[evgeny]

The US and UK outwitted the architects of socialism in both the USSR and China. Both in undercover intrigue and propaganda. It's evident. You actually believe this "sovereign" China and Russia bs.!!

Farewell, liberal Latvia
November 5, 2009, Ernest Buivid (Latvia)
or Where has the "invisible hand of the market" naive country, everything is done completely market-based fashion


Early September, "Day of Knowledge", the picture on television news: In the empty school porch, clean, newly painted (on the day of knowledge) sad student (former) lay flowers at a grave, "Farewell to school!". This is not goodbye graduates, they are still students, it's goodbye to the school, which they did not have time to finish - it was closed. Closed not one, fifty schools were closed. No money for education - education funding reduced by 40%.

Another picture - crowd of doctors with various witty posters, picket - closed hospital. Closing no one, closed a dozen - no money for health care, a reduction of 40%, and the funding of hospitals has been reduced by 70%.

Call on the radio - call the rural pensioner - where we now receive a pension? Closed down the post office. Not pay off. Closing no one, closed 70 offices across the country. Not needed, does not pay. Therefore, all post offices in the state a year ago laid over 10 million lats (14.3 million euros) in new capital of the Postal Bank. It is, instead of mail. Real policy - what a sick and illiterate people mail? In medicine there is no money.

Being shut down theaters - the new Minister of Culture said that the 8 theaters for LR too much - in theaters, too, no money. The Ministry of Culture now has money only for construction of libraries. Besides - without books. In the book, too, no money - funding for school libraries reduced four times. Who will go to the National Library (if it is built)? After all, if a person is a child learns to read books, they do not need him all his life.

And the government compiled a list of public functions, they proved to be 1000, and collects offers - from which functions can still refuse. Why? To budget became friends. And the extra functions can be privatized. Already have a wish - to assay supervision.

Very interesting! "STATE - The main political organization of society, is carrying out its governance, the protection of its economic and social structure." This is in the dictionary. And why should the state, if you delete (privatize) its function? Moreover, the major - education, health, social protection? Only wages and collecting rollback higher officials and the president of the UN guided tours - to say there a few common phrases on duty?

"Milestones"

What is happening in Latvia?


We are simply going through the next stage of our "development", which is very neatly and logically extends the already completed stages, which began with the acquisition of a second independence. Thing of the past today's Latvia. Not viable.

After gaining independence (it received from the hands of Yeltsin), along with her LR has a great heritage of Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, which for the time, which is now called the occupation of Latvia, managed to build 350 large industrial businesses and created a huge infrastructure. Companies have worked and earned money in the budget, which was two and a half times the present that we have a whole year trying to reduce. That budget cut was not required - its surplus (excess of income over expenditure) amounted to 5,8%. This is money for development. It is with free education, healthcare and housing. This data for 1988, then began meetings and work abandoned.

Instead, take up the reform of the inheritance.

The first phase - privatization. Hatched foreign consultants (our, runaway with the Germans in 1944) explained naive, that state-owned enterprises - not very effectively, the only way - to privatize them. So they did. Enterprises got a variety of clever guys who came to power, the Popular Front, but what to do with them, they did not know the company stopped.

Five years of living that would sell equipment facing enterprises - mostly in the scrap metal, or the Poles, who equip their business equipment for 5% of its value. Now the Poles, we bring products - 30% cheaper than ours. Already dead - could not withstand the competition.

As a result of this "reform" manufacturing plants have disappeared as a class, turning in real estate. Of the 350 intact units, which can be counted on the fingers. Production volumes decreased from 40% of GDP to 10%. The first phase was successfully completed.

The second stage of reform - real estate speculation. The whole country was filled with real estate, but what to do with it, it was not known. Because there was a tax on commercial property in 4% of cadastral value, which excluded the possibility of not working to keep property - in order to "twist" it to market - tax ate the whole effect. Real estate could only exist while working. Very good principle, but the speculators are not suitable, and industrialists have already disappeared.

In Latvia, all in the hands of a few clever kids (small country, only 2,2 million inhabitants) - had a new "reform". Reduced property tax from 4% to 1%. Everything was great - the tax is less than inflation, real estate became a place to store money in order to save them from rising inflation. This place is expensive, real estate became more expensive - 66% per year. Fantastic "broth". She "sucked" into itself all the means of the national economy, making everything else in the desert. After all, real estate speculation is not a perpetual motion machine, it must be constantly nurtured, attracting funds from outside. And that party no longer exist - production, which creates new values, has died. Latvia to import and sell foreign goods. Aliens and earn.

The third stage of "reform." This is today. The government calls it "structural reforms". All the available money has already been "engulfed" property and depreciate. Devalued simply because money is no longer available. There is nowhere to "attract", but from investments in real estate has already lost 80%. While. But the process continues.

What does the government? Latvian ship sinks, the government throws overboard all strange to him the property and passengers. Teachers - overboard! Medics - overboard! Police - overboard! Hospitals - overboard! Post offices - overboard! Seniors - overboard. Theaters - overboard! All over the side, just by surviving.

This is reminiscent of old film "The Red Tent," about how the Arctic has crashed airship "Italia" General Nobile. He was holed and lost height. All overboard! "As a result, when he fell, they did not have nothing - no food, no drinking, no fuel. Only a small red tent on the ice. More than half have died, the rest of the half and then I found the icebreaker "Krasin". He came from Leningrad to the Arctic - not very familiar path. Long to wait.

What's next?

Then the final - a debt pit. Heritage walk, to earn not learned, live in debt.

This year, by September, has already taken loans from international organizations 3 billion euros, and all collected during this time the core budget revenues amounted to 2.6826 billion euros (- only 90% of the borrowed!) We borrow more than we earn!! This is a disaster. Latvia lives through international funds.

What could make our government?

For 8 months of hard "work" (discussion!) The government cut the budget of 500 million lats (714.3 million lats). But what makes this economy, if at the time of the life of a government to borrow 2100 million lats - in 4,2 times more? Is this economy or not it (only 23% of the incurred debt) - does not change anything, just talk.

Discussions are continuing about the economy - writes the budget for 2010. Again, be cut by 500 million lats gather for kopecks on the benefits, medicines, theaters, sports centers. Been reduced and canceled their pension indexation, reduced benefits for children, the government abolished the payment operations in the hospitals ... Even the Commission on the calculation of losses from "occupation", "our holy, all that is required 200 thousand lats, was closed. But - that all this will, if the borrowing plan the government intends this year to borrow another 1100 million euros, and the next - again 3 billion? Again, as early as 6.4 times more than save (on paper)?

This is completely hopeless financial disaster. After all, if we are on the government's life requires twice as much now earn, and we are entering a debt, then to get out of this we must:

- To earn twice as much just to live for their money, and

- Plus a similar amount to earn for the impact of those debts (with interest).

At four times the need to work and earn. What does this mean? The fact that Latvia, the poorest country in the EU, should at once reach the level of Italy. Utopia.

Where and who can do this? After all, we have 200 thousand and 160 thousand unemployed people have left - almost half of those workers who earned taxes. For the rest - it is to budget, for which the taxes are paid by the budget of what we earn. All. Arrived. Further, the system that says - "Let's give the people - freedom of speech, the rest take away his" no longer go. It is necessary to change the system. Rotten, its already in 1934 changed the president Ulmanis, but advisors from across the ocean all restored, and again we repeated the whole way collapse and came to the same accident.

Our rulers every day appear on television, but did not say. Do not know. Just paint. Again, you want Ulmanis. Who is for it will take?

Otherwise, we will only have the red tent. Out of humanitarian assistance.

The Collapse of the Baltic Tigers
http://www.workers.org/2009/world/latvia_0305/

The inhabitants of Latvia sharply increased interest in Russia's citizenship.

In ravaged crisis in Latvia is a new trend. Residents of our country are increasingly thinking about how to connect his life with its eastern neighbor - Russia Federation. To just sign up for a consultation, it is necessary to waiting in a long queue. Moreover, among applicants for the Russia's citizenship many young people.

[americandream]

I know all of that evgeny. In decades to come, all ex-communist states will rue the day they jettisoned collectivisation and I include the Chinese in there but facts are facts. You lost the Cold War by either doing back room deals with capital (Mao) or rushing feverishly into the arms of captal (USSR)...all for what? The right to sit at a computer all day long viewing pornography, for Soviet women to have the freedom to be prostitutes, to have your culture debased by a commercialised popular culture and its obsessive and infantile grandstanding. THE GREAT SOCIETY YOUR FOREFATHERS FOUGHT HARD FOR, you handed to capital for a few trinkets and the flattery of being admitted into the the association of "civilised" nations, a civilisation based on lies, confusion, deceit and barbarism as we see now. They talk about Soviet cruelty yet blithely murder and destroy. They have excuses for everything, even selling their children to the war machine. There are no morals in capitalism. It is the paradigm of the mechanised monkey. On the brink of the collapse of private greed, you turned away from the collective. I don't think you people quite understand what you have squandered, what the world has lost in the fall of the Soviet Union. And it's gone!

[evgeny]

I know all of that evgeny. In decades to come, all ex-communist states will rue the day they jettisoned collectivisation and I include the Chinese in there but facts are facts. You lost the Cold War by either doing back room deals with capital (Mao) or rushing feverishly into the arms of captal (USSR)...all for what? The right to sit at a computer all day long viewing pornography, for Soviet women to have the freedom to be prostitutes, to have your culture debased by a commercialised popular culture and its obsessive and infantile grandstanding. THE GREAT SOCIETY YOUR FOREFATHERS FOUGHT HARD FOR, you handed to capital for a few trinkets and the flattery of being admitted into the the association of "civilised" nations, a civilisation based on lies, confusion, deceit and barbarism as we see now. They talk about Soviet cruelty yet blithely murder and destroy. They have excuses for everything, even selling their children to the war machine. There are no morals in capitalism. It is the paradigm of the mechanised monkey. On the brink of the collapse of private greed, you turned away from the collective. I don't think you people quite understand what you have squandered, what the world has lost in the fall of the Soviet Union. And it's gone!

What do you mean Russia "Lost A cold war"?
today Russian fleet can destroy NATO's group in 20 minutes
and NATO's fleet can destroy Russia.
We just stop this madness.

[americandream]

USSR, Not Russia. Remember, Russia was a state within the Union of Soviets. In successfully breaking up the Soviet system into disparate semi-capitalist oligarchies, America and the Anglosphere won THAT conflict. There will be a return to collectrivisation in the future but it will not be one led by the USSR. So to that extent, the former states of the USSR including Russia are now marginal players in the world. The conflict these days is between a polarised international labour and capitalism. In the past, it was a conflict between international labour LED by the USSR and capital.

See my point?

What do you mean Russia "Lost A cold war"? today Russian fleet can destroy NATO's group in 20 minutes
and NATO's fleet can destroy Russia. We just stop this madness.

[IslandCrow]

Gazprom not doing as well as before:

Profits at Russian energy giant Gazprom have halved because of the higher cost of buying gas.
The company said the cost of purchased gas from central Asia had increased by 105%, resulting in lower profits.

[ur=]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8349884.stm]BBC[/url]

Does this mean we will all go down with Russia?

[mcgowanjm]

Gazprom not doing as well as before:

Profits at Russian energy giant Gazprom have halved because of the higher cost of buying gas.Does this mean we will all go down with Russia?

Russia 'went down' in the 90's. The US will leave Afghanistan
before Russia goes down again.

[dissident]

Gazprom should stop subsidizing its customers. Natural gas should have a higher price than oil on a btu for btu basis, instead it is being sold for less than half. Also, declining profits is not the same thing as losses in spite of what the Wall Street drones think. Compared to 1998 this recession has been a walk in the park for Russia. Just look at the shortfall in government revenues and bank support activity in the US, it is much higher as a fraction of GDP. The US ILO unemployment rate is also higher.

[evgeny]

America’s Imperial Economy: What The Republicans Are Too Squeamish To Admit
By Mark Ames

In the great debate about the stimulus package — which, underneath all the cant is really nothing more than a debate about how America’s scarce wealth should be divided – one of the right wing’s favorite mantras was their claim that the New Deal did nothing to end the Depression. Instead, they argue, it was World War Two that ended the Depression.

So far, the liberals’ counterargument is to throw out a bunch of statistics arguing that the New Deal did work. Both sides take their argument to the real of hypothetical realities: either the ’30s could have been worse without the New Deal (liberals argue) or the 30s would have been better off without the New Deal (right-wingers argue). But let’s stop and consider the Republican right wing’s argument about World War Two’s effect on its own merits: if it really was the war that pulled America out of the Depression, that is hardly an argument in favor of endless tax cuts and small government. The wartime economy was the very opposite of the Adam Smith model of free trade and minimal government interference — it was, instead, New Deal economics to the tenth power, in which the government managed and controlled just about every single facet of the citizenry’s lives. And then of course there’s the war’s outcome: America emerged victorious and largely unscathed with comparatively little cost in lives compared to the war’s other major participants, while all of America’s global competitors essentially committed mass suicide and were left prostrate at our militarized feet.

The Republican right unintentionally raised a very serious issue, but no one seems to want to call them on it, not even their own supporters. The can of worms they’ve opened leads to this: what if America’s booms and busts are tied not to monetary policy, taxation levels or government regulation, but rather to our success or failure as an imperialist war machine? What if our wealth is a consequence of our ability to plunder the world’s wealth, often by default thanks to our competitors’ suicidal behavior?

Consider this very simple, surface chronology of the past 100 years (and why not stick with the surface — after all economics, despite all of its complex statistical mathematics, has turned out to be little more than glorified astrology):

1914-1918: World War I. America ends up on the winning side at comparative little cost in American lives, no destruction to the homeland or to our economy. Whereas America’s European competitors commit mass suicide both demographically and economically. This is followed by:

1920-1929: One of the greatest boom decades in American history. No great wars, no new mass suicide by competitors. That is, nothing new to plunder. This leads to:

1929-1939: The Great Depression. No new wars, no new imperial expansion, and with it, feeble economic expansion. This is followed by:

1939-1945: World War II. America ends up on the winning side at comparative little cost in American lives, no damage to the American homeland. America’s European and Asian competitors commit mass suicide both demographically and economically. Global markets (minus Communist world) are America’s for the taking. Which leads to:

1945-1960: American economic boom. America’s economy makes up half of the world’s GDP in 1950, and rides its biggest sustained boom in U.S. history, including an unprecedented rise in living standards.

1945-1960: French and British empires, already weakened competitors of America’s empire, decline and collapse for good, allowing the American empire to expand further by filling the vacuum. America fights Korean War 1950-52; wisely halts it to a draw after just 2 years, meaning little net gain or loss. Communist empire expands — communist countries by nature are uncompetitive against the U.S. economically, except inasmuch as they deny markets to U.S. goods and keep the empire in check. This leads to:

1960-1970: The American economic boom, still riding off the momentum of the World War II wealth transfer, gradually begins to sputter as the decade wears on. This economic decline accelerates in tandem with:

1963-1975: America loses its first war ever in Vietnam. With its first imperial defeat, the American empire is in retreat. Once-compliant countries from Latin America to the Middle East assert themselves; Third World becomes increasingly either socialist or “non-aligned”; America plunders less and less of the world’s wealth. This leads to:

1970s: Economic stagnation, decline in standard of living. This eventually leads to the election of an avowed American imperialist, Ronald Reagan, which is followed by:

1981-1989: American economy ramped up for Cold War against “Evil Empire.” Reagan racks up massive debt and pours enormous state funds into “winning” the Cold War against the “evil empire.” Militarizes the economy and the culture. Imperial decline halted. Latin America reabsorbed into soft American empire, while many Arab states also become more compliant, especially following the bombing of Libya. Fund war against Soviets in Afghanistan, letting them bleed, without any damage to American homeland. This leads to:

1980s: American economy begins to grow again, though still not as fast as in the 60s or 50s, the period after victory in World War II.

1989-1991: American victory in the “Cold War”: the Communist empire collapses. American empire absorbs these new markets without firing a shot or suffering damage in the homefront, opening up massive new opportunities for wealth plunder. America’s biggest economic competitor, Japan, essentially collapses. In 1991, America wins Gulf War 1, its first big war victory since Vietnam. American empire, without rivals, suddenly resurgent again. This leads to:

1990s: Economic boom, which accelerates towards the end of the decade, reaching levels of growth not seen since the 50s and 60s.

2001: Brief recession which many say will spell doom to America’s booming economy. But then:

2001-2: America wins war against Afghanistan, leading to world recognizing for the first time that America is not only an empire, but a “hyperpower.” Economy quickly turns around and begins to boom again, until:

2003-8: America loses only its second war in its history against Iraq. The victory in Afghanistan slowly unwinds and starts morphing into another defeat. That’s two war losses in one decade. Which leads to:

2007-present: The new Great Depression.

So if you follow the Republican right-wing’s own logic, the question isn’t whether or not we should raise or lower taxes, or whether we should fund programs that teach kids about STDs. America’s economic booms and busts have nothing to do with Adam Smith’s three-pointed-hat Calvinist fantasies and everything to do with whether we win or lose wars, and, more importantly, if our competitors commit mass suicide in these wars, allowing us to ride in at the end, after our competitors have bankrupted and bled themselves to death, as we did in World Wars I and II, and again in the Cold War. The more we behave like sly jackals feeding on the steaming, nutrition-rich corpses of other peoples’ collapsed empires, the stronger our economy, and the better we live (the more we can cut our taxes or increase our social spending or both, depending on the amount we’ve plundered). But if we start a war, fight it by ourselves, and lose — as the idiots did in Iraq and in Vietnam and now in Afghanistan — then prepare for the Big Decline. University of Chicago professor Robert Pape recently characterized America’s imperial collapse as: “one of the largest relative declines in modern history. Indeed, in size, it is clearly surpassed by only one other great-power decline, the unexpected internal collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.”

It also raises the question of what the hell we’re doing ramping up the war in Afghanistan, just as it’s become clear that we’ve lost. It’s the graveyard of empires; what is Obama planning there, two consecutive losses? Has any nation ever screwed up that badly? Moreover, wars are only good for the American economy when there’s something to plunder at the end of it all. What’s there to plunder from Afghanistan, assuming we even win: dirt? Opium? (Well, OK, I’m all for the opium, but even I know that won’t create a nation of happy nuclear families; happy junkies, yes, but not wealthy new homeowners.)

http://exiledonline.com/americas-imperial-economy-what-the-republicans-are-too-squeamish-to-admit/all/1/

With the advent of nuclear weapons is hard to make new war! It remains only for the little things heat up the situation in Chechnya, Ingushetia, yes disburse adventurers Saakashvili and Yushchenko. But this thinks not gonna help to the American economy.

[evgeny]

I'm not sure what a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv has to do with Russia surviving an economic collapse. Must be some connection.... hmmmmm

OH!!! Maybe this: If Russian can maintain and refresh its nuclear arsenal they will have a better chance of maintaining their border and defending themselves from violent aggressor nations such as Israel.

the findings of experts illegally exported gold from 1992 to present, about 4.5 thousand tons of gold worth $ 142 billion, as well as millions of tons of oil, whose assets are decorated in front of Ushakov Zagrebelniy, Tokarev etc. and placed them in 32 Western banks obshey amount of not less than 10 TRIL. dol. USA. All these funds are used "masters" Zagrebelniy (Voloshin, Chernomyrdin, Chubais, Schaymievym, Rushailo, Vavilov and others) for personal purposes, through established in Western Europe, financial companies, such as ARIA international investments INC, «Sitichaus», to accumulate all dummy accounts of persons who are 32 banks in Europe and the USA.

Currently, the Working Group on combating corruption in higher echelons of power under the leadership of president of the holding company "Mir" Kuznetsova VM and Shashurin SP have further evidence to the fact of export of gold, oil abroad and use the assets for these tangible assets for personal purposes of the above persons, corrupt officials and is ready to submit these documents in the case of a criminal case, because those documents which were presented by Kuznetsov and Shashurin previously These bodies hide and shy away from taking legitimate decisions. Kuznetsov VM traveled to Switzerland and met with President of the European Institute for International Economics Werner Valtserom. The latter offers its services to provide information on specific accounts of corrupt officials in Russia and building fund for environmental programs in Russia.
The mechanism of formation of the Fund is its right Valtsera, as Trustee, in conjunction with other banking institutions to manage the funds entrusted to it, including Russia and the means to be brought out as gold, silver, oil, etc., in exchange for a commitment Government of Russia to comply with relevant intergovernmental agreements and conventions on the subject. This fund was established in Europe and the leader of such a fund is the head of the bank "Landes Bank in Liechtenstein.
Kuznetsov also brought a proposal to the President of Russia the head of government of the Democratic Party James Becky on promoting the improvement of ecological situation between Russia and the United States and in the wider world. American side proposed to conclude a mutual agreement in the environmental field between the two countries and for these purposes they are ready to submit, through the company Peace Corps grant in the amount of 70 billion dollars. U.S. holding company for Russia's Mir. Also, the U.S. side offered assistance to Russia in return for HC "World" of funds, previously abducted and trafficked by criminal groups in Russia and stored in various Western banks. The U.S. side indicated the possibility of returning to Russia under the control of the President of Russia about 6.5 TRIL. dol. United States and use these funds for recovery from the economic and financial crisis.
Moreover, in agreement with Kuznetsova and Shashurin Walzer, is currently an English finance company "Sitihaus" without waiting for political decisions and decisions of law enforcement bodies of Russia ready to invest in Russia's economy, to return voluntarily to part of the stolen funds to ASER "Tan" by Ltd. "Bus Met Center in the amount of 100 billion euros

[EnergyUnlimited]

The future of Europe is Russia!

Yeah, I agree with you:

[mcgowanjm]

The future of Europe is Russia!

Yeah, I agree with you:

With Russia, no one worried about losing electricity and gas.

January 1. Tick Tock.

[EnergyUnlimited]

With Russia, no one worried about losing electricity and gas.

Those, who live in cities actually do.
Once heating system fails winter temperatures in houses in most of Russian cities can easy fall to -10*C ... -20*C.
Most of Russians will take it kindly for few days (good sleeping bag and adequate clothes will do) but then they are are getting sick, getting pneumonia and eventually dieing very much like anyone else.
Most of over 30 years old Russians are also of quite poor health due to rampant alcoholism and all sort of social deprivations.
Contrary to many believes on the West they are not a superhumans at all, perhaps with the exception that they can drink a lot comparing to Westerners.

They also need at least limited amounts of electricity because without electricity cities are losing drinking water supply as well.

So even if it is not in Russian nature to riot and they are quite happy to die in dignity once situation is tough enough, it does not mean that they do not care.

Famous on the West Russian resilience is mainly applicable in the countryside where there is a level of self sufficiency unheard of on the West.
Cities are not so resilient and once certain levels of deprivation are crossed, increasing numbers of peoples there are simply dieing off.
The only difference is that they are not making a peep and on the West they would (and possibly deteriorate situation further by the same).

[evgeny]

With Russia, no one worried about losing electricity and gas.

Those, who live in cities actually do.
Once heating system fails winter temperatures in houses in most of Russian cities can easy fall to -10*C ... -20*C.
Most of Russians will take it kindly for few days (good sleeping bag and adequate clothes will do) but then they are are getting sick, getting pneumonia and eventually dieing very much like anyone else.
Most of over 30 years old Russians are also of quite poor health due to rampant alcoholism and all sort of social deprivations.
Contrary to many believes on the West they are not a superhumans at all, perhaps with the exception that they can drink a lot comparing to Westerners.

They also need at least limited amounts of electricity because without electricity cities are losing drinking water supply as well.

So even if it is not in Russian nature to riot and they are quite happy to die in dignity once situation is tough enough, it does not mean that they do not care.

Famous on the West Russian resilience is mainly applicable in the countryside where there is a level of self sufficiency unheard of on the West.
Cities are not so resilient and once certain levels of deprivation are crossed, increasing numbers of peoples there are simply dieing off.
The only difference is that they are not making a peep and on the West they would (and possibly deteriorate situation further by the same).

26 myths about Russia!

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.agoravox.fr%2Ftribune-libre%2Farticle%2F26-mythes-sur-la-russie-67250&sl=fr&tl=en

[dissident]

You know the poster has nothing much to show when they attach photos of some village that, to me, resembles other parts of Eastern Europe. This is braindead "evidence". I can find similar and worse images from parts of the US (Appalachia). This style of "proof by a few pictures" reminds of the CBC classic where they filmed some village outhouse in Russia by sticking the camera in the hole. Everyone knows that every Canadian toilet shines like diamonds. These twerps can't even hide their hate. But this is no surprise, drang nach osten is in their cultural identity.

[evgeny]

You know the poster has nothing much to show when they attach photos of some village that, to me, resembles other parts of Eastern Europe. This is braindead "evidence". I can find similar and worse images from parts of the US (Appalachia). This style of "proof by a few pictures" reminds of the CBC classic where they filmed some village outhouse in Russia by sticking the camera in the hole. Everyone knows that every Canadian toilet shines like diamonds. These twerps can't even hide their hate. But this is no surprise, drang nach osten is in their cultural identity.

1: it's look like this photos made in Romania, i just don't see any slavik person on this photos.
2: this city use to be a Auto Capital of the World and now it's the trash capital of the world, things change so fast.
The Remains of Detroit [Photos]



http://www.jeffhock.com/gallery/03_11/

By Pierre JC Allard () December 28 01:31
Pierre JC Allard
I made several trips to Russia, say 6 months in total - and even the U.S., totaling more than a year. I traveled a lot. I prefer Paris to both, but I choose to live in Moscow or St. P. bien avant New-York ou Washington ! well before New York or Washington!

[galacticsurfer]

[evgeny]

How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World

Over the next few days, Russia will change the world. It has completed a new oil pipeline and port complex that sets Russia up to become a more powerful oil exporter than Saudi Arabia. The ramifications for Europe and Asia are profound: The shape of the global economy—and the global balance of power—will be altered forever.

December 28 was a big day of ceremony in Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pushed a button that transformed global oil dynamics—especially for Asia and Europe. The button released thousands of barrels of Siberian crude into a waiting Russian supertanker and heralded the opening of Russia’s first modern Pacific-based oil export facilities.

The multibillion-dollar, state-of-the-art oil terminal was a “great New Year present for Russia,” Putin said during the inauguration. The strategic terminal, located in the city of Kozmino on the coast of the Sea of Japan, is one of the “biggest projects in contemporary Russia” he said, not only in “modern Russia,” but “the former Soviet Union too.”

Putin has every right to be enthusiastic about his new port. Kozmino will unlock a two-way gate through which Russia’s vast Siberian oilfields will gush into Asia’s energy-hungry economies—and Chinese, Korean and Japanese currency will flow into Russia.

If just the seven ships currently waiting to berth are all filled during January, the port of Kozmino will instantly become Russia’s third-most important oil outlet.

According to Reuters, the first oil transport loads on January 15. In a symbolic move highlighting Russia’s warming relationship with China, Hong Kong will receive the first shipment.

After that, Kozmino’s importance will exponentially grow over the next year. Currently, all Siberian oil shipments into Kozmino are delivered by train—but that will soon change. Phase one of the East Siberian-Pacific Ocean Pipeline (espo) was also completed during December. Phase two will soon connect the Siberian fields directly to the new port. When phase two is finished in 2014, total exports could jump from the current rate of 250,000 barrels per day to over 1 million. Kozmino will transform into one of the largest oil centers in the world—capable of handling 14 percent of total Russian oil exports. It will be one of the most strategic geopolitical assets in Russia’s arsenal.

Russia pumped more than 10 million barrels of oil per day during November. With Saudi Arabian production falling, Russia is now the world’s largest oil exporter. Toss in Russia’s natural gas exports, and Russia is the biggest energy superpower in the world, by far. That does not even count Russia’s massive uranium resources and nuclear expertise.

But here is why the new port in Kozmino could radically affect the future of both Asia and Europe. For over a century, Russia’s entire energy infrastructure has focused mainly on supplying Europe. That has now changed forever!

The first and now-complete phase of the espo pipeline, which connects Russia’s Siberian oil fields to within just a few kilometers of China, is already destabilizing global oil dynamics and shifting them in Russia’s direction. “espo is what political strategists might call a ‘game-changer,’” writes the Telegraph. “It means that Russia will be able to send its oil either east or west—so it can drive a harder bargain when selling crude to Europe” (emphasis mine throughout).

Previously, when Russia has had pricing disputes with Europe, Moscow had to play the embargo card with an obvious bluff. It had no other alternative outlet for its oil. Without the Europeans, its oil would sit in Samotlor and Tyanskoye, costing money instead of making it. But now Moscow can turn off the tap to Europe and still pump in the profits by opening the pipe wide to its energy-hungry Asian partners.

But Russia’s stranglehold on Europe is about to get even tighter—much tighter. By 2012, the espo pipeline will be twinned with a pipeline for natural gas exports so Russian gas supplies can also flow east instead of west if necessary.

This development is truly scary to Europeans.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6872.5382.0.0


Excellent analytical article. The author points directly to the stability of energy supplies from Russia and the vicissitudes of present and future in the Middle East that in the foreseeable future, Europe will not give any opportunities to get out oil and gas. The output from the content of one article and a very clear-Europe needs to strengthen its relations with Russia, not to remain in ruined. Nothing personal, gentlemen, just business.

[gmin]

Most EU members do not want to be joined by a strong Russia. Some does not want to share power or be sidelined, some just fear or hate, some have a hidden agenda. Russia should recognize this and realize she won't be willingly accepted. Russia has to rid EU all the better alternatives.

Regarding Russia, EU has a few choices:
1.accept Russia now, in her current form and strength
2.accept Russia later, when she's weak enough
3.accept Russia later, when EU's strong enough
4.do not accept Russia ever, not in one piece

To force EU to choose 1, Russia has to make 2,3,4 unavailable.
1.find herself another spouse in the East
2.corporate with US in containing EU, where it's safe to do so

It's weird, you have to hurt in order to love

[evgeny]

For the West, 'Game Over' in Central Asia

Last month, the West officially lost the new "Great Game." The 20-year competition for natural resources and influence in Central Asia between the United States (supported by the European Union), Russia and China has, for now, come to an end, with the outcome in favor of the latter two. Western defeat was already becoming clear with the slow progress of the Nabucco pipeline and the strategic reorientation of some Central Asian republics toward Russia and China. Two recent events, however, confirmed it.

On Dec. 14, Chinese President Hu Jintao and the heads of state of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan personally opened the valve of a new gas pipeline transporting Turkmen natural gas from the state-of-the-art processing facility of Samandepe to the city of Khorgoz, in China's western province of Xinjiang. The pipeline, developed by the Chinese state-owned energy giant, CNPC, has a capacity of 40 billion cubic meters and traverses almost 1,250 miles through four countries. ...

Earlier this month, December 3, the company received the blessing of Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said that Moscow was satisfied with the idea that the Turkmen gas will flow east to China. Putin's remarks also underscored the current China-Russia energy cooperation, which has yielded significant advances and creates new political economy of energy resources in Central Asia and other regions. The agreement signed on Oct. 13, the two countries established a framework for long-term partnership based on joint research in Russia and third countries, as well as low-interest loans from Chinese banks to the Russian energy sector, even if prices are difficult issues remained unresolved.

Shortly thereafter, Russia has achieved major success on its own. 22 December, during a meeting in Ashgabat, which was also attended by senior executives from Gazprom and Turkmengaz, Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev and President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov completed the gas dispute between the two countries. The dispute relates to April, when the Turkmen authorities have accused Gazprom of the bombing of pipelines transporting Turkmen gas to Russia - a move they claimed, intended to avoid the expensive purchase of Turkmen gas in the period of low demand.

In addition to the resumption of exports, planned for early 2010, Medvedev's visit led to the signing of important documents on strategic cooperation in energy and engineering, which deepen and expand the 25-year agreement, signed by the two countries in 2003. Changes have been made in existing treaties, and Gazprom agreed to buy Turkmen gas at a price approximately equal to that in the European market by eliminating any incentive for the Caspian republics to look at the European Union and the international energy industry for the sale of natural gas.

Turkmenistan already exports more than 70 billion cubic meters of gas per year and may not even have sufficient reserves to meet current obligations, so it is unlikely that the country will seek new deals. In addition, Kazakhstan, another major producer of natural resource in the region, is satisfied with their contracts with Russia and China. Its president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said recently that he would only approve foreign investment from countries and companies wishing to cooperate with his authoritarian industrialization plan.

Events are unlikely to jeopardize energy security of the West. Even gas supplies to Europe will not suffer any long-term failures, since the demand will be easily satisfied with two projected Russia's pipelines, Nord Stream and South Stream, as well as the Nabucco project, ensuring delivery of a Middle East gas.

However, the situation will have far-reaching consequences for the region, not only because the pipelines transporting oil and gas. They still pose a long-term interdependence between countries and reinforce the status of management regimes, as well as strategic positioning in the involved countries. It is expected that in this case Russia and China will be able to maintain near-absolute influence in Central Asia, important in order to manage the joint property.

West is guilty of such an outcome only to himself. Despite the common regional interests with Russia and China - in the range of disarmament and the elimination of terrorism and drug trafficking - the United States and the European Union rarely demonstrated its willingness to reach agreement with Moscow and Beijing in Central Asia. In the field of energy Western political aspirations ranged between tepid attempts to completely depoliticize the industry - with the help of instruments such as the Energy Charter Treaty - and the granting of American and European corporations * dirigiste style of support, based on the inappropriate assumption that their technological superiority will offer more attractive conditions for Central Asian leaders. On the other hand, Russia and China have developed innovative responses through a network of bilateral agreements and institutional structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

West also misunderstood the elasticity of Russia's leverage and soft power in the region and significantly overestimated the attractiveness of its "normative power". Persistently picking up some issues - such as democracy and human rights - that not only had no effect, but also frightened the local power elites, they have increased the attractiveness of Beijing and its strict adherence to the principle of noninterference in internal affairs.

[dorlomin]

I see the facist bootlicker is still cuting and pasting away in this forum. Adds nothing to any discussion other than drooling praise of Putin and his thugs.