mean the illegitimate sanctions everybody knows about very well, but the highest officials of leading NATO countries are also making aggressive statements towards our country. Therefore I order the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff to place the [nuclear] deterrent forces of the Russian Armed Forces onto a special alert status.” We are now clearly in a form of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, nearer than anyone alive then, ever wanted to come to nuclear war. U.S. military leaders wanted then to launch war on Cuba; had President Kennedy not stopped them and negotiated a solution, nuclear missiles would have rained down on America’s Eastern cities. Now U.S. and European political and military leaders, accustomed for decades to brutalizing smaller countries by wars and economic strangulation, want to provoke Russia to war and destroy it. These leaders have surrounded Russia with hostile military—including nuclear—capabilities to a point it could not accept. They moved to make Ukraine—reaching deep into Russia itself—their ultimate anti-Russia military platform. President Putin warned them 15 years ago in a 2007 speech in at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, that Russia could not tolerate indefinitely being surrounded and enveloped by hostile arms. But having lit that fuse of war, they’re now fanning it to the point it may go nuclear. (See Putin’s speech, EIR, Feb. 23, 2007.) Once nuclear weapon attacks begin anywhere, they will envelop the globe. Now an entirely different approach must be taken, where strategic stability is put on the basis of economic development. Now the economic and scientific development policies of Lyndon LaRouche must be on the agenda. They have long been neglected as impossible (like returning to the principles of Franklin Roosevelt’s Bretton Woods credit system); or unnecessary (like crash development of laser and fusion plasma technologies in every nation); or even ridiculous (like nations cooperating to colonize the Moon and explore Mars). Those policies are the last available chance for peace now—the very last chance. The Schiller Institute on Feb. 25 launched a petition in this crisis, “Convoke an International Conference To Establish A New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations.” “Every person,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche urged today, “should deploy with every capability to distribute this petition and to discuss it.” Get others to discuss it, and to write about it in everything from Internet commentaries to simple letters to the editor. “Just 50 leading individuals in the world promoting this idea could convene an important conference.” Ask why so many millions, 60 years ago this October, were so alarmed that nuclear war was staring them in the face; and now, after 25 years of war and with the world’s second-largest nuclear missile force on high alert, people pretend it cannot happen. Perhaps we were then more morally fit to survive. A real, broad mobilization for this petition and this conference is the only issue which can bring about an alternative to the further slide down toward world war. The petition is literally drawn so that civilization will survive.
Feb. 26—Helga Zepp LaRouche was interviewed on CGTN’s The Hub broadcast this morning by host Wang Guan. WANG GUAN: And now we’re joined also by Helga Zepp-LaRouche in Wiesbaden, Germany, founder and President of the Schiller Institute. Madame LaRouche welcome back to CGTN. I’m glad to have you with us again. First of all, I want to get your sense of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict: Do you think it could have been avoided? HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: President Putin had made very clear that red lines had been crossed. He said at one point, there is no place for me to retreat to, and the West did not listen to that. Then, on Dec. 17, he asked from NATO and the United States legally binding security guarantees, that NATO would not expand further to the east, that no offensive weapons would be put on the Russian border, and that Ukraine would never become a member of NATO. And he did not get an answer. He didn’t get an answer to the core question, only to secondary aspects.So, I think that the West made a big mistake by not listening to legitimate, expressed security concerns of Russia, and now we are on the verge of something which could go completely out of control. WANG: Madame LaRouche, the U.S. and NATO announced the latest rounds of sanctions against Russia, that target President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov and others. Do you think that will deter Russia from its current plans, its operations in Ukraine? ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I don’t think so, because I think President Putin has discounted this. He has said, some years ago already, that if the West would not have found Ukraine to contain, and to use to dismantle Russia, they would have found another issue. Recently, he said the real aim of all of this is to prevent the economic development of Russia. On Jan. 25 there were two unnamed White House officials who said that the sanctions have the aim to prevent Russia from diversifying from oil and gas, meaning they deny Russia the right to development! This is an act of war. Sanctions are an act of war, and I think that Putin has discounted it. It will be painful for Russia, but I think the West is inflicting much more damage on themselves. And it has to be condemned completely. WANG: And also, let’s talk about the United Nations, the role of the UN resolutions failed to pass earlier. Does that surprise you at all? That once again, we saw a divided Security Council at the United Nations, when the stakes are all too high? ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, the UN Security Council has been made practically obsolete by NATO already in 2011, when they lied, in the case of Libya. They got the agreement of Russia and China for a limited action in Libya, which then turned out to be a full-fledged military attack. From that time, the role that lies play has been a big factor, and it does not surprise me at all that now the aim of all of this is to keep the unipolar world. And obviously, Russia and China cannot agree to that, so it’s not a surprise at all. WANG: Madame LaRouche, for years and decades, you’ve been calling for a new security architecture, and now you’re calling for a new security architecture in Europe. What does that new security architecture entail? ZEPP-LAROUCHE: No, I’m calling for an international security architecture, which involves the security interests of all nations on this planet, including Russia and China. I think the historical precedent is the Peace of Westphalia, because, after 150 years of religious warfare in Europe, and the tremendous destruction, all the participating powers came to the conclusion that a continuation of the war would not be to the benefit of anybody, because nobody would live to enjoy it. And we are in a similar situation: If you really look hard at the situation, the danger is the nuclear annihilation of the entire human species. And I think it is that which has to sink into the consciousness of everybody, and then there has to be a process like the Peace of Westphalia, where the principle is that a solution has to take into account the interest of the other, the interest of every other. And that means the security interest of Russia, the security interest of China, of the United States, of the Europeans and all other nations. The second principle of the Peace of Westphalia was that, for the sake of peace, all crimes which were committed by one or the other side have to be forgotten; and thirdly, that the role of the state is important in the economic reconstruction after the war. Now, the equivalent of that today, means that all powers have to address the real, crucial issue that the reason why we have the conflict in the first place, is the fact that the neoliberal system of the West is collapsing, and therefore, the first act of such a new architecture has to be a global Glass-Steagall banking separation, where the casino economy, which has been the reason why the West is getting so desperate, has to be put to and end. Then, we have to have a national banking system for every single country, and a new credit system in the tradition of the Bretton Woods system, which provides cheap credit for the development of the developing countries. If these measures would be agreed upon, a durable peace would be possible. WANG: Madame LaRouche, [name 6:23] a renowned political scientist in Asia earlier today said that Russia’s end-game could be to create a “mini-Soviet Union of sorts.” Do you look at it that way, too? ZEPP-LAROUCHE: No, I don’t think so. I think the only people who are pushing geopolitical blocs right now are those behind President Biden, who tried to create this “alliance of democracies” against the so-called autocratic governments. I think that the agreement between President Xi Jinping and Putin on Feb. 4, where they made a strategic alliance between Russia and China, based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, is open to everybody. And I think any new order which is meant to lead to peace must be inclusive, must overcome geopolitics and basically go to a principle where peace is only possible through development, that has to be accessible for all. WANG: Finally, Madame LaRouche, do you think the U.S. and the West are somehow declining, if you compare their posturing position, in for example, Yugoslavia 20 years ago, when they decisively intervened militarily, and now, with Ukraine, with their equally decisive “no boots on the ground” principle and attitude? ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, we have seen in Afghanistan that NATO and the United States, which are the supposedly most powerful military machine on the planet, were not able to defeat what finally turned out to be 65,000 Taliban fighters. So the military power of the West is in question. The problem is, that leaves only nuclear weapons, and if you look at the nuclear doctrines—the Prompt Global Strike doctrine, or the recent maneuver Global Lightning, which had this idea of a protracted nuclear war—I think that is the real danger. And therefore, the question of nuclear brinkmanship which we see right now is what has to be avoided and has to be urgently replaced. People have to be aware of the fact that if it comes to the use of one single nuclear weapon, it is the logic of nuclear warfare, as compared to conventional warfare, that all nuclear weapons would be used, and that would mean the complete annihilation of civilization. And that’s what the game is here. I think the more people understand that, and demand a different world order, a new security architecture, which could be based on the cooperation for a world health system, for example. We still have a pandemic. We have famine, which is called by David Beasley a famine of “biblical dimensions,” threatening the lives of 300 million people who could die. And these things have to be addressed. And that is the only chance for humanity—can we unite all of these… [crosstalk] WANG: Indeed, a lot of challenges over there. That is all the time we have, I’m afraid—sorry to interrupt. Come back to our show, please, next time. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and President of the Schiller Institute, thank you so much for joining us in this hour.
Feb. 25—In Ukraine this weekend, the military operations continue, with a focus on Kiev. Speaking from there, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today made sounds of both resistance and a call for ceasefire, and also proposed today that talks begin with Russia. President Vladimir Putin, who spoke with President Xi Jinping this morning, said that a high-level Russian delegation would be prepared to meet in Minsk, with Ukrainian representatives, on the security terms for Russia and the region, which Russia has repeatedly spelled out. Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenko affirmed that appropriate conditions would be provided for such a meeting in Minsk.The response of the U.S./U.K./NATO bloc to the situation is more of the same geopolitical logic, which led to the crisis in the first place. NATO heads of state and government met for a virtual session today, and issued a bellicose joint statement. The UN Security Council met late this afternoon, with a resolution by the NATO bloc, to denounce Russia; their next step is to take it to the UN General Assembly. President Biden spoke with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and the U.S. and EU today announced sanctions against Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov personally, and also members of the Russian national security team. All the while, there are pledges of continuing arms flows into Ukraine. A convoy of ammunition reportedly went in today from Poland. The situation will not remain in this phase for long. The military operations will be over at some point soon, and the world is confronted with a new moment in our continuing responsibility: What happens next? One direction is doom, by one or a combination of nuclear war, famine and disease. For certain, the current collapsing financial/economic system cannot be “put back together” again to function. The other direction is toward physical economic, and social advancement for all nations and peoples—a new era for humanity. What will the course of history be, is exactly the focus of the international statement/petition by the Schiller Institute, “Convoke an International Conference to Establish a New Security and Development Architecture for All Nations.” In multiple languages—the latest, Portuguese, it is in circulation for emergency action for a new paradigm. Already, the West is hardening its crazed policy outlook into evil extremes. Media in Germany are making references to Vladimir Putin “walking in the footsteps of Hitler, like 1939.” Instead of this, just go back and look at some of the true reference points in cultural and strategic history. For example, in on Sept. 25, 2001, Putin addressed Germany’s Bundestag, speaking in flawless German, of the joint opportunities between the nations of Europe, including Russia. “The Cold War is over. The world is at a new stage of development.” He spoke of common interests, in particular, of jointly combatting terrorism. He stressed the common economic interests between Russia and Germany. Further, “Russia is an extremely dynamic country within Europe, not just in political terms but also in economic terms.” Over the ensuing years, as these aspirations were countered by the U.K./U.S./NATO establishment, Putin again spoke out, this time against the dangers of the dominance in global relations by the U.S. bloc. In 2007, he addressed the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 10. He warned of the consequences of the “almost uncontained hyper-use of force in international relations.” He opposed the U.S. missile shield in Europe. In 2014, Putin gave an in-depth speech on March 18 to both chambers of the Federal Assembly of Russia, on the occasion of the request for admission into the Russian Federation, by the Crimean Parliament. He presented a history of Ukrainian and Russian peoples, reviewed the unlawful events of the Maidan coup the month before, denouncing the role of the neo-Nazis and others. But all the while, he held out the hand of good will to those genuinely protesting corruption in Ukraine, and to the international community. That same month, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, wrote an article (EIR, March 14, 2014,) “It’s Not About Ukraine; It’s About Thermonuclear War,” which ended with her warning that thermonuclear war is “pre-programmed for the immediate future,” if the West continues its encirclement of Russia, and lacks the policy ability and wisdom to see what is going on, and correct it. She wrote then: "But there is still a small window of time in which a full mobilization of the population and reasonable people in the institutions of the U.S. and Europe can force the changes required in the policies of the governments. The main points are: “• The imperial policy toward Russia and China must be replaced, and the underlying cause of the danger of war eliminated: the threat of disintegration of the trans-Atlantic financial system; “• The true character of the coup in Ukraine must be exposed and admitted, and the underlying cause of the danger of war eliminated: the threat of disintegration of the trans-Atlantic financial system; “• It must be immediately replaced by Glass-Steagall-style separation of the banking system and the creation of a credit system in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton.”
Feb. 25—Natalia Vitrenko, chairwoman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU), and Alessia Ruggeri, of the Comitato per la Repubblica in Italy and also a member of the Committee of Coincidence of Opposites of the Schiller Institute, were on a exclusive TV program broadcast live on the evening of Feb. 23, together with journalists, host Luca La Bella and Gianmarco Landi, and Russian journalist Iryina Mikhaylova, who lives in Italy and volunteered to translate for Vitrenko, whom she knows and admires.In the first 10 minutes of the hour-long interview there were technical difficulties to get Vitrenko connected to the program, and during this time Alessia Ruggeri briefed the audience about her endorsement of Operation Ibn Sina and the fight by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute President, to not only to prevent a war with Russia, but also to prevent mass starvation in Afghanistan. Natalia Vitrenko then joined the discussion, by means of simply having her cell phone image presented to the camera, and she was able to answer many questions from all three participants. The exchange started with a question on the situation in Ukraine, since Putin’s announcement that Russia recognized the two Donbas republics. She emphasized that the Ukrainian people want peace, but the followers of Stepan Bandera (neo-Nazi militias) in the country are being supplied with weapons from America and Britain, and that makes a war possible. During the broadcast, she insisted that it is the Americans and the British who are pushing for war, not the Ukrainian people, who are against war. To a question from Alessia Ruggeri on President Zelenskyy’s request to join NATO and the EU, Vitrenko replied, “the people in Ukraine do not want to join NATO. There was a referendum in 1991 against joining any military bloc. It is Zelenskyy who wants to join NATO because he does not defend the interests of Ukraine, but that of the United States and the U.K.” Host Luca Di Bella asked Vitrenko about her situation, since she had been attacked at a political rally in the past, and she confirmed that she feels threatened by the Ukrainian neo-Nazis and called for an urgent de-Nazification of the country. There was a question also on the role of Soros in the Euromaidan, and in the present politics there. Vitrenko confirmed that many Soros people are in the government and the Euromaidan coup was also sponsored by his foundation. Alessia Ruggeri asked her about Putin’s statement during his Feb. 21 speech about the Odessa massacre in 2014, for which, he said, those responsible should be punished. Vitrenko replied there must be a Nuremberg Tribunal against such crimes against humanity. An audience of 1,300 people were watching the interview on YouTube, and many of them thanked Natalia Vitrenko for her courage and firsthand report on the situation. Also the hosts thanked her, and concluded that they “pray that Natalia Vitrenko may become President of Ukraine” and that Ukraine may have peace.
Feb. 25—Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the Russian Security Council, and gave remarks afterward, in which he called on Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) to separate themselves from the radical Stepan Bandera-tied militias. So far, it has been the radical battalion groupings persisting in the fighting. The UAF members are allowed to disarm and go home. Such a policy aims at breaking Ukraine’s institutions free from the neo-Nazi groupings, and to survive intact.Putin also condemned the Kiev leadership’s decision today to base artillery in the residential areas of Kiev and other cities. He posed to the UAF members not to allow Kiev to use their “children, wives and loved ones as human shields” for the militias. Rather, the UAF can choose to “take power” in the country and negotiate peace with Moscow. “Take the power into your own hands!” encouraged Putin, arguing that the army would be a better negotiating partner than “a bunch of drug addicts and neo-Nazis,” who, he claimed, have “entrenched themselves in Kiev,” and have been holding the people “hostage.”
Feb. 25—Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spent a portion of today sending out feelers for negotiation with Russia for a cessation of hostilities, then apparently pulled back. He said this morning, “I want to again address the President of the Russian Federation. The fighting continues all over Ukraine. Let’s sit at the negotiation table to stop human fatalities,” reported RT. And a key advisor, Mikhail Podolyak, added his voice: “If negotiations are possible, they must be held.” If Moscow demands it, Zelenskyy and his government are willing to discuss “neutrality status.” Kiev “has always left and [still] leaves space for negotiations” despite a “full-scale invasion” by Russian troops.Various Western media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying this morning, that inherent to a neutral Ukraine, was both demilitarization and de-nazification. With that understanding, the Russian government is ready to send a delegation to negotiate—since Zelenskyy had said he is “ready to discuss the neutral status of Ukraine.” Peskov continued that, Putin had “said from the start that the goal of the military operation was helping [the breakaway regions] L.P.R. and D.P.R., including by demilitarizing and de-nazifying Ukraine. Those are essential parts of a neutral status.” The Russian delegation would include military and civilian officials representing various branches of the government. Belarus, a military ally of Russia, agreed to host the peace talks in Minsk, the site of the original 2015, and much-abused, Minsk Accords Kiev responded by counterposing that the talks should be in Poland. Peskov: “The Ukrainian side said it had reconsidered the idea of holding talks in Minsk, chose Warsaw instead, and then disappeared.” He then pointed to Kiev’s new actions at that point—per foreign advisors—they had begun placing artillery in the center of Kiev and Kharkov. Peskov identified this as the known modus operandi of terrorists. These remarks today were preceded by comments yesterday evening. Peskov had stated that Moscow is willing to negotiate terms of surrender with Kiev. He referred to President Putin’s preparedness to engage in discussions with the Ukrainian President, with a focus on obtaining a guarantee of both a status of neutrality for Ukraine, and the promise of no weapons on its territory. Such terms would address Russia’s announced goal, the demilitarization and de-nazification of Ukraine, eliminating the most immediate threat to the security of Russia and its people. Peskov: “The President formulated his vision of what we would expect from Ukraine in order for the so-called ‘red-line’ problems to be resolved…. The operation has its goals—they must be achieved. The President said that all decisions have been made, and the goals will be achieved,” reported RT. Late last night Zelenskyy responded by way of posting a video on Telegram: “We heard from Moscow today that they want to talk about the neutral status of Ukraine. We are not afraid of Russia, we are not afraid of engaging in talks with Russia, we are not afraid of discussing anything, such as security guarantees for our state, we are not afraid of talking about neutral status.” Zelenskyy’s list of things Ukraine is not afraid of can be read as the only permissible way that Ukraine’s President might open the door for a discussion of neutrality. Zelenskyy also stated that Ukraine would need security guarantees from the West for such a neutrality agreement—something the West has not encouraged up to now.
The LaRouche Organization has begun a new class series entitled "Introduction to LaRouche: The Power of Reason." In the midst of the extreme strategic crisis, help us build a Renaissance. The class series will run for the next 8 weeks, and will cover a range of subjects central to Lyndon LaRouche's discoveries in the science of physical economics, and it's keystone, the knowable process of human creativity. This week was the first class in the series, "The Science of the Human Mind," and was presented by Jason Ross and Daniel Burke. If you would like to learn more about the series or register to participate live, CLICK HERE. Public classes will be 6:30-8:30pm EST Wednesdays on The LaRouche Organization's YouTube channel Registrants will be able to join a private Zoom meeting Private in-depth sections: 8:30-10:00pm EST Sundays on Zoom As referenced in this week's class, read Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.'s 1993, "On LaRouche's Discovery." This paper will be the basis for our Sunday 8:30pm EST in-depth section.
February 25 -- As Russian troops moved into Ukraine on February 24 with a mission to degrade Kiev's military capabilities, which President Putin has described as posing an existential threat to Russia's security, and the U.S. and NATO nations responded with an unprecedented economic assault against Russia, it is evident that the increasingly shrill and hysterical anti-Putin narrative coming from the Trans-Atlantic world had little to do with Ukraine and the deployment of Russian troops on its border. Instead, it is a response to the collapse of their post-Cold War "unipolar order". Further, it is an effort directed from the City of London and Wall Street, acting through its "Military-Industrial Complex", to prevent the further economic development of those nations which are not part of their "club" -- and especially the possibility of the emergence of a new, just financial system, serving a multipolar order of sovereign nations, committed to peace and economic development. This most emphatically includes Russia and China, whose leaders consolidated a strategic agreement on February 4, which provoked a panicked response from leading members of the "club," focused on their concern that the strengthened alliance will gain more adherents from nations unwilling to surrender their sovereignty to the "Rules-Based Order" and the banker's "Great Reset."This was the theme of many official statements and commentaries about the Putin-Xi summit, typified by one of the more extreme versions coming from Britain's {Daily Telegraph}, under the headline "Russia and China Rise from Their Knees to Challenge U.S. Dominance." The author, Roland Oliphant, summarized the cause for the hysteria by writing that, with this agreement, "the dominance of the U.S.-led global West will no longer be taken for granted -- or even tolerated." This panic was openly displayed in comments from officials in the days leading up to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine, in pronouncements of the intention to proceed with a brutal sanctions regime if Russia invades Ukraine, and their continued rejection of serious consideration of Putin's demand for security guarantees. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Union Commission, told the Munich Security conference that the goal of sanctions would be to prevent Russia from diversifying its economy beyond oil and gas, by cutting off Russian access to modern technology. British PM Boris Johnson was even more explicit in comments on February 21, when he said that if Russia invades Ukraine, Russian companies will be prevented from trading in Pounds and Dollars. He added that they would cut off Russian firm's access to City of London financial markets. These threats are coherent with the open call for devastating economic warfare against Russia, outlined in a memo released following a White House meeting on January 25, which stated the intent of sanctions would be to conduct financial warfare to destroy the campaign Putin is directing to upgrade and modernize the Russian economy. In a briefing given on January 25, two anonymous senior White House officials said that with the sanctions they intend to impose, the "gradualism of the past is out, this time we'll start at the top of the escalation ladder and stay there." An example given was the use of "export controls", designed to deliver "a severe and immediate blow to Russia and over time make its economy even more brittle." In the lead-up to the Russian military actions, Putin accused the west of using Ukraine as a tool to provoke an invasion by Russia, to justify their destruction of the Russian economy. He added, in a joint press conference with Belarus President Lukashenko, that he expects more sanctions against Russia and Belarus, even if there is no invasion. This was reaffirmed by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who said on February 22 that the goal of the West is to "punish Russia", using "all kinds of 'crippling sanctions'....We know that they will impose sanctions in any case, with or without pretext." When the U.S. and NATO countries initiated sanctions as the first Russian troops entered Ukraine, a defiant Putin said, “...the sanctions pressure will not lessen our resolve to firmly stand up for our interests. We see that blackmail, intimidation, and threats are the only tools the American policy has in its arsenal, trapped as it is in the stereotypes of a unipolar world and a false certainty that the United States still has the right and can impose its own global rules on everyone. This does not work with global powers, primarily Russia and other key international actors. Let its satellites and client states which have completely lost their independence, follow the threatening shouts coming from the United States." Will Sanctions Trigger An Economic Collapse? Once Russian military forces launched their surgical actions against Ukraine's military, which had been bulked up by extensive deliveries of advanced weapons by the U.S., the U.K. and other NATO allies, the onslaught of new sanctions began. President Biden announced the U.S. will impose "sweeping financial sanctions and export controls." Such measures, he said, will "cripple" the Russian economy, severely affecting Russia's ability to do business in dollars, Euros and yen. He claimed that the export controls will cut off "more than half of Russia's high-tech imports" and restrict access to vital technology inputs, "atrophying its industrial base...." Officials in Russia have stated that the country can survive new, harsher sanctions, adding that the effects will be felt much more sharply by the Anglo-American's European allies, especially if it includes cancelling the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which many European countries are counting on to deal with energy shortages and soaring prices, caused mainly by the incompetent Green policies imposed by the European Union. Biden has not yet announced removing Russia's access to the SWIFT foreign exchange transaction system, as this would profoundly damage existing trade of U.S. allies trade with Russia, but has been bandied about as a "nuclear option." The threat to Trans-Atlantic allies' economies was acknowledged by one of the defenders of such sanctions, who said the pain such measures will cause may negatively affect the "unity" of the anti-Russian alliance, but that this is the price that must be paid to defeat Russian aggression. Several analysts have noted that this would also create a pretext to blame Russia for the financial crash which is coming, caused not by Russia but the systemic collapse of the western financial system due to adherence to neoliberal economic policies. This gets to the heart of the matter. It is becoming increasingly evident that such a crash cannot be avoided, given the volumes of uncollectible debt outstanding, and the inflation which has resulted from the attempt to cover the debt with central bank monetary expansion. As {Executive Intelligence Review} has reported, a nearly $2 quadrillion speculative bubble is already blowing apart. This began in September 2019, when the Federal Reserve had to step in to flood the overnight lending markets -- through the so-called Repo window -- with ever higher volumes of liquidity. This was necessary as the commercial banks, which had been the suppliers of Repo liquidity, bowed out, as the demands for liquidity exceeded their capacity, as they were scrambling to cover their own bloated debt obligations. This lending ballooned from several billion a night, to more than $120 to $150 billion in overnight lending, and the terms shifted from repayment within twenty-four hours to a virtual permanent roll-over. The demand had spiked in part due to one large derivative default, but was compounded by the need of debt-strapped corporations for liquidity to cover the interest on their debts. There is renewed concern from speculators that the threat of a tsunami of defaults has not been contained by unlimited creation of liquidity, which is the primary cause of hyperinflation, creating a no-win choice for central banks: either cut off the flow of cheap credit to stop inflation, which risks unleashing a chain reaction of defaults; or keep pumping in liquidity, which would guarantee the triggering of Weimar-style hyperinflation globally, with horrific consequences for every nation. There is another alternative to the neoliberal insanity which has produced this systemic crisis, and that is based on what is emerging in Eurasia, through integration of nations with China's Belt-and-Road Initiative, which could be extended into Europe. The Putin-Xi agreement, while attacked as a military threat, is more frightening to western bankers and financial manipulators as it represents a potential alternative to the imploding City of London/Wall Street dollar-based system. Addressing the inter-relationship between the financial collapse and the war danger, the Schiller Institute has issued a call for convening an international conference to establish both a "new security architecture" and a "development architecture" for all nations. End To Geopolitics The threat of an agreement to scrap the bankrupt system owned by the City of London and Wall Street, and replace it with one based on an alliance between European and Eurasian nations, is not a new concern for the defenders of the present unipolar empire. It was fear of a Eurasian integration with western European nations at the end of the 19th century, typified by such projects as the Trans-Siberian railroad and the Berlin-to-Baghdad railroad, that was behind the adoption of "geopolitics" as a theory of the empire. The theory of "geopolitics" was first formalized by Halford Mackinder, a member of the Royal Geographic Society, in 1904, and was adopted as a strategy to divide East against West, and to isolate Germany, to protect the near-monopoly control of the British empire over world trade and finance. Its application directly led to two world wars in the 20th century. The real aim of the geopoliticians then, was to prevent French-Russian-German cooperation, which would serve as a basis for European integration with Eurasian and Asian nations. And that is the same fear which underlies the vilification of, and war drive against, both Russia and China today, with the Anglo-American strategists, operating through war hawks in government, academic circles and think tanks, taking the lead in shaping the narrative. Among their greatest nightmares is the following: Might Germany, perhaps with support of France, break out from under the domination of the Anglo-American forces running NATO and the EU, and join with Russia and China in moving to a new financial system, of the type proposed by American statesman and economist Lyndon LaRouche, as a New Bretton Woods? The escalating provocations against Russia and China are an obvious attempt to prevent this from happening. This was a theme of the Schiller Institute Conference on February 19, which was elaborated by a distinguished panel of speakers from many nations. It was the explicit theme of Helga Zepp-LaRouche's keynote, in which she presented the urgent need for a new strategic architecture, based on providing security for all sovereign nations, as the basis for a New Paradigm of peace and development. It was also the theme of the other keynote, delivered by this author, who opened the first panel by declaring that the Unipolar Order has come to an end. Watch the conference HERE. It is this reality which has provoked the impotent hysteria behind the threats against Russia, which preceded the Russian military actions in Ukraine, and have been amplified since. What Putin has initiated was made inevitable by the unwillingness of Trans-Atlantic governments to address the legitimate concerns he raised regarding security guarantees for Russia, which he said must be extended to all nations. There will be no peace or economic security anywhere, unless the return to the principle of the Treaty of Westphalia, as promoted by the Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and at the center of its call for convening an international conference, is adopted by all.
What really was the Cold War? Did WWII ever really end? We will look at Elliot Roosevelt's insights in his book "As He Saw It" to examine the situation currently. Also, we will look at Eisenhauer's fight against the Military Industrial Complex and the true spirit of Bandung to finally end the Anglo American Empire. Gerry Rose was the guest speaker.
While the mainstream media has proven to be nothing but a brainwashing tool run by Anglo-American financial oligarchs and their Military-Industrial-Complex, there is a way to know what's going on in Ukraine: Listen to what Putin is saying! He spelled out his goals yesterday -- a demilitarized Ukraine, and a de-Nazified Ukraine. While some, such as Blinken, scoff at that, there are Nazis in positions of influence in Ukraine, who have threatened Pres. Zelensky whenever he threatens to move away from a confrontation with Russia. Why do western nations cover up for the Nazis in Ukraine? Because they are key to the intent of the Trans-Atlantic powers, which is to destroy Russia, to remove them as an obstacle to their attempt to consolidate a global dictatorship under the guise of a "Great Reset" and a "Green New Deal."
Feb. 24—“Before we finally and irrevocably reach the point of no return in mankind’s history — the point at which a global, thermonuclear war obliterates the human species — we must act swiftly to correct the absolute disaster that the imperial policy of the EU and the United States has created in Ukraine, and in relation to Russia and China. And we must especially eliminate the roots of this civilizational crisis, before the point of no return is reached.” So wrote Helga Zepp-LaRouche in a March 8, 2014, article. Eight years later, her analysis is absolutely spot-on.The failure of NATO and the United States to respond seriously to Russia’s December 2021 security demands has led to a situation where President Putin felt that he had no choice but to launch a “special military operation” in Ukraine to achieve its demilitarization and denazification, before the situation in Ukraine, including increasing quantities of materiel and foreign military service members, created an absolutely unbearable security threat. The literally Nazi menace in Ukraine, installed in that coup, was exposed in a powerful expose published by Executive Intelligence Review in February 2014: “Western Powers Back Neo-Nazi Coup in Ukraine.” The roots of the civilizational crisis driving the mad rush towards conflict with Russia and China is the collapsing the trans-Atlantic financial system, and the hysterical intent to use military threats and “green” blackmail to maintain the unipolar supremacy of the trans-Atlantic elite. As stated in the Schiller Institute’s February 23 petition — which is drawing an increasing number of signatures — “behind this very real danger of war, and the cause of that danger, is the blowout of the entire trans-Atlantic financial system…. The City of London and Wall Street, the owners of that bankrupt system, are desperate to destroy any functioning alternative to their system — such as Russia and China’s alliance … — and the financial Establishment has openly stated that this is what is at stake.” Will that establishment’s mad demand for submission be overcome, to be replaced by a new paradigm, a new security and development architecture for all nations? The answer lies in our hands. Join the LaRouche movement’s work to demand the immediate convocation of an international conference like that which crafted the Peace of Westphalia. The petition is available in English here.
PDF In light of the escalating Ukraine crisis, people around the world are urgently asking themselves and their political leaders where this will all end. Is this heading towards a very big, perhaps even thermonuclear, global confrontation? Are we facing a reverse, more dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis? Will Mankind even survive?Behind this very real danger of war, and the cause of that danger, is the blowout of the entire trans-Atlantic financial system. A nearly $2 quadrillion speculative bubble of derivatives and debt is already blowing apart. A hyperinflationary process has been unleashed globally, with an accompanying collapse of the physical economies of the Western nations. The City of London and Wall Street, the owners of that bankrupt system, are desperate to destroy any functioning alternative to their system — such as Russia and China’s alliance around the Belt and Road Initiative, which now incorporates nearly 150 nations — and the financial Establishment has openly stated that this is what is at stake. So has Vladimir Putin, who has correctly said that the U.S./U.K./NATO relentless expansion eastward up to Russia’s very borders, is driven by this economic policy, and that it threatens Russia’s national security in ways Russia cannot accept. Therefore, to stop the drive to war, it is necessary to adopt a more fundamental approach, which is to establish an entirely New Paradigm that will ensure the security, and the economic development, of every nation on the planet. The only recent precedent for this in the West, is the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which put an end to 150 years of religious wars in Europe. It was crafted only at the point that all parties realized that, if they continued on their current path, there would be no winners and very few survivors. They chose to create a New Paradigm based on the defense of the interest of the other, and on the premise that the security of all was the first requirement for the security of each party. That is the key lesson of the Treaty of Westphalia for today. The world today stands at a similar crossroads. If the current geopolitical policies continue, nuclear war becomes a very real possibility — after which there would be no winners, and most probably no survivors. Instead, an international conference must immediately be convoked along the lines of the Peace of Westphalia. The fundamental interest of all of the parties is to ensure that the central economic and security interests of each are taken care of — in other words, an order based on the benefit of the other, on the common good or the General Welfare, and on an underlying love of all Mankind. The economic system must also be drastically reshaped to express this outlook. The renowned American economist Lyndon LaRouche specified in great detail how such a system would work, based on what he called his Four Laws: The immediate re-enactment of the Glass–Steagall law instituted by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, without modification, as to principle of action. This means putting the entire speculative financial bubble through bankruptcy reorganization. A return to a system of top-down, and thoroughly defined, National Banking, as specified by the U.S. first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. The purpose of the use of such a Federal credit-system is to generate high-productivity trends in improvements of employment; with the accompanying intention, to increase the physical-economic productivity, and the standard of living, of the persons and households. Adopt a fusion-driver ‘crash program’ to promote the fundamental breakthroughs in science which unlimited economic growth and development require. The Schiller Institute and its founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche issue this call to initiate the urgent international discussion that is needed to convoke such a conference, and stop the so-called “Doomsday Clock” before it strikes midnight. It is time for institutions and individuals from every nation to step forward and join the mobilization for an international conference to establish a new security and development architecture for all nations. Sign the petition here
Russian military moves into Ukraine are the inevitable result of the rejection by Trans-Atlantic leaders to seriously negotiate the draft treaties presented by President Putin, which would offer security guarantees to Russia. Putin has called the bluff of the Bidens, Blinkens and BoJos, knowing that they actually wanted him to launch an attack so they could unleash sanctions aimed at destroying Russia. It will not succeed, but could trigger a nuclear war. The Schiller Institute is circulating an emergency call for an international conference to negotiate a security and development architecture that advances the interests of all people in all sovereign nations. Read it, sign it, and circulate it. You can find it here: https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2022/02/23/petition-convoke-an-international-conference-to-establish-a-new-security-and-development-architecture-for-all-nations/
Feb. 22—On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the announcement of Russian recognition of the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk as sovereign republics within Ukraine, delivered a televised speech, not to Russia, but to the world. English speakers were able to watch and hear Putin’s message as well. Putin made it clear that, whatever the delusions of those in the trans-Atlantic sector, Russia regards Ukraine as fully integrated into the NATO command and control structure. He specifically stated, “I will explain that the US strategic planning documents (such as Prompt Global Strike, released in Feb. 2007) stipulate an option of [a] so-called preemptive strike on [an] enemy’s missile systems. And we know who the main enemy for the US and NATO is. It is Russia….”Remember that Mississippi’s Roger Wicker stated on December 7, 2021, that for the United States, “Military action could mean that we stand off with our ships in the Black Sea and that we rain destruction on Russian military capabilities…. We don’t rule out first-use nuclear action. We don’t think it’ll happen. But there are certain things in negotiations if you’re gonna be tough that you don’t take off the table.” Former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, on the Tucker Carlson program, responded the next day to Wicker, “This is why it is such a dangerous situation that we are facing, as we are being pushed closer and closer very quickly … to a hot war, a nuclear war that would destroy the world as we know it,” she said. The article “If Russia Invades Ukraine, Sanction China,” subtitled “Putin has found an economic lifeline in Beijing that only Washington can destroy,” (see slug) shows what the real target here is. There is now a motion for human progress, for world economic and technological development, and against depopulation, involving well over 100 nations. It is especially represented by the recent alliance between Russia and China, the “China-Russia joint statement on International Relations Entering a New Era,” properly identified by Patrick Lawrence as “a global order most of humanity has awaited throughout the postwar decades—all seven of them. This is immensely positive.” The “magnet for development” known as the Belt and Road Initiative, the more advanced version of the 1996 New Silk Road deliberations involving Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute, was first announced, it should be remembered, in Kazakhstan in September, 2013, by President Xi Jinping. This was just before the Ukrainian government rejected the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement on November 21, deciding in favor of the Eurasian Economic Union. The elected Ukrainian government of Yanukovich was then overthrown by the “economic hit men,” including Victoria Nuland and others. Today, the Doomsday politicians can and must be defeated by a new security architecture, based on peace through development and the LaRouche Four Laws. The Schiller Institute’s social media presence and its interventions into religious, academic, intelligence, and national institutions, using the speeches of our recent conference, cannot only save lives, but make that new architecture a reality. Thousands of citizens standing up, not for personal freedoms, but for “the benefit of the other,” for peace through development as the means to end world war, is the only path forward for humanity. In this year of LaRouche, if the name for peace is development, the name for development is LaRouche’s Four Laws. The International Schiller Institute is therefore launching a mobilization which will release a statement in the next 24 hours, proposing multiple actions that all can take to help. The idea is that all our forces, and those that join us, speak with one clear voice, what Lyndon LaRouche would have called “the proper voice placement,” to achieve a precision in our desired effect — one idea across many continents.
Feb. 22—In a televised address delivered shortly after signing the decrees grant recognition to the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Russian President Vladimir Putin effectively charged the US with aiming to break Russia up into pieces. “Ok, you do not want to have a friend and ally like us, but why depicting us as an enemy then? The answer is one. Our political regime or something else does not matter. They simply do not want to see such a large and independent country as Russia,” Putin said, adding that this answered all questions. "This is a source of traditional US policy on the Russian track.Putin also said that Ukraine will serve as a NATO foothold for a strike against Russia, should it join the alliance. “I will explain, that the US strategic planning documents […] stipulate an option of the so-called preemptive strike on enemy’s missile systems. And we know who the main enemy for the US and NATO is. It is Russia. NATO documents officially, straightforwardly declare Russia as the main threat for Euro-Atlantic security. And Ukraine will serve as a foothold for such a strike,” he said. Even without alliance membership, Ukraine is already in practical terms already integrated into its military command structures, Putin continued. “This means that the command of the Ukrainian armed forces and even separate formations and units can be directly exercised from NATO headquarters. The United States and NATO have already begun shamelessly exploiting Ukrainian territory as a theater of potential military operations,” he said. “We see how the Kiev regime is being persistently beefed up militarily,” Putin stressed. “The United States alone has channeled billions of US dollars for these purposes since 2014, including the deliveries of armaments, ammunition and specialist training. In recent months, Western weapons have been continuously flowing into Ukraine demonstratively as seen by the entire world,” he said. The activity of the Ukrainian armed forces and special services is directed by foreign advisers, Putin continued. “We know well about that. Military contingents of NATO countries have been present actually constantly on the territory of Ukraine under various pretexts in recent years,” the Russian president said. “Regular joint drills [of Ukraine and NATO) have a clear anti-Russia bias,” Putin pointed out. In fact, the Kiev regime has already passed a law permitting the presence of foreign forces in Ukraine for tem major exercises in 2022. Earlier in the speech. Putin provided a historical overview ini which he argued that Ukraine has never had real statehood any time in its modern history, particularly from the time of the October 1917 Revolution and the Civil War of 1922. Without actually using the term, Putin described what amounts to the creation of a failed state in Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union, one that has never had true sovereignty, particularly in the realm of the economy which has been dominated by external interests only concerned with removing as much loot as they can from the country. As examples, Putin cited the shutting down of major Soviet-era industrial complexes such as the Nikolayev shipyard on the Black Sea, which has gone out of business; the Antonov aviation concern which hasn’t produced an aircraft since 2016; Yuzhmash, a factory specialising in missile and space equipment, which is bankrupt; and the Kremenchug Steel Plant, which is also bankrupt. “This situation begs the question: poverty, lack of opportunity, and lost industrial and technological potential—is this the pro-Western civilisational choice they have been using for many years to fool millions of people with promises of heavenly pastures?” Putin said. “It all came down to a Ukrainian economy in tatters and an outright pillage of the country’s citizens, while Ukraine itself was placed under external control, directed not only from the Western capitals, but also on the ground, as the saying goes, through an entire network of foreign advisors, NGOs and other institutions present in Ukraine.”
How much do you know about the reasons behind Putin's decision to recognize the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics? How much do you actually know about Ukraine, whose people are being used as cannon fodder in a war between Trans-Atlantic financial oligarchs, and Russia and China? The west has poured over $5 billion in new weapons into Ukraine, paid for by loans, when Ukraine already is facing default on $4 to 5 billion in debt. And did you know that "democratic" Ukraine has shut down opposition media, jailed and threatened opposition leaders, and placed hard-core Nazis is leading positions in its security and defense forces? To learn the truth, watch Ukrainian economist and political leader Natalia Vitrenko, in her Feb. 19 address to the Schiller Institute.
Putin just called the bluff of the War Hawks who are trying to prop up their collapsing unipolar order. By recognizing the independence of the "breakaway republics" of Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk, he is offering to protect them from the escalating shelling and shooting coming from the Ukraine side of the Line of Contact. He said no matter what Russia did, the West would respond with sanctions, because their goal is not peace, but the destruction of Russia's economy, to force a regime change there, which he will not allow. The alternative is to organize a new security architecture -- is anyone in the West listening?
Feb. 21—Russian President Putin’s determination to preserve Russia’s nuclear deterrent and prevent hostile NATO-armed, even nuclear-armed states on its doorstep, is only the outward issue of the present war crisis. The driving cause is two economic partnerships or alliances in the world, and the fact that one of them—led by the trans-Atlantic NATO nations—is sinking economically and heading for a financial implosion, a “second 2008” or worse.Leading European Union and World Economic Forum officials have flipped out at the revelation on Feb. 4 that the growing China-Russia economic cooperation of 2021, had become a full economic and strategic partnership between the world’s leading infrastructure-building and poverty-fighting nation and the world’s leading nuclear and nuclear energy power and leading food exporter. Cooperating, they could shortly be the leading spacefaring power as well. The fantasy of destroying that alliance has become a motive for war. The financial elite of London and Wall Street decreed in recent years a “Great Reset,” less dramatically called the Green Deal, and it has turned the economic stagnation ruling since 2008 into a deepening recession. Look at what was caused in 2021 by seven years of rapid forced “green” disinvestment in fossil fuels and nuclear (annual investment cut by more than half outside Russia and China) caused in 2021. Global energy production stagnated; global electricity generation dropped. Corn, wheat and seed oil production are falling in 2022 due to fertilizer hyperinflation and shortage. The “green” replacement for fossil fuels and nuclear does not function. Worldwide, the solar- and wind-power share of total energy production was still just 4% in 2021, according to a long review of the situation by Gail Tverberg today. Disappearing wind power caused serious economic damage in 2021 in the central U.S. Plains, across Northern Europe and across Northern China—China alone solved the problem quickly. Technology for large-scale storage of intermittent power is still far off. Combined with vast money-printing by central banks to provide “an asset and money economy” where the productive economy is shrinking, this has triggered inflation heading for hyperinflationary blowout. Check the Feb. 18 note on The Carson Report of Joseph Carson, former chief economist for AllianceBernstein investment bank: “The current inflation cycle is unlike anything seen before. The 1970s and 1980s inflation cycles centered on consumer and producer prices, while assets prices (equities and real estate) powered the 1990s and 2000s inflation cycles. Today’s inflation cycle has all of the above. And based on the broad price index, the current inflation cycle is as big as the 1970s and the dot.com and the housing bubble combined. (Note: CPI less shelter has risen 9.1%in the last year, the biggest increase since 1981. Including a market-price shelter … lifts CPI to double-digits. The old producer prices for finished goods are up 12.5, while core intermediate and crude prices have increased by 23% and 13.5%, respectively….)” Now sanctions over Ukraine, openly intended and designed by U.S. Treasury and National Security Council officials to crush Russia’s economy, are being discussed and demanded by the NATO powers. Against the world’s largest fossil fuels exporter, they will wreak worldwide havoc, as China helps Russia withstand them, as it has withstood others. World energy reserves are already so low, oil and natural gas are being “priced to destroy demand,” as JPMorgan’s chief oil trader described it on Feb. 17. Or in Gail Tverberg’s description in the above-cited analysis, the option of pricing into a deep recession. Sanction Russia’s major banks so that they cannot make loans? What about the biggest U.S. and European banks, which already control most deposits and don’t make loans? Thus arises the motive to force war, to destroy the alternative represented, for developing nations in particular, by China and Russia. But their partnership alone, with the Belt and Road Initiative of infrastructure building, is not sufficient to a solution for all nations. That demands a new strategic agreement or conference based on a completely different economic policy from the collapsing casino game Wall Street and the City of London are playing. Guiding that policy should be the well-known but not implemented (except significantly in China) Four Laws spelled out by Lyndon LaRouche. These include Glass-Steagall laws in every nation, Hamiltonian national banks in every nation, and crash programs to conquer space with fusion and plasma technologies.
