Why is the statement of the US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley that " Donald Trump considers Russia a problem”, coincidentally coincides with the proposal of the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to the Kremlin leadership to “be friends between countries”, but at the same time the USA and Great Britain together threaten to “solve problems” with Syria (chemical weapons again!) and the DPRK (nuclear missile program again!) together and bypassing the UN Security Council?
Why does the Tomahawk strike on a Syrian air base coincide with the visit of the Chinese President to the United States? Xi Jinping, who accepted the same Trump’s invitation to chat one-on-one in an informal setting at his personal villa in Mar-a-Lago?
Why does the IMF, in spite of everything, allocate another loan tranche of a billion dollars to the Kyiv authorities, and the High Court of London refuses to take into account the “special conditions” of the refusal of the same Kyiv authorities to pay the sovereign debt of three billion to Russia?
Why did we have a wave of terrorist attacks against such an interesting background: in St. Petersburg, Astrakhan, Rostov?
What, generally speaking, is happening?
Nothing personal just business
Why such a concentration of events and such “rocking of the boats”? What “offer you can’t refuse” has been made, by whom and to whom? Could this be somehow related to the Fed's promises to reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet and raise interest rates, as well as the bill submitted to the US Congress to completely overhaul the Federal Reserve?
I would venture to guess that yes, it is connected. Because these treasuries need to be sold to someone. And to whom?
There is no demand within the United States and is not expected to do so in the foreseeable future - even against the backdrop of an increase in the Fed discount rate and, accordingly, the profitability of these “securities.” But with foreign investors, including TOP-20, the official situation as of January 2017 was as follows (in billions of dollars and% of the corresponding GDP):
Total - 5956.1 (6.03%)
Japan - 1102.5 (24.99%)
China - 1051.1 (9.23%)
Ireland - 293.7 (114.46%)
Brazil - 257.7 (16.8%)
Cayman Islands - 257.2 (10288%)
Switzerland - 226.4 (34.78%)
Luxembourg - 218.9 (372.66%)
UK - 214.0 (7.75%)
Hong Kong - 189.4 (44.31%)
Taiwan - 183.6 (16.32%)
India - 113.7 (4.97%)
Saudi Arabia - 112.3 (18.16%)
Belgium - 112.2 (22.06%)
Singapore - 103.3 (21.22%)
South Korea - 95.6 (7.24%)
Russia - 86.2 (7.61%)
Canada - 79.9 (5.47%)
Thailand - 72.9 (6.28%)
Germany - 71.6 (2.1%)
Bermuda - 61.6 (1184.62%)
Why Trump is bombing Syria: America is looking for a new donor victim for the Federal Reserve Ron Sachs
Of the TOP-20 global economies, the TOP-20 US creditors do not include Indonesia, France, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Iran. However, if, with an understandable degree of convention, we consider Ireland, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda as “branches” of the British economy, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan as partly Chinese, and Luxembourg and Belgium as German, then France, Mexico, Italy and Turkey are included in the list of the largest “payers” fall, and Spain will be in 21st place.
And then we will get the following picture of the distribution of US external debt by country:
China (with “branches”) - 1527.4 (6.55%)
Japan - 1102.5 (24.99%)
UK (with branches) - 826.5 (28.27%)
Germany (with branches) - 402.7 (8.86%)
Brazil - 257.7 (16.8%)
Switzerland -226.4 (34.78%)
India -113.7 (4.97%)
Saudi Arabia -112.3 (18.16%)
South Korea -95.6 (7.24%)
Russia -86.2 (7.61%)
Canada -79.9 (5.47%)
Thailand -72.9 (6.28%)
UAE - 61.2 (9.17%)
France - 60.8 (2.22%)
Türkiye - 58.4 (3.5%)
Netherlands - 54.2 (6.26%)
Mexico -48.1 (2.08%)
Norway -43.1 (11.82%)
Italy -38.2 (1.72%)
Sweden - 38.2 (7.67%).
From here it is already clear who should be “on the list for expansion” of US lending - these are China, the European Union (without Great Britain and Norway), South Korea, Russia and Mexico. With India and Canada, as states that are members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, the situation is not so clear. And so - one hundred percent coincidence with the list of states and interstate structures to which various types of claims are being made by the Trump administration!
Nothing personal just business?
Why Trump is bombing Syria: America is looking for a new donor victim for the Federal ReserveLan Hongguang
Who will be third?
Of course, Xi Jinping is not able, like the Japanese, to allocate another trillion dollars in debt to the 45th President of the United States, but the current “owner of the White House” from the Chairman would have agreed in principle to move in this direction plus some preliminary guidelines such as a “road map” The PRC is quite capable of achieving this.
After this, the main focus of official Washington’s policy should be “continental” Europe, primarily Germany and France. Which, in fact, was demonstrated by the March meeting of Donald Trump with the Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel.
With South Korea, the problem has been practically solved by changing the country's president - just like what happened in Brazil. Question: Will Russia be number three on the Trump/Fed financial list?
The answer to this can be considered negative: the Russian economy is not monetized enough to become a full-fledged (“increase” of one hundred billion dollars or more) donor to the United States and the Federal Reserve through the Treasury mechanism. In our case, much more important is access to raw material deposits and financial control of export flows, plus “trend management” of the military-strategic potential of the Russian Federation, or at least its neutralization in the international arena.
Aggression against a sovereign state under a false pretext. So Russian President Vladimir Putin assigned to an air force base in Syria. He noted that, despite the fact that Donald Trump called the fight against terrorism one of his main tasks, these actions not only did not bring victory closer, but also created serious obstacles for it. Russia is suspending the memorandum that Moscow and Washington entered into to ensure the safety of flights over Syria. What they had been working towards for so long, what they had been fighting for so long, was destroyed by dozens of cruise missiles.
Former Turkish Ambassador to the United States: American strike will intensify the chaos reigning in SyriaBy striking a Syrian airbase, the United States simultaneously attacked the settlement process in Syria. This opinion was expressed on Sputnik radio by former Turkish Ambassador to the United States Faruk Logoğlu.In the US Senate, meanwhile, they are concerned exclusively with formal issues: why does the president make his decision with Congress? The USA was not attacked. Failure to follow procedure has become the biggest problem in this entire situation, according to former State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. But she liked the demonstration of strength and military might itself - she even wrote an entire article about it. In which, however, I asked the question: what next? Does Donald Trump have a plan? Syria, after all, has influential friends - Russia and Iran. How will they respond? So Trump, according to Psaki, has stepped on a slippery slope.
Both coalition comrades and long-time allies are in some confusion. Sweden became interested in how compatible this is with international law and proposed finally giving the Syrian people the right to determine their own future. are concerned that Donald Trump, who “cursed” the invasion of Syria, is now planning one. And they remind you: the current American president himself admitted that he does not understand who the United States supports in Libya and Syria. And now he’s starting his first trip and opening Pandora’s box. The Finnish Foreign Ministry called on Russia and the United States to show responsibility and common sense. This is, of course, interesting: it is Moscow that must show common sense, endure, make concessions, and save the world from fascism and terrorism. Well, not the first time.
Although the Austrian Foreign Ministry complained that Trump did not appeal to the UN Security Council, they nevertheless noted that this bombing, in general, was a normal preventive measure against possible chemical attacks. Just in case, that is. It seems to us that you may have something like that, so we will attack you.
And only France and Germany have no questions for Washington: Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel said that Bashar al-Assad is to blame for everything. Even if he is being bombed. In ten years, when there is nothing left to destroy, maybe they will say that they got carried away. This happens regularly: an innocent person may well spend 11 years in a Hague prison, as happened with the Serbian politician Vojislav Seselj. He was later acquitted - but no one can take it all back. They also acquitted Iraq, which, just like Syria, began to bomb because someone thought something was wrong. And after 10 years it was discovered that it really “appeared”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled in this regard how Tony Blair “admitted that they cheated, that they misled everyone” when he was Prime Minister of Great Britain. And it is unknown when we will have to find out the whole truth about how the decision to strike Syria was made. But the truth must be sought, and Russia will do this.
Subscribe to the Sputnik radio channel on Telegram so that you always have something to read: topical, interesting and useful.
Radio Sputnik also has excellent public pages.
The main dish of the ceremonial reception of the President of the United States Donald Trump Chairman of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping On the night of April 6-7, 59 tomahawks struck the Syrian airbase of Shayrat. The strike was allegedly carried out in response to the “use of chemical weapons” in Idlib province on April 4, which led to the death of dozens of Syrian citizens, including children, for which Western media immediately blamed Bashar al-Assad, - and with the goal of “preventing further tragedies.”
Moreover, the strike on Syria took place without any sanctions from the UN Security Council and even the US Congress, which the hospitable host, as noted by the media, did not fail to inform his dear guest right at the table... Which once again emphasized the “second-class” status of China compared to America.
Signal to “the city and the world”
Not only did Comrade Xi agree to come not even to the White House, but to Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Trump’s personal residence, which, by and large, was an obvious “loss of face” for him - so for this suddenly lost His face was also lashed with a glove on display.
Thus, the 45th President of the United States, allegedly based on “vital national security interests,” demonstrated “global leadership” and the “revived greatness” of the state he headed to “the city and the world,” including not only foreign allies and opponents, but above all - their opponents in the United States itself, significantly weakening their domestic political positions. Not to mention negotiating positions on the international stage.
You can say as much as you like that Xi Jinping was “aware” of the upcoming strike, that this moment was “pumped up” in advance with the Beijing leadership through the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, US Ambassador to China Terry Branstead and anyone else. That this act of aggression was a necessary condition for the parties to return to the G2 (“Big Two”) format, in which “global dominance” will be exercised by the duumvirate of Washington and Beijing - with the elimination of all other “centers of power,” including Russia, which is destined to lose Siberia and Far East, as well as the division into several “newest independent states” such as Cossacks and Idel-Ural...
Even if so, these agreements were not recorded publicly, which means that Trump “cheated” his guest in world public opinion.
Does Xi Jinping, heading a huge Chinese delegation, including his own wife, feel today, on the eve of “incredibly difficult” negotiations on the entire spectrum of US-China relations? Peng Liyuan, “hostage to Mar-a-Lago”? We may never know the answer to this question. But he won’t hang in the air either - just let “Comrade Xi” return home.
Moreover, today’s statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed categorical disagreement with the “new-old” position of the White House “Assad must go.”
What about Russia?
Pentagon Press Secretary Eric Pahon reported that the Russian side was notified of the impending attack two hours before it began, that is, almost four hours before the Tomahawks arrived at the target. This information was confirmed by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov. Does this mean that Russia, for some reason (no matter what - there are a lot of versions here) “bowed in” to Trump and did not prevent US subsonic cruise missiles from reaching the target (it did not dare or even failed to do this), and limited itself only to the evacuation of its military personnel from Shayrat (along with whom most of the Syrians left the airbase before the strike)?
Of course no.
Since, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in the period from 3:42 to 3:54 only 23 American cruise missiles out of 59 reached Shayrat, some passive countermeasures, apparently, were taken by the Russian and Syrian missile defense and air defense systems . And they turned out to be quite effective, judging not only by the number of “tomahawks” that have gone missing so far, but also by the minimal destruction of the air base itself.
By the way, the strike was carried out (perhaps this is a coincidence) on the eve of the Orthodox holiday of the Annunciation, which brings to mind the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 with the inscriptions on the Narru Easter bombs! ("Happy easter!").
The fact that in the official statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry this, according to the US description, “isolated operation” is characterized as an act of aggression against a sovereign state, which occurred under a far-fetched pretext in violation of international law and could further worsen Russian-American relations; that Moscow demanded the convening of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, sent new forces to the Middle Eastern shores and suspended the Memorandum previously concluded with the United States on preventing incidents and ensuring aviation safety during operations in Syria - all this is far from a complete and not final version of the Kremlin’s response .
What's next?
Let the senator John McCain at the same time, it says as much as you like that Russia is afraid of a full-scale military conflict against the United States. The fact remains that the situation has not yet gotten out of control, and the prospect of a new world war looks no more likely than, say, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Depending on how the situation develops in the coming hours and days, it is possible that there may even be talk of postponing - but at the initiative of the Russian side - the visit of US Secretary of State Tillerson to Russia scheduled for April 11-12. The visit was initially expected on April 6, but the dates were shifted by the American side, since instead of the Russian capital, the former head of Exxon Mobil flew from Beijing to Brussels for the NATO summit, which was not initially planned.
But it is clear that anti-Russian hysteria in the global media will not continue to pump up, the “Trump team” will finally have the opportunity to start negotiations with the Kremlin, and energy prices, including oil and gas, will rise.
Sources for The Wall Street Journal newspaper said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allegedly “approved the use of chlorine in an attack against the last major rebel stronghold in the country,” which is considered the province of Idlib. This could provoke a retaliatory strike from the US military, the publication adds.
“The Pentagon is developing military scenarios, but Mr. Trump has not yet decided what exactly will be considered a reason for a military response and whether the United States will attack Russian or Iranian military forces helping Mr. Assad in Syria,”
Officials were unable to confirm to the publication that the United States would resort to airstrikes in Syria in the event of a chemical attack. According to the newspaper, instead of military strikes, Washington may use targeted economic sanctions against Syrian officials.
“We did not say that the US would use military force in response to an attack. We have political instruments at our disposal, we have economic instruments. There are several different answers we can give if Assad takes this reckless, dangerous step,” one of the newspaper’s senior White House sources told the newspaper.
The Russian Ministry of Defense previously warned that a provocation with chemical weapons was being prepared in Syria, which should become a reason for the United States, Britain and France to strike government facilities in Syria.
The three countries have previously carried out strikes on Syrian government targets, calling it a response to chemical attacks. Now, according to the latest data, Germany intends to join this trio. This issue is being studied by the German military department at the request of Washington, Bild reports, citing its own sources.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen notes that Berlin will take such measures only if the forces of President Bashar al-Assad use chemical weapons against civilians.
“In this case, we are dealing with the standard strategy of Donald Trump, which he has been consistently implementing since the days of the very successful Trump the businessman. The US President raises the stakes every time, and then backs down a little, but ultimately makes a decision on his own terms and receives a certain benefit,” Sergei Oznobishchev, director of the Institute for Strategic Assessments, told Gazeta.Ru.
According to the publication’s interlocutor, this strategy is being pursued by Donald Trump all over the world, but it definitely should not be applied to Russia. This case is completely empty, Oznobishchev believes.
According to him, Russia is a great power, a world-class power, and constantly seeks to confirm this status with its actions on the world stage, including in Syria, which includes opposition to the United States and the West on a number of issues.
“Despite the fact that Trump’s statement about strikes against Russian forces was picked up by the press, there was no original tweet from the US President on this matter. Unless there is a reference to unnamed persons. And this could still be some kind of interpretation of the words of Donald Trump.
How he said this, where and under what circumstances is unclear. Maybe just passing by journalists at the entrance or exit of a building. He was asked: “Are you ready to strike the Russians?” “Of course, yes,” Trump replied and moved on. And this option is not excluded,” says Sergei Oznobishchev.
As a serious politician, Donald Trump does not have such a development in mind, Gazeta.Ru’s interlocutor is sure. According to him, “we have a certain match with the United States in Syria - and not a very safe one, but still a negotiated one, in which sometimes there are injuries, and serious injuries, but, nevertheless, the match is still negotiated. We inform each other about mutual actions."
According to the publication’s interlocutor, Donald Trump, of course, can strike Syria, having warned us. And the US President needs this blow to strengthen his position in the United States itself. Again, as the leader of America, which he wants to make great again, Donald Trump cannot just walk away from Syria.
Everyone must finish this Syrian epic while saving face. This also applies to Washington, which must at the same time declare that “we have completed all our tasks.” This applies equally to Russia, Iran, and Turkey, says the director of the Institute for Strategic Assessments.
“We should not even allow the possibility of further escalation of relations with the United States. It's too dangerous. I think the American military and politicians are also fully aware of this. But the image of a great world power dominates both the United States and us,” Sergei Oznobishchev is convinced.
If, nevertheless, Donald Trump decides to strike at Russian forces in Syria, this will inevitably lead to retaliatory actions from the Russian Armed Forces. This was announced on March 13 by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Army General Valery Gerasimov.
In particular, the military leader then said that the Russian Ministry of Defense is ready to take countermeasures against a US missile attack on Syria if the lives of Russian military personnel are threatened. Enforcement measures will be taken both against the missiles and the launch vehicles that will use them, Valery Gerasimov specified in March 2018.
Thus, even a small provocation in this area can lead to a mutual exchange of blows and further escalation of the conflict.
And given that on the one hand there will be the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, and on the other hand - Russia, it cannot be ruled out that due to some minor incident in Syria a large-scale world-class war could break out.
Follow us