And I stupidly used to think Putin was smart. I pity the poor Russian people.

At his economic conference with other world leaders there, Putin said this...

"We are hostages to this internal strife in the United States..." 

And I stupidly used to think Putin was smart. 

When one puts limits in one's own mind, even if they are imaginary, those limits can be debilitating. 

Putin, as the ruler of the largest country on earth, doesn't understand that Russia has no limits, especially none imposed by U.S. "internal strife," whatever that is. 

Pathetic. 

I pity the poor Russian people. 

Buy some more gold, Vlad.

I simply cannot tell who is stupider anymore, Trump or Putin.

This just in.

Read.

Putin talks about a big new fiscal expansion, which will be "paid for" with spending cuts and new taxes even though he has unlimited spending power in ruble.

And we now find out Russia's been stupidly buying gold for years. Why??

This is a total waste of financial and real resources and an even stupider subsidy to the mining industry.

Then there's this...

Russia's empty threats about retaliation against U.S. strikes on Syria. "We'll shoot down the missiles and target launch sites."

What happens? Russia sits by passively and watches an ally, Syria, get bombarded.

Russian whining about U.S. and the West "not being fair and not subscribing to international law," as if the West could give a shit.

Russia allowing the people in Donbass to get slaughtered by the Ukrainian Nazi regime that the U.S. put in place.

Russia selling its oil bounty to the U.K, preventing U.K. residents from freezing to death, while the U.K. smears Russia with baseless allegations, false flags, etc.

In bed with China now? The two are natural enemies over the long term.

On and on.

Let's face it...Russia has no "long game." It's long game is subservience to the West and the neoliberals who are salivating over the country's vast resources.

Dumb. This country is so badly run. I used to stick up for Russia. I can't anymore. I can't support idiots, just like I am off the Trump train and now I am off the Putin train. This guy is maybe a bigger idiot than Trump.

I simply cannot tell who is the stupider of the two right now.

Russia goes along with a U.S. proposed ceasefire in Syria? Putin wants to have good relations in the worst way.

First of all I thought we were fighting ISIS? So it's a ceasefire against who? Against ISIS?

I can't believe Putin fell for this. This is just a ploy. The U.S. will use this, as they have used other ceasefires, to re-arm the rebels.

Putin evidently wants good relations with the U.S. in the worst possible way. Sad. This won't end well. Russia will be double-crossed by the U.S. once again.

Patrick Armstrong — Today’s Putin Quotation

Only a strong – effective, in case someone does not like the word strong – effective democratic state is able to protect civil, political and economic freedoms and to create the conditions for a good life for the people and the prospering of our native land.

(только сильное, эффективное, если кому-то не нравится слово “сильное”, скажем эффективное государство и демократическое государство в состоянии защитить гражданские, политические, экономические свободы, способно создать условия для благополучной жизни людей и для процветания нашей Родины.) 

— Putin address to Federal Assembly, 8 July 2000

Russian Observer
Today’s Putin Quotation

Patrick Armstrong

RT — Putin: ISIS financed from 40 countries, including G20 members

“I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.

RT
Putin: ISIS financed from 40 countries, including G20 members

Did Putin just sell out?

Did Vladimir Putin just sell out?

At a hastily convened meeting at the G-20 gathering, Putin and Obama met in some hallway where, according to reports, Putin agreed with Obama's demands for a "transition" in Syria.

"The United States and Russia have reached consensus at the G20 on the need for “a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition” following a sidelines meeting between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin on Sunday." Read more.

Does this mean  a transition like, Assad has to go? If so, then why the hell did he send in his military to take out the U.S. backed anti-Assad "moderates?"

If Putin is selling out now, I am done...I am totally done. Is there not one politician on this earth that does not sell out? Kim Jong Un?

WTF is happening to this world?

Moon of Alabama — Putin Names And Shames Obama Into Bombing IS Oil Smugglers

The U.S. claims it wants to hit the Islamic State but in one year of bombing it never really touched one of its biggest sources of income. Hundreds of oil tanker trucks are waiting every day at IS distribution points...

It's possible that Putin presented Obama with intelligence he hasn't seen previously or been told of.

Moon of Alabama
Putin Names And Shames Obama Into Bombing IS Oil Smugglers

Putin takes advantage of Obama-Netanyahu rift

Looks like Putin is taking advantage of the Obama-Netanyahu rift. The Israeli Prime Minister met with Putin last month and described relations between the two countries as "good."

Netanyahu, in an interview recorded for broadcast on Sunday on "CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS," did not join the United States and other NATO nations in criticizing Russia's taking military action in Syria.

"We don't want to go back to the days when, you know, Russia and Israel were in an adversarial position," said Netanyahu, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow late last month. "I think we've changed the relationship. And it's, on the whole, good." Read more.

Remember when Obama was elected and how he promised to repair America's relations with the rest of the world? How's that going?

Vladimir Putin: sadly stuck in the gold standard and taking Russia down.

When I read this I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Poor, poor, Russia. So mismanaged it is unbelievable. 

Putin is stuck in a gold standard world of 40 years ago. He spent billions defending his currency's arbitrary exchange rate when in fact he should have just let it float, remember that? 

Now he's spending billions more buying a useless asset like gold when instead he could be investing in his people: infrastructure, science, health care, food production, good housing, medicine, raising wages, etc. 

What a sad story this huge country is. Imagine what it could achieve under the right leadership? This gold buying is really, really, absurd and so ignorant and backward. Very frustrating to see if you have any sympathy at all for the Russian people and I for one, do.

And why does Putin allow the continued shelling and murder of ethnic Russians in East Ukraine? Frozen by fears of further sanctions?

It is beyond me to understand how Putin allows the wholesale slaughter of ethnic Russians in East Ukraine.

The video below shows an artillery shell whizzing by and slamming into what looks like a residential area of Donetsk. (H/T Zerohedge.)

(You can see the shell whiz by at around 1:37 in the video.)



Back in 1983 the United States sent the full force of its military to invade the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada on the trumped up reason that American students were in danger there after a coup.

Putin is clearly afraid of US reprisals. Maybe he fears more sanctions. Despite mainstream Western media and neocon propaganda and assertions to the contrary, he's been largely pacified.

Colonel Cassad —Briefings of the Soviet Informburo, 1942 [Parody of Putin's government wrt to Ukraine]

What the Russian right is saying. This is Putin's real opposition, not the liberals who have minuscule popular support. This parody is not exactly calling the Putin administration traitorous for failing to invade Ukraine and drive out the neo-Nazis and Atlanticists, but it is close.

Slavyangrad.Org

Briefings of the Soviet Informburo, 1942
Colonel Cassad
Translated from Russian by Gleb Bazov

Gilbert Doctorow — Does Russia Have a Future?

There is a misguided consensus among American experts in political science and economics that Russia has no future

Doctorow is always worth listening to. This is short and to the point.

Russia Insider
Does Russia Have a Future?
Gilbert Doctorow

See also

Alexander Mercouris, US Government Documents Prove It Conclusively - Putin Was NOT 'Chosen' by the Oligarchs

Declassified US government documents finally bury myth of Berezovsky hand-picking Putin and show Putin was always his own man

Mercouris is also always worth reading, and this is an especially crucial post about Putin's Russia and the oligarchs role in it.

Also

TV: RI's YouTube Channel Reaches Over 1 Million Views and Is Still Going Strong! - Damir Marinovich

Putin's stupid economic policies might be eroding the support of the Russian people

New York Times reporting that workers in some Russian cities are not getting paid.

MOSCOW — In the far east, the teachers went on strike. In central Russia, it was the employees of a metallurgical plant. In St. Petersburg, autoworkers laid down their tools. And at a remote construction site in Siberia, laborers painted their complaints in gigantic white letters on the roofs of their dormitories.

“Dear Putin, V.V.,” the message said. “Four months without pay.”

After months of frustration with an economy sagging under the weight of international sanctions and falling energy prices, workers across Russia are starting to protest against unpaid wages and go on strike, in the first nationwide backlash against President Vladimir V. Putin’s economic policies.

This is the New York Times, so I don't know how true it is because it has taken a consistent, anti-Russian stance since Crimea, however, take it for what it's worth.

I can tell you that I have a friend whose family lives in Siberia and they are very frustrated and angry at what Putin has been doing.

Workers not getting paid. Hospital closings. Spending cuts. Skyrocketing interest rates.

The Russian people are starting to feel the pain of Putin's stupid policies in reaction to US/EU sanctions.

I  predicted this.

Instead of ramping up domestic spending and investment, curtailing oil and gas sales to Europe and decisively intervening to end the violence in Eastern Ukraine, Putin has done the opposite. He's imposed austerity, stopped making payments to workers, pleaded with Europe to allow Russia to continue its gas sales (to help his oligarch friends?) and bought gold (WTF???).

This is much  more than a slap  in the face to the Russian people who have supported him. It's abandonment.

Western neocons might be playing a more savvy game of chess here. They might not have to do very much; as Putin's support erodes who knows what could happen? He gets removed? A coup by some oligarch with CIA support? Just thinking out loud.

Nuke capable Russian bombers cross English Channel with transponders off

Highly provocative. UK fighter jets were scrambled to "escort" these Russian planes along their route. Civilian aviation was disrupted.

It said the two Russian planes did not enter UK airspace, but the manoeuvres were "part of an increasing pattern of out-of-area operations" by Russia.
The planes were "escorted" by RAF jets "throughout the time they were in the UK area of interest", officials added. Read more. 

Don't f**k with the bear.

My podcast for Fri, Dec 12

In this podcast I talk about the government's funding bill that rips off workers and gives new, free money to Wall Street banks to play with. And I talk about Russia and the crazy policies that Putin and the central bank are employing, which are only hurting the economy and further enabling Western sanctions.

Podcast for Dec 12.

John Helmer — Circle The Russian Wagons – Belief In Patriotism, Sacrifice, And Putin Rise In Reaction To Us, Eu Sanctions, Media War

Russians digging in for the long haul?

What he doesn't mention is how long Europe can wait impatiently watching its Russian markets slipping to development in Russia and substitution from non-Western countries.

Dances with the Bears
Circle The Russian Wagons – Belief In Patriotism, Sacrifice, And Putin Rise In Reaction To Us, Eu Sanctions, Media War

John Helmer

John V. Walsh — Obama Talks Trash about Russia and China

Neoliberal-speak.

Translation: "My way, or the highway."

Dissident Voice

Obama Talks Trash about Russia and China
John V. Walsh

Martin Kirk and Frederic Mousseau — The hidden hands behind East-West tug of war in Ukraine

Confirms what Michael Hudson has been saying about the not so hidden neoliberal agenda. 

News from Brussels on July 28 and from Washington on July 29 that both the EU and US are stepping up sanctions on Russia have been met with a general "it's about time" from the world. Nobody outside Russia, it seems, has trouble roundly condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin for fuelling this terrible conflict, or approving of punitive western responses.

And whereas there may be blame to lay at Putin's feet, to think that western leaders are now reacting simply because they are outraged by the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 or what they see as Russian expansionist tendencies per se, misses a very big piece of the puzzle. On both sides of the Atlantic, leaders are playing out a strategy in league with two powerful actors who they have managed to keep quietly in the background so far - the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The World Bank and the IMF's primary interest in Ukraine is the agricultural sector. Sometimes referred to as the breadbasket of Europe, Ukraine's ample fields of rich black soil allow for such high production volumes of cereals and grain that it is the world's third-largest exporter of corn and fifth of wheat.

It is a very big prize for whoever ends up with control. The IMF and World Bank are clear they are on the side of the West, a club that includes western agricultural corporations. The Bank and the IMF have a long history of pressuring economies the world over to make themselves into more profitable environments for large corporations; it is essentially their one-size-fits-all model for development. Ukraine is just their latest target, and their fingerprints are all over this crisis…

Move along. Nothing to see here.

So when we read the headlines and grand rhetoric about Russian aggression and human rights abuses, we should remember that what is being fought for in Ukraine is the ability for western leaders and institutions to impose the neoliberal trickle-down economic model. A model that has proved to devastate small businesses and farms, fuel inequality all over the world and concentrate wealth and power in ever fewer hands.

The aspect that the authors don't mention is the thinly disguised manufactured coup that ousted a democratically elected president when he chose a better deal from Russia than the neoliberals in the West here willing to cut.

Al Jazzera
The hidden hands behind East-West tug of war in Ukraine

Martin Kirk, Global Campaigns Director for /The Rules, a new a new global campaign fighting against inequality and poverty, with a specific aim of highlighting the systemic damage caused by tax havens around the world, and Frederic Mousseau, Policy Directory of the Oakland Institute and co-author of the report Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict.

Mish Shedlock — Video of MH17 Hit by Missile; Update From Jacob Dreizin; Black Box Thoughts

Interesting post by Mish on several aspects of the Ukrainian situation, including remarks by Ron Paul who has some sensible things to say.

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Video of MH17 Hit by Missile; Update From Jacob Dreizin; Black Box Thoughts

Mike Mish Shedlock

Leo Kolivakis — On the Brink of Another World War?

The fact that we are asking this question is worrisome, and actions of supposedly responsible people in the West rushing to judgment is a bad sign of hubris.

Might be premature to project WWIII, but "the situation is fluid." Western grandstanding could backfire. Fortunately, Vladimir Putin is remaining cool —so far. But if he is driven into a corner, he will react. Washington is pretty sure of this and the neocons are fixed on driving him into a corner. Will President Obama be stupid enough to get sucked into this? Let's hope not.

Best not to go around poking bears in the eye.

Pension Plus
On the Brink of Another World War?

Leo Kolivakis

See also, Biggest Dutch Daily Calls For NATO Intervention To Protect MH17; Feinstein Tells Putin To "Man Up And Confess" at Zero Hedge

Shortly after we first reported about the MH-17 tragedy, we said that the key variable would be proving who the shooter was, as the grand fingerpointing theater was about to begin. We also noted that the actual answer to "who did it" was irrelevant, for the great propaganda machine had already made up its mind and was on overdrive. It promptly led to such ridiculous comments from non other than the Pentagon which said that, on one hand: 

'STRAINS CREDULITY' SA-11 FIRED WITHOUT RUSSIAN AID: KIRBY

 and yet:

'WE JUST DON'T KNOW' WHO FIRED SA-11 MISSILE AT PLANE: KIRBY

So, "we don't know who did it" as long as Putin did it.…

As expected, the narrative that the jet was shot down over Ukraine by Putin promptly became the go to version of the western media, and in the absence of actual facts, the appeal to emotions took over and quickly hit a fever pitch. Below is a sampling of some UK newspaper front pages. Clearly, facts be damned, the media knows all already.

Once again the answer is simple: Western military intervention, this time in the conflict zone, under the guise of public anger against Putin, to reinforce the dwindling Ukraine army forces and to repel the separatists, in the process regaining the critical industrial regions of Ukraine which also are the location of vast natural gas deposits. Certainly showing to Gazprom just who was in charge of this key natural gas nexus wouldn't hurt either. After all the west has already invested so much in the current Ukraine government, it can't all be for nothing. 

And we know that because a few hours ago, the biggest Dutch newspaper, Telegraaf, openly asked for military intervention by NATO to protect MH 17 and calls Putin a "KGB liar."