News of Today...

Everything you need to know about the fate of the West. 

Now observe how the myth of European industrialism of the last 50 years will be dispelled. It rested, actually, on three large pillars: 

1. Relative benevolence of the United States towards European energy policies, which still didn't preclude attempts of Reagan Administration to sabotage Soviet pipelines to Europe;

2. West Germany's Ostpolitik initiated by Willie Brandt's government and, successfully, continued by Helmut Schmidt; 

3. And, of course, USSR and now Russia supplying very affordable energy to Europe. 

It is over now. Today. Next step is this:

The G7 group of the most industrialized nations agreed on Friday to finalize and implement a price cap on Russian oil, aiming to reduce Vladimir Putin’s oil revenues for his war chest. 

Which will see Russia stopping supplying oil for Europe and oil prices skyrocketing finishing off whatever is left from European economy.  So, that, combined with sheer desperation on part of DNC resulting in yesterday's mad psychobabble from Biden, is what defines modern West which is pretty much done by now. 

The main question at this stage is how fast the US will follow the Europe into oblivion. Interesting, really...

G8? Not Again!

The (relatively) old broken record is on a turntable, again: 

MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. The Group of Eight (G8) has been losing its importance for Russia given the changing political and economic situation, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Over the years, this forum has been losing its importance because given the changing political and economic situation, other platforms, such as the G20, where Russia is an active member, have been becoming more important," Peskov said. At the same time, he declined to speculate as to whether Russia would be willing to go back to the G8 platform in case there was an invitation to do that. A number of media outlets said earlier that the German parliament had spoken out in favor of reviving the G8 in order to better oppose the US influence on the European policies. Russia was excluded from the G8 in 2014 following its reunification with Crimea, so the group was reformatted back into the G7

I clearly understand German economic and political aspirations (and conundrum) here since Russia is Germany's critical partner in a number of economic fields, energy being a prime one, but, as I stated not for once, what is there for Russia to do in this G7? I clearly understand an allure of being "accepted" by the so called West for Russian uber-liberals, but they are not formulating Russia's foreign policy nor, as usual, do they represent any substantial or, for that matter, humanly worthy part of vast and complex Russian population. And then there is this rather touchy and sensitive, and propaganda, issue—G7 of supposedly economically most developed nations is not quite adequate to this title anymore. No doubt, G7 still boasts the highest living standard in the world but, omitting here the issue of how this standard was achieved and where it is going, it must be understood that Russia's hypothetical, and highly unlikely, return to G7, thus making it back to G8, brings into it (Russian) economy which is roughly the size that of Germany and which is smaller in this G8 only than economies of the United States (grossly overvalued anyway) and that of Japan. The rest of the economies of this G8 are distant "second" to that of Russia and those are economies of France, Italy, Canada and UK. As one can see from the data by CIA, not only Russia brings to the table a rather massive and (still) grossly undervalued economy:

Russia brings to hypothetical G8 what Germany needs—a massive military-strategic alternative and counter-balance to the US. Recall Putin hinting to Macron several days ago at SPIEF that if need be Russia will be able to take care of Europe's "security". The United States will NOT allow Russia's return to G7 format for precisely this reason, but Russia doesn't want that anyway. Indeed, why? Russia's major economic interests today lay not only in politically unstable Europe but in Asia too and Russia is having a much more productive interaction there be it with China, India or any other major economy there. Remarkably, those economies, unlike subjugated political midget of Europe, do not really care about US "sanctions". And yes, Russia IS not only military or technological but also an energy superpower. Who would have thought that this definition given by Putin a decade or so ago and which was laughed at by Russia's so called "liberals" will come true with a vengeance and will expose those Russian "experts" as complete fraud that they always were.

We left St. Petersburg one day before the start of SPIEF—we left an incredibly vibrant, confident and immensely crowded by Europeans city. Same with Moscow which, together with many other Russian cities, also projects today this new found sense of optimism, confidence and growth, despite Russia's very real economic and other problems, but the sense of optimism and anticipation is in the air all over Russia. This also differed from 2016. Economic dynamism is there, it is palpable and CNC operators, machinists, drafters, mechanics, engineers are needed everywhere. So, what is Russia to gain by entering an informal and rather boring club when she has behind her back a 23 trillion dollar Chinese and 9 trillion dollar Indian, among many others, economies with their immense markets for technology and energy? Nothing. We are in the phase of the major shift in the global order and Russia seems to be doing just fine of her own. If Germany, Italy or France want to talk—they know where to call and who to visit.  They want real security--talk to the Boss.

      

Why Would Russia Need G7?

As Russians say: umerla tak umerla, or, in English, if it died let it stay dead. Obviously Germany's Foreign Minister Herr Frank-Walter Steinmeier still thinks that Germany has some real influence in global power politics since makes such statements:

"I would not like the G7 format to be a long-term one; we need to create conditions for return to the G8 format."  

Well, Herr Foreign Minister of the occupied country, let me break you some news--it is not up to you to decide on G7 format. In fact, your nation, populated with emasculated, impotent, brainwashed "electorate" has a weight in serious global power politics which approaches zero and is run by a collection of imbeciles and cowards. Your own nation is clear and present danger to itself and  goes down the toilet fast as I write this. The fact that it is being run from Washington D.C. is somehow lost on you. But that is not the issue--at issue here is WHY would Russia want to be the part of G7? 

Obviously, some Moscow uber-liberals would love to be invited to those G7 (G8) meetings and we all know that current Russia's President Mr. Putin is a Germanophile but here is the conundrum...for Russia.

1. A disastrous role of Germany in fomenting the Ukrainian catastrophe is well known. 

2. The internal German politics, and not just a current one, is nothing more than a panopticon of people who, under normal circumstances, should be in psychiatric ward for evaluation. In general, Germany's energy and cultural policies are suicidal. 

3. Germany is a nominal center of the disintegrating EU and will inevitably be put under the American thumb through Trans-Atlantic Trade And Investment Partnership. 

4. In general, Germany is not really a sovereign nation. 

This list could be much longer but what is known will suffice to ask a question--what can possibly Russia discuss with Germany on any real serious issue of European security and economy? Pretty much nothing. German political class is infested with Atlanticists who, for all intents and purposes, could be easily characterized as German version of R2P and neocon crowd. So, as the saying goes: what's in it for Russia? Not much. Obviously the issue of Russo-German relations is much more complex than this compressed resume but, even if to consider some serious common economic interests, especially in energy field, a popular Russian perception of United States being afraid, and thus acting to prevent, that somehow Germany and Russia will find the common ground and will create a new economic super-pooper European entity is nothing more than a wishful thinking, if not the day dreaming altogether. As of today, what's left of Germany is incompatible on a fundamental level with what Russia represents today globally. Germany is Russia's opponent on a fundamental "genetic" level, it is also a potential deadly enemy. The same applies to any G7 or EU member. 

The Kremlin and the White House have a direct phone line and Moscow doesn't need any broker services from Germany when dealing with the power which decides what German Chancellor will say and how on any global issue. Superpowers, which Germany is not, communicate, if need be, directly. After all, Russian and US military communicate directly in Syria on a daily bases. It is also a great disservice to Russian position to view Angela Merkel as a politician who under duress (presumably from the US) speaks not what she thinks. This is a huge mistake, Merkel, as well as most of German "elites", think exactly what they say regardless of pressure applied by the US. The sooner Russian attitudes to Germany will be led away from the primrose path of pretense and false hopes the better it will play out in a long run for Russia. Yes, there is a lot of economic potential in Russo-German relations but that is as far as this all should go: pure pragmatism and viewing Germany for what it is--hostile to Russia nation, which played a key role in starting two European tragedies, one in Balkans, by being a driving force behind disintegration of Yugoslavia, another--by being directly culpable, together with US, for the mayhem in Ukraine. Who needs enemies when one has such "friend" as Germany. 

In the end, Europe as a cultural entity is finished and it will take a bit more time for brainwashed Europeans to understand that. Economically EU is unsustainable and NATO is nothing more than an official facade for racket against third world countries, and it can not solve dire security problems of own making which Europe faces. So, why would Russia want to get back to G7, when she can talk and cooperate, where circumstances call for it, with G7 members on a bilateral bases? Back to Germany. Yes, Germany does have some segments of the society which are either neutral or sympathetic to Russian causes but those are not majority and have no real influence on the decision-making. But even if to imagine for a second that somehow US involvement with Germany and Europe will stop, there still will be no open arms for Russia from the EU, welcoming her as an equal partner--EU will sooner open its borders to more Muslims. It seems that more and more people in Russia begin to understand that and this is a healthy process.  Europe in general, and Germany in particular, is in the state of final decline and the only real business Russia has with Europe, which is roughly 57% of G7, is to protect her borders and observe how this whole EU house of cards collapses. One has to think that ever conspicuous leader of LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky was right when predicted recently that in the end it would be up to US and Russia to settle the fate of what once was European Civilization. This seems today more and more the only scenario. In this case G7, G8 or G-whatever will be as relevant as Frank-Walter Steinmeier's statements.