Sowing Seeds of Plunder: A Lose-Lose Situation in Ukraine
Colin Todhunter
It’s a lose-lose situation for Ukrainians. While they are dying, financial institutions are insidiously supporting the consolidation of farmland by oligarchs and Western financial interests.
So says Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director of the Oakland Institute, an independent think tank.
Depending on which sources to believe, between 100,000 and 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers (possibly more) have died during the conflict with Russia. That figure, of course, does not include civilian casualties.
But it is not the purpose of this article to explore these issues. Much has already been written on this elsewhere. But billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware has been sent to Ukraine by the NATO countries and hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians have died.
They died in the belief that they were protecting their nation – their land. A land that is among the most fertile in the world.
Professor Olena Borodina of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine says:
Today, thousands of rural boys and girls, farmers, are fighting and dying in the war. They have lost everything. The processes of free land sale and purchase are increasingly liberalised and advertised. This really threatens the rights of Ukrainians to their land, for which they give their lives.”
Borodina is quoted in the February 2023 report by the Oakland Institute War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land, which reveals how oligarchs and financial interests are expanding control over Ukraine’s agricultural land with help and financing from Western financial institutions.
Aid provided to Ukraine in recent years has been tied to a drastic structural adjustment programme requiring the creation of a land market through a law that leads to greater concentration of land in the hands of powerful interests. The programme also includes austerity measures, cuts in social safety nets and the privatisation of key sectors of the economy.
Frédéric Mousseau, co-author of the report, says:
“Despite being at the centre of news cycle and international policy, little attention has gone to the core of the conflict — who controls the agricultural land in the country known as the breadbasket of Europe. [The] Answer to this question is paramount to understanding the major stakes in the war.”
The report shows the total amount of land controlled by oligarchs, corrupt individuals and large agribusinesses is over nine million hectares — exceeding 28% of Ukraine’s arable land (the rest is used by over eight million Ukrainian farmers).
The largest landholders are a mix of Ukrainian oligarchs and foreign interests — mostly European and North American as well as the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia. A number of large US pension funds, foundations and university endowments are also invested in Ukrainian land through NCH Capital – a US-based private equity fund, which is the fifth largest landholder in the country.
President Zelenskyy put the land reform into law in 2020 against the will of the vast majority of the population who feared it would exacerbate corruption and reinforce control by powerful interests in the agricultural sector.
The Oakland Institute notes that, while large landholders are securing massive financing from Western financial institutions, Ukrainian farmers — essential for ensuring domestic food supply — receive virtually no support. With the land market in place, amid high economic stress and war, this difference of treatment will lead to more land consolidation by large agribusinesses.
All but one of the ten largest landholding firms are registered overseas, mainly in tax havens such as Cyprus or Luxembourg. The report identifies many prominent investors, including Vanguard Group, Kopernik Global Investors, BNP Asset Management Holding, Goldman Sachs-owned NN Investment Partners Holdings, and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.
Most of the agribusiness firms are substantially indebted to Western financial institutions, in particular the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, and the International Finance Corporation – the private sector arm of the World Bank.
Together, these institutions have been major lenders to Ukrainian agribusinesses, with close to US$1.7 billion lent to just six of Ukraine’s largest landholding firms in recent years. Other key lenders are a mix of mainly European and North American financial institutions, both public and private.
The report notes that this gives creditors financial stakes in the operation of the agribusinesses and confers significant leverage over them. Meanwhile, Ukrainian farmers have had to operate with limited amounts of land and financing, and many are now on the verge of poverty.
International financial institutions are in effect subsidising the concentration of land and a destructive industrial model of agriculture based on the intensive use of synthetic inputs, fossil fuels and large-scale monocropping.
Much of what is happening in Ukraine is part of a wider trend: private equity funds being injected into agriculture throughout the world and used to lease or buy up farms on the cheap and aggregate them into large-scale, industrial grain and soybean concerns. These funds use pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowment funds and investments from governments, banks, insurance companies and high net worth individuals (see the 2020 report ‘Barbarians at the Barn‘ by Grain.org).
Financialising agriculture this way shifts power to people with no connection to farming. In the words of BlackRock’s Larry Fink: “Go long agriculture and water and go to the beach.”
Funds tend to invest for between 10 and 15 years, resulting in good returns for investors but can leave a trail of long-term environmental and social devastation and serve to undermine local and regional food insecurity.
By contrast, according to the Oakland Institute, small-scale farmers in Ukraine demonstrate resilience and enormous potential for leading the expansion of a different production model based on agroecology and producing healthy food. Whereas large agribusinesses are geared towards export markets, it is Ukraine’s small and medium-sized farmers who guarantee the country’s food security.
This is underlined by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine in its report ‘Main agricultural characteristics of households in rural areas in 2011’, which showed that smallholder farmers in Ukraine operate 16% of agricultural land, but provide 55% of agricultural output, including 97% of potatoes, 97% of honey, 88% of vegetables, 83% of fruits and berries and 80% of milk.
In June 2020, the IMF approved an 18-month, strings-attached $5 billion loan programme with Ukraine. Also that year, the World Bank incorporated measures relating to the sale of public agricultural land as conditions in a $350 million Development Policy Loan (COVID ‘relief package’) to Ukraine. This included a required ‘prior action’ to “enable the sale of agricultural land and the use of land as collateral.”
According to the Oakland Institute:
Ukraine is now the world’s third-largest debtor to the International Monetary Fund and its crippling debt burden will likely result in additional pressure from its creditors, bondholders and international financial institutions on how post-war reconstruction – estimated to cost US$750 billion – should happen.”
Financial institutions are leveraging Ukraine’s crippling debt to drive further privatisation and liberalisation – backing the country into a corner to make it an offer it can’t refuse.
Since the war began, the Ukrainian flag has been raised outside parliament buildings in the West and iconic landmarks have been lit up in its colours. An image bite used to conjure up feelings of solidarity and support for that nation while serving to distract from the harsh machinations of geopolitics and modern-day economic plunder that is unhindered by national borders and has scant regard for the plight of ordinary citizens.
Colin Todhunter specialises in development, food and agriculture and is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization in Montreal. You can read his “mini e-book”, Food, Dependency and Dispossession: Cultivating Resistance, here.
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Global Capital must end or be ended.
It’s the old story of putting a country in a massive debt it can never pay back and buying up its assets or land for pennies on the dollar.
that’s the foundation of the book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman”
All this recent talk about the oligarchs stealing European and North American farmland is good news – for Africa and South America.
It can mean these two continents have already been picked so clean that maybe now the psychos might leave Africans and South Americans alone.
Or at the very least, it could mean now the Europeans and North Americans know how it feels to have the very land they walk on taken from under their feet – as they did to whomever inhabited the land before they took it away.
Sorry, but I don’t think that could be good news in any case. And regarding Africa and South America, why the massive emigration (invasion) from those areas to the north is promoted ? Perhaps to depopulate and ransacking them also ?
In Europe, for example, we don’t have that lack of knowledge after being invaded by Romans, Goths, Muslims, Ottomans, Germans, Nazis (the 1st. time) and now Nazis again.
“now the psychos might leave Africans and South Americans alone”
I think it’s the other way around: Africans and South Americans are leaving the [EU$A] psychos alone, to join BRICS instead.
https://youtu.be/3x3KqdE1ZmY
That is the Build Back Better ; sending the workforce to die (one way or another ; through false pandemic reasons or through false patriotic reasons) and pillaging the natural resources.
The gangsters behind the plundering are not a superior intelligent elite, but the most despicable murderers and robbers. And they are attempting the same in many countries, promoting conflicts, scarcity, fear and surreptitious decrees and nefarious legislation. They are repugnant criminals, who act in secrecy and show their repulsive hubris in public.
Well, no problem bothering with crops after UK delivered depleted uranium ammo to Ukraine and the Russians blew it up (See the huge mushroom cloud here: https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1657421212904030208 ).
And, as we know from practice, anywhere that *thing* landed, nothing grows. NATO used that ammo against our neighbour Serbia 24 years ago, and some of our farmers, close to the border, reported that nothing grew there years after that, if at all.
Another win for the GR scarcity merchants then – this war just keeps on giving
Zelensky is a traitor to his country. I very much doubt that when this SMO is over that Ukraine will exist and most of the country will be under Russian control, so I wonder how these wicked land sell outs will be maintained.
If we, ppl of Ukraine will be under ru, we will destroy russia from inside, dont you get it)))))
Is this the New Jerusalem argument that’s being seeded around lately, along with a healthy dose of international Jewish Conspiracy antisemitism from you?
It doesn’t look to me like Russia is very interested in anything decisive happening in Ukraine, or they wouldn’t be withdrawing troops inexplicably, and they’d have a comprehensible battle plan, and would prob issue troops with enough combat armour and decent modern hardware to conduct a decisive campaign 🤷♂️
Yellow grain-fields under a blue sky. Indelibly ingrained within the Ukrainian psyche via its flag.
Sting – Fields of Gold
Vagabard. Interesting colour tone messaging I like it thanks, I’am unsure on other people’s perceptible abilities though.
Cheers
Yeah, the blue-yellow theme will have escaped some. Glad you spotted it 🙂
Wealthy interests plundering the masses for fun and profit.
It was (and will continue to be) thus.
Well Colin, great article, but it’s too bad many here on this site aren’t interested at all in your subject matter, but are far more interested in policing the speech of commentors. While this article itself has not been accused of crossing some line in pointing out the ownership of the globe and the psychopaths who are intent on that, although from my understanding even using the words “globalist” or “oligarch” does cross that line today, at least according to our media owners who are intent on shutting down all critical thoughts, one must be very, very careful here in the comment section lest one be accused of crossing that line or offending someone else’s sensibilities. You know, kinda like using the incorrect gender pronoun in certain company. Apparently, cancel culture has come here too, albeit in a somewhat more refined form, at least it claims to be more refined…
The ban hammer is probably coming sooner than we all bargained for, and that will turn this site into one more sterile, simplistic, dumbed down experience not far off of what the MSM is and has always been. That is truly a shame and does not help the cause of truth at all. Maybe that’s the intent.
While certain words can be egregious depending on context, we are now so wrapped up in the semantics we no longer pay any attention to the point being made. And really, context is no longer taken into account either, as that might require a bit of thought and we can’t have that. In the comment section if one happens to use certain words or phrases, one is now a de facto bigot, whether one intended said bigotry or not or even came anywhere near spouting a truly bigoted phrase. It’s all about perception, and when someone else perceives your comment as bigotry there is no longer any arguing with that.
Why, there’s so much fun to be had in bashing on someone’s comment, virtue signaling isn’t confined to the MSM anymore, that most don’t stick to the subject matter at hand AT ALL, but are far more intent on dissecting the semantics of how things are said, while ignoring the main point. The Great Dumbing Down in action, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing…
I would say calling Jews “kikes” counts as egregious wouldn’t you.
So is it six people voting who are cool with calling people kikes, or one person trying to make a point using Nord? 😂
A reminder of our man Zelensky’s lustrous past:
https://architectsforsocialhousing.co.uk/2023/04/25/washingtons-puppet-the-rise-and-fall-of-volodmyr-zelenskyy/
> Former naked exponent of cock jokes on Ukrainian music-television
> famous for wearing high heels and bondage gear
> and playing a piano with his penis
A servant of the people!
You have to admit that neither Boris nor Blair did any of that.
Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot were always well dressed with good manners. That says a lot.
Another thing is, this article just confirm how detail planned this Ukraine war is.
Blackstone and all these crooks would never invest so much in Ukraine during an uncertain war, unless it was agreed beforehand with Russia.
Russia weird behaviour during the war period, yeah, money buys everything.
But it is a surprise that 72% of Ukrainian agro land are still allowed to be divided up in small pieces and owned by ineffective dirty peasants.
Give me the control of people’s small agricultures by usury loans, and I dont care who rule the country……………….LOL.
It is indeed surprising. 72% is a glass nearly three-quarters full in most people’s books
So where’s the actual problem?
Are u now implying that Russia is behind these western capitalist imperialistic methods of theft?
You must be a real scandinavian
But Camoron faked intercourse with a pig in front of the audience at some posh graduation ritual for Top People.
A true Clown World Pres- a “jew” with a Nazi army!!! 😝
Central Banks deal with Corporations, sovereign nations no longer exist.
Unidroit, based in Rome, dictate the legal terms.
This ‘conflict’ should be seen as the Bankers ‘perfecting‘ the collateral during a M&A.
‘special police operation’ or whatever bs the Kremlin call it.
The real question all sentient Ukrainians should be asking themselves is this:
‘Why do we think that America is our friend when he provoked war in our country from thousands of miles away, now forces us to take on huge debts to benefit their corporations at the expense of our people, when it is our people, not their people, who have died in the war here?’
I hope that 20 million Ukrainians draw the correct conclusion from that and ask why it is that only the USA can provide finance for them? Why can’t finance come from countries that DIDN’T provoke the war????
Concern for the little Ukrainian farmer may well be the best place for one’s heart; as bigger forces trample over their playground.
In “Grapes of Wrath“, when the bankers came to visit, going West was the best option – to pick oranges. Now there’s a choice. East or West.
Or upwards to meet the nefarious NWO puppetmaster bankers-in-the-clouds (preferably armed)
Paul below is the only honest commenter. The JEWS are destroying Ukraine
Hey ‘Stepan’. Are you a Bandera fan by any chance?
On the contrary: Stepan is pointing to the obvious, “the elephant in the room” that MSM and OffG politely ignore. Today it is the Jews in Ukraine (oligarchs like Kolomoisky, and his Jewish puppet Zelensky) who are Bandera fans: Kolomoisky finances Nazi thugs: the crack Azov battalion, Ukraine’s Jewish president Poroshenko ordered his Banderista army to commit genocidal attacks on Ukraine’s ethnic Russians. The 2014 coup in Ukraine was set up by a U$ Jew, Victoria Nuland; she appointed only Jews to lead the coup, and only Jews to be President.
Bandera devoted his life to freeing Ukraine from the J- tyranny. He died for that. Russia will be Ukraine’s sister again when she understands this. We share a common history in being subjected to destruction by J- power. The J- might think they can control rise to freedom in Ukraine but they will be swept away when Russia sees who she must really fight. The enemy is the J- not the Slav.
Slava Ukraina
The problem of course, being that there never was any “J- tyranny”.
Ukraine would be glorified more by being anti-evolutionist. Darwin being its bigger enemy. Which Bandera never grasped. Only a Creationist ever could…
Democritus had alternative solutions to the ‘problem of change’. Hence the atom.
If you and many other people focusing on the J-bankers destructive usury schemes, could differ between false J- and real J- (coming from Judea), then you may have a case.
But if you cant, “they are all the same”, you are not only the enemy but also your own enemy.
There aren’t any “coming from Judea”. There are no unbroken racial bloodlines from so long ago because people migrate and can and do interbreed. The Judaic tribes of antiquity mixed in with the rest of humanity either by choice or necessity.
Most of the people who claim to have that ancestry today are eastern Europeans and very visibly white caucasian or turko-mongolian in their ethnic/racial features.
It is also extremely unlikely that ancient Judeans had the pale skin and typical features of many modern-day “orthodox” types found in Israel.
it’s so fucking SAD that there are people voting up this creepy Nazi, and so WEIRD that it’s the same people who claim to be opposed to the Nazis in Ukraine.
Are you anti-Nazi or not guys? How can you be anti-Nazi and pals with a guy called ‘Stepan’ who thinks Bandera was a hero?
How can you blame ordinary Jewish people for the crimes of millionaires? I am a Ukraine Jew living in west Europe, run away through fear of your heroes the Ukro-nazis. They too tell everyone to fear the Jews just as you do.
Appreciated your input.
The fundamental problem (at least from my perspective) arises from an explanation of the origins of banking per se.
That a loophole within the Torah (usury can be applied to foreigners, but not to those of one’s own kind) lead to the wealth of the Rothschilds et al.
Clearly though ‘usury’ would have to have been a phenomena prior to the Torah (otherwise it couldn’t have been mentioned at all). So the situation is clearly more complicated ….
You are right, there is a detail here, but. The bible talks about the false J- and the real ordinary J-.
From where I stand and my knowledge, the bible’s definition is the most precise.
This to avoid making innocent people scapegoats for the true crooks.
All this stuff emerged in Babylon and was seeded into human minds by alien parasites via human shells (priests & kings), so as to create a prison/farm planet. There is nothing human or humane about usury, economics, banks, the State, bureucratic hierarchies, centralised power, legislation, big cities and what most think of as “urban civilisation”. It is literally a disease.
“How can you blame ordinary Jewish people for the crimes of millionaires?”
Was your reply really meant for NickM? He lives in Israel among “ordinary Jewish people” many of whom are the salt of the earth. Just like he used to live in the British Empire among “ordinary English people” many of whom were the salt of the earth.
It is our obscenely wealthy Oligarchal Leadership I blame, many of whom are Jews who ought to know better.
“Love of money is the root of much evil” — Old Testament
“You cannot serve God if you worship Mammon” — New Testament.
I feel like I’m witnessing something go faulty here.
Nick mate, Why are you talking about yourself in the 3rd person?
Apologies for mixing 1st & 3rd person. Should have stuck to one or the other. Literary convention gone faulty.
That’s one way of putting it, I guess.
When I saw you doing that I just assumed you intended to post under another name but forgot to change your ID in the comment form. 🫣🥴
Nobody here is interested in Ukrainian gangsters. The ews need to speak out against Israel and Zionism or this “blame” game will continue indefinitely. The problem is created by your Rabbis.
There are also many obvious names in banking and the media and people do eventually connect the dots….
I see no direct reference to “JEWS” anywhere in paul’s remarks. His comment is quite astute, and he simply details (to some degree) the well planned devastation enjoyed by corporate powers… It’s the corporate “system” folks. CORPORATE system.
I can’t believe the stupidity of debate regarding how these operations are funded and financed. It’s Stockholm Syndrome on steroids…
The term ‘folk’ is clearly not random, it refers to ‘Chosen Folk’, and it is clear, viewed in context with the commenter’s previous output, that he is referring to Western Jews.
I don’t think this can reasonably be denied. And as such, Paul’s position appears to be confused and paradoxical.
@Hengist just now made an astute point about why such slurs, thrown casually into arguments, can be so damaging, and why therefore it warrants addressing by the OP.
why should Paul not mean the J-? Of course he means the J-. Who else would he mean? Why are they protected? They are our real masters, no? We aren’t allowed to criticize them on this so-called free site.
Hello Stepan: I understand what you’re saying, but would submit that nearly all public debate has become a futile grammatical exercise… Alas…
I think it would be more appropriate to separate Zionist financial exercises from the ethnic group which identifies itself of Jewish belief…
We all understand what he’s saying mate, he’s saying he’s an Azov nazi from Ukraine who hates Jews. End of.
Thanks for that PV.
Some people here seem obsessed with finding references to Jews.
Maybe they’re anti semitic or something.
I wasn’t going to bother endlessly repeating myself to them.
You are right, though.
The Exceptional And Indispensable Folk are the people who constantly proclaim to the rest of the world that they are exceptional and indispensable. (And presumably that everybody else is unexceptional and dispensable.) The chest beating, tub thumping, preening, self worshipping prominent Americans like Bush 1 and Bush 2 and Obomber and Mitt Romney and McCain and Lindsey Graham, and countless others of their ilk, who do so without even having the decency to issue people with vomit bags first. They are all loyal servants of the 0.1% looting corporate kleptocracy. These people are generally not Jews, no matter how much they compete with one another to do favours for Israel. Jews just don’t refer to themselves in those terms. .
It refers to America. The idea that America is uniquely virtuous, a shining city on a hill, whose “values” we must all unquestioningly admire and aspire to, with a divine right to lord it over the rest of humanity for ever, rampaging across the planet for the past 7 decades, slaughtering, butchering, starving, immiserating and plundering hundreds of millions of people and destroying whole countries in the process. Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iran, Vietnam, Cambodia, countless others, and now Ukraine.
I remember Corbyn was accused of being anti semitic because he viewed a painting of 6 historical corporate robber barons oppressing working people. Only one of these six people was apparently Jewish – the rest were Presbyterians and Roman Catholics.
How many ordinary Americans subscribe to this agenda is open to question. When I lived there I was very surprised at how poor and downtrodden many were, living in houses that were more like garden sheds, doing several jobs to get by, with a low standard of living, unable to afford cars.
.
For clarity, here are some examples of remarks you have made here over the years (both as “Paul” and your previous incarnation, “Mark”) –
“What you kikes don’t seem able to grasp is that when you DO bad things, people SAY bad things about you…“
https://off-guardian.org/2018/05/13/lets-talk-about-the-golan-heights/#comment-25184
“It’s just a conspiracy theory that Jews control the media. There is no evidence of this whatsoever. It’s pure coincidence that all the US media is owned by 6 Jewish Zionist billionaires. A swarm of bees, a troupe of actors, a den of thieves, a gang of Blacks, a coincidence of Jews. “
“According to our charming Hebrew friends of the Sarah Silverman variety, Jesus was the bastard son of a Roman soldier and a Jewish prostitute, who is now burning in a pit of excrement in Hell for all eternity. Nice people, those Hebrew folk.”
https://off-guardian.org/2018/10/24/a-dangerous-dynasty-house-of-assad/#comment-10069
“And for Jews there was money and usury and corruption and organised criminality.”
https://off-guardian.org/?p=51953/#comment-6589
“That’s the problem with these Jew People. They are not responsible for their own actions. They are like children in a school playground. They have been brainwashed by hundreds of years of Talmudic Racist Goy Hatred. It’s not their fault. They scream in pain as they hit you, it’s all the fault of “anti Semitism”, blah, blah, blah.”
https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/23/george-and-the-isis-bride/#comment-77652
“…A lot of people doubt the “holocaust” actually happened. But if it had, isn’t it possible the world would now be quite a peaceful place?”
https://off-guardian.org/2019/06/25/the-ongoing-restructuring-of-the-greater-middle-east/#comment-82908
You can understand why people assume you are making racist comments about Jewish people even if you say you aren’t, so perhaps go easy on any righteous indignation.
Did this Paul really say these things?
He used the word KIKES?
“A lot of people doubt the “holocaust” actually happened. But if it had, isn’t it possible the world would now be quite a peaceful place?”
Oh my God! How can a man say such things about any people?
All these posts have been doctored in some way. I have never in my life called Jews “kikes.” I did say that when you do bad things, people say bad things about you. Likewise, I have never referred to “Jew people.”, or said that the world was a better place because of the holocaust. I did ask how much of the historical record could be trusted. These have been altered, “spiced up” to make them as extreme as possible. I found some posts mimicking me, posting as mark, and so just stopped contributing. I called these out at the time.
The comments are unchanged from when you submitted them. They were all posted using your usual email and from an IP you frequently used. These are your comments.
If you pursue it further I will upload a screencap of the comment history logged by WP which proves they have not been edited in any way by anyone but YOU.
This should be an end of the matter.
The 4th one isn’t mine either.
I’ve got a fair idea what’s going on here and who’s doing it.
The Jews?
Maybe some people are genuinely ‘exceptional’? (see video). Not everyone can run 100m under 10 secs. Nor run a marathon in around 2hrs.
Corbyn was morally defunct for other reasons. Like lying over abolishing student loans and never delivering.
Kim Peek – The Real Rain Man (2006)
America is a winner nation of winners with exceptional people. The rest of the world are shithole countries with deplorables. Thats just the way it is!
“…A lot of people doubt the “holocaust” actually happened. But if it had, isn’t it possible the world would now be quite a peaceful place?”
– Paul, who’s about as non-racist as these guys
Hey paul. Settle down man. You won’t influence anything positive by focusing on the negative. Jus’ sayin’…
Great article
Thank you for a very fair article on why Ukraine is the world’s victim. The hypocrisy of the West is well-documented in this.
Thanks for the informative article!
Some time ago I read the Dutch bank Rabobank was investing huge sums in Ukraine. The strange thing is that Ukraine is under attack by Russia. Rabobank would surely lose their investments in areas the Russians took over. Why would anyone invest in a war zone?
Because the war is surface only, just as was covid, and in deeper reality is a big pig trough for turning public money to private gold – all sides are feeding there and growing fat
For every young man dying on the battle field, there is a funeral and priest to be paid, a lawyer to be engaged, a house mortgage debt, a single mother without money, and a financial usury squeeze and a national tax increase……..LOL
This fits in with what they’re doing in western Europe: voluntary or compulsory sale of farmland in the name of climate change.
Instead of being the breadbasket of Europe, the Ukraine will become the GM crop and insect basket of Europe, run by Billy and his chums, with some mRNA-contaminated meat and dairy thrown in.
No chance of that happening. The Ukraina will join Mother Russia and become the largest supplier of non-GMO wheat in the world.
You are dreaming. If I and my 7 person family only had GMO wheat, Insects and Mrna injected meat and diary to eat, we would be happy.
We live in a sewage pipe under a globalist Libtard Mayor’s office in Moscow. All we have is in a shoebox, we collect rainwater to drink and eat what is passing by.
But we dont criticize anybody and never make claim against any politician and billionaire, because we are happy we are together and we have each other.
No my friend, if we only were in your shoes we would be rich.
Strange times Erik for example forbidden collecting rain water for a drink. If that doesn’t sum up Global Power I’ve no-one idea what else does.
Thx
Are you sure you’re not from Yorkshire?
There are pics that appear to show hundreds of shell craters in arable fields. This pattern may be repeated over large areas. Restoring such damage is a massive task and returning these fields to production may take many years.
Indeed. In addition to all the minefields. It’ll take time to clear those too
Only big usury loans from IMF and World Bank can do it. The Ukrainians were SO horny to get into the US/Western debt trap. Congratulation.
Ukraine could ask Vietnam and its neighbours for help. These countries even had to invent techniques to spot and defuse mines. A certain global policeman still considers the known way to defuse a mine to be a military secret.
“It’s a lose-lose situation for Ukrainians. While they are dying, financial institutions are insidiously supporting the consolidation of farmland by oligarchs and Western financial interests.”
What did the Ukrainians expect when they welcomed in the Western Oligarchs: Obama, Biden and Nuland? What was the first thing Western Oligarchs did? They appointed a Ukrainian Oligarch to be president of Ukraine.
“Praise be to God who set this Law in his sky,
That people must learn by suffering” — Aeschyles.
[If we will learn no other way]
“The Americans say they will give us wonderful weapons if we fight China for them. Do they think we are stupid?!” — A Lady from the Philippines.
Thanks Colin.
I imagine as someone who obviously cares for this planet, writing articles such as this must break you up a bit.
Certainly does me when I’m reading them.
Thanks mate, and keep doing what you’re doing.
Thanks, Colin, for always contributing articles with a humanitarian viewpoint but based on objective factual reality. And providing actual positive examples of the right agricultural practice.
Thanks Nick.
Much appreciated. The least we can do is to continue exposing what is happening. And beyond that? Hopefully – ‘Educate! Organise! Agitate!’ – to borrow a slogan from another media outlet.
The outlet being India-based Countercurrents. They deserve a name check
During the Nazi occupation, trainloads of black earth soil were seized and taken back to Germany. Monsanto and Cargill and Gates seem to be following in this tradition of plunder, with a further aim of expanding GMO and mega agribusiness at the expense of productive small farmers.
In the immediate aftermath of the rape of Iraq and Libya, Chinese oil concessions were cancelled by the US, and of course the US is constantly stealing Syria’s oil and grain. US commercial interests face a similar fate with the collapse of the Kiev regime.
The fate of Ukraine is beyond tragedy.
At independence in 1991, Ukraine had a population of 52 million.
By 2010, pre Maidan and pre war, but after 20 years of non stop looting by oligarchs like Kolomoisky and his ilk, it had fallen to 38 million, with a further 7.5 million living abroad, scratching a living picking cabbages in Poland or working as “Natasha” prostitutes, the only Ukrainian export the EU actually wants.
Post Maidan, another 7 million plus were lost in Crimea and the Donbas.
15 million have fled as refugees, 11 million to the EU and 4 million to Russia.
The population currently controlled by the Zelensky regime is probably around 20 million, not much more than a third of the 1991 figure.
The fate of the economy itself is equally tragic, even without the war itself.
In 1991, the Ukraine was the most prosperous and highly developed part of the Soviet Union, with a highly skilled and educated work force.
It had everything. Coal, steel, non ferrous metals, oil refining, aircraft, specialist shipbuilding, motor vehicles, locomotives and rolling stock, agriculture and agricultural machinery, chemicals, engineering, armaments, spacecraft and missiles, and much else besides.
By 2010, most of this had gone. To give just one example, the engineering sector boasted over 100 large machine building concerns at independence. 20 years later, only 3 remained. The economy had completely collapsed, and with it Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian health service. Mortality rates soared from basic illnesses like TB. So did alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, sex-, child- and organ trafficking, and violent organised crime, which was itself indistinguishable from the ruling gangster political elite.
The destruction and dislocation of the current war is the final nail in the coffin..
Ukraine is a failed state. It already was before the war, and the poorest country in Europe.
If it survives at all, which seems increasingly unlikely, it will be as a sort of European Afghanistan or Somalia or Libya-On-The-Dnieper. There may be a rump Ukraine left, with neighbours like Poland, Hungary and Romania hovering vulture like over the carcass. A largely depopulated, empty backwater, pretty much like the Baltic States only many times worse. It is unlikely even that foreign extractive businesses, Monsanto style GMO agribusinesses, or foreign sweatshop manufacturing will survive.
That is what happens when a country is targeted by the Neocons and is turned into a CIA playground and a happy hunting ground for Hunter Biden style carpetbaggers. Just the latest in a long line of countries destroyed beyond repair and immiserated by the Exceptional and Indispensable Folk.
Can you source stuff like this please. A2
All these figures are a matter of record. They are not controversial and pre date the conflict. They are documented in official reports of international institutions. See also Frontline Ukraine, Crisis In The Borderlands, Richard Sakwa, Tauris , 2015.There are others.
It’s good practice to source things, as you’re aware. If it’s readily available then all the easier for you. It makes the forum a more informative place. Thanks. A2
Here is one source from a Voltaire 2014 article by F.W.Engdahl. How foreign bankers are economically raping the Ukraine.
https://www.voltairenet.org/article186276.html
Here is another source which Paul mentioned .
https://archive.org/details/frontlineukraine0000sakw_b7x4
Thanks for that B. I’m not very good with attachments. Richard Sakwa has written other work on the subject but that is a good introduction. He tries to avoid taking sides and remain objective.
The evidence is out there for you to find, Young Sam. In my experience, only people who firmly believe the opposite demand sources. What Paul says is opposite to the OffG Line and may be news to some of its readers. To older readers (or to young readers who know modern history) what Paul writes is old news.
What on earth do you mean by our “line on Ukraine”? Can I remind you we have been combatting NATO lies about Ukraine since our inception. If Paul feels up to using sources he could find most of them on here.
We don’t ask for sources because “we firmly believe the opposite”, that is simply childish. We ask for sources for the same reason we provide them – because it’s good practice and helps people make up their minds independent of us.
Come on Nick now, fairplay, you have to give sources for facts even if everyone knows it to be true and OG have been on the money about Ukraine, Russia, NATO and all that since I started reading them back in 2016
what tosh!!
OG only woke up to the one world government during covid.
pre this is was singing the west verses east fantasy and plugging the populism twaddle.
Not many in alt news have ‘woken up’ to the true implications of Covid on geopolitics to the extent they’re able to recognise Russia’s demonstrable role supporting the GR, so we’re still ahead of the curve. I think.
I know Offg can rarely win, but WE still deserve credit where credit is due.
Might be true but I believe that the people are more resilient.
“If it survives at all, which seems increasingly unlikely, it will be as a sort of European Afghanistan or Somalia or Libya-On-The-Dnieper.”
Don’t worry. Once the SMO is over, the Ukraina will go back to Mother Russia and once again be prosperous: with revived industry, agriculture and above all peace.
Do you agree with “Paul” that we should blame the Jews for it all?
Are you literally saying the Jewish people are destroying the world?
Literally the Jewish people?
So, what are you suggesting we should do to stop them? I mean I have some Jewish neighbours, should I go beat them up for what they’ve done to Ukraine and Iraq and Libya?
The oligarchs and the neocons are destroying the world.
I don’t know or particularly care what their religious beliefs are, if they have any, which I doubt.
Probably the only things they worship are themselves, money and power.
please can you explain what you meant by these words…
“Just the latest in a long line of countries destroyed beyond repair and immiserated by the Exceptional and Indispensable Folk.“
You mean the Jewish race do you not? This is a Nazi belief that the Jews are the cause of all the pain in the world. The Nazis in Ukraine would agree with you.
So why do you say you oppose Nazis while expressing Nazi views?
Paul made an allegation against the “Nazis”. That didn’t stop you from accusing him of “antisemitism”. You really a neocon admirer.
Yes he made accusation against Nazis and then said this at the end…
This why I gave him downvote. It is shocking to accuse entire race of people for crimes of NATO
Surely that’s a reference to American exceptionalism and O’Bombers “America is the indispensable nation” speach? Interesting that you see Jewish folk as exceptional and indispensable though.
Judge for yourself. Paul def seems to have a problem with Jews
https://off-guardian.org/2023/05/10/theyre-coming-to-take-you-away/#comment-601522
https://off-guardian.org/2023/05/08/39-questions-about-the-war-in-ukraine/#comment-601132
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/24/no-saudi-arabia-did-not-do-9-11/#comment-598199
And he can be a bit of a Hitler fan too
https://off-guardian.org/2023/04/22/wool-over-our-eyes/#comment-597956
I only commented to the assertion that his remark above was antisemitic. I don’t think it is. I’m aware of the weaponisation of the whole antisemitism, antivaxxer, climate denier bollox and the rush to conflate any remark, shut down debate and protect the narrative. I’d urge anyone interested to read “The General’s Son” by Miko Peled, son of a high ranking Israeli general, and “The Wandering Who?” by well known J*wish Israeli antisemite Gilad Atzmon. Both very interesting books and both authors relentlessly attacked as antisemites.
I have inquired of Paul to tell me what he meant by those words “Exceptional and Indispensable Folk”. So far he has not answered.
Let me say I am no zionist and oppose the state of Israel, but there are many neo-nazi types, like those killing thousands in Ukraine, who use this justifiable position as a disguise for their genuine hate of the Jews.
The nazis also used this trick of semi-truths to persuade people that all Jews were responsible for the evils of a few wealthy Jews. Ignoring the equal evils of wealthy non-Jews. This had the effect of making all Jews, even innocent, poor or middle class Jews, into untermenschen in the eyes of decent German people.
It is very important that our justifiable anger at the crimes of Israel does not spill into this crude racism again.
The remarks of our friend Paul in the links made by Tilly Peterson above suggest to me he is falling into this terrible trap. He is misguided in my view.
See above.
The phrase ‘folk’ is not random, it stems from ‘Chosen Folk’, a popular antiJewish slur. And putting this in context with the commenter’s previous recent posts, the meaning seems clear. ‘Western Jews’.
As moderators it is Admin’s job to seek to put statements into context.
Paul’s view seems to represent a paradox.
Paul uses the phrases “chosen folk”, “exceptional folk”, etc to refer to the Jews. Anyone who reads here regularly is aware of that.
Oh look, Obama made this speech in 2012 and how many invasions, colour revolutions and coups has the US instigated? At the last count it was 55, the latest being Ukraine. Not forgetting of course after WW2 there was operation Paperclip that the US run as ratline to bring 1000s of Nazis !
https://www.voanews.com/a/obama_tells_air_force_academy_us_is_one_indispensable_country_world_affairs/940158.html
@paul: “America is just the dumb goy muscle golem”
https://off-guardian.org/2020/01/24/reality-check-coronavirus-fear-porn/#comment-114232
@paul: “Bad news for the chosen folk if their little Shabbos shiksa gets the boot.”
https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/01/this-week-in-the-guardian-2/#comment-123609
Do you need to be told what to do?
I agree with everything you say except your shocking last sentence which is like something out of the very Nazi propaganda you claim to deplore! I give you a down vote for that.
You should think carefully about your own biases.
See above.
Differences
There are significan differences between the situation in Ukraine and in neocon targets such as Yugoslavia,Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. The neocons now have two objectives – regime change in Russia and the creation of a new Khazaria/ Israel II within the borders of Ukraine. This can be perceived by the strangulation of Russia and the lavish gifts of money and military assistance to the crossdressing dwarf that rules Ukraine.How long this will take is difficult to say. Iraq was crushed over a 12 year period. It sobering to remember the Highway of Death and the images of the charred corpse in the truck.
Why talk of the neocons? It seems retrograde since 2020 when globalism killed the neocons or forced them to obey new higher powers. Now we are ruled by “multipolar” climate change tree huggers. Wars are to be waged but not won and are about consuming resources not gaining them or winning land
Neocons
On the contrary the neocons today are having their greatest day. They are now destroying a country that dwarfs all their previous victims combined.They are in the process of creating a second Israel and making great headway. Most if not all of the neocons are dual citizens. This is a tremendous victory for them.
And we are hardly ruled by tree huggers. I have seen a huge drop in the bird population in Australia over the last eight years due mainly to habitat loss. All Australian cities are now boom towns. I estimate a million trees lost. Every house demolished is replaced with a block of units (flats/apartments) or a bigger house. Either way there is no garden. It is as though there was a ban on gardens. Undoubtedly this is true of the West in general. In the country in New South Wales only between 3 and 6 percent of native bushland has survived.
Holy shit Paul, your last bit is a bit full on. “Just the latest in a long line of countries destroyed beyond repair and immiserated by the exceptional and indispensable folk”
Jaysus lad! Wind it in there.
See above.
Like others have said you wrecked an excellent comment with your last horrible sentence.
I can’t believe you can so rightly call out NATO support for Nazis in Ukraine and end by attacking the whole Jewish people – just as the Nazis did and do.
Do you seriously think the Jewish oligarchs do these evil things because they are Jewish? Like another comment says, this how the nazis justified locking up ordinary Jewish people who had never done anyone harm.
It’s the exploiters and murderers we should be fighting, whether they be Jews or Christians or Moslems or American or European or Asian.
When you say “Just the latest in a long line of countries destroyed beyond repair and immiserated by the Exceptional and Indispensable Folk” you are mimicking the nazis you claim to oppose.
Precisely. Think about the CIA chief Allen Dulles, said to be JFK’s assasinator.
A white British pipe smoking gentleman more evil than the entire Israel.
The decision to terminate JFK came from far higher levels than Allen Dulles.
Lemme guess – the ‘Chosen Folk’?
Read Michael Collins Piper’s Final Judgement.
Allen Dulles was the one who introduced “everything is permitted”, the most evil torture, genocides, chemical and biological suffering and death, no ethics, no moral bound.
Previously we had a lower level of ethics they tried not to break in war and business.
Kudos for honest truth. The J—- are destroying Ukraine
Then do Ukronazis have the right idea? Seems impossible to unite these two viewpoints. Or are you just trying to shock?
More accurately, it’s the fake Jews that are. But this is lost on most people who are not educated on the matter.
Aren’t those the same ‘fake Jews’ the Nazi ideology despises?
Can’t we just be adults and not mention the Nazis any time criticism of Jews is threatened.
That was the OP not us. You didn’t answer the question. Please do.
The question sounds like a gotcha! The answer to it, I don’t know, but it’s irrelevant to my point anyway.
I will instead respond with what I consider to be a few rhetorical questions.
Can a people who are white come out of the Levant? No. Are we in a spiritual war against Satan and his minions? Yes. Does the book of Revelation reference Satan and the fake Jews? Yes.
Well, given you won’t answer it I guess you think it’s a gotcha, and it’s therefore clear what your answer is (also made clear later in your reply, btw, in what I guess was supposed to be a subtle hint, but you forgot to add the subtlety. 🤷♂️)
No, you are using cheap BBC-esque tactics. I already said I don’t know the answer, but even if it’s yes, it’s irrelevant and only serves your ‘gotcha’ which is proof of winning an argument to those of low intellect.
Speaking of cheap tactics. Things don’t go your way, call people stupid.
I am afraid that the existence an endemic neo-nazism has been a political reality as far back in the Ukraine as the early 19th century – particularly west of the Dnieper. This far-right tradition has been historically very strong particularly in the western Ukraine. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was first established in 1929 and brought together, war veterans, student fraternities, far-right groups and various other disoriented social and political flotsam and jetsam under its banner.
The OUN took its ideological position from the writings of one, Dymtro Dontsov, who, like Mussolini had been a socialist, and who was instrumental in creating an indigenous Ukrainian fascism based upon the usual mishmash of writings and theories including Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, and Charles Maurras. Dontsov also translated the works of Hitler and Mussolini into Ukrainian.
Into this political void came Stepan Bandera of the fascistic right-wing (OUN-B) and Roman Shukhevch Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA); these two gentlemen were responsible human rights abuses and mass exterminations particularly in Ukraine (specifically outrageous in Polish settlements in Volhynia and Galicia in Western Ukraine in 1943-44). The death toll numbered hundreds of thousands. It should be added that the German invasion of Ukraine was welcomed by of the many locals.
Strange to say that the current Polish leader, Duda, saw nothing untoward regarding a certain Mr Zelensky’s recent visit to Poland. They were not apparently of what took place in western Ukraine in the 1943-44. Or were they?
Straussians
Vladimir Putin Declares War on the Straussians aka Neocons – Europe Reloaded
You Link to an article by THIERRY MEYSSAN who was one of the righteous commentators denouncing NATZO’s attempt to destabilize Syria by flooding Syria with armed CIA ISIS proxies. So he has every right to denounce the way NATZO has destabilized Ukraine by arming Ukro-Nazi proxies.
Thierry is right: all will be well. Russia check-mated NATZO in Syria, and gained the moral high ground. It will do the same in Ukraine.
I don’t understand you. You say you oppose the Ukro-Nazis at every turn but yet you side with Paul who blames the Jewish people for all the ills in the world – just like the Ukro-Nazis do!
I’m starting to wonder what’s going on here!
Yeah I’m a tad confused.
I am Christian Orthodox in origin, I live in Israel and my nuclear family is Jewish. I do not see that Paul “blames the Jewish people for all the ills in the world. But I do see, as Paul sees, and as many Jews (including my Israeli Communist friends) see: that Jewish Oligarchs, especially the Anglo-American variety, are conspiring with Gentile Oligarchs in a Global Capitalist Conspiracy to despoil, and eventually to control, our world. But the battle between Good and Evil is much larger than wars between specific ethnic groups.
“For we wrestle not only against flesh and blood, but against Powers and Principles in the Heavens” — St.Paul.
What do your Jewish family and your Israeli friends make of someone who calls them “kikes”?
Supposing you brought Paul over for dinner and he said to your Jewish family “A lot of people doubt the “holocaust” actually happened. But if it had, isn’t it possible the world would now be quite a peaceful place?” How would they feel about it
History Repeating Itself ?
In the 19th century French Rothschild Edmond de Rothschild was in Palestine buying up land.
Rothschild no doubt ordered Black Rock to buy to buy up black soil in Ukraine to feed a resurrected Jewish Kingdrom of Khazaria. Territory in present day Ukraine formed part of the Khazar Kingdom in 10th century AD. Modern Jews have as much right to Ukraine as they have to Palestine.
Yes, the Jews are killing Ukraine – Slava Ukraina
@Stepan @Nick M: So UkroNazis are in service of ‘Jews’? Or is Russia, by destabilising the region under the pretext of denazification?
Or all three in it together?
No, young Sam. UkroNazis are not in service of ‘Jews’. They are in service of Jews. Without the apostrophe.
Specifically, in service of a U$ Jewess, Victoria “Fock the EU” Nudelman, who gave their leaders $5 Billion plus weapons for the coup which destabilized Ukraine in 2014. That coup was marked by an horrific atrocity against Russian football fans in Odessa (which OffG is too PC to mention), and by certifiable “genocide” against ethnic Russian citizens of Ukraine.
Also specifically, UkroNazis are in service of a Jews-only presidential system in Ukraine, set up by U$ Jewess Nuland. The first Jewish president appointed by Nuland was Poroshenko who said, “Let the [ethnic Russian] children of Donbass go to school in bomb shelters” — because Poroshenko ordered the shelling of civilians in Donbass. The second Jewish president is Zelensky, whose crack Ukro-Nazi Azov battalion drives Ukrainian Christian soldiers into “the meat grinder” with horrific losses. Both Zelensky and the Azov battalion are financed by Jewish Oligarch Kolomoisky.
Not in service to ‘Jews’ but in service to certain specific Jews with a specific agenda of Oligarchic rule.
Putin is the only European leader who has opposed Russian Oligarchs (both Jewish and non-Jewish) and forced the English JewishOligarch, Lord Rothschild, to disgorge some of his Russian loot. OffG is too PC to mention this.
Why do modern Jews have a right to anything? If the people who lived there for 10 centuries don’t have the right to it, then I’m absolutely certain that foreign Jews don’t have a right to it.
You are correct.
Isn’t that the point that was being made? Please, don’t flex your antisemitic muscles anymore, I could simply link to your previous comments on the issue if I wanted a dose of that, in which you state that ordinary Jews should be made to sign undertakings in order to maintain their citizenship.
Zelensky is an actor. He was selected by Kolomoisky (a former triple-citizen) to play a scripted role. A couple of years prior to 2014, Kolomoisky got several billion dollars from Abramovich (a dual-citizen and “Putin’s wallet”). Putin is a puppet of Kissinger. In 2012, Kissinger supposedly said that Israel wouldn’t exist in ten years time. Hence, prior to the invasion, the script which Zelensky was following was one written by Kissinger – and it involved taking Biden’s offer to flee Kyiv. However, the script got flipped, Zelensky said “I need ammo, not a ride”, and he’s now playing “George Washington”.
“and he’s now playing “George Washington”.
Except for the bit where George says, “I cannot tell a Lie”.
Yes both sides are in the same acting troupe, creating dramatic show for us to watch while meanwhile the rape of our natural world, our food, our freedoms continues
Seen in this context it makes a lot of sense. A war is the perfect vehicle for depopulating a large area — kill a bunch, force another bunch to flee, what’s not to like? Even before the start of the Russian “SMO” the ongoing conflict in the east had lead to about 14,000 deaths and an estimated 2 million displaced.
The war in Ukraine is about corporate global monopoly control over several industries one being the industry that supplies the food you buy at your local grocer, another being the patents that come from unregulated but well funded secret biotechnology research?
Private banking invades then forecloses and takes the victims farms, factories, technology and resources for a song.. Happening all over the world by the same few corporate and oligarch players. Are the coalition nations supporting the Kiev government in on the deal?
Have international security arrangements(intelligence and military) been turned into knee-breakers, paid to defang or subvert family and small business owner resistance to global corporate takeover? Is Russia a player, or a victim, in this exploit and take over game?
The lose-lose situation is mostly invisible but it is occuring globally, in Ukraine it has become visible.
The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.
-Robber Baron Rothschild
“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world” (attributed) to Henry Kissinger
The debt brings back memories of what happened, recently (ish) to the Greeks.
Confessions of an economic hitman by John Perkins comes to mind, similar pattern again.
Events happen as time passes, the governor
charts the course with
control as its number 1 task.
I think the quote should be ; ‘what controls the food supply’
not ‘Who’
The ‘what’ that controls the food supply is a system made up of ‘the who’.
We wont get fooled again.
https://youtu.be/zYMD_W_r3Fg