by Claudiu Secara

My opinion? The Russians are craving ALL of the lost Soviet Union space, including the stolen part of other limitrofe countries, like Moldova. In fact, their ambitions, as explicitly spelled out in earlier statements, are for the so-called Eurasia from Lisbon to Vladivostok, of course, with Moscow at the center. How convenient. They are not willing to sign on to some crumbs like Donbas in a peace agreement. They are now all geared up to pursue a full assault on the next prize which is the whole of Ukraine, as made public by no other than Medvedev.

The US is crumbling under our eyes. All the accusations against Trump made by the democrats turned out to be too mild in describing the autocratic power grab planned by the Trump clan. And that includes cornering not only the US Dollar finances but, by the use of the cryptocurrency scam, to leverage the world finances in ways that we still could hardly imagine.

Is he going to succeed?

I think we are looking at uncontrolled escalation between two resourceful but unrestrained power centers, that is Russia and the US. A clash between the two is imminent as their manifest program is to stir up the national emotions for more conflict to come.

The Europeans are cool. What used to be an endless rivalry between England, France and Germany is turning into wise statesmanship. They are attacked by both, the Russians and the US as being inept, retrograde, losers, bad actors, undemocratic, etc. But I can see that the old continent quietly is rearming without going to war. It looks ahead and regroups while the two rivals exhaust themselves in endless adventures. With 500 million population, Europe should be able to reclaim its status, its historical towering power next to China.

Despite its showpiece, which is the modern Moscow, Russia remains a backward, almost a third-world nation of conquered colonies. But worst still, with a third-world mentality of “let’s steal from the rich neighbors, in this case the Westerns”. By contrast Europe is a free union of a multitude of nations all bound by the fear and the specter of falling prey to the Asiatic Slavs.

On the other hand, the US is a nation that is no longer a melting pot. It is, as the metaphor goes, a salad bowl of raw conflicts. There is no center anymore capable of stopping the anarchy and, like history teaches us, it can only end in a bloody civil war. That might bring, at the end of a long process, a new savior, as the final arbiter, the new Lord Protector. But that ain’t Trump, who turns out to be a world-class prestidigitator.

Russia is still a medieval state lording over fearful natives, while the US is controlled by a messianic minority. The elites of both are only concerned with preserving their privileges and of the rent seeking system. They are facing the thousand year old European civilization as well as the thousands of years old Chinese, and even Persian, civilizations.

The puberty growing pains of Russia and the US will consume both.