How The World At Large Sees Things.

The speed with which Washington deligitimizes the remnants of the West's institutions is astonishing. It also explains what REAL influence Russia and her SMO provide on the rest of the world. 

As part of the new payment system launched last year, Indonesian President Joko Widodo called on Wednesday for his country to abandon the use of foreign payment networks like MasterCard and Visa and encouraged the public to adopt credit cards made by domestic banks. At a local business gathering, Widodo emphasized that "everyone [in Indonesia] should be able to use" Indonesian-manufactured credit cards so that "we can be independent," as he explained that the aim is to avoid risking transactions in case of a geopolitical disruption that could economically affect the country. According to the president, the initiative "shows that Indonesia is following the pace of digital technology transformation in the economic sector." "Be very careful. We must remember the sanctions imposed by the US on Russia. Visa and Mastercard could be a problem," he warned. 

We need to check now if Indonesia has human rights abuses, enough "democracy", or has WMD, wink, wink. Though, after what NATO saw in 404 with Russia fighting there with one left hand, I doubt they have any desire to get into the nation with population of  270 million and do the Island Hopping. But here is just one of very many signs of a global tectonic shift in perception of the West and the obvious fact, which some of our friends pointed out on discussion board about Xi's visit, I believe (correct, please, if I am mistaken), that most of the global South views current situation as Russia standing alone against combined West. This, rather well established, fact also contradicts somewhat Ischenko's latest piece about the thrust of Chinese initiatives, because the image of Russia standing alone and the rest of the global South only now beginning to wake up is firmly imprinted in the public opinion around the globe. 

China's initiatives, as well as Xi's visit to Moscow, apart from obvious huge practical significance for both sides and, by extension, for BRICS, serves also a good ol' truism, attributed to JFK, that "victory has hundred fathers, while defeat is always an orphan". But here is where Ischenko makes a mistake, no matter the spin, one obvious fact cannot be obfuscated in SMO--these are Russian Armed Forces alone who face down NATO's proxy and very real actual forces and do it extremely well. Larry wrote about it yesterday (see the link to his blog), and while the eyes of media are concentrated on the slaughter of VSU and NATO's "volunteers" at Bakhmut, elsewhere Russian forces advance steadily and the new cauldron is forming around Avdeevka. 

As SMO demonstrated fully--the fact which many observers, including Ischenko fail to grasp--political-diplomatic dances are not substitution for the practical military results achieved by people who fight. Especially in the realities of the warfare of the 21st century. Quoting Den Xiaoping: "diplomacy is the extension of the war by other, peaceful means". There is NO issue here about who was first, the egg or the chicken; conflict, war decides issues, sorry to upset those who think otherwise. But here we get into the intricacies of the modern war and its realities which many political scientists fail to grasp and continue to apply beaten to death outdated cliches in the world which observes events in the real time. Below is the demonstration of the political "science" meeting warfare realities in SMO.

I can only go so far in explaining an abyss of a difference between Captain Lepic's report to higher command on August 31, 1914 about German columns making a surprise turn from Estre-St. Denis to Compiegne and 80 hours which passed before French started to react to it, and between 2023 ISR in SMO allowing real time operational planning, developing command decisions and obtaining targeting. Same abyss which separates events of August 31, 1914 from events of 2023 strategically and operationally, separates old views on geopolitics and diplomacy from geopolitical realities of our time. There is a reason many Russian civilian leaders are educated in the Academy of General Staff. The faster people understand that, the better will be their level of awareness and preparedness. And I mentioned only one profound difference among very many--a list too long to post here. In the end, recall this:

   

I wrote it on purpose and warned. Much of it came true.

Yet Another Success of the American Diplomacy.

Ah, wait. There is no American diplomacy as it is known around the world, none exists. But Chinese, sure as hell, have one. Eurasian space is forming. 

A cooperation deal between Iran and China covering a quarter of a century has been signed in Tehran, furthering Iran’s role in the Chinese global infrastructure initiative. Both nations are being targeted by US sanctions. The landmark document was signed during a televised ceremony by visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. The document was described by the Iranian side as “a complete roadmap with strategic political and economic clauses covering trade, economic and transportation cooperation.” The Chinese minister hailed Iran’s independence of foreign policy, according to Iranian media, saying that it “is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call.”

I can only imagine the wave of enthusiasm and approval descending on Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv...ah, wait. US magazine Foreign Policy (a well-established bullshitter on all things Russian, as an example) noted four months ago, in the piece titled China Won't Rescue Iran that:

Despite initial optimism, Chinese commercial interests met a lukewarm reception and the preferential treatment for which China hoped fell short of expectations. Shortly after the implementation of the nuclear deal, many foreign companies suddenly started exploring Iranian markets. With potentially a wide range of alternative products and services becoming available thanks to the relaxation of sanctions, Iran’s business community suddenly made increasing demands on Chinese businesses. Iranians have long had a clear preference for all things Western. They also tend to be prejudiced against Chinese products and services, even when they are comparable in quality and lower in price than Western equivalents. Even Iranian state media was known for subtly insinuating the inferiority of Chinese-made goods and promoting other cultural and political biases toward China.Chinese businessmen complained that, to their frustration, their Iranian partners often wanted a higher amount of Chinese investment but a lower proportion of Chinese products, services, and technologies in joint projects. Iran strongly prefers to partner with Western companies when possible, presumably due to a cultural reflex and a strategic consideration

On one of the rare occasions of sound assessment, this particular FP's point comes across as valid. Iran is extremely difficult country to deal with and she does gravitate towards EU as the Russians learned the hard way when sanctions were lifted, briefly, from Iran. The rest of the article, is a typical collection of tropes about US "dominated world" and other exceptionalist delusional BS which one would expect from Wang Xiyue, a Ph.D. candidate in history at Princeton University and an incoming Jeane Kirkpatrick fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. He was imprisoned in Iran from Aug. 7, 2016, to Dec. 7, 2019.  

But the larger picture is what matters here, even as Xiyue tries to portray it as a Iranian PR ploy, and that one is of a constant shaping of the events, some may even call it a history, resultant vector away from the United States towards Eurasia. As I mentioned recently, when one reads news feeds nowadays, the only thing one finds is this:

Yes, Russia, Russia, Russia. They just cannot let it go:

        Russia is in no hurry to see the Suez Canal re-opened

Yes, start your stopwatches, ladies and gentlemen, and wait for the moment when Western journos and ever-vigilant "intelligence community" will find Russian hand in Suez Canal disaster. Come on, it has to be Russia...somehow...there is no way that Russians are not involved in this whole Suez ordeal. Just think about it--it took all might of US media, intelligence community and democracy to fight for four years against Russia's Manchurian Candidate Donald Trump, who was so artsy in hiding his real KGB rank, that he became most anti-Russian POTUS in modern history, while current one is also Russia's asset, because Joe Biden was obviously turned in 1979 by Andrei Gromyko when Joe visited Moscow. 

Now, you can easily see why Joe was chosen by KGB (probably personally by Putin) as an asset--the level of embarrassment and discrediting of the United States on the international arena accomplished by Biden in just four months of his presidency is unbelievable. He, pun is intended, already trumped Trump, who himself was an embarrassment. It has to be Russian operation of influence. But then again, I don't understand why FBI is not checking the backgrounds of people in the New York Times, WaPo, Politico or MSNBC--they all come across as Russian assets, because the damage they deal to the United States by turning it into the media equivalent of a soiled senior citizen diaper paraded around the world can only be measured in megatons, or terabytes, or petaflops, or...whatever. Unless, unless...oh, my--the whole country is a Russian asset. It has to be, and now those puppeteers in Kremlin just play one faction of its spies against the other one because it is...fun? Yes, yes, fun--that is a good explanation and I am sticking to this one. One never knows what to expect from those evil Russkies. 

Any Human Language?

Last time I checked, Russia's official language, Russian, is a human language. That means you can  translate it, learn it, use it and comprehend it on this planet of ours. That is what usually assumed by Russians, especially at the top political level, which is a level of Russia's President or Minister of Foreign Affairs. Top shelf interpreters work there and they bear personal responsibility for precision with which words from and to Russian officials are translated. Well, EU "diplomacy" (I have no idea what is this) and "elites" evidently have issues with understanding a rather important human language, such as Russian, since they still do not get the message. When Russia's President tells them directly that: "... love is impossible if it is declared only by one side. It must be mutual", he expects EU to understand that he, being highly cultured and well-behaved statesman, is telling EU to go fuck itself until their attitude changes. OK, that's Putin. Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov, however, is a man who can turn the heat up a notch and that is why his famous meme is... well, famous. 

EU's high commissioner for whatever passes there for diplomacy, Josep Borrell, is in Moscow now, expressing his worries about:

The EU's foreign affairs chief has said relations with Russia are at their lowest level because of Alexei Navalny's poisoning and subsequent imprisonment. Josep Borrell was speaking during a three-day visit to Moscow ahead of talks with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said he was ready to discuss "any topic".

Well, he got his audience with Lavrov who, basically, repeated what Putin said but in a more direct form. Speaking about EU as non-agreement capable, Lavrov stated:

"Поэтому мы свою жизнь выстраиваем, исходя из того, что Евросоюз является ненадежным партнером, по крайней мере на данном этапе."

Translation: because of that, we build our life out of consideration that EU is not reliable partner, at least at this stage. 

After that Russia declared persons non-Grata and kicked out three diplomats from Poland, Sweden and Germany, who were especially active in fomenting trouble inside Russia around Navalny. I don't know in what language should Russia talk to EU for EU to understand that, as Lavrov stated, Russia doesn't really care about EU's internal decisions and nobody in Moscow, in reality, gives a shit how Borrell "assesses" EU-Russia's relations. Who knows, maybe Lavrov has to go to 11 and openly state to these cretins that they should go and fuck themselves, literally. Evidently they still don't get the message. EU does not have a subjectivity in international relations, it is an object which is there to dance to Washington's tune. Russians are fully aware of that and that is why Russia is turning away from EU. Including being somewhat reluctant, for now, to let go of Nord Stream 2 for purely geopolitical, not economic reasons as Ischenko thinks, a view which I share. I also completely agree with his assessment, that abandoning NS 2 for Russia is merely an inconvenience, for Germany--it is a catastrophe.  In what language, then, do you communicate with a bunch of cretins? Obviously, they do not understand human language. 

To underscore the absence of intelligent life in EU, I will leave this link (in Russian) and you can easily translate TASS reporting using Google translate tool. They don't even understand that most of Russia laughs at them. As you can see from this EU graph, the trend in economic relations was pronounced already by 2019. Russia simply started importing less from EU. 

Even when adjusted for Covid-19, it is clear that imports from EU to Russia will continue to decline in mid to long-term. As some people in Russia suggest: what about trading Navalny for Assange? That could be a really good deal, especially since politically Navalny is dead, especially after his disgraceful behavior in court today, while his "org" was effectively dismantled and there are many sad people in MI-6 and CIA today because of that. As strategic truism states, don't try to make strong plays with a weak hand. But then again, do they even understand a human language, any human language. 

 

ADDENDUM: What is wrong with these people? 

President Joe Biden has dusted off an old story about how he came under fire while visiting Iraq, more than a decade after he admitted the claim was somewhat exaggerated. ‘Where’s the MSM outrage?’ social media users have asked.While addressing US State Department staff on Thursday, Biden hailed the diplomats for showing “great personal courage,” which the new US president has purportedly seen first-hand. "I’ve been with some of you when we’ve been shot at," he told the audience. It’s unclear what Biden meant by the passing remark, and the White House has not elaborated on the statement.

What's the deal here with stolen valor pandemic of which I wrote before. It is becoming nauseating with US politicians telling fairy tales of their "courage under fire". 

 

Entirely Predicable.

As was expected and predicted, a new truce in Idlib was agreed upon by Russia and Turkey and it couldn't have been otherwise.  

A six-kilometer-wide security corridor is to be established in the area, with the militaries of the two countries given a week to agree all the details. Russian and Turkish troops will also be carrying out joint patrol missions along Idlib’s M-4 highway. The document, signed after the negotiations, underlined that both Moscow and Ankara remained committed to maintaining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria. Both leaders acknowledged that the conflict in the country has no military solution and that it was up to the Syrians alone to decide the fate of their country. It was also agreed to facilitate efforts to prevent the humanitarian crisis in Idlib, while also creating conditions for the refugees to return to their homes.

I will remind you, all my online buddies and readers, again, through Deng Xiaoping's rephrasing of Clausewitz' dictum: "diplomacy is a continuation of the war by other means". You win on a battlefield, you get more at the diplomatic table, period. SAA in the last couple of weeks, granted with some help from Russia's VKS and SSO, handed Turkey its ass on a platter, showing that Arabs, after all, can do combined arms operations and SAA definitely dispels this long living (and often justified) stereotype that Arabs cannot fight modern war. Syrian Arab Army sure as hell learned a lot and, hopefully, when all this will be over, I cannot imagine how many Syria's heroes and military leaders will have, justly so, monuments erected in their honor. 

Erdogan could not, as some "experts" predicted, "dictate" anything to Putin for a simple reason--Russia has a damn good satellite constellation and SIGINT capabilities and can, and most likely did, point to Erdogan when, how and how many of his troops joined forces with Al-Qaeda outlets, thus also stating not only the obvious fact that Sultan is directly culpable in supporting Islamic Jihad, but also was given a description of what kind of casualties Turkish Army (nobody counts jihadists) will sustain if it continues to do what it did in the last couple of weeks. As I state non-stop for a long-long time, often contradicting even real Russian experts, who, actually MUST know better, Russia's first salvo of stand-off weapons would be enough to completely "switch off" Command and Control structure of a corps size force. Simple as that. All this even before any Russian VKS aircraft get busy blowing the shit out of those who think that they are smarter than everybody else. So, it is good that deescalation was agreed upon, let's see now how Erdogan will deal with the reality of his XXI century version of Ottoman Empire going down in flames. In the end, it is, indeed, only up to Syrians alone to decide what to do with their country.