The crisis in Ukraine has spun the world backward on its axis. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s atypical military campaign, or denazification as some refer to it, has most western nations frantic for solutions. Unfortunately, the NATO and EU states don’t bother to ask the right questions, let alone propose the correct answers. Now, with Russia flexing to escape complete encirclement, borderlands like wealthy Azerbaijan are now being pulled into this orbit of conflict. The all-powerful geniuses from out west in Oz, have really made a mess this time.

A report by Fuad Shahbazov at World Political Review (WPR) tells of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visiting Moscow at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 22nd, days before Russia launched the demilitarization campaign against Ukraine. Aliyev’s visit was to reframe the two countries’ relationship to one of “allied cooperation.” Shahbazov reported this way:

“The declaration expresses both sides’ intention of strengthening cooperation across a wide range of fields, including regional security issues, military ties, energy and trade, while calling for mutual consultations on joint efforts in international organizations, with the aim to protect the interests of Azerbaijan and Russia.”

Of course, everyone in geopolitics knows Azerbaijan has been teetering on the west-east fence since the Azerbaijan SSR days ended. Washington forged into the rich Caspian state with great enthusiasm, as soon as the Soviet Union dissolved. The atrocities and pogroms, tens of thousands dead, 800,000 Azerbaijanis and 300,000 Armenians displaced, and U.S. involvement is well documented via WikiLeaks and history books.

What most people do not see, is the current U.S. administration’s role in reopening old wounds. As an example, Joe Biden’s CIA Director William Burns was involved in the carnage in South Caucasus and the Karabakh conflict settlement. President Putin’s meeting with Aliyev is best understood by understanding America’s resurgent role on Russia’s borders. This report by the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program (CIAC) Analyst Fariz Ismailzade puts everything in context:

“Over the past 30 years, Azerbaijan and the United States have developed a strategic partnership based on common interests and values. This partnership includes areas of cooperation such as energy security, counter-terrorism, joint economic opportunities, and trade, political and humanitarian efforts. Clinton and Bush administrations have pursued a bipartisan policy of deepening engagement with Azerbaijani to increase US national interests in the Caspian region.”

The complexity of this gaming of detente is circuitous, but what we are seeing is a renewal of the so-called Obama Doctrine, with crises being rekindled on Russia’s borders. This is why Mr. Putin met, symbolically, with Azerbaijan’s leader. I suspect the direct talks involved, “if this, then that” will happen. People simply do not understand how the situation between America and Russia has deteriorated, and how the Russians are prepared for all-out war.

Stepping sideways, a new set of discussions between Azerbaijan and Romania on energy cooperation bear scrutiny. Among the topics discussed, a project of laying an underwater cable underneath the Black Sea through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Romania seems most pertinent. The short of this is, if the west cuts off Russian gas, Romanians will be the coldest nation of people in Europe come next winter, if the country’s leadership doesn’t find solutions. North American supplies cannot warm and power all of Europe, so we’ll be seeing NATO’s eastern flanks turned into a sort of new Iron Curtain, but fossil fuels scavengers as well. It’s pretty sad stuff if you know as many great Romanians as I do. They had such high hopes.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian people, quite used to freezing to death in Winter, seem okay with being at the tail end of European comfort. The ministers there are scrambling to get connected via Greece, and support for the speedy integration of the Ukrainian electricity system into the European one. There only seems to be a slight problem, which involves Ukraine no longer being in the NATO-pact equation. Maybe the Bulgarians are just waiting for Ukraine to reopen gas pipes once the Russians have achieved their strategic goals? It seems unlikely the United States and allies will allow a trickle of Gazprom gas west of the Black Sea’s shores. The Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector is scheduled to begin commercial operations in July. Unfortunately for the Bulgarians, 65% of Greece’s electrical power comes from natural gas. And since Greek electric bills doubled already this month, it seems unlikely most people in Bulgaria will be able to afford heat next year. Already my Greek neighbors here on Crete are wondering how they will pay their current bills. So you know, Greece’s natural gas comes from Algeria, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkey.

I could continue, but the reader has already gotten the gist. Cold War 2, whoever is ultimately responsible, will be defined as unprecedented hardship, fear, uncertainty, and eventually the loss of life and liberty worldwide. In the coming months, unless an all-out nuclear war envelops our planet, many experts will be questioning the reasoning behind ignoring Russia’s security concerns over NATO. While the demilitarization of Ukraine was not the ideal solution to the problem, history will show that Putin had few choices given NATO expansion plans. Recent reports suggest the Russians simply preempted a NATO-backed plan for Kyiv to retake the Donbass region by force. In the end, none of this will matter when half of Europe learns to be more “Russian” next winter.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

For almost a decade the policy of the United States toward Russia has been based on Cold War logic. And today the western mainstream media blames Vladimir Putin for current events saying he wants the world to turn back the clock. For eight years, the leading nation of the NATO war pact has done everything in its power to turn the world against Russia. And now, having pushed the American brand of tyranny up to the gates of Moscow, it is Vladimir Putin who is the villain, yet again. The doomsday clock just clanged its first chime, but the liberal order still won’t relent. Dark and evil people and forces are at work today. Forces we thought were wearing white cowboy hats.

“We have to look at the bigger picture here, and realize this is the culmination of a long-standing, neoconservative attempt to reignite the Cold War for a variety of reasons. They want a massive arms buildup. The neoconservative movement really emerged from anti-Russian sentiment in the 1970s… They despise Vladimir Putin… because he is the main leader in the world who is challenging US hegemony…” - Max Blumenthal, 2018

The madness has its core, like the center of every human tumor of hatred that has fueled every war ever fought. To peel back the layers and see its bloody blackness, one need only read the foaming insanity of Putin haters like chess champion Garry Kasparov. The chess grandmaster who’s transformed himself into what the Jerusalem Post calls a “veteran expert on the psyche of Russian President Vladimir Putin.” The nutty madman who’s known for his mastery of the ever-popular board game just suggested more of the same strategy against Russia’s leader, that got us here in the first place. Kasparov says the lawmen of the western world should support Ukraine militarily, bankrupt Russia’s war-making machine, freeze and seize Russia’s finances, and kick the Russians out of every financial institution. There’s a big, big problem with the plan. It’s so stunningly apparent.

“These people communicate only inside their peers and dismiss any outside opinion as “stupid” or “paid”. They converted themselves into a kind of political sect and lost public support.” – Dimitri Scholz, Professor at University College Dublin – On Kasparov’s hatred of Putin

The Russians and their leadership don’t care anymore. We, the community of nations that comprise the NATO military country club, finally pushed too far. There’s no more room to wiggle. Russia is backed up to her own living room. And Putin just kicked open the screen door and slammed a round into the chamber of a pump shotgun. If the people in Washington, London, and Brussels don’t back the hell off of Russia’s porch, the yard dogs of Kyiv won’t be the only ones yelping from the sting of buckshot. People like Kasparov, you see, hate what Putin represents more than anything. Even the lives of you and me.

I’ve focused on Garry Kasparov here not because he is especially important, but because his most recent words parrot what the liberal order has been up to from the start. The gamer champion says “the international community should “Recall all ambassadors from Russia. There is no point in talking. Ego, my point about the Russians not giving a shit anymore. For years and years, all Russia got back over concerns about NATO/America upsetting Ukraine, Georgia, and most recently Kazakhstan and Belarus, was idle talk. The United States has ringed the biggest nation on Earth with wars, insurrections, and hundreds of military bases since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And at every complaint, our leaders spit in the face of Putin and 143 million of his countrymen.

America blames Russia for trying to interfere in US elections, but America medals in everything that goes on, almost everywhere in the world. My country, dumbed down by her own insecurities and exceptionalism, has become world champion at only one thing. We cannot be beaten if we compete in an event older than chess. If the world were to hold a “Pot calling the kettle black Olympics,” no other country would stand a chance. Americans would blame Jesus for crucifying himself if the son of God decreed higher gas prices. And no, I am not joking. Putin and Russia have come to represent a kind of the last bastion of Orthodox spirituality, while my country hurries to become the new Gomorrah. There, it had to be said. The media in Russia shares a photo of Vladimir Putin crying in church, and Bloomberg makes fun, calling it all a PR stunt. Meanwhile, the closest one of our leaders gets to a crucifix is former President Donald Trump gassing protesters to do a photo op with the Holy Bible in his hand.

Seriously. No, really, seriously. It’s like we are all living inside a very badly written comic book. If somebody does not do a running edit on our madness soon, if we don’t get out our erasers quickly, the scariest parts of the New Testament of the Bible, and of the Quran, are about to happen again. Ask my mother-in-law in Bucharest, Romania, who called my wife crying at a screaming pitch scared all Romania would soon burn. Ask my sweet high school classmate who went on Facebook facetime to ask me if I thought she should move from the United States. “Phil, it’s getting so bad here. Prices are outrageous, people are getting nuttier all the time. I am scared,” she said. Talk about an epic WTF?

And then the world order’s Pied Piper Kasparov spills it. He writes that the global community needs to spur OPEC to increase production, and the defunct Keystone must be reopened so that Russia can’t get any gas money. He says “It’s time to fight.” This is what Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Russia just figured out. Only their battles are not on a wooden checkerboard.

Wait, though! There is a bigger point to be made. It’s meaningful to note here that Khodorkovsky named former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and Lord Rothschild to his Open Russia foundation when it was created in 2001. We, the dissenters in the media who’ve adopted an alternative view, we’ve been warning this would happen for more than a decade. The western world has listened to the western pirates Putin banished from Russia exclusively. The people of Earth have paid close attention to this so-called “liberal order” for decades now. And look what we have failed to achieve in doing so. A pandemic has ruined our lives, and it turns out they never had our backs. We’ve spent tens of trillions fighting a so-called “war on terror,” and now we are the terrorists. 3,000 billionaires have been created since the financial crisis of 2008. And the rest of us still struggle to pay our electric bills each month. Hello! Wake the fuck up, please! The Taliban (banned in Russia) still runs Afghanistan. Yoohoo! Is anybody awake there?

Vladimir Putin has done everything to halt the march of NATO eastward. 11 years ago Putin tried to integrate Russia’s defense capabilities with those of NATO. He said, “missile threats against Europe must be tackled jointly.” But the NATO bunch had no intention of competing against any outside enemy other than Russia. Then-President Dmitry Medvedev”s and Prime Minister Putin’s concern was the looming threat to Russian security we see made real today. And for those who believe the Russian president is their enemy, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being arrested saw Putin slamming the west for cables that described Russia as a “mafia state,” and for the failure of democracy for Assange. This was 2010, as well. In 2011, Putin raised the alarm over the role the US played in the killing of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi. Back then, lunatic Senator John McCain, now deceased, insinuated that Putin would face a similar fate. In 2009, just for added clarity, remember then vice-president Joe Biden’s aggressive support for NATO in the Republic of Georgia.

But Putin is the villainous thinker, let me remind you. I remember when Alaska Senator Sarah Palin told the “World News Tonight” audience that she supported Senator John McCain’s push to get NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. This was in 2008, just to show how today’s crisis has its roots in US policies for decades. So please, let us not appear to be overly contrite over the fate of Ukraine today. Let’s not be misleading here. Joe Biden and all the cast of players pounding the economic war drums against Vladimir Putin and Russia today wanted what is happening. They desperately needed what is befalling us to happen. It was, and is THEIR PLAN!

Finally, in order to show you how despicable and devious the people behind NATO expansion are, this EUObserver story from 2011 shows how Putin and Russia have been plotting against all along. Andrew Rettman wrote “Nato: Russian hard men not packing much punch,” wherein the militarist organization came to the conclusion:

“Russian armed forces were: able to respond to a small to mid-sized local and regional conflict in its western region; not able to respond to two small conflicts in different geographical areas simultaneously; not able to conduct large scale conventional operations.”

Furthermore, Joe Biden and all these warmongering liberal order Jacobites know full well Russia will, at a point, have to rely on tactical nuclear weapons to defend its borders. President Putin has just come forward warning that outside interference in Russia’s denazification of Ukraine, will reap a nuclear whirlwind, in no uncertain terms. I must reiterate here, for Mr. Putin’s speech the other day has been totally convoluted by the corporate-owned mainstream throughout the western world. The Russian president said:

“Whoever would try to stop us and further create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia’s response will be immediate and lead you to such consequences that you have never faced in your history. We are ready for any outcome.”

So, here we are. The same people who brought you every war since the beginning of time are at it again. Putin, the Russians, and anybody who stands in the way of those who would totally dominate us all, they are in the meat grinder. Somebody, somewhere out there, has decided to make Russia a nuclear pressure cooker. Forces that are largely unseen, have made the decision to cast the dice, to see if Mother Russia will really obliterate all her enemies when pushed all the way back into the corner. The resolve, as it were, of a people hammered relentlessly throughout modern history, is the crucible Biden and the western mafia will rely on.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

After having read forty thousand headlines revolving around what Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants” for the past decade, I wonder if anybody but Putin knows? Based on what I have learned about the Russian leader, I can tell you this. He absolutely wants what almost all Russians want, for the west to just quit the crazy speculation.

Western policymakers rely on experts to help determine the course of international relations. Or, at least we assume Washington politicians are consulting somebody. Since the think tanks seem to reflect (or construct) what’s going on, it seems natural to assume there is some uniformity of purpose. And where Russia’s president is concerned, it’s uniformly apparent that somebody(s) wants the public to believe Vladimir Putin wants something bad for other peoples and nations. Just to check my memory, I used a Google refined search to see how many times the public has been told what Vladimir is really after.

I began with a timeframe of 2011 until the end of 2015. Up first in the results I found Brookings experts saying Putin wanted to “pull Europeans away from the United States,” and to divide and to create a new “Yalta” agreement of borderlines between the U.S. and Russia influence. Then there was “BEYOND CRIMEA: What Vladimir Putin Really Wants”, a semi-scholarly paper by Jeffrey Gedmin telling future foreign service trainees how the Russian leader was set on conquest. Of course, Gedmen is the former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, so I guess we know how his bills get paid.

A year before these prophetic strokes of predictive genius, the Atlantic ran a piece entitled, you guessed it, “What Putin Wants” a la 2014. In this one, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum comes to the conclusion that “So long as Putin retains power, Russia can never evolve into a normal state.” And with this the essence of all “Putin wants and needs” inquiry is revealed. It’s all about definitions. Russia is not normal, according to the thinkers Washington is relying on. Or, Washington employs a lot of “thinking” in order to prove Russia is not normal!

I could go on, indefinitely since there are limitless pages of search results telling us what Russia’s leader is allegedly after. The Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Politico, the New Yorker, BBC, NBC, Slate, NPR, RAND, and etc, etc, etc. If it’s bad for us… But just for fun I created a similar search for 2016 to 2019, and guess what? The same media outlets recreated the headlines on Putin’s desires. The Atlantic led off with “What Putin Wants” followed (in the search) by the New York Times asking “What Does Putin Really Want?”, and the rest followed suit in a weird redux somebody decided appealed to American readers. The funny thing is, all the prophecies say the same thing, which should make intelligent people wonder “why all the journalistic/analytical mind reading?”

Fortunately, there are still voices of moderation, experts who seem to at least understand the Russia position on things. Take this “What Putin Wants” analysis for Foreign Policy by Dmitri Trenin, who’s the Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, the other day. Trenin, who’s a former colonel of Russian military intelligence, and who served for 21 years in the Soviet Army and Russian ground forces, surely knows the positioning here, even if his tilt is naturally with the Carnegie funders. The essence of his report is correct, for once, in assessing that what Putin is after is stopping NATO’s advance. The rest of the report is of no consequence, but Putin seeking to protect Russia’s frontiers is the point.

Vladimir Putin and the Russian people want to live in peace, and to prosper from their legacy resources, ingenuity, and hard work. That’s it. The Russians do not want to have their country chopped up into manageable little territories as was the case with Yugoslavia. Russians have a national identity they would prefer remained intact. And the Russian president, put in power by rich oligarchs or the deeply prideful Russian gatekeepers, or both, is doing the Russian nation’s bidding. End of story. NATO moving onto the doorstep of Moscow reminds every Russian of the lead up to the Nazis’ Operation Barbarossa, or to WWI, or even Napoleon’s ill-fated escapades. After all, what is the ultimate purpose of expanding NATO? What’s the mission for the average American in Utah who cannot find Europe on a labeled globe? Who and what is served?

Maybe we should be asking the pertinent question “What Does America Want?”

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

It seems like there will never be any equality in the world. Just look at the situation between the United States and Russia, as an example of how everything is upside down. It doesn’t seem to matter which party is in power in the U.S. The person in the White House doesn’t matter either. Hollywood rolls on, as do the corporations, growing and growing, piling billions into the coffers of “self made” men and women. And elsewhere, nobody, and I mean nobody can get a fair shake.

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” — Marcus Aurelius

Look at Vladimir Putin, as a perfect example of unfairness. If he goes on a fishing trip, he’s dressing up his manly image. Meanwhile, his contemporaries in Washington, or London for that matter, roll out their pitifulness to the fist pumping of whichever hordes of sad admirers adore them. Donald Trump gassing protesters outside the White House so he could stroll across the street for a photo op with the “Word of God” in his greasy, Big Mac grubbing hands comes to mind. Or, look at Joe Biden for an even starker display of “WTF is wrong with America?” The guy is a disgrace.

As for Putin, he’s accused of just about everything. But somehow the evidence of his crimes and misdemeanors never really materializes. The best the west’s multi-trillion dollar surveillance state can come up with is “very high probability” or “high confidence” that Putin did “whatever” wrong. Back home, however, a smoking gun, camera footage, CIA documents, surfaced emails, satellite photos, voice recordings, and a past conviction as a serial killer couldn’t get an American out of office.

My, how things have changed. I remember some idiot zealots who were trying to help former President Richard Nixon, getting a president to resign over what Barack Obama authorized the NSA to do to the American public. Edward Snowden dropped a dime on the Obama administration, but Barack never waved goodbye to the American public in disgrace. George H. W. Bush launched the first Gulf War which, as an investigation by journalist Joshua Holland concluded, “was sold on a mountain of war propaganda.” His son George W. invaded Iraq on a false pretense, killing hundreds of thousands and costing America trillions. He’s still got a library.

“It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them.” — Tiberius

I could go on, and on. The point is, if you’re an American in leadership getting drunk, wrecking your car, and drowning your girlfriend won’t get you in jail, much less unseated from the halls of power. And we thought Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy was an embarrassing disgrace! Billy would be a better leader than anyone on Capitol Hill or in the White House these days, beer cans all over the lawn and all. The world would be far more equitable and balanced if my country had an honest idiot in charge. At least when Putin or China’s Xi Jinping got accused of mayhem, Americans could stand erect and show their pride for having an honest man or woman to lead them. But nope. We are just fine with the lying scumbags the corporate elite throw at us.

It’s called “empire” folks. Reference names like Caligula, Commodus, and Nero. Rome loved them too, up until things like the incompetence of leadership, a bad economy, climate change, internal struggles for power, the health of Rome’s people, religious changes, and the numbers and effectiveness of her armies doomed the empire. Sound familiar?

Well, at least we’ll have Russia’s leader to blame. As if it will matter then.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

The super-consumer. Few geopolitical analysts out there have seen fit to blame the world’s woes on the real culprits. Sure, the George Soros evil billionaires play a major role, but compared to the “real” people doing using up and wearing out, the Bezos and Elon Musk types are just ringmasters in the world destruction circus.

Why don’t we ever focus on the real reasons behind things like the invasion of Iraq? How come the so-called “War on Terror” never really put a dent in terrorist activities? It’s time we took an honest look at where we are, how we got here, and where we want to go as a planet. And rehashing the same old delusions will not get us anywhere, COVID proved globalization was a lie. Let’s look with our eyes on the real problem with Earth.

I was studying “Peak Oil” again recently when I came across a sobering report by Julianne Geiger, editor of Oil Price. “The Real Reason Why Oil And Gas Is Here To Stay.” The report tells the tale of the world’s carbon footprint and how we are doomed to whatever global warming has in store for Earth. According to Geiger, “the wealthiest 1% account for 15% of the world’s emissions–more than twice the emissions generated by people in the bottom 50%.” And the richest countries are not about to give up fossil fuels.

She goes on to frame how the real reason why global climate targets are doomed to fail is cognitive dissonance and superconsumers. Or, in no uncertain terms, Americans and other oil entitled people simply lie to themselves to justify using up everything on the planet. As a patriotic American, and an honest one, I can attest to how we rationalize anything that makes us feel good. Not only do my countrymen deny climate change even exists, they complain like whining crybabies every time gas prices go up. It’s like watching and listening to crack addicts justify drug dealing.

Sadly, the UN report the Oil Price editor sources in her report reveals a damnable fact. According to the UN, the richer nations would have to cut their carbon footprint by 97% to stave off the devastating climate change experts project by the end of the decade. According to the experts, we’re headed toward a temperature rise in excess of 3°C this century. That is, unless Americans get their shit together, and quickly. And while the media is bashing actor Leonardo DiCaprio over the “Don’t Look Up” film, and his saying the media is part of the climate change problem, at the moment activist Greta Thunburg is vilified, humanity is at the crossroads. And not only because of global warming.

Oil. Money. Power. Because of these, what other calamities await before 2030? Well, all out war seems imminent over who supplies the world’s richest with gas. No really. Do you actually believe the recent Ukraine crisis has anything to do with the manifest destiny of Ukranians? Russians have ethnic, language, and cultural ties with many people in that poor country. But, Europeans and Americans? Nobody gives a damn about what happens in Kyiv or in the Donbass. The issue with this Russian borderland is historic on the one hand, and gas logic on the other. Russia’s wealth has been the big prize since the invention of fire, and the Russians becoming wealthier by selling gas to Europe is the cause of modern mayhem. As progressive as Vladimir Putin’s thinking is, the oligarchs and most of the people just want to finally become part of that 1%. The trend for Russia, China, and the rest of the BRICS is to finally be super consumers just like in the American movies. The idiocy would be bad enough if there were plenty of oil and power to go around. But there isn’t.

It’s no mystery why the United States and allies are hell bent on tromping down Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, and even Russia. These are the only places with substantial fossil fuel energy reserves remaining. I don’t want to get into a discussion about “Peak Oil” here, but the fact Saudi Arabia is lobbying for more world oil exploration says it all. A recent Bloomberg story about Saudi ministers warning of a collapse in oil supply, past evidence from WikiLeaks about Saudi production, and supports another revelation from a different Oil Price editor. They are running out. America’s shale desperation cannot keep up when the Middle East runs dry. The situation is desperate for all those Baby Boomers getting dividends from Shell or Exxon stocks. The Saudis are pretty much done unless they can fund external exploration, or get richer from an ARAMCO IPO. Think on this, and understand what’s really happening.

Western mainstream media says Vladimir Putin has an advantage in the current geostrategic quagmire. And in this case the corporate owned media is correct. Russia, Iran, and to a lesser extent Venezuela have the gas. Europe and North America do not. At least not where inexpensive recovery and refining are concerned. This is why Washington, London, and Brussels need NATO in Ukraine. This is why there are troop build ups on Russia’s frontiers. This is why Vladimir Putin is phoning the White House, calling for sanity. The reality is, even if Russia’s leader were to make Greta Thunberg minister of energy, the world’s last batch of gas for super-consumers would still be underneath Russian soil. And the 1% must grab it.

Now that we are clear, perhaps we can talk about averting the destruction of our world.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

The Biden Administration needs Russia to invade Ukraine. The US shale oil business needs Russia’s gas, to remain in Russia. The world may be at war soon, but not over the rights, wants, and wishes of the people of Eastern Europe or Central Asia. The controlling elites of the west are the ones gamling with lives, not Vladimir Putin and the Russians.

In October of 2015 an interesting meeting was held in London under so-called Chatham House Rule, wherein the identities of those attached to the statements or “facts” they present is hidden. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, and was labeled “The Role of US Shale in European Energy Security and Trade.” Key experts from academia, government, industry, nongovernmental organizations and research institutions sat at the roundtable. Interestingly, the report (PDF) from the meetup framed Arab Spring, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis, as the top game changing “challenges” to Europe’s energy security situation. The report is lengthy, but Russia is the targeted subject, it’s clear.

The discussion, and the ensuing report, treat geopolitical events and energy flows and profits as variables independent from one another. This is strange, even though the discussion circles back, over and over, to the subjects of Europe dependence on Russia energy, the Ukraine affair, and how American shale gas can fill a vacuum made by these “unusual” international relations events. But the rhetoric of these “experts” betrays the underlying truth, as always. Here is a passage from the report:

“Disputes between Russia and Ukraine, which led to a shutdown of natural gas supplies to Europe in 2006 and 2009, have highlighted the vulnerability of Europe’s energy security, created by the continent’s strong dependence on Moscow for energy supplies. This reliance not only complicated the European Union’s ability to respond to events such as Russia’s most recent adventurism in Ukraine, but also leaves Europe strongly beholden to Russian state gas company Gazprom and its pricing policies.”

As you can see, the energy experts and stakeholders who met in London were keenly focused on Gazprom profits, more so than the welfare of Europeans and their energy security. If you read the entire report, you’ll understand what took place during the Arab Spring, in Ukraine, years previously in the Caucasus, and even the recent events in Kazakhstan. The United States broke out the last of her energy reserves to declare economic war on the rest of the world. Russia, given her position historically and resource wise, is the primary target. Iran, Venezuela, Libya, and other oil/gas rich nations are a secondary focus.

Also hidden in the meeting minutes from London is the current strategy the Biden administration is enacting. Between the lines of this Columbia discussion, we find the real crux of America’s problem/weakness. Another passage is telling:

“Russia has substantial idle producing capacity in the legacy Western Siberian producing region, where practically all costs are sunk. Hence, Russia can easily increase production levels without undertaking any new investments if it decides to “price out” US LNG from the European market.”

Now we see the reason for the fear mongering over a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The strategists have unwittingly laid bare the real reason Washington is so vehement to incite a war. Skip forward to Nord Stream 2, and Vladimir Putin’s ultimate victory over big energy in the west. Russia is now in position to undercut anybody’s price for supplies of gas or oil to Europe. This is why the Biden administration is talking about “crippling sanctions” should the Russians take the bait and take over all or part of Ukraine. Yes, NATO is being used as a tool by western energy oligarchs. This is the sad, bitter, naked truth.

Finally, the energy war America has declared can only be won if the Russians are “sanctioned” out of the European oil and gas market. Our genius friends at Big Energy also revealed this at the London meetup. You see, European energy contracts with Russia are binding up until 2025, when many of the Gazprom contracts expire. Europe is contractually obliged to purchase most of its imported energy from the Russians, anyhow. So, the only way for US energy/policy interests to eliminate Russia as a competitor is war. The only way American shale oligarchs get to win is if Europe is “invaded” by Russia. This is the behind the scenes. A sort of Catch 22 for both Russia and the west.

This report also deals with crude oil, and once again focuses on Russian supplies, only more so to landlocked countries like Poland (not landlocked), Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic that use the Druzhba pipeline system. The people sitting at this roundtable probably had no inkling that somebody would be analyzing their outcomes in order to frame them as the henchmen of a potential World War III. But, maybe they did, given their use of the Chatham House Rule. Be that as it may, at the time Russia supplied almost one-third of Europe’s crude oil needs.

In the end, the whole west-east geopolitical crisis is about pricing and margins. US unconventional oil and gas production simply cannot compete with Russian or even OPEC capabilities, and not only because of the distances involved. Shale energy is expensive, and one reason we see the Biden administration prodding Russia is the devastating revenue losses low prices have caused the energy oligarchs in the west. And make no mistake, the current war on Russia is not something American thinkers just thought up in 2015 at a semi-secret meeting. This Brookings Institute report from March of 2002 reveals more of the envy/concern Washington has had for decades. “Russia: The 21st Century’s Energy Superpower?” The title pretty much says it all. I leave you with the gist of that think tank’s assessment from 20 years ago.

“Russia’s gas reserves far exceed those of any other country. Indeed, Russia is to natural gas what Saudi Arabia is to oil. With 32 percent of proven world reserves, Russia far outranks Iran (15 percent), Qatar (7 percent), Saudi Arabia and the UAE (4 percent), and the United States and Algeria (3 percent). Single-handedly, Gazprom, Russia’s giant gas company, holds a quarter of all world gas reserves, controls 90 percent of Russian output, and is Russia’s largest earner of hard currency.”

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

I ran across an article in International Viewpoint entitled “Russia in Africa: mercenaries and predatoriness.” The rarely used word “predatoriness” made me chuckle because of the irony, not the creative vocabulary of author Paul Marial. Before we continue, consulting Webster’s seems appropriate:

“predatoriness – noun (pred·​a·​to·​ri·​ness): the quality or state of being predatory”

Though Martial’s report starts out like every other Russophobic narrative, at least the editor of Afriques en Lutte sees fit to disclose that China, and NATO have been “at it” providing predator-like mercenaries, arms, and military solutions to the economic/political problems of Africa. Sadly though, like all the other western analysts, he focuses on Wagner Group agents, and seems ultra-focused on creating the idea Russia in Sahel countries boils down to nothing more than hooligans profiteering. There’s no mention of cohesive Russia policy toward these countries. As always, Russia is just an arms and muscle supplier. I can’t get past the term he used in his title.

Turning the page, a story by Foreign Policy warns Africans that if the Russians move to stop NATO moving into Ukraine, then food supplies may run out! No, really. “A Russia-Ukraine War Could Ripple Across Africa and Asia” suggests the Russians are gambling with the lives of hungry people all over, and without mentioning for a second that America and NATO could end any danger instantly by easing off. These stories are beyond fantasy, they’re dangerous. They incite or multiply unrest and social tension. And they exacerbate the already horrendous west-east detente situation.

“In politically unstable countries such as Libya, Yemen, and Lebanon, additional food price shocks and hunger could easily turn an already bad situation worse. In many other countries, too, price spikes and food insecurity could inflame conflict, heighten ethnic tensions, destabilize governments, and cause violence to spill over borders.”

Do I need to examine the root causes for problems in Libya, Yemen, and Lebanon here? Obviously, Foreign Policy is not reporting on a concern, it’s presenting a program for revolt, as usual. Do not fear, Africa, Russia and Egypt already have a deal to make sure there’s enough grain, no matter what.

Let’s go back to our funny term “predatoriness,” which could mean hunting, rapacious, or plundering depending on its usage. In neo-colonial Africa it most often means “theft” by taking. Where the western nations are concerned, the form “ravaging” comes to mind. Let’s skip past the history of Europe and America policies in Africa, however, and go straight to “the now” on relative predators. Where thieving from emerging nations and people are concerned, we all know who the super-predators are, now don’t we?

This World Economic Forum report tells us what’s really going on with all the Russophobia/Africa dialogue. Get this, I love it. Colin Coleman, who was at the time the CEO of Goldman Sachs in Sub-Saharan Africa, gave us “This region will be worth $5.6 trillion within 5 years – but only if it accelerates its policy reforms.” Interestingly, I should say surprisingly, Coleman’s assessment of Africa’s current situation is not far off. It’s refreshing to know that the biggest predators on Earth, the Wall Street lions, do actually understand the situation. But before we hire Goldman Sachs to run the world, let’s dig deeper.

Coleman has now left Goldman Sachs to be a senior-fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. I won’t detail this school here, but former Secretary of State John Kerry established the so-called “Kerry Initiative” here. Oh, and since Wagener Group seems such a hot topic in the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa, the presence of McChrystal Group LLC founder, the disgraced former commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), four-star General Stanley McChrystal as a fellow-fellow of Coleman seems pertinent. While the reader stews on this, more news from South Africa, where Coleman is one of the most influential people, bears mentioning here.

We need to understand the depth and breadth of American policy in Africa and the world. Warriors, the US State Department, and banksters educating future leaders should be of concern, or am I delusional? Fortunately, all the machinations of Wall Street, Downing, Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Think Tank Row do not seem to have swayed South Africa’s leadership with regard to Russia, and the NATO forward position in Ukraine. When I read this, I admit, I laughed out loud:

“Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova is dismayed and disappointed that the government is not even prepared to talk to her country about its fears of an imminent invasion by Russia.”

Apparently, the powers that be in the western hegemony tried to leverage South Africa, one of the BRICS, to weigh in against the Russians on the issue of NATO enlargement.

Finally, it is important to weigh the relative “predatoriness” of all these foriegn influences in Africa. To get a handle on this I read a report by Chris Olaoluwa Ogunmodede, who’s associate editor with World Politics Review, where he says the Russia presence on the continent is drastically overblown:

“Russian public diplomacy and soft power in Africa is weak and uncoordinated, and like China, Russia is susceptible to a perception problem and messaging disadvantage, shaped to a considerable extent by the dominance of Western media and technology.”

The expert goes on to describe American strategies to discredit Russia. He says African states should operate using caution, wariness over American neo-colonial interests stewing. Ogunmodede says African nations should take full advantage of these great power struggles, in order for African leaders to glean the best possible results for Africans. I think he’s right, especially since the Joe Biden administration is being advised by big mouth Generals from the Yale collective (McChrystal, really Mr. President?). Meanwhile, the second African leaders’ summit has been announced for St. Petersburg, and scheduled early November 2022. The first Russia-Africa summit, held in Sochi in October 2019, attracted more than 40 African presidents, as well as the heads of major regional associations and organizations.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Is US President Joe Biden taking notes from the Trump administration on jockeying defense stocks? The question has to be asked in view of American military industrial stocks getting boosted by all the play on the tensions in Europe. What other reason could there be for lighting the fuse on World War III? Let’s take a short look at the stock and investment play of late.

Let’s focus on Raytheon first. In January of 2021 the makers of the Javelin anti-tank weapons Washington gave Kyiv had a big problem. Stock hit a year’s long low of $65.02 as the year began. Then in October 2021 Russia warned NATO not to move on Ukraine membership. Boom! Raytheon shares hit $92.32.

There was yet another interesting selloff of Lockheed Martin Corporation stock that took place between October 25th and 26th. The other company making Javelin missiles climbed to over $376 dollars per share from $336, and the next day dropped to $331. Analysts covered the defense contractor attributing the selloff to slumping sales revenue. Let’s look at other defense stocks for a better idea of what’s going on at the doorstep of Moscow. On October 27th of 2021, Boeing shares had slumped to $206.61. Then by November 15th, powered by a buy rating from Barrons and others, the stock hit $233.09. Then it tanked to $188.19 in two weeks after dropping by almost $8 bucks per share between November 15 and 16. Barrons reported the stock being worth $300 a share the same day it tanked.

Then take a look at General Dynamics plans to sell tanks to NATO juggernaut Poland, as last October a report came describing Polish plans to buy 250 M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 tanks. Take note, 250 main battle tanks do not bolster a force, they create one. But for what? Early in 2021 there was no talk of Putin invading Ukraine? For those curious, General Dynamics stocks have fluctuated from a high of $210.21, to a low of $144.50 this past year.

Finally, it’s widely known that President Biden’s son Hunter has investment deals that often seem to conflict with US policy, at least patriotically. This Financial Times report hits some up front high spots. News that Hunter helped the Chinese secure one of the biggest cobalt mines on Earth, right after his dad warned that China could use its dominance of mined cobalt to disrupt America’s development of electric vehicles… Well, you get the point.

The extent of Russia’s worries over the Ukraine/NATO push of late stretch beyond what any major media outlet has outlined. Ukraine is not only being fed “lethal” weapons systems, American defense contractors have signed agreements to help Kyiv build its own weapons systems, some of which are offensive in nature. This report talks about Global Ordnance, Lockheed Martin and Harris Global Communications, a part of the L3Harris Technologies, inking deals to help build up the country’s defense industry.

Meanwhile, Russia’s President Putin is trying to avert a shooting war that now seems imminent. Imminent, that is, unless the US military industrial complex bets on a new Cold War, instead of a “lethal” and hot one. I’ll leave you with a final advice from Motley Fool about investing in military stocks: “Military spending is a must for much of the developed world.”

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

It’s time we begin taking notes on where every nation, organization, and business stands on the crises in our world. The recent unrest in Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country, is a good place to start. A recent editorial from a multiple Pulitzer Prize winning media outlet warns of the further disintegration of truth. With trust becoming the scarcest commodity on Earth, it’s time for humanity to look out.

The Christian Science Monitor’s editorial board just applauded “tens of thousands of Kazakhs taking to the streets in spontaneous protests starting Jan. 2.” The editorial board contacted exiled opposition figure Galymzhan Zhakiyanov to get support for the assertion that the bloodshed in Kazakhstan was about so-called “natural rights.”

Few CSM readers will know that Zhakiyanov is the co-founder of Democratic Choice movement alongside wanted Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov. And nowhere in the CSM piece does it mention that the movement, along with other foreign actors, is responsible for transforming and amplifying protests to incite a coup d’état.

“Let me begin and end with the fact that Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee has launched a pre-trial investigation into high treason and has arrested the former head of Kazakhstan’s domestic intelligence agency, Karim Masimov, on the suspicion he was complicit in the coup attempt. I’ll wager that not one of the Christian Science Monitor’s readers knows that Karim Masimov is also one of the individuals in a leaked photo with current President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The photo, showing the current US president standing alongside chairman of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, Kenes Rakishev, was a bombshell when the story broke.

I don’t want to get into Hunter Biden’s lost laptop here, but such coincidences should be brought out if we are after the truth of who’s behind world crises.

Christian Science Monitor goes on to paint the picture of former Soviet republics rising up to finally shed the shackles of repressive regimes, citing color revolutions from Georgia to Ukraine as examples. Again, there is no mention whatsoever of western NGOs, the CIA, USAID, the U.S. State Department, the UK Embassy, MI6, GCHQ, George Soros, or any other actors. Enslaved CIS citizens, acting alone, are now setting the borders of Russia on fire. Meanwhile, NATO spreads membership posters on billboards all around the Russians. If these editors were not so dangerous, they would be hilarious.

The venerable nonprofit news organization established back in 1908 has the motto “To injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” Given the tone and content of the Kazakhstan piece, I am a bit unclear on how misleading anyone who reads their editorial board’s narrative is supposed to bless the readership or humanity overall?

At the end of the day, all anyone has to do to find reason in all this is to look for associations. For instance, if the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is promoting someone or something, you can bet the farm US expansionist policy is behind the story. Likewise, if a media outlet such as CSM mirrors or amplifies the State Department message, you can bet the mission is not about “blessing humanity.”

One more note, the CSM saw fit to quote Timothy Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, concerning Kazakh young people burning for the same rights Armenians, Georgians, and Ukrainians have. The good Christians neglected to mention the investments BlueBay has in Kazakhstan (PDF from 2019), and how a regime change attempt might have benefited hedge fund people like George Soros and others. Coincidentally, Mr. Ash has also weighed in on the situation in Ukraine and the US  “keeping Russia at bay.”

Apparently, Mark Sappenfield, Amelia Newcomb, Clayton Collins, Noelle Swan, and Yvonne Zipp (the board) are people who believe that the ends justify the means of overthrow. Or, the Christian science voice is in search of funding again. Who can say? All I know is, misleading people is a long way from embracing humanity, and “shedding light with the conviction that understanding the world’s problems and possibilities moves us towards solutions.”

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Why is the United States always meddling in the back yards of other major powers? Doesn’t anyone on Washington’s Think Tank Row ever wonder if the US may be destabilizing the world? An email notification I got this morning from Foreign Policy Magazine set me to thinking.

3:01 AM Athens, Greece time. Gmail notified me that I have a mail from Andrew Sollinger, who’s the publisher of the magazine. It’s about an upcoming Virtual Dialogue aptly titled “Great Power Plays In the South Caucasus.” The mail reads, in part:

“The South Caucasus region is a critical battleground for great-power players in Eurasia—and one where the United States has been losing ground. Russia, China, and (increasingly) Turkey have been pursuing strategic interests across the region.”

The announcement goes on, but essentially puts forth the question of what the United States’ and Europe’s strategy in Georgia should be. My immediate thought, and perhaps yours was; “How about leaving Georgia alone?” But, Foreign Policy thinking would have to stop, if the United States ever did that. Then it hit me, perhaps because I was notified by Google. Just how far is this region from America, anyhow? As it turns out, quite a ways.

According to Google Earth, Washington D.C. is 5,778.61 miles (9,299.77 km) from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. That is, if you travel by spacecraft or airplane over the North Pole. On the other hand, you can walk to Moscow through the beautiful Caucasus Mountains, 59.74 miles (96.14 km), and be in Russia. You can even put on your hiking boots and head to Moscow itself, it’s only 1,022.48 miles (1,645.52 km) to Russia’s Kremlin, where geostrategy is strangely about the local neighborhood. I wonder if the “thinkers” slated for this coming policy talk ever use Google Earth?

All of the “thinkers” involved have exactly the same nonsensical view that Russia is somehow being aggressive, rather than defensive, in this whole border militarization scare over Ukraine. And all this comes on the heels of John Herbst and the likes of him jumping up and down, screaming the latest propaganda nonsense about “Invasion, Invasion, Invasion.” If you read Herbst, you’ll find a lot of lunacy there. The man thinks Russia will be broken soon, and that in 20 or 30 years, the biggest country on Earth won’t even be significant.

Then there’s Mamuka Bakhtadze who was the CEO of Georgian Railway LLC, the state-owned railway company of Georgia before rising to the exalted position as Washington puppet in Tbilisi. It’s also worth mentioning that he resigned as PM after only one year in office because the people of Georgia got fed up with him and launched massive protests. I am not sure if his joint press conference with NATO’s commander had anything to do with this.

You don’t need Foreign Policy Magazine emails to find out that America intends to stir every pot in the borderlands around Russia and China, and any other perceived competitor on the world stage. End of story.

Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books. He writes exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.