Putin Now Thinks Western Elites Are ‘Swine’
Dmitry Orlov via Russia Insider
Fake News Media
An article I published close to five years ago, “Putin to Western elites: Play-time is over”, turned out to be the most popular thing I’ve written so far, having garnered over 200,000 reads over the intervening years. In it I wrote about Putin’s speech at the 2014 Valdai Club conference. In that speech he defined the new rules by which Russia conducts its foreign policy: out in the open, in full public view, as a sovereign nation among other sovereign nations, asserting its national interests and demanding to be treated as an equal. Yet again, Western elites failed to listen to him.
Instead of mutually beneficial cooperation they continued to speak the language of empty accusations and counterproductive yet toothless sanctions. And so, in yesterday’s address to Russia’s National Assembly Putin sounded note of complete and utter disdain and contempt for his “Western partners,” as he has usually called them. This time he called them “swine.”
The president’s annual address to the National Assembly is a rather big deal. Russia’s National Assembly is quite unlike that of, say, Venezuela, which really just consists of some obscure nonentity named Juan recording Youtube videos in his apartment. In Russia, the gathering is a who’s-who of Russian politics, including cabinet ministers, Kremlin staffers, the parliament (State Duma), regional governors, business leaders and political experts, along with a huge crowd of journalists. One thing that stood out at this year’s address was the very high level of tension in the hall: the atmosphere seemed charged with electricity.
It quickly became obvious why the upper echelon of Russia’s state bureaucracy was nervous: Putin’s speech was part marching orders part harangue. His plans for the next couple of years are extremely ambitious, as he himself admitted. The plank is set very high, he said, and those who are not up to the challenge have no business going near it. Very hard work lies ahead for almost everyone who was gathered in that hall, and those of them who fail at their tasks are unlikely to be in attendance the next time around because their careers will have ended in disgrace.
The address contained almost no bad news and quite a lot of very good news. Russia’s financial reserves are more than sufficient to cover its entire external debt, both public and private. Non-energy-resource exports are booming to such an extent that Russia no longer needs oil and gas exports to maintain a positive balance of trade. It has become largely immune to Western sanctions. Eurasian integration projects are going extremely well. Russian government’s investments in industry are paying dividends.
The government has amassed vast amounts of capital which it will now spend on domestic programs designed to benefit the people, to help Russians live longer, healthier lives and have more children. “More children—lower taxes” was one of the catchier slogans.
This was what most of the address was about: eradication of remaining poverty; low, subsidized mortgage rates for families with two or more children; pensions indexed to inflation above and beyond the official minimal income levels (corrected and paid out retroactively); high-speed internet for each and every school; universal access to health care through a network of rural clinics; several new world-class oncology clinics; support for tech start-ups; a “social contract” program that helps people start small businesses; another program called “ticket to the future” that allows sixth-graders to choose a career path that includes directed study programs, mentorships and apprenticeships; lots of new infrastructure projects such as the soon-to-be-opened Autobahn between Moscow and St. Petersburg, revamped trash collection and recycling and major air pollution reductions in a dozen major cities; the list goes on and on.
No opposition to these proposals worth mentioning was voiced in any of the commentary that followed on news programs and talk shows; after all, who could possibly be against spending amassed capital on projects that help the population?
Perhaps the most ambitious goal set by Putin was to redo the entire system of Russia’s government regulations, both federal and regional, in every sphere of public life and commerce. Over the next two years every bit of regulation will be examined in order to determine whether it is necessary and whether it responds to contemporary needs and if it isn’t or doesn’t it will be eliminated. This will significantly ease the burden of regulatory compliance, lowering the cost of doing business.
Another goal was to continue growing the already booming agricultural export sector. Last year Russia achieved self-sufficiency in wheat seed stock, but the overall goal is to achieve complete self-sufficiency in food and to become the world’s provider of ecologically clean foodstuffs. (As Putin pointed out, Russia remains the only major agricultural producer in the world that hasn’t been contaminated by American-made GMO poisons.) Yet another goal is to further grow Russia’s tourism industry, which is already booming, by introducing electronic tourist visas that will be much easier to obtain.
Last year’s addressed surprised the world with its second part, in which Putin unveiled a whole set of new Russian weapons systems that effectively negate every last bit of US military superiority. This year, he added just one new system: a supersonic cruise missile called “Zirkon” with a 1000 km range that flies at Mach 9. But he also provided a progress report on all the others: everything is going according to plan; some new armaments have already been delivered, others are going into mass production, the rest are being tested. He spoke in favor of normalized relations with the EU, but accused the US of “hostility,” adding that Russia does not threaten anyone and is not interested in confrontation.
Putin’s sharpest words were reserved for the US decision to abandon the IMF treaty. He said that the US acted in bad faith, accusing Russia of violating the treaty while they themselves violated it, specifically articles 5 and 6, by deploying dual-use launch systems in Romania and Poland which can be used for both air defense and for offensive nuclear weapons which the treaty specifically prohibits. Nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles, which the US could deploy in Poland and Romania, would of course pose a risk, but would not provide the US with anything like a first-strike advantage, since these cruise missiles are obsolete to the point where even Syria’s Soviet-era air defenses were able to shoot down most of the ones the US lobbed at them as punishment for the fake chemical weapons attack in Douma.
Speaking of the American dream of a global air defense system, Putin called on the US to “abandon these illusions.” The Americans can think whatever they want, he said, but the question is, “can they do math?” This needs unfolding.
First, the Americans can think whatever they want because… they are Americans. Russians do not allow themselves the luxury of thinking complete and utter nonsense. Those who are not grounded in fact and logic tend to get the Russian term “likbez” thrown in their faces rather promptly. It literally decodes as “liquidation of illiteracy” and is generally used to shut down ignoramuses. But in the US shocking displays of ignorance are quite acceptable. For an example, you need to look no further than the astonishingly idiotic “Green New Deal” being touted by the freshman congresstwit (how’s that for a gender-neutral appellation?) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If she were Russian she’d have been laughed right out of town by now.
“But can they do math?” Apparently not! There is another Russian term—“matchast”—which literally decodes as “material part” but stands for the understanding that can only be achieved through the knowledge of mathematics, the hard sciences and engineering. In Russia, ignoramuses like Ocasio-Cortez, who think that transportation needs can be provided by electric vehicles powered by wind and solar, get shut down by being told to go and study “matchast” while in the US they are allowed to run wild in the halls of congress.
In this case, if Americans could “do math,” they would quickly figure out that there is no conceivable defensive system that would be effective against the new Russian weapons, that there are no conceivable offensive weapons that would prevent Russia from launching an unstoppable retaliatory strike, and that therefore the “new arms race” (which some Americans have been daft enough to announce) is effectively over and Russia has won. See above: Russia is not spending its money on weapons; it is spending it on helping its people. The US can squander arbitrary amounts of money on weapons but this won’t make an iota of difference: an attack on Russia will be the last thing it ever does.
Russia does not plan to be the first to violate the ABM treaty, but if the US deploys intermediate-range nuclear weapons against Russia, then Russia will respond in kind, by targeting not just the territories from which it is threatened but the locations where the decisions to threaten it are taken. Washington, Brussels and other NATO capitals would, clearly, be on that list. This shouldn’t be news; Russia has already announced that in the next war, should there be one, will not be fought on Russian soil. Russia plans to take the fight to the enemy immediately. Of course, there won’t be a war—provided the Americans are sane enough to realize that attacking Russia is functionally equivalent to blowing themselves up with nuclear weapons. Are they sane enough? That is the question that is holding the world hostage.
It is in speaking of them that Putin used the most withering word in his entire address. Speaking of Americans’ dishonesty and bad faith in accusing Russia of violating the ABM treaty while it was they themselves who were violating it, he added: “…and the American satellites oink along with them.” It is rather difficult to come up with an adequate translation for the Russian verb “подхрюкивать”; “oink along with” is as close as I am able to get. The mental image is of a chorus of little pigs accompanying a big swine. The implication is obvious: Putin thinks that the Americans are swine, and that their NATO satellites are swine too. Therefore, they shouldn’t expect Putin to scatter any pearls before them and, in any case, he’ll be too busy helping Russians live better lives to pay any attention to them.
Dmitry Orlov is one of the better-known thinkers The New Yorker dubbed ‘The Dystopians’ in an excellent 2009 profile. These theorists believe that modern society is headed for a jarring and painful crack-up. Orlov is best known for his 2011 book comparing Soviet and American collapse (he thinks America’s will be worse). He is a prolific author on a wide array of subjects and has a large following on the web, and on Patreon.
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It appears that OffG comments section is utterly dysfunctional & failing, due to Malware.
Period?
Hmmm, that worked.
So, @Admin, I have NO acknowledgement of my email to contact !
And way too many attempts to post WHOOOSHed out into cyberspace
Some real fucked up stuff happening, this morning, surely.
Hmmm, that worked. (again, so now i’ll just add 3 letters)
C. I. A.
(testing game theory)
So, @Admin, I have NO acknowledgement of my email to contact !
And way too many attempts to post WHOOOSHed out into cyberspace
Some real fucked up stuff happening, this morning, surely.
🙂 😉
Testing testing 1-2-3- and the fourth attempt to answer Kerry F & Portonchok
has simply failed to publish, consistently ! ! !
Screw the italics, really less important !!!
Just tried again, after seeing the comment above appear and now again, i’m “posting too quickly”.
I already had that pathetic & false excuse, on my first attempt to post any comment,
anywhere online today.
Conclusion: CIA Malware in the system !!!
Putin is 100% correct in calling Western elites swine, but let’s not pretend that Russian elites aren’t swine.
Downvoted for missing the point. I mean, for not even getting within a country mile of it.
Oh? And what point was that?
“..let’s not pretend that Russian elites aren’t swine.”
You are right. It is a point I made about 90 comments ago. And I did not mean, when I made it, that I regarded Putin as “just as bad” or that the Eurasian allies represented another competing empire. Both inferences would be false.
The point is very simple: those who see themselves as superior to humanity in general or regard their employers as superior to humanity in all its diversity are swine. Or, to put it more succinctly, the enemy of all. And life itself.
Russian elites may be just as bad as American ones but this comparison is irrelevant. The point that Putin made is that instead of a normal country to country relationship between Russia and the US the US is forever seeking confrontation – its locked in a Cold War zero sum game. Putin sees this as pointless because Russia is configured to manage economic warfare and is quite capable of aggressively defending itself if attacked.
Martin Usher: fully agree. The problem is the nutjobs in Washington. Do they even comprehend how dangerous their constant provocations of Russia are?
Not all elites are swine either, but to become an elite; there are only 3 ways: you need to either inherit it, make it through sound business practice, or steal it (sound criminal business practice). My father’s advice:
“was to steal it because the average detection rate is somewhere around 2% for first offence – so make it a one off and good sized and you will be set for life. And you son, are brighter than the average cop so you have every chance of swinging a good heist. However a word of warning: It is not a given that riches will make you any happier than living with a clear conscience and sleeping easy at night.
I chose the business route which proved worthwhlie in a modest way and I have always slept well. The oligarchs and elites can keep their riches and bangles, life has more meaning than just material possessions which bring with it much responsiblity to secure, maintain, repair, replace etc etc.
Less is more. Perhaps the consumerist, acquisitive generations will learn this lessen some day, I just hope that it’s not too late for them.
Wise man.
Max-Neef calls us the 1st “Undeveloping nation”. Think: Exceptionalist Devolution.
Oh dear, these comments in all-italics hurt my eyes and make them hard to read. 🙁
What a man!
Dmitry this is a good article however It looks like you inserted your own criticism of the “Green New deal” in the midst of your report on Putin’s address and you are passing it off as his language?
Is this the case ?
You noticed a propagandists sleight of hand. I’m more than happy to read what Putin says without it being skewed.
Love your name. I am thinking of changing mine to Novi Sad.
How about “Mick”?
@Portonchok
May I ask where you are from & live ?
(idle curiosity)
I ask, because I’ve been studying Ocasio-Cortez, for some time (with professional due diligence reliant upon 40 years experience), in a wide variety of media & social media, (lol, including Gab.ai) and it should be clear to you by now, that AOC was the result of ‘Casting’, (just like Jussie), and in reality is an extremely & dangerously dumbed down ignoramus / “Likbez”, with zero ability in the dept. of “Matchast” and she will be exposed as such, as much as she will expose herself further, on top of all her ‘gaffs’ already >>>
Somebody should declare a “National Emergency” in Congress, because if AOC is the standard of Democrats required in Western Nations, in future, in no time civil wars will be erupting …
Do the math.
That odd moment in an article, that was otherwise completely void of opinion, is wholly excusable in my honest professional opinion and even the FT of old, would have permitted that reference to AOC & her GND, because it’s a wholly valid relevant observation & prime example of the absurdly exaggerated & inflated perceptions being created, from a smiley provocative loud mouth, ‘fast food service’ operative, that is a narcissistic actor screaming for attention, though she has nothing tangible to say or offer, as Greenpeace & Patrick Moore have already confirmed.
The ‘Green New Deal’ @present, is like a new marketing campaign for a ‘Big Mac’, without even knowing the recipe or understanding the fact that the recipe has NOT changed in the slightest and if you were to ask ANY Democrat what is EROEI and for their specific calculations & conclusions, some of us, who have worked in the Energy sector, can tell you already what the answer will be and sound like, including their micro-facial expressions during the delivery of their answer. 🙂
Orlov’s truly ‘minimal injection’ of opinion is that of every serious person’s opinion, inc. Putin’s, considering the ‘matchast’ element,
therefore highly relevant, because the green new deal is pure propaganda from the ‘Casting Couch’, governed by Harvey Weinstein’s superiors !
Meanwhile, Climate Change has been Scientifically Engineered, as Weapon ! !
********************************
”Every nation gets the government it deserves.”
The Russian people get a talented and disciplined one. We in Britain (and people in the USA) get a kakistocracy (government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state).
This is not entirely true. In Australia we’re partly ‘switched-on’ however, we still get forking ‘dickheads’ to govern us. Perhaps because the Zio-Nazis who control the message spend big bucks to ensure that they maintain their supply of useful idiots, at the top.
Swine is almost perfect. Any government that murders its citizens and incarcerates other nationalities without a trial is beyond descripton
Swine are far more noble than these creeps.
Love the Off Guardian but this article is just embarrassing. Why are you reporting a politician’s speech in such shamefully uncritical fashion? ‘The government has amassed vast amounts of capital which it will now spend on domestic programs designed to benefit the people’ – like last year’s neoliberal pension reforms? Russia may be the lesser of two evils when compared with NATO but let’s be truthful here, it’s a bourgeois state founded on the wholesale theft of the people’s wealth. The words and actions of its leaders need to be scrutinised just as much as those of Western leaders.
Today’s USA is clearly a third-world nation, and even a fourth-world nation as regards general knowledge of the world it shares with the rest of us.
Time to relegate it to the same level of civilization as N. Korea, and have done with it altogether.
It is beyond hope – with all due respect to those excellent, educated, civilized, compassionate and humane Americans who are totally ignored by their own government.
Wishful thinking, unfortunately
@ Wardropper. N. Korea are actually doing far better than the US in terms of the opposition they oppose from the corrupted west in trying to eliminate US imposed poverty. Every year the US stages war games along the DMZ to concide with the harvest season in order to deliberately evacuate the fields of farmers who must rush to their country defence forces. I think you do NK a disservice when their are so many other countries that would fit the bill better, such as S. American countries in dire poverty under a US imposed regime puppet, not to mention countries like western Ukraine, who despite massive IMF loans still can’t balance their books.
You may be ignorant of North Korea. If so, then you have not been educating yourself. That’s not very progressive. If you are genuinely interested in North Korea, I think that the best place to start with is Stephen Gowan’s recent book, “Patriots, Traitors and Emperors.” He relies heavily on one of the acknowledged best experts on Korea, namely Bruce Cummings, whose book (or books) is on my list of books to buy.
News flash from the real world — Marco Polo Return Visit:
“Absolutely key element in New Silk Road project is the current revamping of the Italian port of Venice. “Once she held the gorgeous East in fee” — channeling supply lines from China via the Mediterranean towards Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia and Hungary. Venice is being upgraded as a Souther European alternative Super Port to the Northern Super Ports, Rotterdam and Hamburg (which are also BRI-linked, of course). Pepe Escobar called it the Battle of the Superports in Europe — North vs South. [Where is London in Europe?]
Whatever the City of London may think about it, Rome and Milan identify this as a matter of Italian national interest. And considering Chinese shoppers’ undying love affair with Made in Italy it is obvious that, on this Marco Polo Return Visit, win-win once again wins.”
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/article/marco-polo-is-back-in-china-again/
Swine encapsulates these attributes:
disgusting
vile
worthless
bad
base
despicable
inferior
scummy
contemptible
of the most contemptible kind
degenerate
It is straightforward to identify all the British politicians who fall into this category. One criteria would be: All those who are responsible for imprisoning Assange, as well as those who did nothing to set him free and compensate and acknowledge/reward him for his work.
Fair in context, perhaps, but hardly fair to the porcine species.
Yes. Highly unfair to an intelligent and sensitive animal. Otherwise a great read.
I think the porkers are getting a raw deal here. Charming and very useful creatures in their own way, and close to humans. The Irish call the pig “the gentleman who pays the rent.” They certainly don’t go rampaging around the planet slaughtering, starving and immiserating hundreds of millions. If the worst thing the Zionists ever did was roll in the mud now and again, nobody would mind very much. No pig ever invaded or bombed another country, imposed sanctions on Russia, or stole Venezuela’s gold. Not so far as I know, anyway.
Assange is a double agent. At least.
I’ve heard this before but I can’t see anything to back it up. He has caused too many problems for US aggression by grassing them up for all their war crimes, lies and hypocrisy. And dishing the dirt on the Clinton clan really upset the apple cart in the US so far as the Deep State was concerned. He has simply done too much damage. When he started up, he was concentrating on countries like Kenya and Uzbekistan, and there was some speculation that Wikileaks was a Human Rights Watch type bogus NGO. But that doesn’t seem to have been borne out by events. Could be wrong, and you’ve got to be on your guard. But I’d be surprised if that was the case.
And John Ervin is a triple agent. Assertion without evidence.
I’ve seen no evidence for that, but tell it enough times and the gullible might believe it. Good luck at the book burning shindig.
And your description identifies most of them, sadly. I have been disgusted that our UK government are so beholden to the USA that they have caused such a hero as Assange to remain in solitary house arrest for all these years. And moreso because the general public have been silent on this issue and prefer to follow celebrities and social media. I give up on our younger generations for it is they who will inherit the destruction to come. My book explains all this and much more; a free pdf of my manuscript is available on request to: [email protected]
At such a critical time as this in our planet’s history I am appalled at the confirmation bias that all will be well and the future is secure is so prevalent especially throughout the USA – the final example of hubris gone mad.
Even more blame to the Australian government as Julian is an Australian citizen with an Australian passport. To leave him to rot at the behest of the US is reprehensible.
If it wasn’t for Putin’s mature rationale and cool head compared to the screeching, power crazed loons in Washington, we’d probably all be radioactive ash by now. Thats what I’m truly grateful for. Imagine if someone similar to Yeltsin was President of Russia now? And what of the Empire that wants to control the entire planet? These nutters are not going to just give up. They’re addicts. Unfortunately, I just don’t see millions of Gilets Jaunes type mass protests appearing in cities all across the United States. At all. The propaganda has had too much of an impact on too many. What will bring about the collapse of the Anglo Zionist Empire? An economic meltdown? Excellent article Dmitry.
Bravo – you tell ’em! Unfortunately the bulk of the American people are buzzed out on drugs and guns and have no interest in what their criminal government is doing. They are a sad reflection on what was a gifted, generous and upstanding nation a century ago.
Thanks to the internet, they’re a bit more aware than you think; but as the last few elections have shown, they have almost legal way of changing government policy. Presidents come and presidents go, but neoconservatism just lives on and on.
Sorry, that should read: “… no legal way of changing government policy.”
Thanks Seamus for your observations. Like UK we only practice the illusion of democracy in the West and representative democracy doesn’t work. If people are to take back the power which has leaked to the elites then a system of direct democracy has to be implemented.
I know, the elites will fight tooth and nail to hold on to the status quo but if we are to survive as civilised nation states, living in harmony, then IMO we have no alternative. Note that Switzerland has the highest per-capita income in the world – I wonder why? Perhaps their system of government has something to do with it;
http://harrogateagenda.org.uk/
The wonder is: what took Putin so long to call the West a bunch of porkers?
Egads, now I’m talking in italics too!
@ Jen. Because Putin has too much respect for animals?
Jen: everyone is talking in italics! The scene in Basil The Rat – Fawlty Towers, where Manuel starts flapping his arms about going ‘oink oink oink’ as in flying pigs. The sad, surreal, shameful, suck up, sycophantic, stupefied slime of alleged politicians in the West. How did the World come to this? Sigh….
“How DID the world come to this?”
Organized Crime. Sigh.
(for starters, or starting points: “USA INC.: United SYNDICATES of America. That 1 is the real federated entity. HQ: Wall Street. What is a “State” anyway? A line in the sand. Or, water.)
The world couldn’t have ‘come to this’ if the world had honest media. And it’s getting worse since independent sites are being de-ranked by google and banned by the mass surveillance social media.
Excellent observation Robyn, thank you. I had missed this point. They are in cohoots – all these dysfunctional governments. I can’t understand why there is not more social media etc about this and a movement to have him released and protected from these degenerate mobsters.
Robyn: I know. I was expressing exasperation Robyn. As I’ve said quite a few times recently, regards the presstitute stenographers, aka the MSM, have 3 words: Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. Can’t even stomach Aunty (ABC) anymore. About the most mainstream site I look at it New Matilda or occasionally Independent Australia, tho find the vast majority of commenters at OffGuardian way more informed and aware of the Empire and Imperialism than the majority of commenters at those two Aussie sites I mentioned.
He has undoubtedly been doing so for a long time, but diplomatic etiquette has always demanded reasonable restraint – until now, that is. You’d be a fool to argue with today’s Washington in reasonably-restrained tones.
The answer is probably that he has now dedollarised sufficiently not to care what Americans think of such frank and undiplomatic expressions. Mr Putin calculates carefully what is in Russian interests and presumably until recently he needed to maintain vestiges of diplomatic niceties.
I agree. And Russia is accumulating gold at a rapid pace, so is China. They know what’s coming and are preparing well.
Neoliberals hate Putin because he runs Russia as a sovereign nation; and for the benefit of Russian citizens. Russia still has society and citizens; unlike the West where the various territories today have markets and customers.
Neoliberalism is opposed to nationalism and national sovereignty; and to democracy, where democracy means governments governing for and on behalf of their citizens. Today representative democracy is called ‘populism’.
Neoliberalism ultimately is transnational corporate imperialism. All transnational corporations share a common enemy; the sovereign nation state which can tax and regulate their activities.
I so agree with your comments; you have succinctly sumarised exactly what is happening now. It seems that what was the ‘left’ have been captured by Soros and the corporate globalists without them seeming to know what they do! I am a libertarian and support austrian economics.
My book explains how these things you speak of translate into an economic catastophe coming soon and will be much worse than 2008.
“It seems that what was the ‘left’ have been captured by Soros and the corporate globalists”
The obsession with Soros has become a tiresome dog-whistle for Trumpian jingoism and white nativism. Soros isn’t the problem. He’s a whipping boy and bogeyman so that one gang of billionaires can herd the masses to fight another gang of billionaires. No leftist should be drawn into cheering on for “our” capitalists against “your” capitalists.
“without them seeming to know what they do! I am a libertarian and support austrian economics.”
Ah, so you’re not actually of the left.
He is a bogeyman pushing globalism and open borders with $18 billion.
What exactly is this “globalism”? Please try to respond in a way that doesn’t allude to “International Jewry” or some other Nazi meme.
“and open borders with $18 billion.”
Bullshit.
Globalism is defined by Dr Tim Morgan in his book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-After-Growth-global-economy-ebook/dp/B00F3D8M2C
He says that out-sourcing production to EMs causes production in Dms to fall but without the necessary reduction in consumption causing a gap which is currently being filled with debt to maintain living standards. This will end badly. However one can’t balme the corporatists because they are doing what they do naturally – seeking profit from wherever. (The frog and the scorpion story).
Tim puts the misplaced globalism as one facet of the causes of the current end of growth effects.
“Globalism” isn’t a cause of lack of growth; it’s a symptom of it.
You may well be right, I hadn’t thought of it that way
Oh no, I am far from the leftist camp. I was merely pointing out that the way geopolitics is going we have a diversion of the populists Those on the left are swinging to even more socialism (AOC et al) and hoping that MMT will pay for it all with BIG government. Whilst those on the right are moving more towards a crony capitalist system – a more extreme of what we have now.
Neither of these are a solution to our problems. I believe that a completely new economic and financial system is required and that Russia is working towards this type of solution using sound money (evenually), gold, and hopefully smaller government encouraging liberty for people to freely pursue their best endeavours without harm to others. (my definition of libertarianism). They have a way to go but it is a start.
You think Russia’s gangster capitalism is going to deliver your pipe-dream?
The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams. ..
David Eire, you’re saying in neoliberal West, society is now the market and citizens have become customers. Of course, this is the glaring truth.
May I add that Education is being replaced very fast by Advertising.
REPLACED. Past Tense. Mostly.
Governments have become the Human Resources departments of those corporations. The media is, as always, the Public Relations.
Russians have decent food, organic with no GMO garbage. Coming soon to Britain, cholorinated chicken, hormone and antibiotics stuffed beef and GMO riddled rubbish.
Can just see all the ever more obese brits waddling down the streets here in the years to come compared to vibrant, healthy, slim Russians.
The nasty health effects from a) processed food b) GM food c) food contaminated with pesticides/insecticides/antibiotics/growth hormones could not be underestimated.
However, most people are [made] so busy these days that little time is available to learn what is going on and pursue those criminals poisoning our foods.
My admiration for President Putin continues to get stronger.
Mine too – he is at least a sign of sanity amongst the rabble that is the USA & EU
So does mine, Philpot. I’m also an admirer of Mr Lavrov. If I were him, I’d feel more than a bit insulted by the dross that’s been served up recently as his counterpart in Britain: the de Piffle monstrosity and Jeremy *unt.
Add Dmitri Shoigu, the Russian Minister for Defence, to your list of Russian senior politicians to admire.
And then compare him to his counterpart in Britain.
@ Jen. Let’s not forget Zakarova. Plain talking and efficient without the hysterics of Powers and Haley(?)
Summarising your comments and those of @Jen and @Mohandeer, putting it simply, it is evident for all to see that anybody in the public eye in officialdom (and journalism I must add) in Russia clearly has to meet the highest of standards in competence and diplomacy. Sadly, the same cannot be said of their counterparts in the West.
closing italics, hopefully
no? closing blockquote …
closing “em” …
closing “strong” …
This is an excellent article and gives the lie to all the Amercian false news about Russia. I think that the sooner Europe allows Russia to join the EU and they abandon USA pronto, the sooner Europe will prosper. Staying as a vassal of USA will merely drag the EU into the social and economic morass that Amercia has constructed.
“YANKS GO HOME” – never a truer word spoken.
All very well, but what about the enemy within? The ‘Atlantic Integrationists’ are a powerful 5th column and the fact that Putin has to tread warily is instanced by the position of Alexi Kudrin, arch-neoliberal, and a representative of this group; a class group whose earnest desire is to turn back to the Yeltsin years and realign Russia into a semi-peripheral economy of the west in a subaltern position. The good news is that Eurasian Sovereignists also have an advisory representative in the shape of Sergei Glazyev, a state-capitalist interventionist in the Friedrich List mode. Their is a big struggle going on and a long way to go. See South Front – 26 February 2019. Introduction by Saker.
a class group whose earnest desire is to turn back to the Yeltsin years and realign Russia into a semi-peripheral economy of the west in a subaltern position
Can’t these people just be rounded up and shot as national traitors?
“There is another Russian term—“matchast”—which literally decodes as “material part” but stands for the understanding that can only be achieved through the knowledge of mathematics, the hard sciences and engineering.”
There was an article on this in Saker Vineyard some time ago. Apparently the Russian educational system is still based on the old Gymnasium system, described by Einstein (who was “a lazy dog” student) as the highest mental hurdle race ever set. Drawn up by the great German holistic scientist, von Humboldt, the Gymnasium emphasized science but did not neglect the Humanistic Classics. The Russian word “matchast — material part” also owes much to the evolutionary thinking of another great German scientist, von Goethe, whose motto is well known: “In the Beginning was the Deed”. — Faust, Part 1.
In general, even Gymnasium maths is not sufficient to perform advanced calculations on weaponry performance as otherwise you would not University level maths, physics and engineering to become a weapons scientist.
This is not about the maths, it is about the corruption in political life. Americans where it matters understand the maths perfectly well, but the MIC is a bloodsucking leech and it needs credulous idiots on the Hill to fund its ever more bombastic schemes.
I like Vlad…. no sabre rattling there….. just plain speaking.
@Jerry. Then don’t call him Vlad(it’s not nice) Vych is probably better(a Russian told me and who am I to argue?)
God save us from self styled ‘saviours’
Whether they be Russian, American, Chinese or Martian.
Real change comes from the bottom up.
We don’t need ambitious, hubristic or psychopathic leaders.
We need non hierarchical structures to weed out vested interests and those with delusions of grandeur.
Either that, or its ‘Goodbye tomorrow’
Although the US cabal is worst, Putin is not loved in Russia. Just because he is anti-Them doesn’t mean he is so Great.
99.9% of other Russians would be against the US cabal’s machinations in the the Caucasus,Baltic and Ukraine after the US cabal broke its end-of-cold-war promises to respect to respect Russia’s (not USSR) and NATO’s status quo.
Xi Jinping ditto, but he has much more power than Putin.
Antonym, Sorry but you talk out of your backside. ”Putin is not loved in Russia” Where is your proof? Because the proof I have is that everyone, adores and respects him for the way he has turned the whole country round. And works tirelessly to improve that which needs it. The people come first for him and his Government, and he doesn’t stand for any government official thieving from the people. The guy is IMO the greatest leader this world has seen.. and the sooner people accept this, the sooner we will get to world peace. How many military bases does Russia have throughout the world? Compare this to how many the US have?
Have you ever bothered to watch one of Vlad’s speeches or documentaries that were not produced by CBS, FOX, CNN, CIA or the BBC and MI6 and all the rest of the vultures who post only ‘parts’ of his speeches. Instead watch RT or this:
This is only one of many. Note how he speaks from his heart, and knows everything in detail, there are no ear piece prompts, it is all him. He is not a puppet.. he is one of a very intelligent groups of people who govern Russia.
Your job is now redundant… People are now awake…
Nice one Maggie 😉
“Putin thinks that the Americans are swine, and that their NATO satellites are swine too. ”
Coming full circle, perhaps?
Any European or North American socialist could have told him the same thing. It might have saved Russians a lot of trouble if, rather than following the Pied Piper of capitalism to poverty and war, they had struck out in 1990 on path which preserved the enormous wealth of the soviet state and employed it for the common good. Instead they gave it away, essentially to agents of Wall St and the City, and expected the Russian people to achieve, as a matter of nature, the living standards the western working class had achieved, because, amongst other things including trade union militancy, the capitalists were afraid of their workers allying with the Soviet Union.
Neo-liberalism only went into full effect when the challenge of the Soviet Union had evaporated and the welfare state could like the Soviet system of social security, be dismantled, and privatised. The Universal Credit scam, like all the other pauperising cutbacks of the Thatcher-Blair- May era, and like the mass incarceration,welfare reform and charter schools in the USA, would have been impossible until Yeltsin gave the go-ahead.
Vladimir should check out the extensive Russian literature on capitalism and the swine who invented and developed it. And, in the meantime, he should order the Central Bank to stop pursuing neo-liberal (swinish) policies designed not to eradicate but to increase poverty in Russia. Then Russian Labour should be set free to organise for higher living standards.. that would get the swine trembling in their boots.
How big was the learning curve in going from being the USSR to being the entity they are today? Of course mistakes will be made…. I think Vlad has done a great job of smoothing the way for the new Russia…. it all could have gone so badly differently….to my mind ..these days… when you look at the likes of Teresa May and Donald Trump and their UN partners, and their mindsets…. Vlad stands out as someone who does not have knee jerk reactions to western pretensions or their floundering economic protections… Donald Trump for one could take some notes from Vlad’s playbook…..
This sort of thing terrifies the swine also…
https://youtu.be/3GsDLrUieJg
Never met a working class person who disagreed with his actions that day either.
I’m envious, and resentful towards the swine
The famous “Give me back my pen” routine.
Whilst the pen comment is funny, the real cutting part of this is how Putin points out the sheer number of families caught in the crunch.
The oligarch will still be rich, even though he’s lost that slice of profit that day, the factory workers (people like myself and my family) are the ones who will suffer.
Can you see any western politician doing the same? I can’t.
SRP, do you mean where Putin says, These are thousands of Lives?. I thought that showed the man; or as Germans say, the “mensch”.
Housing, health, education.
Not bad priorities for any administration.
The corresponding priorities in Washington are Israel, Israel, Israel.
You started with something true, and you just HAD to twist it into an anti-Semitic dig.
Im sure it’s just a coincidence that Russia not being bled dry by its Zionist oligarchs anymore has enabled the country to prosper. They too tried the anti-semitism argument but Putin outsmarted them.
There’s a simple theory that I believe but one that neocons will never admit. If some rich prick is worth 10 billion dollars, that wealth has come from somewhere. It has come from tax avoidance, oppression of the people who work for him, a lack of any responsibility to our planet and it’s inhabitants, and being unanswerable to any form of government, or any form of public opinion. If the majority of these corrupt cretins are Jewish, as was the case in Russia, then is it a crime to take them out for being corrupt or is it a crime to criticise their corruption simply because they are Jewish? Antisemetism is not a defence in this case.
A handful of just 7 Jew spivs who had previously been selling plastic toys on a market stall, or selling dodgy cars, became overnight owners of 70% of the natural wealth of Russia between them. Berezovsky, Khordokovsky, Fridman, Abramovich and the rest. Not a token goy amongst them. And they complain about lack of diversity. Fabulous natural wealth bought up for less than a penny in the pound through graft, corruption, fraud, influence peddling and outright gangsterism. Plus Abramovich sh*gging the daughter of that shambling drunk Yeltsin. The Chosen People have never forgiven old Putin for being such a party pooper.
People who had never seen an oil well in their lives suddenly owned all the oil resources of Russia, and much of the oil resources of the planet. At a time when it cost $7 to produce a barrel of oil, and the world price was $30, they sold it inside Russia for $7 to a shell company in Switzerland, who then sold it on for $30. No tax paid anywhere, and certainly not a rouble to the Russian people or government.
People used to become billionaires by producing things like car plants, railways and new industries, employing people and paying millions in taxes. This is how money is made now. Philip Green buys Next or Top Shop with borrowed money, loads them down with debt where they previously had clean balance sheets, immediately pays himself a “special dividend” of £1,200 million, on which he pays not a carrot in tax because it goes straight into his wife’s bank account in Monaco. Just Jew Crapitalism in action, folks.
Mark thinks that there is “good” capitalism, run by non-Jews, in which benevolent billionaires make an “honest” buck by “producing” things (the billionaires apparently roll up their sleeves and do the welding and mold injections themselves). Then there’s “bad” capitalism, run by Jews, in which greedy billionaires (only Jewish billionaires are greedy, it would appear) make a “dishonest” buck by fleecing and robbing everyone.
This sounds precariously like something that a certain Austrian corporal said, when he spoke of “parasitic capitalism” (“Jew crapitalism” in Mark’s parlance) and capitalism that “isn’t” parasitic.
Mark provides no statistical analysis, only anecdotes meant to cast aspersions and arouse base emotions. He chooses a group of 7 billionaires because he sees them as illustrative of what he wants ot “prove” (some of these billionaires, though, are arguably not even Jewish but simply have some Jewish ancestry. Again, Mark can be seen adopting Hitlerian themes, by intoning that anyone with Jewish ancestry is thereby irrevocably “tainted” and that their “blood” is “impure”).
Mark waxes poetic about the great value he sees in “honest” billionaires.
You need to stop ‘assuming’ and ‘guessing’ what other people think.
“Zionist oligarchs”. Right, because only Zionist oligarchs bleed their countries dry. Non-Zionist oligarchs, on the other hand, are “your” oligarchs, the guys you can trust.
I guess you think that Rusisa’s current oligarchs aren’t bleeding the country dry. They’re the “good guys”, I suppose.
Just the simple truth, old chap.
The trouble is the same priorities now apply in Britain, France, Canada.
The “truth” always seems to be disturbingly simple for those infected with gutter feudal-religious ideology.
Article refers to Put’s double.. even the Rrisskies call the new Put, Put’s ghost. He disappeared for 2 weeks then re-emerged with a new rounder, face, less baggy eyes, more hair, a new voice.. lost were his Judo ability, command of German and as expected, the wife didn’t fancy the new Put.
Thomas T the T just must be for twit