F. Michael Maloof — Latest Sanctions Against Russia Show Trump Not in Control of His Administration

US President Donald Trump is not in control of his own administration, as evidenced by the latest round of sanctions imposed against Russia for the alleged involvement in the poisoning of the Skripals in the UK in March.

The sanctions came the same day that US Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced on a trip to Moscow that he had handed over a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin from Trump calling for better relations between the two countries.…

With even further sanctions against Russia in the recently passed Defense Department Authorization Bill about to go into effect, it is becoming apparent that the allegations against Russia are politically-motivated, false flag allegations to be used as an excuse for a greater geostrategic reason — to contain Russia just as the Trump administration is increasingly finding its US-led unilateral world order being challenged more than ever.

The reason, however, isn’t due to anything that Moscow initiated but by Trump himself who isn’t in control of his own administration, and maybe never [have] been....

Both Trump and Putin realize and have acknowledged that POTUS is boxed in by US politics, lead by the American bipartisan establishment and US deep state. Trump has specifically indicated that nothing can go forward until after the mid-terms. If there is a red wave, they will go forward, but not if a blue wave, in which case the US president will be occupied fending off his removal from office.

Russia Insider
Latest Sanctions Against Russia Show Trump Not in Control of His Administration

F. Michael Maloof, former Pentagon security analyst

See also

It is debatable how much of the US government Trump actually controls.

In word, this is insanity. What’s perhaps worse is that this political warfare is being conducted with total disregard for the truth, much less an honest attempt to find it. It’s worse than a presumption of guilt; it’s a positive, unambiguous verdict of culpability under circumstances where the accusers in Washington and London (I would guess but cannot prove) know perfectly well that the CW finger pointing is false.

It has been clear from the beginning of Trump’s meteoric rise on the American political scene that he and his American First agenda were perceived by the beneficiaries of the globalist, neoliberal order as a mortal danger to the system which has enriched them. Maintaining and intensifying hostility toward Russia, even at the risk of a catastrophic, uncontainable conflict, lies at the center of their efforts. This political war to save globalism at all hazards is intensifying....

Strategic Culture Foundation
Lenin Updated: ‘Turn the Globalist War into a Race War’

James George Jatras, Analyst, former U.S. diplomat and foreign policy adviser to the Senate GOP leadership

See also at SDR

US Sanctions Are Pushing Russia to War

Finian Cunningham

Zero Hedge — Senators Seek "Crushing" Sanctions For Russia In New Bill

Let's see now. US is sanctioning Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and threatening the Philippines, Turkey and India for purchasing non-US weapons, as well as threatening secondary sanctions on everyone, with possible exceptions for allies, for purchasing Iranian oil after sanctions become effective. Oh, and did I mention the trade disputes with Canada and Mexico.

Exactly who is isolated here? Talk about painting yourself into a corner.

And economic warfare is a form of warfare. So WWIII is already on. Are you ready for it?

Don't believe me?

Notably, part of the legislation would require the State Department to make an assessment on whether Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

At the same time, now that the Syrian Armed Forces are recapturing territory they are finding weapons manufactured in the US, Britain, France, and Israel in ISIS and Al Nusra stocks, as well as discovering the White Helmets fake-news-about-chemical-weapons production facility. Sorry, no made-in-Russia weapons.

Now exactly who are the terrorists here?

Zero Hedge
Senators Seek "Crushing" Sanctions For Russia In New Bill

Tyler Durden

Also at ZH

Meet China's "Secret" Space Control Listening Base In Argentina Now Alarming US Officials

US backs down on sanctioning India, eats crow. (For those whose first language is not English, "to eat crow" means to get humiliated.)

US Congress has passed its 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, granting India a waiver against punitive sanctions on countries who do business with the Russian defense industry, the Times of India has reported.

Sputnik International
US Exempts India From Sanctions Over Purchase of Russian S-400s - Reports

Cyril Widdershoven — How The World’s Oil Powers Will Seize The Iran Deal

Analysis of the implications of oil sanctions, including war.

Oil Price
How The World’s Oil Powers Will Seize The Iran Deal
Cyril Widdershoven

Also at Oil Price

Untangling Russia’s economy from the U.S. dollar dependence is one of Putin’s goals, local outlet Sputnik reports.

“We used to behave naïvely, but now we see that the WTO [the World Trade organization] rules are all too often broken, the restrictions are imposed for political reasons, which they call sanctions. Plus more and more of them are imposed to secure its favorite competitive advantages,” Putin said, without specifying an alternative currency for the U.S. dollar in his speech at the Russian Parliament.... 

Putin: Russia Looks To Get Free Of U.S. Dollar ‘Burden’ In Oil Trade

 Tsvetana Paraskova

Sputnik — US Sanctions on Iran Puts India in Catch-22 Situation

US sanctions on Iran are poised to drastically cut the profit margins of Indian oil companies that have already committed huge future imports. Moreover, India cannot afford to turn its back on its engagements with Iran, considering the recent headway made by China in enhancing ties with the oil-rich country, according to analysts.

Sputnik International
US Sanctions on Iran Puts India in Catch-22 Situation

Asia Times — ZTE fears being kicked out of Android family after ban

Now it has emerged that, on top of the embargo on exports of chips and hardware, even mobile operating systems – developed by US companies and licensed to ZTE for its smartphone business – may also fall into the sphere of the far-reaching ban as the US Commerce Department has prohibited the Shenzhen-based tech firm from transactions involving any commodity, software or technology to be exported from the US, for a period of seven year…

Washington’s punitive order to single out ZTE in an escalating its trade row with Beijing has further fueled a nationalist groundswell in China.

Hu Xijin, chief editor of the tabloid Global Times, sister publication of the top Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, has joined Beijing’s fresh call to expedite the development of chips and semiconductors at home in the face of the US interdiction.

On his Weibo account, Hu, nowadays an Internet and media personality known for his rather sensational grandstanding and preaching about patriotism, appealed for a boycott of everything made or invented in the United States.…

China to join Russia against US and its allies in Cold War 2?

Asia Times
ZTE fears being kicked out of Android family after ban

See also

Even before Donald Trump got into the White House and raised the prospect of a trade war with China, Beijing was aiming to reduce its reliance on foreign technology.

In 2014, the government urged the military, banks, and state-owned enterprises to switch to domestic suppliers for any tech products or services they used. A year later, it announced plans for Chinese industryto raise the domestic content of core components and materials to 40% by 2020, and to 70% by 2025.

It’s unclear whether Chinese suppliers can really match what their foreign counterparts offer. But they’ll soon be put to the test, now that the US has taken punitive measures towards a major Chinese smartphone maker....

Quartz
China wants to wean itself off foreign technology. Now it will see how hard that will be

Josh Horowitz

See also

A U.S. ban on sales of American components to ZTE Corp) has unleashed a patriotic backlash in China’s cyberspace, highlighting the growing tension between the world’s two largest economies....

Reuters

U.S. ban on sales to ZTE triggers patriotic rhetoric in China

Sijia Jiang

See also

Not just China either. Germany wavering? US losing an ally?

The German business community hates and detests the costly Russia sanctions

Russia Insider
Berlin to Implore Trump Admin Not to Force Germany to Comply With US Sanctions on Russia 

Pravda.ru

Asia Times — New US sanctions threaten to cripple Chinese tech giant ZTE

Long-time pundit of Chinese politics, Bill Bishop, whose newsletter is well-read among Washington China policy circles, wrote on Tuesday:

“The ability of the US government to decimate a major Chinese tech firm by cutting off access to US components is another reminder to China, as the Snowden revelations were, that China cannot ensure information security until it completely de-Americanizes its information technology infrastructure and replaces it with indigenous products.”

Asia Times
New US sanctions threaten to cripple Chinese tech giant ZTE

John Helmer — The Oligarch Sanctions – Steven Mnuchin Exposes Us Treasury Files To Court Challenge For Oligarchs With Less To Hide Than Oleg Deripaska

US lawyers report that until now the courts have been reluctant to accept challenges to the legality of sanctions. But Bruce Marks (right), whose firm Marks & Sokolov LLC has practised in Philadelphia, Moscow and Kiev for more than twenty years, says some of the latest sanctions have gone beyond the limits defined in the statute and the case law. “The Treasury has gone too far this time in regard to certain persons on the list,” Marks said. “The targeting of these persons appears to be arbitrary and capricious. Those terms satisfy one of the standards US judges say will justify overturning the designation. There’s also no rational connection between the facts and the government’s decision to choose some of these individuals to punish....

Dances with Bears
The Oligarch Sanctions – Steven Mnuchin Exposes Us Treasury Files To Court Challenge For Oligarchs With Less To Hide Than Oleg Deripaska
John Helmer

Branko Milanovic — When autarky becomes the only solution

The latest, and by far the most serious, round of US sanctions against Russia has shown two things very clearly—neither of which has received much publicity in the comments so far. The first is the extraordinary power of the modern state. The second is that when powerful states impose sanctions that limit one’s access to markets, technology and capital, the only remaining option turns out to be autarky....

The goal US policy in advancing global hegemony (American Empire) is to isolate Russia in order to subjugate it as a vassal or colony. It's their choice. 

However, it is not Russia's only choice.

Game on. And it is deadly serious since Russia is a nuclear superpower.

Milanovic makes goods points, but it remains to be seen whether this will be a replication of 1920. Russia is in far different shape now, and global conditions have also changed a great deal since then with respect to level of development. The Global North and West is no longer leading development, as the emerging world — the Global South and East — are where the development is taking place. This is where the growing markets are. 

The game now is who is going to dominate those markets and capture the surplus value created there. The intent of the Global North and West is to dominate them as it did under imperialism and colonialism through neo-imperialism and neocolonialism. That's not going down well in the Global South and East.

The current situation with Russia is an interation in the development of the Global North and Global South rivalry and the East-West rivalry. But at this juncture the Global South and East are not the puny states in comparison with the developed North and West.

The US intends to make an example of Russia, for the benefit of China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Indonesia, etc.

Expect sparks to fly.

Global Inequality
When autarky becomes the only solution
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Russia Feed — Russian food production BOOMING thanks to import substitutions, Western sanctions

The gift from the US that keeps on giving.

Russia Feed
Russian food production BOOMING thanks to import substitutions, Western sanctions

Paul

Sputnik International — French Farmer Makes Fresh Start in Diary Production in Russian Village

Moving where the market is.

Gives import substitution new meaning.

Sputnik International
French Farmer Makes Fresh Start in Diary Production in Russian Village

Sputnik International — US Oracle Informs Russian Oil, Gas Companies About Joining Sanctions - Reports

After de-dollarization, cutting loose from Western, and especially American, technology.

Russia and China will go their own way and are already doing so.

Globalization is over, as the world breaks into separate regions, Global East and Global West, Global North and Global South.

Presages growing conflict and a stepped-up arms race as the Post WWII "liberal order" breaks down.

Sputnik International
US Oracle Informs Russian Oil, Gas Companies About Joining Sanctions - Reports

See also

Now That the Trust is Gone: New Poll Shows Russians Certain of US Meddling

also

TASS
US efforts to turn Russia into its vassal are doomed to failure, Lavrov says

also

US seizing economic assets in Syria instead of fighting IS — top brass

See also

Preparing to defend (what's left) of the Empire.

The Duran
CONFIRMED: US admits ‘unipolar moment’ is over. Full analysis of US Nuclear Posture Review

Mercouris

Since Trump's election, US dollar has eroded badly

Trump has been bragging about the stock market's gains, but what we don't hear about is the fact that the US dollar has eroded badly. Since his election the dollar has fallen to a 3-year low.

Trump is destroying the US dollar.

I called this at the time of the election and I said it was based, at the time, on two things. 1) Trump's  proposed expansion of fiscal stimulus. (More spending and tax cuts.) And, 2) the ongoing rate hike campaign of the Fed, which is inflationary and therefore NOT bullish for the dollar contrary to what most people believe.

Since then a new and far more corrosive element has entered the picture and that is the Trump Administration's aggressive use of sanctions. This is what I have called the "weaponization" of the US dollar.

This has set in motion an irreversible trend of "de-dollarization." The Rest of the World has no other choice. The USA's use of sanctions designed to limit or completely shut entities or entire nations out of the global, dollar-based transaction and clearing system is too great a risk. Even US allies can be indirectly affected by the sanctions' policy.

Alternatives will be sought. We see this in the rise of new, bilateral trade and clearing arrangements (Russia-China, China oil trading in yuan, etc.) We also see this in rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which I believe, reflects this trend toward de-dollarization and it will continue.

Trump will go down as having presided over the greatest period of dollar depreciation in history. Watch.

Vesti — Head Russian banker speaks out from Davos - "sanctions are a full-scale economic war"

The head of VTB Bank Andrei Kostin, who is currently in Davos at the Economic Forum, has spoken out in relation to the situation surrounding Western sanctions against Russia.

"What we modestly call sanctions, in fact, is a full-scale economic war that aims to put tremendous pressure on our economy, to restrain its growth, to worsen the living conditions of our people, to worsen our economic development, and thus to influence the domestic political situation in our country, including the elections and the further course of our country's leadership," he said.

"Sanctions are a planned, systemic, comprehensive work targetted at a number of industries", Andrei Kostin believes. However, in his opinion, one should not be afraid as Russia, "of course, has a set of means to counteract this."

Fort Russ
Head Russian banker speaks out from Davos - "sanctions are a full-scale economic war"

Vesti - by Inessa Sinchougova

Unintended consequences.

TASS
Western companies are losing Russian market, energy minister notes

Alex Christoforou — De-dollarization and the rise of Bitcoin. Is there a connection between the two?

Is Bitcoin a Reaction to US Dollar Hegemony?

Like Mike has been saying for some time.

The Duran
De-dollarization and the rise of Bitcoin. Is there a connection between the two?
Alex Christoforou

Related

Blockchain technology and the birth of the so-called cryptocurrencies finds deep roots in three contributing factors: the advance of technology: the manipulation of global economic and financial rules; and the persistent attempt to weaken the national economies of countries that geopolitically challenge the US power system. In this first article I address these issues from a financial point of view, in the next analysis I intend to dive into the geopolitical aspects and broader the perspective on how Russia, China and other nations are taking advantage of a decentralized financial system.

Strategic Culture Foundation
Is Bitcoin a Reaction to US Dollar Hegemony?Federico Pieraccini

See also

The iron fist of the US.

As the launch of new ‘petro’ cryptocurrency draws near, a US government agency declared that this newcomer to the digital financial market may represent a violation of sanctions imposed against Venezuela, its issuer.

Sputnik International
US Treasury Warns About Sanction Risks of Owning New Venezuelan Cryptocurrency

Dmitriy Sudakov — One third of Russian currency assets are in the US – what if Washington freezes them?

Short and significant.

Russia Feed.
One third of Russian currency assets are in the US – what if Washington freezes them?
Dmitriy Sudakov

Kakaousia — Russia without SWIFT

Background on international payments systems and Western monopoly — so far.

While Russia's exclusion from SWIFT would be painful, there are workarounds, and the net effect would be to hasten the already developing de-dollarization that taking place owing the the US weaponing the USD-based system. Russia and China have already been taking steps to isolate themselves from a weaponized dollar. Now, it is a matter of time.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Russia without SWIFT
Kakaousia

See also

"SBP has already put in place the required regulatory framework which facilitates use of CNY in trade and investment transactions," the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a press release late Tuesday, ensuring that imports, exports and financing transactions can be denominated in the Chinese currency.

"The SBP, in the capacity of the policy maker of financial and currency markets, has taken comprehensive policy related measures to ensure that imports, exports and financing transactions can be denominated in yuan," Dawn news, Pakistan's most widely read English-language daily, announced while quoting the SBP press release.

Zero Hedge
Pakistan Ditches Dollar In Trade With China In Retaliation For Trump Twitter Meltdown

Tyler Durden

Tom Luongo — Bank of Russia’s Worries Stifling Growth

The Bank of Russia continues to sabotage Russia's economic recovery by over-estimating the effects of a hostile U.S. Congress.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Elvira Nabiullina. 

Russia Insider
Bank of Russia’s Worries Stifling Growth
Tom Luongo

TASS — Russia underestimates new package of US sanctions — think tank

Ha ha. What former finance minister Alexey Kudrin thinks is a bug is actually a feature.

Sanctions will result in Russia having to rely one its power as a sovereign currency issuer, which it should have been using from day one.

According to ex-minister, the country will be forced to widen the use of the national currency in payments. "This sanctions story creates huge risks for transactions in more stable currencies. This will trigger the use of the ruble even if it turns out more expensive," he said.

Russia should look east to China rather than looking west. China has this figured out.

TASS
Russia underestimates new package of US sanctions — think tank

Asia Unhedged — Introducing the CryptoRuble

Sanctions-buster?

The anonymity of a cryptocurrency also provides Russia with a tremendous opportunity to circumvent sanctions. As Handelsblatt reports, the CIA has already expressed suspicion that Russia’s interest in the matter may be related to this. The Director General of the Russian e-money system, Qiwi Sergej Solonin, sees at least the possibility that the CryptoRuble could provide a replacement to the international banking transaction system Swift. The disconnection of Russia from the Swift system has been discussed as a sanctions option in the past.

Asia Times
Introducing the CryptoRuble

Asia Unhedged

See also

Sputnik International
Russia Has Enough Potential to Ensure Digital Sovereignty - Prime Minister

Leonid Bershidsky — Piketty Zeroes In on Putin's Pain Point

Russian ex-pat Leonid Bershidsky is blowing holes through Western narratives that are out of touch with Russian reality and heavily influenced by Western russophobia.

This raises the question of whether the current Western sanctions against Russia strike at the heart of the Russian system or merely pretend to do so. Since the sanctions were introduced, no Western government has made a meaningful effort to investigate the provenance of hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian offshore assets. No significant asset freezes have taken place. The money is still out there, to be invested inside or outside Russia, in the service of its "perceived national interest" or otherwise (Putin would like to get his hands on some of it, too, but it doesn't belong to his cronies).

A Western effort to track down that money and make it available to a post-Putin, democratic Russia could potentially be a game-changer. But it would require far more work, and probably a lot of uncomfortable revelations about Western business and politics. The current sanctions regime is simply not intended to open that can of worms.

Bloomberg View
Piketty Zeroes In on Putin's Pain Point
Leonid Bershidsky