by Timofey Bordachev, Program Director of the Valdai Club

Excerpt

[ . . . ] What happened? There seem to be several reasons. The EU’s political systems are mired in crisis. This doesn’t just entail the well-known collapse of traditional parties and movements, or their replacement by populists like Emmanuel Macron’s movement in France or the True Finns in Finland. The whole Western European order, which is designed to convince citizens that the status quo is the most just, is in crisis.

There is no longer enough money for it. Western Europe’s ability to extract neo-colonial rents from the rest of humanity has declined sharply in recent years. The main ‘culprit’ is China, whose power is creating alternative sources of finance for the poor countries of Africa or Latin America to develop and sustain their populations. The other is Russia, whose military and political capabilities have grown, allowing former European colonies to rely on a different kind of power support.

Finally, the whole world is to blame for the Western European tragedy, simply because it is developing and can no longer be controlled by the shrinking powers of the old world. The Americans are less tolerant too; they are even forcing the EU to finance more and more of their own foreign policy adventures, such as supporting Kiev. That is why the ruling classes of the bloc are using every opportunity to drive their own citizens into conditions of mobilization and make them feel like they live in a ‘fortress under siege’.

They gained their first significant experience in this area in the 2010s, when Western Europe was flooded with refugees from the Middle East and Africa. Mobilization technologies were then fully deployed during the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, almost all Western European citizens, with rare exceptions such as Sweden, were locked up and their contact with the outside world drastically reduced. However, Swedes did not need to be particularly restricted as they already had the traditional Scandinavian worldview.

At the same time as strict quarantines were imposed, Western European states were denied the opportunity to choose their own vaccines. The same von der Leyen was put in charge of centralized procurement, giving observers plenty of reason to suspect her of corruption. The experiment was apparently considered a great success. And the armed conflict in Ukraine is already being used by politicians as an excuse to lock their citizens into the ‘bunker’ strategy.

Many ordinary Western Europeans are indeed as anxious and confused about the world around them as their elected or appointed leaders. In the decades since the Cold War, there has been a very interesting change in the minds of many EU citizens – a loss of the ability to make cause-and-effect connections. We can laugh about it all we want, but many people in Western Europe actually believe that they live in a ‘flowering garden surrounded by a jungle’. Those who don’t are seen as crackpots or dangerous ‘pro-Russian’ renegades.

It is difficult to judge whether this is a complete or partial ‘rewiring of the brain’. It is not easy to create in people the psychology of a ‘besieged fortress’ when there are no objective reasons to feel this way. The aforementioned Americans have them – an island position on the world map. Even Hollywood’s productions for children cultivate two feelings: their own omnipotence and, at the same time, being surrounded by dangerous enemies on all sides.

This was not particularly noticeable in Western Europe before. But there was something else – arrogance towards other nations. If in the case of Russia it is a pronounced phobia, i.e. fear mixed with contempt, in all others it is absolutely unadulterated contempt.

After the Cold War, most Western European politicians and thinking citizens realized in principle that they were doing something very wrong by trying to expand their military and political blocs into Russia’s backyard, without seeking to include Moscow itself. The lack of a way to support their own incomes without the predatory treatment of others led them to continue a policy that the best minds in region itself doubted. The realization that such a strategy would lead to a dramatic outcome was always present among those in the EU. It inevitably forced them to prepare for a confrontation caused by their own behavior.

So the Western Europeans were ready to start shutting out the rest of the world. Over the past decade, they have sent patrol boats into the Mediterranean to turn away or sink small boats carrying refugees. Then they kept out those who hadn’t been inoculated with vaccines approved by corrupt EU officials. Now they are massively building bunkers and bomb shelters along their borders with Russia.

The EU is entangled in its own mistakes and sees no way out. Because for decades it has outgrown the ability to seriously doubt the correctness of its actions. And so, for the time being, it is left to walk along a narrow road. Ahead of it is only the construction of new bunkers and other lines of defense in all directions.

Russia and its diplomats are now talking quite sincerely about their willingness to resume dialogue with our EU neighbors. But at the same time, we must be prepared for the fact that the distortions of political and mass consciousness in Western Europe cannot be cured too quickly.

This article was first published by ’Vzglyad’ newspaper and was translated and edited by the RT team.

Moscow should use every opportunity to inflict “maximum damage” on Western nations that have declared a “war without rules” on Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has argued.

Every weakness of the US and its allies should be exploited to undermine them and obstruct life for their citizens, the Russian official said on Thursday, reacting to the latest round of sanctions announced by Washington earlier this week.

”Are they afraid that we would transfer our arms to the enemies of the Western world? We should send every kind of weapon, except nuclear (for now)!”Medvedev wrote on social media. “Are they afraid of anarchy and crime waves in large cities? We should help disrupt their municipal authorities!”

Russia could trigger a war in space, wage a psychological warfare campaign against Western citizens so that they “tremble under blankets in their cozy homes” and unleash a tsunami of fake news “to turn their life into a never-ending nightmare, in which they cannot distinguish reality from the wildest fiction.”

Moscow should “obliterate their energy infrastructure, industry, transport, banking and social services. Instil fear over an imminent collapse of all critical infrastructure,” according to Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council.

The latest round of American restrictions against Russian entities targets energy, metals and mining as well as the financial sector. Among other things, it has forced the Moscow Stock Exchange to suspend all trade in the US dollar and the euro.

The package is one of the biggest since the Ukraine conflict escalated into open hostilities in February 2022, impacting over $100 million in trade between Russia and its foreign partners, according to estimate from the US Department of the Treasury.

Medvedev claimed that a campaign of “maximum damage” as outlined in his post was preferable to simply ignoring the Western pressure, and urged Russian citizens to act accordingly.

Below are details of the spies whose arrest was announced by the Yemeni Security Forces today, in a major and unprecedented blow to American-zionist schemes in the region.

Records of employment by US intelligence, and US embassy documents about the spies are featured, and the handlers of each spy were identified.

Spy: Amer Abdul Majeed Al-Aghbari

Recruited to the CIA in 1987. The spy targeted education and agriculture sectors, strengthened American influence over the National Dialogue Conference, worked on projects to destroy soil, promote American products, break barriers, reduce agricultural production, spread highly toxic pesticides, and transmit animal diseases.

Spy: Mohamed Salah Al-Kharashi

Recruited to the FBI in 2011. The spy provided the FBI with databases and maps of camps, weapon depots, security centers, hospitals, roads, and routes. He managed informant cells in civilian, economic, security, and military institutions, handing them over to the FBI.

Spy Abdelkader Ali Al-Saqqaf

Recruited to the CIA in 1994. The spy collected various information and data on the country’s political and judicial situation and supplied American intelligence with sensitive information about security and military operations. He was key in obtaining information for the CIA.

Spy Jamil Abdu Mohamed Al-Faqih

Recruited to the CIA in 2009. The spy collected important information in various economic sectors and provided American officers with all related details. He helped the Americans control the Swift code operating the Yemeni Central Bank and transmitted information that contributed to shaping the American siege policy against Yemen.

Spy: Bassam Ahmed Hamad Al-Mardhi

Recruited to the FBI in 2012. The spy recruited several individuals within the security establishment and judiciary, managed informant cells that conducted espionage activities, and prepared reports and analyses on crimes, risks, and the security environment in Yemen.

Spy: Shaif Hefdhallah Al-Hamdani

Recruited to the CIA in 1997. The spy shared information with American intelligence, monitored ballistic missile launch sites, drone operations, and military and economic targets, and participated in implementing hostile American activities in the education, health, agriculture, livestock, and fishery sectors. He also transmitted the Central Bank’s code to Aden.

Spy: Hesham Ahmed Ali Al-Wazir

Recruited to the CIA in 2009. The spy connected Yemeni commercial houses with the American embassy, recruited senior leaders, traders, and prominent figures in various fields to the embassy, and implemented agendas to divide Yemen at the National Dialogue Conference. He monitored activities aimed at dismantling national armament under the guise of USAID projects and provided Americans with political, economic, and military information. He has received numerous awards from the US embassy.

Spy: Mohamed Ali Ahmed Al-Waziza

Recruited to the CIA in 2007. The spy worked with FBI officers in hostile missions, extracted sovereign information from the Immigration and Passports Authority servers for the FBI, and operated under the cover of international and local organizations to undermine social values, including the Raneen Foundation.

Spy: Jamal Mahmoud Sultan Al-Sharabi

Recruited to the CIA in 2014. The spy conducted several intelligence operations for the CIA, including delivering political, economic, and security reports to American officers and providing reports on military developments in Yemen. He worked as a “political assistant” for the US embassy.

Spy: Abdelmaeen Hussein Ali Azzan

Recruited to the CIA in 2006. The spy also provided “israeli” Mossad and American intelligence with information on Ansarallah, spied on Yemeni military manufacturing and strategic capabilities. He recruited and attracted local institutions, organizations, and prominent figures for American intelligence. He provided Mossad officers with information, contacting them through the economic attaché at the US embassy. He worked for the CIA shell company LAPIS, where information was transferred until 2018.

by Gilbert Doctorow

Rigor mortis on the Western front: a brief comment on the EU Parliament elections

The results of the parliamentary elections across the 27 member states of the European Union have been published this morning. They are not complete and final, but they are highly indicative of how it all ends.

The front-page diagram of The Financial Times comparing the outgoing and incoming party affiliations of the deputies tells it all. Though the deck chairs on the Titanic have been rearranged, though the Greens have had losses, the Renew grouping of Macron and Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt have had losses, the EPP had gains and the net result appears to be that the Center Right-Left coalition that held the European Parliament in its firm grip these past 5 years will continue to have a voting majority of more than 400 seats. This means that barring some accident, Ursula von der Leyen will be reelected and the awful, self-destructive, even suicidal policies of the EU with respect to Russia will continue for the coming 5 years, if there is no Continent-wide war as a result that wipes Europe off the face of the earth.

Here in Belgium, the good news comes from the north of the country. The anti-status quo Flemish parties N-VA and Vlaams Belang came in first and second, garnering almost a third of the seats in the Chamber of Representatives. My estimation of the results comes from applying the old Russian Marxist analytic tool: the worse, the better. The comfy life of our most prominent politicians is coming to an end. Prime Minister De Croo was compelled to resign when his party took a beating. Now he can resume the search for his next sinecure that began one week ago when he called upon Joe Biden in the White House. If only this discomfiture extends to the other incompetent lackeys of Washington that the MR Party has sent to the European Institutions, Didier Reynders on the Commission and Charles Michel at the Council, then I will break out the champagne.

by Sergey Markov

European Parliament. The elections end today. According to forecasts, the same center-right coalition will receive a majority in the European Parliament. And the head of the European Commission will remain the same Ursula von der Leyen.

The unsystematic right will improve its results. But these non-systemic rightists are becoming more and more systemic. In particular, the powerful National Rally in France, led by Marine Le Pen, switched to a pro-American and anti-Russian position.

The main right-wing ID group – Identity and Democracy – has split. Another powerful party, Alternativ für Germany, was excluded from it on the initiative of Marine Le Pen.

The AfD is still trying to be against the war in Ukraine and for peace. And Marine Le Pen became completely in favor of the war against Russia. In this way, she is trying to earn permission to win future presidential elections from the ruling oligarchy.

by Germán Gorraiz Lopez

The outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict revealed the worrying servility of Western countries, which translated into the loss of decision-making power of European institutions and their total subordination to the geopolitical dictates of the United States, leaving France as an irrelevant power in the new cartography. geopolitics of the Cold War 2.0.

However, Macron’s thinking would be rigid and incorrigible since it does not take into account the contrary reasons and only collects data or signs that confirm the prejudice to turn it into conviction, so everything indicates that Macron would be determined to lead Europe by personally committing himself to unwavering support for the Ukrainian people and forcing NATO into open conflict with Putin’s Russia.

Thus, as the US is immersed in the electoral campaign for the November Presidential elections, France, Poland and the United Kingdom would be the trident chosen by the globalists to implode the Ukrainian front next summer and provoke the subsequent entry of NATO into an open conflict with the Russia of a Putin reelected until 2030.

NATO entry into the Ukrainian war?

The Ukrainian conflict would have meant the return to the Cold War between Russia and the United States and the return to the Doctrine of Containment, the bases of which were exposed by George F. Kennan in his essay “The Sources of Soviet Behavior”, published in Foreign magazine. Affairs in 1947 and whose main ideas are summarized in the quote “Soviet power is impervious to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of force.”

Thus, the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, stated that his country is “willing to accept nuclear weapons” from allied countries on its territory, which has received a harsh and forceful response from Moscow when it warned that “the placement of this type of weaponry in Poland will make this country a priority objective in Russian military planning.

Likewise, in a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russia has warned that the “arrival of the F-16 fighters in Ukraine will be seen as carriers of nuclear weapons and we will consider this step by the US and NATO as a deliberate provocation,” while at the same time which accuses the West of openly supporting Ukraine’s sabotage actions in Russian territory and of supplying Kiev with British and French long-range missiles as well as the new American ATACMS, which can reach Russian territory.

Within the action-reaction dynamic typical of the new Cold War 2.0 scenario, Putin ordered his country’s Armed Forces to carry out maneuvers with tactical nuclear weapons on the southern border with Ukraine. Likewise, Putin warned that “the use of weapons by Ukraine against Russian territory could lead to very serious problems” and in response, “Moscow could provide long-range weapons to third parties to attack Western targets.”

Ignoring these warnings, in a televised interview with the France 2 and TF1 channels, Macron announced that France “will provide Ukraine with Mirage 2000-5 fighters, and will train pilots and a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers whom it will equip, train and will lend weapons.” He also reiterated that “Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons provided by its Western allies to attack Russian military targets and neutralize the points from which the country is being attacked.”
Paris’ current priority, according to its Defense Minister, Sebastian Lecornu, would be to supply Zelensky with high-tech precision-guided AASM bombs and advanced artillery pieces as well as the production of 40 units of France’s powerful SCALP cruise missile.

Macron and the nuclear saber

Macron, established as “a champion of the defense of Western values ​​against Russian barbarism”, would be the only European leader willing to use the “nuclear saber” in the face of Putin’s threats to “use nuclear force in the event of being endangering the integrity of Russia. Although responsibility for the armed forces is shared by the President and the Prime Minister according to the 1958 French Constitution, a 1962 decree only attributes to the President the ability to authorize the use of nuclear weapons.

Let us remember that the “Force de Frappe” was born in 1960 as a consequence of the proclamation of the Fifth French Republic by General De Gaulle. and it was conceived as one of the key elements of the country’s economic, diplomatic and military independence from the two great powers in conflict worldwide (the US and the USSR).

Under Sarkozy, the French atomic arsenal was reduced to the current 290 nuclear warheads and bases part of its power on the use of ballistic nuclear submarines (SLBM), the M51 missile being the longest range with a range of 9 km and also including bombers. land and maritime missiles with medium-range, high-speed Air-Sol Moyenne Portée (ASMP) nuclear cruise missiles. In this context, the French Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, confirmed that “a first test shot of a new short- and medium-range supersonic air-to-ground nuclear missile” known as ASMPA-R had been successfully launched from an aircraft. Rafale of the Strategic Air Forces (FAE) over French territory and has a range of 500 kilometers and can transport nuclear charges of 300 kilotons.

Towards a low intensity nuclear war?

Given that both Macron and Putin are suffering from the so-called Pontius syndrome, which consists of “a distortion in the perception of danger that would have its origin in the excess of adrenaline of the affected person”, neither of them will be deterred by the opposite. , so the conflict could culminate in a low-intensity nuclear war through the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

“Non-strategic” nuclear weapons, also known as “tactical nuclear weapons”, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and of which Russia would have about 1,800 warheads and NATO would have 250 warheads deployed in Europe, would be warheads designed to used on a limited battlefield, for example to destroy a tank column or an aircraft carrier battle group if used at sea, which is why they are also known as “low performance”.

However, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Princeton University simulation of a US-Russia conflict that begins with the use of a tactical nuclear weapon predicts “a rapid escalation that would leave more than 90 millions of dead and injured”, with which the beginning of a low-intensity nuclear conflict could degenerate into a large-scale nuclear conflagration with disastrous results for Humanity.