Category: Aggregated

This question, posed in an editorial by Liliana Gorini, chairwoman of Movisol, LaRouche’s movement in Italy, has been picked up in the last four days by five Italian blogs and one online daily, Imola Oggi, which reprinted the editorial in full under the headline “Putin Offers Italy a Way Out Of the Economic Crisis: Cooperation with BRICS.” The editorial refers to the joint press conference by visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last week at the Milan EXPO, where Putin said that Italy lost EU1 billion because of the sanctions policy against Russia, and that there are “other formats” than the G7, “a club we do not belong to, for example BRICS.”

The editorial proposes that both Greece and Italy leave the euro and join the BRICS instead, particularly since the Europe of the Troika has shown its true, inhuman face in closing the borders to Italy, starting with France, in order not to let any refugee in, and leaving Italy and Greece alone to face the emergency. So much for “egalitè et fraternité” and so much for Schiller’s “alle Menschen werden Brüder.”

The mood of the Italian population towards this Europe of the banks and of genocide is indicated by the fact that, for the first time since the new Movisol website started, the editorial on joining the BRICS has been viewed on Facebook by almost 60,000 people, shared by 1,000, and 20,000 on the website; and reprinted by five blogs and one daily.

A reader also wrote to one of the best known Italian talk shows on TV La7, “La Gabbia,” asking them to talk about the BRICS and its New Development Bank in their show. 

In a major development, Greek Reporter, citing Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reported Tuesday that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsirpas will have a working meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 19. The Greek premier will be in St. Petersburg to attend the three-day (June 18-20) St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), and ostensibly the meeting will take place on the sidelines of the forum.

The meeting is of great significance, since the EU, on behalf of the creditors, has exerted the heaviest pressures on Greece to bankrupt and destroy itself. Tsipras had earlier received a formal invitation from the Russian government to join the BRICS New Development Bank, and it was reliably reported that this topic would be discussed during Tsipras’s visit to SPIEF. Now, it turns out he will be meeting with Putin, as well as other with Russian representatives.

Besides the urgent issues of the day, Greece and Russia are linked by long historical, cultural, and religious ties. According to the posting in the Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs website today, “contacts between the two countries are frequent and include reciprocal visits of the ministerial and political leadership… There is a Joint Inter-ministerial Committee between the two countries on issues of economic, industrial, scientific and technological cooperation… There are also broad prospects for cooperation in the cultural sector, and by joint decision of the two sides, 2016 will be a Year of Greece in Russia and a Year of Russia in Greece.”

The prestigious St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has attracted thousands of important participants this year, despite the efforts of the Obama administration to isolate Russia internationally. Most recently U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, Victoria Nuland’s errand boy, called on American corporations to not participate in SPIEF. India’s Modi government has announced that Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s State Minister for Commerce and Industry, will lead the Indian delegation. Her objective will be to increase India-Russia trade to advance the intent expressed in the Joint Statement issued by President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2014. China’s delegation to SPIEF will also be the largest ever.