Don't Thank Congress.

President Trump "thanked" US Congress for its role in bringing "US-Russia relations at all-time & dangerous low".  Well, it is all fine and dandy but by now it should be absolutely clear to US President that US Congress, whose approval rating consistently hovers at below 20%, is not really a legislative body designed to represent interests of average citizens. Far from it, US Congress is there to finish off what's left of the myth of American "democracy". In fact, the prefix "US" has to be removed from the title of "Congress" because real American interests, that are the interests of the majority of American people, are the least of the concerns of this body of professional "self-electors". The filial of Knesset? Sure! Military-Industrial Complex puppets? Absolutely! Bunch of corrupt (with some notable but few exceptions, of course) to the core ignoramuses? Undeniably so, but not "US".

Now that Donald Trump lost his most important battle so far (no, it is not about Russia's sanctions, it is about Executive Branch conduct of US foreign policy) and was stripped of powers he was elected to exercise, we need to talk about... Putin. It is clear that he is not against, however timid, EU's (Germany's mostly) attempts to regain a semblance of national sovereignty. Germany, through Brussels, made her voice heard on sanctions "prescribed" by H.R. 3664, which under the pretext of countering a truck load of America's "enemies", made sure that the number of those may grow significantly. But Europeans here are secondary players in all of this game. If US really wants to, she will be able to coerce Europe in buying American LNG (for a much larger price than natural gas from Russia) and Europe will oblige--being denied, both out of its own will and by coercion, of political subjectivity for decades can not be overcome easily and in a short period of time. EU "elites" are really a pathetic bunch and are not equipped with necessary mental faculties to formulate a viable policy in any field which matters. 

But for Putin these sanctions are a great chance, in a face of open US hostility which now, for all intents and purposes, is a new Cold War (some want it hot in D.C.) and with US ruling class fractured and at the peak (or bottom, depends on POV) of its incompetence, to finally do away with liberal Parnassus in Russia by means of removing "chicks of Gaidar's nest", starting with Russia's pathetic Prime Minister Medvedev, from any power positions which allow to formulate any kind of policy. The "pushing" of all the right buttons in Medvedev's statement on US sanctions is a good indication of him understanding the danger which current situation puts him in. In the end, Putin is already running his election campaign and removing Russia's "liberals" (in reality full blown fifth column) from formulating economic policies will answer both sotto voce and, sometimes, loud open calls to remove this "market" cabal from Russia's economic levers. Will Putin, who still has an astounding 83% approval rating, finally hear it? I, certainly, wouldn't go as far as Prohanov who warns of a possible collusion between "liberals" and oligarchs in order to remove Putin--while possible, I don't think that such contingency is highly probable--but more radical reversal of economic policies of 1990s is definitely needed and Putin still does face one of the most important issues of Russia's 20th century history--most (not all) of Russian oligarchy are thieves who literally have stolen from the nation. While Putin made several statements to the effect that results of 1990s "privatization" will not be reversed, my feel is that he understands that he will have to address this issue at some point of time.  

But as of now--it is as good time as any to get pop-corn out and see, sometimes with pain, sometimes with amusement, how a bunch of morons in some Congress in D.C. just created America's worst case scenario with Russia and China all but becoming a full fledged allies (once Power of Siberia is launched in 2019, Europe can go to hell), with Iran now, inevitably, moving closer to this alliance. Talk about shooting oneself in a foot--but that was my position from the inception of this blog: the level of ignorance about outside world in D.C. is unbelievable and is clear and present danger to real American interests in staying much relevant and important major power in emerging new world geopolitical and economic order.   

In related news, Poland being Poland now demands huge reparations from Germany for WW II. Oh, gee-whiz, same old "players"!  And why I am not surprised that this is Poland, and, indeed, who else!? Will Brussels cut Poland's subsidies, which allowed her to think that she became a facade for East European post-Soviet "occupation" relative prosperity completely on her own? We'll see, but something tells me that Berlin has some own accounts to settle with Poland (whose main "argument" is influential US Polish diaspora) and... Russia may actually back Berlin up. Remarkably, at this stage both US and Poland are perfect cases for failing to learn anything from history. But about this--later.