Pepe Escobar — How Astana is leading the way in Central Asia

Backgrounder on newly emergent Central Asia aka "the stans." The area is important for understanding geopolitics, geostrategy, and the future development of the global economy.

Central Asia is the "sleeper" in the unfolding history of the 21st century. But it's not yet even a blip on the screen for most in the West, other than the elites, multinational corporations, and the militaries, which regard it as a prize to be captured, and certainly not lost to adversaries. It is a key piece in neoliberalism, neo-imperialism, and neocolonialism.

While not mentioned in this post, it is also relevant to US interest in Afghanistan and Iraq-Syria, as well adversarial toward Russia, China and Iran, which surround Central Asia. It also explains why the US would be greatly hampered by "losing" Turkey, which is also adjacent to the region, where many Turkic people also live. India is also a factor in the mix.

Obviously, the US and West are disadvantaged if only by distance. Moreover, the West is viewed in the region as historically imperialistic and liberalism is not in favor in countries where Islam (real traditionalism) is dominant.

Asia Times
How Astana is leading the way in Central Asia

Pepe Escobar

Ryan Browne — Kazakhstan plans to launch its own cryptocurrency

• Kazakhstan's government-supported Astana International Finance Center (AIFC) said Tuesday it had signed a deal of cooperation with Maltese firm Exante
• Exante said it would work with the AIFC to develop the ex-Soviet nation's untapped cryptocurrency market
• Kazakhstan's entry into the digital currency ecosystem would be underpinned by Exante's new blockchain platform, 'Stasis'

When it rains it pours.

In August, Estonia proposed its own state-backed digital asset, which would be called "estcoin". The small Eastern European nation said it was considering the launch of estcoin through an initial coin offering (ICO) — a crowdfunding method that has garnered much scrutiny in recent weeks.

And last month, Japan signaled the potential launch of its own digital currency, called J-Coin....

CNBC
Kazakhstan plans to launch its own cryptocurrency
Ryan Browne

Vladimir Odintsov — Kyrgyzstan has Officially Joined the EAEC

Recently Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have opened the customs border which marked Kyrgyzstan’s acquiring of the status of a full member of the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC). Since out of all the countries of the Community Kyrgyzstan has a common border only with Kazakhstan, customs posts were dismantled at eight checkpoints of the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, while all the external border posts of Kyrgyzstan were modernized on the funds allocated by Russia and Kazakhstan (300 million dollars) . Now the Kyrgyz Republic is using the common customs tariffs and product requirements established by the technical regulations of the Community. 

Businesses in Kyrgyzstan are now compelled to comply with the common quality requirements, but for the main export product of Kyrgyzstan – migrant workers – the “golden age” has officially begun. Migrants will now be freed from passing examinations and acquiring labor patents in Russia, it will no longer be necessary for them to register locally within a month after crossing the border with Russia. Kyrgyz citizens can go to work to Russia while having only the internal Kyrgyz passport and the only demand they have to fulfill it to sign an employment contract, as do citizens of other EAEC members states – Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia. Their family members will be eligible to apply for social security in Russia, enjoying the benefits of free medicine and education….

First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/04/kyrgyzstan-has-officially-joined-the/

New Eastern Outlook

Kyrgyzstan has Officially Joined the EAEC

Vladimir Odintsov

Regnum — US State Department attacks the St. George ribbon in Kazakhstahn and other former Soviet republics

This may look like a tempest in a tea pot, but it is not isolated. Rather, it is occurring throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the countries that were part of the former USSR, that is, the countries surrounding Russia. Moreover, there is evidence being brought forward that the US State Department and NGOs are involved.

So what. Isn't is a good idea to promote "freedom"?

The issue here is perceptions, whether true or not. The perception is that the US is attempting historical revisionism, equating Soviet Communism with German Nazism and denying the enormous role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazism, as well as minimizing the sacrifices its people made, in containing the Nazi advance and reversing it, driving to the Elbe.

This may seem like a slight at most to many Americans, for whom WWII is generations removed and all but forgotten. However, it is still present to many people in these countries, who have far from forgotten and are alarmed at what they see as a resurgence of the enemy.

These people see current events as a resurgence of Nazism, on one hand. On the other, they view the alliance of the US with ultra-nationalists for control over the region as especially alarming. In other words, this looks to them like deja vu.

Americans may dismiss this imaginative paranoia, but anyone familiar with geopolitics, geostrategy, foreign policy, and hybrid warfare, not to mention the history of US operations in places like Latin America, can understand their concerns.

For example, the US leadership denies it but it's pretty transparent that the US would like to see Putin replace with a different regime. The problem with this is that the liberals that the US would like to see in power in Russia are a minuscule faction and the dominant faction is one that sees the world in terms set forth above. Putin is doing his best to keep the lid on them, but if the Putin regime would become destabilized, these are the people that most likely would assume power.

The perception is that American "exceptionalism" is a simply a modified version of Nazi superiority, especially given the degree of US militarism. The attempt to revise history is tantamount to denying the Holocaust. Many, many more people were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators than Jews.

Failure to understand this is extremely dangerous for the West. It's not possible that the American and British leadership doesn't understand it, and certainly the European leadership does. It is also evident to a lot of people in Europe.  But most Americans don't get it — they are not only not told but told the opposite —and they are therefore unaware that the world is becoming a much more dangerous place day by day.

Fort Russ
US State Department attacks the St. George ribbon in Kazakhstahn and other former Soviet republics

Regnum
Translated by Kristina Rus

See also

Reveals the total disconnect between the US and Russian views, and portrays the Russian view as imaginative and exaggerated, ignoring the implications.

Definitely worth a read.

Vox
"America has a simple ideology": how one of Russia's top US experts tries to explain America

Max Fisher

More disconnect.

Mr. Putin’s remarks reflect a deep-seated paranoia. It would be easy to dismiss this kind of rhetoric as intended for domestic consumption, an attempt to whip up support for his war adventure in Ukraine. In part, it is that. But Mr. Putin’s assertion that the West has been acting out of a desire to sunder Russia’s power and influence is a willful untruth.

The Washington Post
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. tried to help Russians
Editorial Board

Western leaders are staying away from this year’s Victory Day, which mourns the loss of 20 million Russians who died to defeat Nazi Germany

The Independent (UK)

Once again, the West fails to understand Russia

Mary Dejevsky

Putin forthright.

Sputnik
Putin: ‘Cynical Attempts to Whitewash Nazism, Militarism Unacceptable’

Ed Dolan — Does Putin’s Proposed Eurasian Currency Union Make Sense?

Does a common currency for the EAEU make sense? Not in economic terms, but perhaps there is a political subtext that makes the proposal more understandable....

All this leaves us wondering what Putin is thinking as he pushes the seemingly unpromising idea of an EAEU currency union. I see two possibilities.
One is that neither Putin nor his advisors have a good grasp of economics. The marginalization of most of the sounder economic thinkers that he listened to earlier in his Presidency favors this interpretation.

The other possibility is that he understands that a currency union among a structurally diverse grouping of sovereign states is a bad idea, but he thinks that he can do something about that pesky problem of sovereignty. In this interpretation, the EAEU currency union is just a foot in the door. The ultimate project is for bringing the ruble to Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia—perhaps ultimately to Ukraine, Latvia, and beyond—in the same way he brought the ruble to Crimea.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who were present at the meeting with Putin, were reportedly cool to the idea of a currency union. Neither of them is an economist, but both are wily political operators. It is likely that they are aware of the threat to their countries’ sovereignty inherent in the project. Time will tell if they are able to stand up to Putin.

When all is said and done, currency unions are about political integration more than economic benefit, since they involve limitation of national sovereignty in favor of the institutional arrangements of the union. As we are seeing in the case of the EU. It's also the case with federalization, which was a big issue at the time of the founding of the United States of America. Currency unions can be highly successful or a disaster, depending more on political interests than economic ones.

The way the world order is emerging as a result of globalization is that several political entities will dominate socially, politically and economically because of their sheer size and level of organization — North America (the US and Canada), China, and India. Therefore, there is pressure on other blocs to cooperate in order to have a comparable seat at the table. This was one the reasons for the creation of the EU and EZ, for example. Since the collapse of the USSR, it makes sense for countries of the region to do the same rather than be sitting ducks for colonization, relegated to providing natural resources and cheap labor to the rich and powerful blocs, in the process of globalization. Latin America is awakening to this also, as is Africa.

Ed Dolan's Econ Blog
Does Putin’s Proposed Eurasian Currency Union Make Sense?

Ed Dolan

David Lane — Eurasian integration could offer a counterpoint to the EU and the United States, but only in close co-operation with states like India and China

Really about building an alternative to counter neoliberal globalization under US hegemony on Western terms.

The argument here is the familiar one, articulated by Margaret Thatcher during the time of Gorbachev: ‘there is no alternative to the neo-liberal model’....

Chinese developments in the past twenty years are a clear alternative to neo-liberalism....

The dynamics of the world system – particularly the rise of semi-core countries and the relative decline of the still dominant United States – leads to a longer term scenario, the developments of counterpoints, of which a Eurasian Union might become an important constituent.

But a Eurasian Union alone could not mount a very serious challenge to the hegemonic core. To build any significant alternative to the neo-liberal global order would need combination with other regions in semi-core countries – particularly the BRICS or members of the Shanghai Cooperative Organisation. Such economic alternatives could prioritise economic development, channel investment and provide employment through administrative forms of collective economic coordination. The ideology is conducive to policies requiring companies to exercise greater social responsibility – to employees, consumers, suppliers and to the environment.

A Eurasian Union could legitimate a different state system and more collectivist traditional values including those developed in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus in the past. Such developments would provide the basis for a more pluralist and multi-polar world. It would have as an economic base a capitalist alternative – a type of organised national capitalism.

London School of Economics Blog
Eurasian integration could offer a counterpoint to the EU and the United States, but only in close co-operation with states like India and China
David Lane | Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Emeritus Fellow of Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge