So, They Noticed.

Erdogan is a shrewd politician but is he a real statesman? It is clear that average Turks have a better geopolitical sense than official Ankara and I wrote about it for years. Like this: 

RUSSIA IS OUR STRATEGIC PARTNER” When asked “How would you define the relations between Russia and Turkey” in the survey, 58.2 percent of the respondents said “there is a strategic partnership”. Other answers to the same question were as follows; "10.5 percent are cooperative", 6.5 percent "close cooperation", 4.5 percent "neither cooperation or problems", 9 percent "problems", 11.4 percent "hostile." "WE DON'T TRUST THE USA" When asked about the relations between the USA and Turkey, which was asked as "Which of the following options best describes the USA in terms of its relations with Turkey", 35.5 percent of the Turkish people said "unreliable". While 32.8% of the citizens said to the same question as 'colonial country', the other answers of the participants were as 'strategic partner' (18.3%), 'enemy country' (12.4%), and 'friendly and allied country' by 1%. RUSSIA YES, USA NO. 

Here is graphics to get the scale.

Since then many things changed--Russia demonstrated to the world what real war means, plus Erdogan must contend with Turkish street opinion on genocide in Gaza. For him it was fine and dandy, until Russia AD has shown Turkish UAVs that they are for bombing defenseless, and then there is this thing: ECONOMY. Now RT reports:

For decades, Turkish nationalism marched under the NATO flag. But now, one of Türkiye’s most influential right-wing leaders is calling for a turn East – toward Russia and China. His proposal may mark the country’s clearest ideological break with Atlanticism since joining the Alliance. In September, Türkiye’s political landscape was shaken by a statement that many experts called sensational and potentially transformative. Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and a long-time ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan within the People’s Alliance, proposed the establishment of a strategic trilateral alliance involving Türkiye, Russia, and China to counter the “US-Israel evil coalition.” Bahceli emphasized that such an alliance is “the most suitable option, considering reason, diplomacy, the spirit of politics, geographical conditions, and the strategic environment of the new century.” The proposal extends far beyond the usual nationalist agenda, positioning Türkiye as a player capable of initiating new formats of international cooperation.

Well, yeah--NATO has been not just defeated, it was utterly humiliated and exposed for the paper tiger that it is. BRICS is flourishing, and Europe is getting poorer. Hello! There will be no "trilateral" alliance, because that place is now firmly occupied by Iran, but I spoke about this on a number of occasions--Turkiye's future is in Eurasia where it truly belongs, minus the idiotic idea of pan-Turkism which Russia will not allow to develop, not to mention the fact that Turkiye doesn't have economic wherewithal to actually support this funny ideology other than propaganda and some moderate size projects. Turkiye should simply continue to pursue her objective of becoming a full member of BRICS and of SCO. NATO is over, so is Europe. Somebody in political top in Ankara has finally noticed what average Turks knew for a long time. 

Most Likely It Is ...

 ... in final stages of completion, if not already and it was easy to predict. 

Russia and China are working to set up a securities depository to rival Belgium-based Euroclear and Clearstream, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said. In an interview with Izvestia published on Thursday, Siluanov said it is important to build “an independent payment infrastructure” in response to Western sanctions. Russian investors previously held funds at European clearing houses through Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD). Euroclear and Clearstream stopped transactions with NSD and froze its accounts after sanctions were imposed against it in mid-2022, preventing investors from accessing their assets. The Bank of Russia has estimated that around 5.7 trillion rubles ($66.8 billion) remains blocked. Siluanov said the role of a new depository would be assumed by a planned Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Development Bank, which would enable Russians to invest in foreign assets and foreign investors to finance projects in Russia.

Schizophrenic behavior of Trump's economic team could be explained, at least partially, by the recognition of the impact of this bank and clearing system, especially against the background of kindergarten child's sanctions tantrum by Trump against Russia's energy sector. India is under this constant pressure and we will see where it is all going soon enough, but if this bullying (and BS) by the US energy sector, which is behind this sanctions diarrhea, continues, the US will not be able to settle in any kind productive cooperative energy relations with Russia and will be limited only to LNG exports. It can forget about North Slope of Alaska because there is nothing on the horizon currently in the US which even remotely approaches Russia's (constantly growing) Arctic capabilities, which would allow developing that enormous field, and the nuclear ice-breaker fleet is just one out of many factors underpinning the US' (and EU) Arctic impotency. Any talk about Scandinavians having any real capability in Arctic--is for amateurs. 

Meanwhile, Bill Gates finally apologizes.

So, you know))

It Changes Absolutely Nothing.

 You cannot repair the country in its death throes. 

The French government has fallen after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a crucial confidence vote in parliament on Monday. Bayrou is the second consecutive prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron to be ousted, throwing the nation into political and economic turmoil. A no-confidence motion in the National Assembly requires at least 288 votes to pass. Monday’s motion received 364 votes, with the left-wing New Popular Front and the right-wing National Rally uniting in opposition to end a months-long standoff over Bayrou’s austerity budget. Having previously survived eight no-confidence motions, Bayrou called this vote himself, in a bid to secure backing for proposals that forecast almost €44 billion ($52 billion) of savings to ease France’s debt burden before the budget is presented in October. The prime minister, who has repeatedly warned that France’s national debt poses a “mortal danger” to the country, appeared to acknowledge his fate. In a bitter remark on Sunday, Bayrou lashed out at rival parties that he said “hate each other” yet joined forces “to bring down the government.” 

It doesn't matter who  the next government will be--France is going to disintegrate, part of it being due to neoliberal policies, part of it due to murdering the indigenous culture, other part--due to French national character, which still cannot resign itself to the position of the second rate country. Meanwhile:

На внеочередном онлайн-саммите БРИКС участники обсудили глобальные вызовы и акцентировали внимание на необходимости реформирования системы мирового управления. По итогам мероприятия пресс-служба президента Бразилии опубликовала сообщение, в котором отмечается, что страны блока провели комплексную оценку текущей международной ситуации, передает РИА «Новости». В результате достигнут консенсус о необходимости перехода к более справедливому, сбалансированному и инклюзивному международному порядку. В заявлении отмечается, что новый порядок должен лучше отражать происходящие преобразования и эффективнее реагировать на нужды глобального Юга. Как писала газета ВЗГЛЯД, президент России Владимир Путин принял участие во внеочередном саммите БРИКС в режиме видеосвязи. Встреча завершилась обсуждением экономического партнерства между странами объединения в ответ на тарифные меры США. 

Translate: At the extraordinary online BRICS summit, participants discussed global challenges and focused on the need to reform the global governance system. Following the event, the press service of the President of Brazil published a statement noting that the bloc countries had conducted a comprehensive assessment of the current international situation, RIA Novosti reports. As a result, a consensus was reached on the need to move to a more just, balanced and inclusive international order. The statement notes that the new order should better reflect the ongoing transformations and respond more effectively to the needs of the global South. As Vzglyad newspaper wrote, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the extraordinary BRICS summit via video link. The meeting ended with a discussion of the economic partnership between the countries of the association in response to US tariff measures.

So, that is why Russia is not impressed with the West, especially against the background of Valery Gerasimov's 70th birthday. I explain this, and why Zakharova is correct when talking about Kallas being "critically uneducated"--it applies to all of them--in my latest video which should be up shortly.

Russia Never "Admitted" ...

 ... she is openly stating it since 2021. 

The Kremlin has confirmed that it will continue its full-scale invasion of Ukraine throughout autumn in a major blow to Donald Trump’s peace efforts. The US president has repeatedly declared that Russia wants to end the war, even going as far as to tell Emmanuel Macron that Vladimir Putin “wants to make a deal for me” in a bizarre hot mic moment.

Russia "wants" to end SMO AFTER root causes will be addressed. The SMO will continue until all political aims of the operation are met. But yes, Trump does think that Vladimir Putin is simply enamored with him. Nothing could be further from the truth but it is important for Trump to stress how important and irresistible as a man and politician he is. Mind you--he thinks that he can "enamor" a professional intelligence officer with TWO top KGB schools (apart from having an excellent law background), one of which is former KI (Andropov Red Banner Institute), today the Academy of Foreign Intelligence. 

Meanwhile in China:

And not to forget this: 

India IS facing the critical moment for strategic decision on the general path she should take in the nearest future. BRICS and SCO are shaping into the most important global economic, political and military organizations of today and Europe (and the US) in this sense stops being the most important direction of India's foreign policy but merely just another one among many. 

I Might Have Rushed Today Re: Lula.

 Some very peculiar news. 

Москва. 25 октября. INTERFAX.RU - Каракас до последнего пытался предпринять все меры, чтобы на саммите БРИКС Венесуэлу включили в список стран-партнеров группы, однако этого не произошло из-за позиции Бразилии, пишет в пятницу EFE. Агентство напоминает, что бразильские власти обосновали отказ от придания Венесуэле статуса страны-партнера в связи с итогами выборов президента в Венесуэле, которые в Бразилии сочли несоответствующими демократическим принципам. В Венесуэле этот шаг назвали недружественным и противоречащим интересам граждан страны. Власти Венесуэлы заявили, что вето Бразилии является свидетельством ненависти, несогласия и вычеркивания страны, что продвигалось силовыми центрами Запада, а также препятствования на пути к сближению с БРИКС. EFE напоминает, что отношения между Каракасом и Бразилией ухудшились после президентских выборов в Венесуэле в конце июля 2024 года, когда оппозиция оспорила их результаты.

Translation:  Moscow. October 25. INTERFAX.RU - Caracas tried until the very end to take all measures to ensure that Venezuela was included in the list of partner countries of the group at the BRICS summit, but this did not happen due to Brazil's position, EFE writes on Friday. The agency recalls that the Brazilian authorities justified the refusal to grant Venezuela the status of a partner country in connection with the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela, which Brazil considered inconsistent with democratic principles. In Venezuela, this step was called unfriendly and contrary to the interests of the country's citizens. The Venezuelan authorities said that Brazil's veto is evidence of hatred, disagreement and the deletion of the country, which was promoted by Western power centers, as well as an obstacle to rapprochement with BRICS. EFE recalls that relations between Caracas and Brazil worsened after the presidential elections in Venezuela at the end of July 2024, when the opposition challenged their results.

That speaks volumes about Brazil and the fact that she did play a spoiler, especially if one considers that Venezuela's oil reserves are of global significance. Who's side is Brazil on? Here is part of the answer.

To Conclude This Active Day...

 ... I also got my Beretta after 2 weeks waiting period in Washington State. So, I am happy. Well, not quite--I agree with Scott that the US should have been the part of it all, but with Washington as it exists today... no chance. 

FYI, he has no relation to Albanians whatsoever.

Ominous...

 ... for the US. No, this is not a real banknote. It is a joke and Vladimir Putin gave this to Elvira Nabiullina but as he said--she didn't like it;)) But you know how Putin jokes...

Being a consummate intel professional he never does anything just because...

 

This joke will give nightmares to Wall Street and FRC for weeks to come. And rightly so--because it is the message. But that is what being a military and economic superpower affords you... to make jokes like that in preparation for the real deal.

"Isolated" Putin and BRICS...

 ... visually. 

Almost 5 billion of population--3 out of top 4 largest economies in the world. No further comments are necessary.

Pepe Dives Into Some Details.

 At Danny's show. 

 

Ania--Concise And To The Point...

 ... speaks what everyone who matter understand. 

"BRICS SUMMIT, NOT US ELECTIONS WILL DETERMINE COURSE OF HISTORY"

Correct...

 ... the most critical term is "irreversible". 

Leading Western economies have entered an era of irreversible decline, as BRICS nations and those cooperating with the group become the main drivers of global growth, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Speaking at the ‘Russian Energy Week 2024’ forum, Putin said a new multipolar development model is being formed, which will lead growth through the 21st century, “concentrated neither in Europe, nor in North America.” The “powerful” pillars of Western economies will make their slowdown a lengthy process, the president acknowledged, adding that they are still “losing their positions among the world economics.”

I continue to state--the US still has a chance to negotiate its place among great powers of the new world, Europe cannot. It is an objective reality having everything to do with resource base and, metaphysically, "weight" of nations which is not measured in nominal currency. Will the US take a chance? Well, first it needs to declare AIPAC and those in US Congress and government associated with it "foreign agents"... Nah, the US is screwed. It will follow Israel into oblivion... Could Lloyd Austin become an unlikely hero? Stranger things happened before.

And So It Came...

 ... pretty nonchalantly. 

Countries of the BRICS economic bloc are currently working on the launch of a financial system that would be independent of the dominance of third parties, according to the Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov. The volume of Russia’s transactions in national currencies with fellow BRICS nations is constantly growing, the envoy said on Saturday in Beijing, speaking at the 12th World Peace Forum (WPF). Morgulov highlighted that Russia-China trade turnover had reached $240 billion and that 92% of settlements were being conducted in rubles and yuans. “We are leaving the dollar-dominated space and developing the mechanism and tools for a truly independent financial system,” the ambassador said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

But I am sure this came as a surprise for Washington, not! And the "horror" doesn't stop here:

In addition, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Russian daily Vedomosti that BRICS Bridge could provide member states an opportunity to make settlements using digital assets of central banks linked to national currencies. 

You see, that is what happens when one begins to think that the it (in case of a nation) is a measure of everything and everyone, while being rather oblivious to a lucky coincidence of circumstances which provided the US with a winning lottery ticket in 1945. Now, the winnings have been completely squandered on self-aggrandizing and cultural suicide. Which brings us to this. 

People, rightly, point out that Colonel Macgregor continues to perpetuate fairy tales about USSR/Russia and WW II. Keep in mind, Macgregor is a product of the American military education and cultural milieu whose foundation is a a set of confabulated (in reality--stolen valor) military history and primitive propaganda, which in Colonel's case is exacerbated by him being subjected in Germany to German "version" of history, that is to say a complete crap. Colonel doesn't speak Russian, he has zero understanding of Russian idiosyncrasies and, of course, he has never been to Podolsk (Main Archive of Russian Armed Forces) and doesn't know real history of Russia and Russian military. The result is predictable, his continuous repetition of the primitive propaganda (GULAG, one million "executed" RKKA soldiers et al) most likely is a defensive reaction to the exposure of the United States and its Army as an obsolete force with a dismal war record. 

Being a man of honor, he tries to be objective admitting West's decline, but he remains an American exceptionalist and will continue to be such sinking deeper into the cognitive dissonance and disregarding real historians and real Russia scholars. Hence his recent book is a complete military scholarship catastrophe, which included dear to him Battle of 73 Easting, which he included, together with inconsequential Battle of Mons into the list of "Five battles that changed the face of modern war". I can only reproduce the diagnosis by great Michael Brenner: 

Americanism provides a Unified Field Theory of self-identity, collective enterprise, and the Republic’s enduring meaning. When one element is felt to be in jeopardy, the integrity of the whole edifice becomes vulnerable. In the past, American mythology energized the country in ways that helped it to thrive. Today, it is a dangerous hallucinogen that traps Americans in a time warp more and more distant from reality. There is a muted reflection of this strained condition in the evident truth that Americans have become an insecure people. They grow increasingly anxious about who they are, what they are worth and what life will be like down the road. 

You can see manifestations of this insecurity all over the place, and Macgregor is not an exception. So, in his imagination, more Russians must be executed personally by Stalin for him to grasp at the last straw of America's "high moral ground" trying to defend indefensible. 

P.S. How Brusilov's Offensive which dwarfs Battle of Mons in every single respect and laid the foundation for Deep Operations didn't make Colonel's list is a sheer mystery... not. 

These Motions...

 ... have been pretty much inevitable. 

Türkiye will seek to join the BRICS group of nations and intends to bring up the issue at an upcoming meeting of the economic bloc’s foreign-ministers in Russia, Ankara's chief diplomat Hakan Fidan announced on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters while on a three-day visit to China, Fidan stated that Türkiye has long been waiting to become a member of the European Union, but has for years faced opposition from some of that bloc’s members. In this context, Ankara is now considering BRICS as an alternative platform for integration, the minister explained. ”We cannot ignore the fact that BRICS, as an important cooperation platform, offers some other countries a good alternative,” Fidan said, noting that while the group still has “a long way to go,” Ankara sees the “potential in BRICS.”

Turkiye today is pretty much her own thing and, no matter how "westernized", will never share the so called European "values", not to mention the fact of EU market losing purchasing power while Eurasian market gaining it. Turkiye also is very closely economically tied to Russia in critical fields such as energy and increasingly through military technology. Turks are not stupid, they observe the "performance" of NATO weaponry in SMO. These are tectonic shifts:

Moscow has welcomed Ankara’s interest in joining BRICS. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that the topic of Türkiye’s membership in the group will be featured on the agenda of next week’s summit, which this year is being chaired by Russia.  

Turkiye fits, however, into the overall integrationist trend of BRICS and she will be a welcome addition. Consider also the real economic sector of Turks is very large and, as an example, in terms of steel production Turks outproduce every single EU nation (some of them combined) with the temporary exception of Germany with which Turkiye has a rough parity. Turkish tomatoes and building contractors are omnipresent on Russian market, plus Turkiye is a huge vacation spot for Russian tourists. So, there you go.  G-7 is not really a G-7, at best it is G-3, in reality it is G-2. 

Meanwhile NATO's buffoon in chief states the obvious.

The level of Russia’s weapons and ammunition production since the start of the conflict with Ukraine has surpassed NATO’s expectations, the secretary general of the US-led military bloc has acknowledged. Speaking to Sky News on Monday, Jens Stoltenberg was asked to comment on a study released last month by the consulting firm Bain & Company, which revealed that Moscow was generating artillery shells at more than three times the rate of all NATO members combined. “It’s correct that Russia has been able to build up their defense industry faster than we expected, and it’s correct that NATO allies have spent more time than they should in ramping up our production,” Stoltenberg replied.

No, fool, it was already there to start with, with key industries being returned to Russia's control as early as 2012-13, in reality the process started earlier. But ignorance is expected from economic BSers from combined West. Next thing you know, Goldman Sachs will advise on the design of NATO's Air Defense system and hedge funds will issue field manuals on brigade and divisional level EW. Good God, what a loser.

I Concur.

Larry's title is spot on: The Rise of BRICS and the Fall of the G20. As Larry posits:

I do not think that the majority of the West’s financial gurus are comprehending the significance of the BRICS countries earnest effort to create an alternative to the dollar. They are calculating that the BRICS countries will fail and will be compelled to be under the thumb of the U.S.-led international financial order. I think they are making a grave mistake. The status of the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency is based primarily on belief. As long as foreign countries believe they have no choice but to submit to using the dollar for international trade the system remains intact. But that belief is being seriously challenged. I do not think the system will crumble over night, but the moves by China, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, Iran and Argentina to make payments for oil and other commodities without using the dollar is accelerating.

And now get a load of this:  

The de-dollarization of Russia-China trade is practically complete, according to Georgy Zinoviev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s First Asian Department, as cited by RIA Novosti. The official said the share of the US dollar in mutual settlements between the neighboring nations has substantially shrunk over the past two years. “The share of national currencies in Russian-Chinese payments is growing at an extremely rapid pace,” Zinoviev told the news agency. “At the beginning of 2022 it was hovering around 25%, now it is exceeding 80%.” 

Just think about it for a minute--from 25% to 80%+ in 18 months. Unprecedented, this is called dumping. Now, comes this issue of SMO and belief, as Larry pointed out. Ask yourself a question if China believes in SMO? I'll give you the answer--Beijing is in awe from what it observes. And guess what DO they believe now. Now back to the end of 2020. Recall this table:

Since then, the share of G-7 shrunk, while RIC's grew dramatically. But even then (end of 2020), RIC's output combined was much larger that that of G-7. Bar some exceptions such as a serious leadership of G-7 in commercial aerospace and few other fields, what else do they have today? Pretty much nothing. With the exception of the US and Canada, they are resources starved and standard of living declining Sodom and Gomorrah with NO prospects of addressing their debilitating systemic problems. G20-G7==G13. Or, to be prudent, G20-G5 (Europe and Japan)= G15, which is dwarfed by BRICS, now with the addition of Iran and Saudi Arabia. A crunch time for Washington. You could be 100% sure that they will fuck it up no matter what.  

Know Your Weight Category...

... I am about Macron. The guy is still deluded about the place and role of France in the larger geopolitical scheme of things. Well, he has got a reminder from Republic of South Africa. 

ПРЕТОРИЯ, 22 июня. /ТАСС/. Южно-Африканская Республика принимает ключевые решения, связанные с саммитом БРИКС (Бразилия, Россия, Индия, Китай, ЮАР), в тесной координации со всеми странами объединения. Это касается и вопроса о желании президента Франции Эмманюэля Макрона участвовать в его работе. Об этом ТАСС сообщили в четверг в МИД ЮАР.

"Согласно правилам БРИКС, организующая саммит страна-председатель разрабатывает повестку дня и формат встречи на высоком уровне, - отметил собеседник агентства. - Председатель также приглашает на поля саммита лидеров государств, не входящих в БРИКС, для проведения более широких заседаний по региональным или иным вопросам. Однако все главные форматы на полях саммита подлежат согласованию с другими странами - членами БРИКС, и ЮАР будет следовать традиции объединения. Этот подход будет использоваться и в случае, если лидеры государств, не входящих в БРИКС, высказывают в частном порядке пожелания прибыть [на саммит] и участвовать в мероприятиях саммита объединения в августе в Йоханнесбурге".

Translation: PRETORIA, 22 June. /TASS/. The Republic of South Africa takes key decisions related to the BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), in close coordination with all countries of the association. This also applies to the question of the desire of French President Emmanuel Macron to participate in its work. This was reported to TASS on Thursday by the South African Foreign Ministry. "According to the rules of the BRICS, the chair country that organizes the summit develops the agenda and format of the high-level meeting," the source said. "The chairman also invites non-BRICS leaders to the summit to hold broader meetings on regional or other issues However, all main formats on the sidelines of the summit are subject to agreement with other BRICS countries, and South Africa will follow the tradition of association.This approach will also be used if non-BRICS leaders privately express their wishes to come [to the summit ] and participate in the unification summit events in August in Johannesburg."

Oh boy, that's gotta hurt. Not that Macron has the sense of honor and decency, but still. And he should have gotten the message by now:

French President Emmanuel Macron’s attendance at a meeting of BRICS leaders would be “inappropriate,” considering his government’s stance against Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has said. Paris confirmed this week that Macron is seeking an invitation to the bloc’s summit in South Africa in August. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Ryabkov explained that Russia’s opposition to Macron’s potential appearance was based on France’s efforts to isolate Moscow and its support for NATO’s goal of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia in the Ukraine conflict. “We are not hiding this position and have informed our South African colleagues about it,” Ryabkov said, as cited by Interfax. “We expect our point of view to be fully taken into account.”

In diplomatic language what SAR stated means: go fuck yourself. Pretty clear, really. Let's recall Tolstoy's definitions:

Pfuel was one of those hopelessly and immutably self-confident men, self-confident to the point of martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion—science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth. A Frenchman is self-assured because he regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured, as being a citizen of the best-organized state in the world, and therefore as an Englishman always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known. The German’s self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth—science—which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth. 

Pretty clear, isn't it?

Elaboration On Macron And BRICS.

Again, why Macron and BRICS. It is an undisputed fact that Emmanuel Macron is a Rothschild's family messenger boy. Even WiKi gives the description of this family's activities on its London-Paris axis. 

Both the British and the French branches emerged from the Second World War with new generations of the family at the helm. Historic partnership ties between the two branches were revitalized, leading to a complete merger in 2003 into Rothschild & Co. The Rothschilds created their first hedge funds in 1969, and strengthened its position as a world leader in investment banking. Additionally, the firm is a global private bank with over 4,000 private clients in 90 countries. Rothschild & Co provides a comprehensive range of services to individuals, governments, and corporations worldwide.

This is a classic financial business about moving capitals, much of it being cash. As any hedge funds, Rothschild's funds have analysts--we will omit now their quality issues--who are tasked with assessment of threats and probabilistic analysis designed to preserve and grow the capital. Macron's asking for invitation to BRICS IS NOT an act of espionage or being a Trojan Horse, not at all, it is about trying to negotiate at the fringes of BRICS summit the fate of Rothschild's capitals. The trajectory of the combined West is now well pronounced and the growth of volatility and radical decline are already in progress. This is a bad-bad situation for capital. Money loves stability and calm. 

Evidently the truth of SMO started to trickle to those analysts and THE family and even unsophisticated observer can easily surmise now the scale of geopolitical change--it is unprecedented in modern history. It is also metaphysical--cash, even enormous amounts of it, means absolutely nothing if it does not rest on firm foundation of massive military and real economic power. We observe not just the end of the West's hegemony, a much more profound change is in progress--the death of financial capitalism and exposure of money as merely a tool, not the substance. Dedollarization proceeds at an incredible pace. Just today's example:

Finding the alternatives to the US dollar will take time but the global dominance of the greenback has "stifled" many countries and Africa needs to have its own currency, George Sebulela, president of the African United Business Confederation (AUBC), told RT on Wednesday. Sebulela said that African countries having their own currency would make trade easier with each other and even with other countries. "What the US has done with dollarization has really stifled many countries in one way or another," he said. "If you don't toe the line, you are under pressure because you have to utilize this currency," Sebulela said of the US dollar. He said the question for the African Union will be “how do we begin as a continent that is vast, that has so many big opportunities, to then have our own currency that can make our trade much more easy, even with other countries?” This is a discussion that is also taking place within the BRICS group, Sebulela said.

Just one of many, how about this: 

Russia has reportedly paid dividends from the Sakhalin 1 and 2 oil projects in Chinese yuan, a shift from its usual practice of paying in dollars, thanks to western sanctions on Russia. The decision to pay in Chinese currency instead of the traditional U.S. dollar comes after Russia was cut off from the US dollar-dominated global payments systems following sweeping sanctions off the Ukraine war. 

And how can you do this, people may ask? Simple--because you have the best military in the world and economy which can easily afford and supply it, while allowing the country to grow. Qaddafi didn't have that--he was a leader of a small Arab nation with a lot of cash and minimal military and economic power. He wanted alternative to US Dollar--he got killed. You cannot do this to Russia, because those who try--they get killed in the most violent way. And that is the difference. Libya couldn't produce modern tanks, Russia produces 1,200+ of them a year, all state-of-the-art. Evidently this fact finally "arrived" to Rothschild's family and they desperately try to find the place to park their huge fortunes, before they evaporate due to the collapse of modern West's civilization. Macron is merely a caretaker, nothing more. Hence, "please invite me to BRICS summit". It is also a desperate attempt to grab Putin and Xi's sleeves and try to be heard for a minute. Rothschild's family fortunes want to be guarded by S-400 and T-90Ms with SU-57 instead of Patriot PAC3 and Leopard-2s. That's it, there is nothing more to it.

A-Ha-Ha, LOL)))

 And what did happen that precipitated this comedy?  

The CIA warned Ukraine not to destroy Nord Stream months before an attack on the gas pipelines, after receiving a tip from Dutch military intelligence, according to media reports. The Netherlands’ military intelligence agency, MIVD, received information about an “imminent attack” on Nord Stream from an unnamed source in Ukraine in June, three months before a series of underwater explosions hit the pipes last September, a joint investigation by Dutch and German news outlets published Tuesday shows. According to the plan received by MIVD, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, was in charge of the operation against Nord Stream, which involved a small team of divers traveling on a sailing boat and was supposed to take place mid-June 2022.

Who buys this load of BS? Zaluzhny? Really? The guy who by all means now is either dead or completely incapacitated and who can serve as a scapegoat because of it. In the same time it is a peculiar development because--and I stress it--blowing up NS2 is a war crime and somebody did authorize and carried out this terrorist act. Guess from three times who. 

In related news, Vladimir Putin met in Kremlin the so called "voenkors" and totally humiliated them. His exchange with Sladkov was epic and, in fact, Sladkov was effectively accused of spreading Ukie propaganda. I am not going to explain all subtleties of Russian language here, but for anyone who is interested the transcript is available and the summary is here (in Russian). But now, one has to ask the question (wink, wink, wink, wink))) why Macron wants to do this:

French President Emmanuel Macron has asked South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for an invitation to the upcoming BRICS summit in Pretoria, French newspaper L’Opinion reported on Monday. Macron’s recent attempts to win over his African counterparts have fallen flat. He raised the possibility of attending the summit during a phone call with Ramaphosa earlier this month, L’Opinion stated, citing sources in the Elysee palace. According to one “well-informed” source, Ramaphosa was non-committal. “Presence at this summit was mentioned during the conversation between the two leaders, but Pretoria gave no indication of whether or not to extend this meeting to other international leaders,” the source said.

If Macron were to attend the summit, he would be the first leader of a G7 nation to do so. BRICS leaders and Macron apparently share a desire to overhaul the global financial and geopolitical order, with Macron hosting a conference in Paris next week aimed at overhauling the financial system to better benefit the developing world. Ramaphosa is due to attend the conference, and a cordial meeting between him and Macron could set the stage for the French president to make history in Pretoria.

Nice try, of course, but France is the US lapdog and economically insignificant with some exception for aerospace and a few other things and is dwarfed economically by Russia, India, let alone China. France's attempts to maintain presence in Africa are also bound to fail, because France is incapable to provide economic and military assistance Russia and China can. Not even close. Hey, French made their choice and France now will be confined to the Western Europe while it descends into economic depression and chaos. Russia and China can "overhaul the global financial and geopolitical order", France cannot no matter how it tries. Just not enough... scale. Plus Macron still supports criminal regime in Kiev and for all intents and purposes is a party to terrorist activities by Nazis from 404. Russia doesn't talk to Nazis, she annihilates them. Let France guess from three times who is the military pivot in BRICS? I have a hint: it ain't India or China, let alone Brazil and SAR.

You Will Hardly Find This In The News...

 ... in the West, unless it is in the cellar of the news streams, but... heads of central banks of ASEAN nations have in the agenda of their upcoming meeting in Indonesia... well, judge for yourself. 

Страны АСЕАН — Ассоциации государств Юго-Восточной Азии — обсудят отказ от основных валют, таких как доллар и евро, и переход к расчетам в местной валюте. Этот вопрос будет на повестке встречи министров финансов и управляющих центральными банками стран, которая пройдет в Индонезии. Издание уточняет, что речь идет о цифровой системе, благодаря которой жители одной страны объединения смогут платить за товары и услуги другой страны в собственной валюте. Индонезия, Малайзия, Сингапур, Филиппины и Таиланд уже подписали соглашение о сотрудничестве по этому проекту. Стоит напомнить, что в середине марта президент Индонезии Джоко Видодо призвал региональные власти отказаться от Mastercard и Visa. Он предложил использовать кредитные карты, выпущенные местными банками, чтобы защитить денежные транзакции от «возможных геополитических последствий».

Translation: The ASEAN countries - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - will discuss moving away from major currencies such as the dollar and the euro and moving to local currency settlements. This issue will be on the agenda of the meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the countries, which will be held in Indonesia. The publication clarifies that we are talking about a digital system, thanks to which residents of one country of the association will be able to pay for goods and services of another country in their own currency. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand have already signed a cooperation agreement on this project. It is worth recalling that in mid-March, Indonesian President Joko Widodo called on regional authorities to abandon Mastercard and Visa. He suggested using credit cards issued by local banks to protect money transactions from "possible geopolitical consequences."

It is happening right now, right here. Two major geopolitical factors are at play here:

1. Sanctions on Russia and stealing Russia's assets;

2. The way Russia successfully stands alone (initially) against combined West and grinds its combined forces into dust.

Now, with Saudi Arabia moving closer to becoming a full fledged member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, one can only imagine what resources the BRICS will command, since Saudi Arabia is very keen on joining BRICS too. 

That's strategy, meaning matching your resources to political ends, because any war, a real one, not some PR BS which US elites "fight" primarily in media, and the outcomes are calculated and predicted with certain probabilities. Ah, yes, those Markov Chains, probability matrices and Graph Theory which serious organizations such as general staffs and strategic forecast entities use, after collecting and systematizing all available facts. Unlike it is done in Washington D.C. where they are primarily into the business of juxtapositioning things to produce easily consumed BS by political shysters who infest today America's decision-making circles.

But to succeed in forecasting one must operate with verifiable data--this is not the case with the West. Do we even comprehend a true depth of a crisis. I can only speculate. I speak about it in my latest video:

Elmo Zumwalt's fears have come true in the 21st century. And don't tell me that I didn't warn about it, wink, wink;))

Oh, Boy! And Larry On Propaganda and Lies.

That is a shocker..., not really. I totally expected that from Turkey but:

БРИКС ждет пополнения: заявки на вступление в организацию, помимо Аргентины и Ирана, готовятся подать также Саудовская Аравия, Турция и Египет. Об этом «‎Известиям»‎ заявил высокопоставленный источник, осведомленный с ходом процесса. По его словам, наследный принц королевства Саудовская Аравия (КСА) Мухаммед бин Салман «‎серьезно настроен на вступление в БРИКС»‎. Собеседник уточнил, что этот вопрос был затронут в том числе во время визита главы МИД РФ Сергея Лаврова в Эр-Рияд 1–2 июня. — Россия поддержала стремление Саудовской Аравии присоединиться к организации. Помимо КСА интерес к БРИКС проявили еще Турция и Египет, они изучают возможность присоединиться уже несколько лет. Но на саммите в Пекине вопрос с их вступлением не обсуждался, а вот членство КСА обсуждали серьезно. Участники объединения ищут дипломатическое решение, — отметил осведомленный источник.

Translation: BRICS is waiting for new members: in addition to Argentina and Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are also preparing to submit applications for membership in the organization. This was stated to Izvestiya by a high-ranking source who was aware of the progress of the process. According to him, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Mohammed bin Salman "‎is serious about joining the BRICS"‎. The interlocutor specified that this issue was also raised during the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Riyadh on June 1-2. — Russia supported the desire of Saudi Arabia to join the organization. In addition to the KSA, Turkey and Egypt also showed interest in the BRICS, they have been studying the possibility of joining for several years. But at the summit in Beijing, the issue of their entry was not discussed, but the membership of the KSA was discussed seriously. Members of the association are looking for a diplomatic solution, - said an informed source.

In fact, the name of one of the sources is known, she is Purnima Anand, the head of BRICS International Forum. So, there you go. Turkey, obviously, looks as a fit for BRICS, but Saudis joining BRICS--that is something else altogether and that is a sentence to what passes in the US for "diplomacy". So, this all comes against the background of this event:

MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it hoped President Joe Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia would not be used to try to foster anti-Russian relations, just as the United States seeks to convince Riyadh to boost oil production amid soaring prices. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Biden will make the case for greater oil production from OPEC nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week. 

This is not posturing at all, though. Because Saudi permanent, if not paranoid, fear is... Iran. And the security "guarantees" which the US allegedly provided for KSA lost a lot of their value. Not least through Iran demonstrating that they are ballsy people in 2020, after General Soleimani's assassination. And now Iran is on the fast track to BRICS and much closer ties to Russia. Saudis are not complete idiots, they watch TV and have their own sources of information. They surely saw Russian operations in Syria and see SMO in real time, they also see what the US is trying "to accomplish" both on the oil market and how it destroys itself and, even more so, Europe. What is always appreciated in the Middle East is resolve and power. Did you see Joe Biden recently, or behavior of Jake Sullivan or Tony Blinken? If you think that it is all a projection of confidence and power, you live in the alternative reality. 

As I already stated not for once, the only things Western "elites" are good at is PR and killing defenseless. West's resource base is shrinking dramatically. And while some Turkish analysts think that joining BRICS is not the best time now because of Turkey's economic issues, this might be precisely the reason why some in Turkey are preparing applications for BRICS. Larry, actually, ads to the case of BRICS and how it is viewed in other parts of the world by means of demolishing yet another NYT propaganda piece:

If you were holding out hope that the media and military analysts predicting the imminent collapse of Russia because of the failed invasion of Ukraine would get a grip on reality, think again. I take the New York Times as the leading indicator of the establishment mindset and the Times published a piece that reveals the delusion and confusion about the war in Ukraine that infects the Washington/New York Swamps.Put simply, the article–Ukraine’s Demands for More Weapons Clash With U.S. Concerns–tacitly concedes Russia is winning but holds out hope for a dramatic Ukrainian come back.

Larry uses a very effective math and logic when concludes:

The real question that Schmitt and Barnes should have asked, how long can US officials continue to bullshit themselves and pour expensive weapon systems into a rat hole? The speed of Russia’s advance appears to be accelerating. There are reports today that Russian forces are entering the outskirts of Seversk, one of the key strong points of the new Ukrainian defensive line. If true, the Russians are likely to achieve a strategic breakthrough in the Donetsk. What the gullible reporters and the morons who staff the CIA and DIA fail to comprehend is that Russia’s tactic of systematically destroying the air, armor and artillery assets over the past three months appears to have achieved Clausewitz’s culminating point–i.e., the point at which a military force is no longer able to perform its operations. 

Read the whole thing at Larry's blog.

The Endspiel.

This, in chess, is called "the end game". Primarily in chess, in other sports and war they use this term too.  

The Islamic Republic of Iran has officially submitted its application to join the group of five emerging economies made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the foreign ministry in Tehran announced on Monday. The move comes after the Iranian president addressed the BRICS summit last week. While BRICS is not a treaty bloc, it has a “very creative mechanism with broad aspects,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, according to the Tasnim news agency. He added that Tehran has already had “a series of consultations” with BRICS about the application. Iran’s membership would “add value” for everyone involved, said Khatibzadeh, noting that BRICS members account for up to 30% of the world’s GDP and 40% of the global population. 

The isolation of the West continues, hence desperate (and stupid, I may add) attempts to "blockade"  Kaliningrad, which will cost Lithuania her economy and no, Russia will not "follow" the US plan to start a war in Europe to allow the US repeat its saving from catastrophe on the eve of the WW II, which DID save the US. Washington's primitive historic and geopolitical thinking is so transparent that Russia had very little problem anticipating West's behavior. Here is one example out of many. 

Here is Marshal Rokossovsky ferry. She is a very respectable vessel of 12,000 tons dead weight and she is already servicing the route Ust-Luga--Kaliningrad. Her sister-ship Marshal Chernyahovsky is undergoing sea trials as I type this. Both ferries are designed in St. Petersburg but were constructed at Turkish shipyard Kuzey Star, because Russian shipyards are simply too busy. More vessels of similar class are getting ready to join this route which is already serviced (IIRC--please check yourself) by other 9 vessels. 

Will NATO fleets dare to interdict this SLOC? Do not put it past desperate Washington, but then again, they will have to consider Russia's Baltic Fleet and those pesky Kinzhals, Zircons and Onixes with Kalibers, which can sink any combination of NATO navies not only within Baltic Sea but in their respective bases. The argument that this way of supplying Kaliningrad is more expensive than by rail is absolutely invalid. Yes, it is more expensive--but Russia will subsidize and she is awash in cash, in fact many in Russia do not want such a strong Ruble too--but it is more expensive for the peace time, it is not a peace time and this mode of supplying the Kaliningrad exclave works just fine. 

And, of course, Argentina applying to BRICS and Bolsonaro being on the phone with Putin constantly gives a hint that Russia doesn't view American "sphere of interest" as untouchable. It is the end game for the United States and its lapdogs from EU. So much so that this proverbial fantastical thinking begins to dominate everything in the West. 

The idea of putting a price cap on Russian oil exports in order to keep the oil flowing but reduce the Kremlin's revenues from it might sound rather exotic at first glance—but the idea has been around for a few weeks now. It did just get a major push at the G7 meeting that began last weekend, but the challenges to its implementation are quite substantial. An oil price cap for Russian crude was first floated during talks between U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and EU officials on finding a solution for the inflation problem while limiting Russian oil revenues. It quickly became clear that limiting Russian oil exports was not the best idea. The United States, the UK, and, more recently, the EU, have all imposed bans on the imports of Russian oil and oil products, but China and India have stepped up their purchases as Russian crude trades at a sharp discount to the international benchmark. The EU, meanwhile, is buying up Russian fuels ahead of the embargo that will come into effect at the end of the year.

You know what I am doing with these so called "policies"? Right, I declare myself a Superman and then call on Sergei Victorovich Lavrov to give a short summary of the situation with Western "elites". 

For those who are new to my blog, this is Lavrov at press-conference with Saudi foreign minister a few years back, where he reacts to this minister's statement by whispering--Дебилы, блядь--Imbeciles, fuck. Applies fully to the West. In fact, even more so.