Borrowing from Peter to Slay Paul

He that dies pays all debtsThe Tempest, III, ii

The contrast could not be more clear between the way the governments of the west are treating Ukraine, versus how they are treating Greece. The policy, at least, is duplicitous, and has grave implications within the current potential nuclear showdown.

Let’s briefly look at Ukraine.

Ukraine

The U.S. and institutions of the west such as NATO have been supporting the Nazi-backed coup government in Kiev, openly admitting their financial, military, and diplomatic support. The U.S. Senate just concluded a competition over who could proclaim their support for the Ukrainian Nazis more fervently, and U.S. Defense Secretary Carter just announced $75,000,000 towards militarily aiding and abetting the Nazi Battalions. In fact, a top adviser to Prime Minister Poroshenko has just stated that Ukraine needs less of their traditional draftees, and more Nazi volunteers. This, as they are actively sabotaging the implementation of the Minsk accords.

The West makes no secret of the fact that their support of the Ukrainian military is directly aimed at Russia, and some have made the point that the U.S. sanctions against Russia will do nothing but unify the country in opposition, and give voice to the more radical elements of policy.

Dmitri Simes Strikes a Different Note on Putin

In the midst of the strident campaign of vilification of Vladimir Putin in Washington—and other Western capitals—a speech by Russian-born thinktanker Dimitri Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest, in the U.S. capital this week is a notable exception.

Simes, a foreign policy analyst whose career has included working for Richard Nixon in his post-presidential years, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Johns Hopkins University, spoke at the National Interest center on the subject of “The Crisis in U.S.-Russian Relations.” The event was chaired by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Simes has recently visited Russia and held high-level meetings, including with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

According to the write-up on the National Interest website, Simes presented President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov as the “pragmatists,” who are

“relatively moderate on Ukraine and relations with the United States, particularly when contrasted with what Simes called a ‘second school of thought’ in Russia, which believes that the Kremlin should ‘absolutely challenge the existing world order’ and treat the United States as Moscow’s main enemy.”

Simes advocated a pull-back on sanctions, which he said feeds the hardliners’ story, and called for the U.S. to understand that Putin has limited goals. The alternative could lead to an alignment which would “set the stage for a great conflagration.”

If that weren’t enough, the IMF has just announced that they will be bailing out the Nazi coup government of Ukraine, with $17,500,000,000.

IMF Bails Out Ukraine’s Nazis

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced yesterday that it had approved a four-year, $17.5 billion bailout package for Ukraine, the first $5 billion tranche of which will be made available immediately. The $17.5 billion is supposedly part of a larger $40 billion loan and aid program, designed, as the Wall Street Journal put it, to “keep the country afloat.”

Not to keep the population alive—it will be subjected to murderous austerity conditionalities—but to allow Ukraine to continue its war against Russia. Notably, $1.5 billion of the $5 billion for Ukraine will be extorted in debt payments “due” Friday and Monday from Greece, which refuses to join the assault on Russia.

The program’s anti-Russia bent is clear. As Ukrainian President Poroshenko tweeted ecstatically “today’s IMF decision proves the civilized world believes in and supports Ukraine,” the Journal reported, adding its own comment that many economists and analysts see the bailout as part of a “broader political decision to back the fledgling pro-Western government in Kiev. The U.S. and Europe are trying to help the former Soviet republic leave its decades-long political and economic orbit around the Kremlin.” David Lipton, the IMF’s No. 2 official, underscored that Ukraine’s crisis “proves an opportunity for the government to make a decisive break from the past.”

The idea that this program will “stabilize” Ukraine is fantasy. Conditionalities including much higher energy tariffs, privatizations, dismantling of any social safety net (already underway) will push existing political tensions to the breaking point. Virtually every commentator points to the “enormous risks” inherent in the program.

Built into the bailout program is the demand that Ukraine also come up with $15.4 billion in “savings” through negotiations with creditors, debt restructuring, or an outright debt moratorium. Reuters claims today that “some players” think a creditor “haircut” of 70% is possible. On Friday, Finance Minister and U.S. citizen Natalie Jaresko will hold a videoconference with creditors to outline plans for negotiations with holders of sovereign debt.

According to the terms of the agreement, release of the next tranche of the funding package, due in three months, is contingent on ramming through a “successful” debt restructuring with high creditor participation, David Lipton warned. Contrast this to the Troika fascists’ approach to Greece’s proposal for debt restructuring and write-down.

Compare this to the treatment of Greece.

Greece

As we reported earlier, Greece actually owes nothing to international creditors, as widely claimed in the media:

What Americans need to know about Greece and “its debt,” is that the new Greek government is asking the European Union to shut down a huge Wall Street-London bank swindle and make economic growth possible again in Europe.

If that doesn’t happen, the worsening bankruptcy of the whole trans-Atlantic banking system will continue to generate desperate confrontations with major powers Russia and China, with the threat of world war.

Not only do governments of the West, notably the (catas)-Troika, expect Greece to pay a fraudulent debt, they refuse to offer Greece any help, while they bail out Ukraine, expecting much of Greece’s near term debt payments to help pay for the Ukraine Bailout.

The origin of the apparent paradox between the west’s handling of Ukraine, vs. their treatment of Greece lies in neither Greece or Ukraine, but has more to do with the bankruptcy of the London-Wall Street transatlantic system as a whole. As LaRouche reiterated in his March 6th Friday webcast message:

The question being asked by Russia and many other nations today, is whether the Europeans and the United States under Obama can survive their own foolishness, or whether their actions will lead to world war, and a possibility of general extermination. Queen Elizabeth and her circles may appreciate the idea of general war, but I don’t.

“Greece, fortunately, does have a place. They can join the other club. They can become a part of the BRICS process. A growing part of the world is breaking from the Anglo-American interests, and this is now including a majority of nations of South and Central America and the Caribbean. Of course, this also includes many nations of Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa…”

“What we are seeing in the confrontation with Greece, as well as the confrontation with Russia, is a last, desperate effort to bluff. The danger is, that at the end of this bluff, is nuclear war. The challenge for most Americans, is that they cannot conceive of the insanity that is driving this policy of bluff and provocation. They cannot conceive, for the most part, that anyone is willing to risk the suicidal extermination of mankind. This is insanity beyond comprehension, yet this is what we are dealing with in the case of Obama, the British, and other desperate forces.”

The rest of Mr. LaRouche’s statement can be found here, Call the EU Bluff and Join the BRICS dynamic.

We are asking that all thinking citizens not only sign the petition for the U.S. to join the BRICS, but that you make a donation to fund our efforts.

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Borrowing from Peter to Slay Paul

Ukraine

Greece

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