Russian Moves in Syria Widen Role in Mideast

“There were military supplies, they are ongoing, and they will continue,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday. “They are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel how to use this weaponry.”

The Russians have not sent attack planes to the airfield, and the Kremlin has not said whether they will. But the military buildup by Russia, which has been supporting Mr. Assad throughout the four-and-a-half-year Syrian civil war, adds a new friction point in its relations with the United States.

“I don’t believe Western governments are prepared to do very much to slow down or block the risky course the Russians are going on,” said Andrew S. Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a former Russia expert for the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon.

West’s agri-giants snap up Ukraine

OAKLAND, United States – At the same time as the United States, Canada and the European Union announced a set of new sanctions against Russia in mid-December last year, Ukraine received US$350 million in US military aid, coming on top of a $1 billion aid package approved by the US Congress in March 2014.

Western governments’ further involvement in the Ukraine conflict signals their confidence in the cabinet appointed by the new government earlier in December 2014. This new government is unique given that three of its most important ministries were granted to foreign-born individuals who received Ukrainian citizenship just hours before their appointment.

Liberated by the West

BERLIN/BAGHDAD (Own report) – Western aggressions in the Middle East and support from the West’s important regional allies have facilitated the rise of the terrorist organization, the “Islamic State” (IS), as observers point out. According to an expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the IS predecessor, “Al-Qaida in Iraq,” was able to develop into a “powerful organization” only after the US led aggression against Iraq (“liberation from Saddam”). Not until the chaos provoked by the war in Syria, which Germany also helped fuel (“liberation from Assad”) was the IS predecessor the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) in a position to conquer and control whole regions and set up a power base for its further expansion. IS could not have reached its current strength without the financial and logistical support furnished by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two close allies of the West. The SWP reports that there are even “indications” that “the cross-border traffic between the IS-controlled territory in Syria and Turkey” is still “considerable” – thus also, presumably, the transport of supplies. Meanwhile Western governments are preparing a “long military operation” against IS.

“Major Shortage Of Physical Gold” Has Fed Greatly Concerned

As the world awaits the Fed’s decision, today a 42-year market veteran told King World News there will be no tapering and that the gold will soar “after the Fed has surprised the market tomorrow.”  Greyerz also warned KWN that to further complicate matters for the Fed, there is a “major shortage of physical gold” ahead of their decision.  Below is what Egon von Greyerz, who is founder of Matterhorn Asset Management out of Switzerland, had to say.

Greyerz:  “Eric, it is important to consider what the truly important factors are that will determine what will happen to the world, its people, and to the global economy.  If we look around, what do we find?  We find a world that is financially, politically, and morally bankrupt.

Russia and China building their gold reserves

This is obviously a white washing article with a pro-China and Russia stance, but noteworthy in regards to what ‘the other side’ is doing. It conveniently leaves out the fact that both SCO nations are waging economic warfare against the United States, thus contributing in part the state of affairs it is in today. This is not to say the USA isn’t fiscally reckless, but that’s only one part of the many problems it faces.

China has been notably relaxed about her own people acquiring gold, and the government itself appears to be absorbing all of China’s mine output. Russia is also building her official reserves from her own mine supply. The result over time has been the transfer of aboveground gold stocks toward these countries and their allies. The geo-political implications are highly important, but have been ignored by western governments.

China and Russia see themselves as having much in common: They are coordinating security, infrastructure projects and cross-border trade through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Furthermore, those at the top have personal experience of the catastrophic failings of socialism, which have not yet been experienced in Western Europe and North America. Consequently neither government subscribes to the economic and monetary concepts prevalent in the West without serious reservations.

Eyeing rich bounty, China in line for Afghan role

KABUL (AP) – China, long a bystander to the conflict in Afghanistan, is stepping up its involvement as U.S.-led forces prepare to withdraw, attracted by the country’s vast mineral resources but concerned that any post-2014 chaos could embolden Islamist insurgents in its own territory.

Cheered on by the U.S. and other Western governments, which see Asia’s giant as a potentially stabilizing force, China could prove the ultimate winner in Afghanistan – having shed no blood and not much aid.

China’s dictators are not stupid like Stalin and Obama is their ally

The new Chinese communist dictators are different. They realized that to stay in power, they have to change the rules of the game: their new goal is to put foreign capitalism to work to realize their own ambitions.

Chinese communist dictators do not have Stalin’s problem of having inadequate work force. China’s population is 1.339 billion. Suddenly they realized that this is far from being a burden to them: This is their golden asset and a source of cheap labor. Something Russia did not have.

Money-hungry foreign businessmen, they reasoned, will move their industries to China in search for this cheap Chinese labor. So the Chinese communist dictators will not have to take care of their slaves. Free Western capitalists will do this: they will use cheap slave labor for miserable pay, just enough to keep the slaves alive.

And this is exactly what has happened. Their strategy has worked. Western businessmen moved their businesses over to China. Workers in their countries lost jobs. To pay the unemployment benefits, Western governments, and in particular the U.S. Obama administration, have to borrow money from China, i.e., getting loans, which she is willingly extends to their White House friend Obama. China became the biggest lender to the United States: China holds more than $1.1 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt.

China has modernized its military with the latest military technology. Their spies have penetrated the most sensitive American military bases.

Full story: China’s dictators are not stupid like Stalin and Obama is their ally (World Tribune)