Take a look at the map of the Eurasian continent. It is one single mass. Starting around 1500, in response to the takeover of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, and the eviction of the Muslims from Spain in 1494, it was decided by Portugal to find alternate routes to the East without paying the Ottoman toll on the flow of goods. And, thus started the rule of Europe through colonialism- or looting.
Thus, developed the European maritime empire-the most successful was that of the British Empire-till the end of World War 2. The Americans took over from the British and maintained dominance of global trade by its military might.
Starting in 1990, an impulse began to build transport corridors across Eurasia. This was met by fierce resistance by the Anglo-Americans, or more specifically by the 2 networks of power – the Rothschild and Rockefeller empires.
In July 2001, Russia and China formed a new organization called the “Shanghai 5” comprising of these two along with 3 central Asian nations. This eventually gave way to the SCO, an anti NATO coalition. This event in July 2001 forced America to intervene in Central Asia in order to stop this union developing. The Rockefeller family created a pretext known as “9/11” to justify US involvement in Afghanistan. Since then, Central Asia and the Middle East /MENA region has been put through the wringer. The American effort to stop the train of Eurasian integration has failed.
Over the past 2 decades, many corridors were built in piecemeal fashion until, in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping turbo-charged this development, called Brick and Road, or BRI. This was to connect all parts of Eurasia with each other. Great progress has been made, but Eurasia needs far more connections than what it has now- from energy pipelines, high speed railways, and modern highways, plus more.
All of these are intended to move goods faster over shorter distances, thus reducing the need to tie up capital on goods-in-transit. It also means moving out from under the control of US domination of maritime routes. The US can, at any time, impose a naval blockade, close up some of the maritime chokepoints, or sink a few tankers and ships. There goes the lifeline connecting the East to the West. It can also starve rival nations into submission. US control of the seas means hanging onto its global domination of economic, trade and military power. If they lose control, they will become a “has been” power. Events over the past decade confirm this trend. With this in mind, let’s look at some recent developments and meetings regarding all of the above.
The war of economic corridors is now preceding full speed ahead, with the game-changing first cargo flow of goods from Russia to India via the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) already in effect for the past month.
Very few, both in the east and west, are aware of how this actually has long been in the making: the Russia-Iran-India agreement for implementing a shorter and cheaper Eurasian trade route via the Caspian Sea (compared to the Suez Canal), was first signed in 2000, in the pre-9/11 era.
The INSTC in full operational mode signals a powerful hallmark of Eurasian integration – alongside the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and last but not least, the increasing number of energy pipelines crisscrossing Eurasia.
Central Asia is Key
Let’s have a first look on how these vectors are interacting.
For all practical purposes, Moscow has tightened its grip on Central Asia a notch. As the Caspian Sea is connected to the Black Sea by canals off the Volga built by the former USSR, Moscow can always count on a reserve navy of small vessels – invariably equipped with powerful missiles – that may be transferred to the Black Sea in no time if necessary.
Stronger trade and financial links with Iran now proceed in tandem with binding the three “stans” to the Russian matrix. Gas-rich republic Turkmenistan for its part has been historically idiosyncratic – apart from committing most of its exports to China.
The bottom line is that Russia remains in full control of the Eurasia pipeline chessboard (and we’re not even talking about the Gazprom-operated pipelines Power of Siberia 1 and 2 leading to China).
Gazprom executives know all too well that a fast increase of energy exports to the EU is out of the question. Thus, the focus is more on China and the East.
Breaking BRI in Russia
China, for its part, is confident that one of its prime strategic nightmares may eventually disappear. The notorious “escape from Malacca” is bound to materialize, in cooperation with Russia, via the Northern Sea Route, which will shorten the trade and connectivity corridor from East Asia to Northern Europe from 11,200 nautical miles to only 6,500 nautical miles. Call it the polar twin of the INSTC.
This also explains why Russia has been busy building a vast array of state-of-the-art icebreakers.
So here we have an interconnection of New Silk Roads (the INSTC proceeds in parallel with BRI and the EAEU), pipeline corridors, and the Northern Sea Route on the way to turn western trade domination completely upside down. Of course, the Chinese have had it planned for quite a while. And like clockwork, Putin subsequently confirmed that the Northern Sea Route should interact and complement the Chinese Maritime Silk Road. Russia-China Economic cooperation is evolving on so many complex, convergent levels that just to keep track of it all is a dizzying experience.
It’s always crucial to consider that one of Washington’s key strategic objectives in the relentless hybrid war against Russia was always to break BRI corridors that crisscross Russian territory. As it stands, it’s important to realize that dozens of BRI projects in industry and investment and cross-border inter-regional cooperation will end up consolidating the Russian concept of the Greater Eurasia Partnership – which essentially revolves around establishing multilateral cooperation with a vast range of nations belonging to organizations such as the EAEU, the SCO, BRICS and ASEAN.
On July 4, at a New Delhi summit, Iran finally become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).Russia and Iran – two key poles of Eurasia integration – have been getting closer and closer geo-conomically since the west’s sanctions tsunami that followed Russia’s February 2022 Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Vice-Minister Mikhail Bogdanov once again confirmed that the US is going all out to prevent a normalization between Damascus and Ankara – by supporting oil-stealing Kurdish militias in northern Syria. The EAEU – as much as the SCO and BRICS – is on a roll. Yet despite the obvious complexities, this high-speed rail geo-economic train has already left the station.
This Way for a SWIFT Exit
In a parallel track, the members of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), during a recent summit in Iran, decided to launch a new cross-border financial messaging system this month as a rival to the western-centric SWIFT.
The ACU comprises the Central Banks of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Iran: a healthy mix of West Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
Call it a de-dollarization fast track.
As Iran’s first Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber summed it up: “De-dollarization is not a voluntary choice by countries anymore; it is an inevitable response to the weaponization of the dollar.”
Iran is now at the heart of all things multipolar. The recent discovery of a massive lithium field holding roughly 10 percent of the world’s reserves, coupled with the admission of Iran into the expanded BRICS – or BRICS+ –, has bolstered scenarios of an upcoming BRICS currency backed by commodities: gold, oil, gas and – inevitably – lithium.
All this frantic Global South-led activity stands in sharp contrast to the sputtering deceleration of the Empire of Sanctions. The Global South has had enough of the US sanctioning and banning whoever, whatever, and whenever they like, in defense of a hazy, arbitrary “rules-based international order.”
The BRICS have other ideas to escape this vicious circle. Much will rely on an enhanced role for its New Development Bank (NDB), which comprises the five BRICS members as well as Bangladesh, the UAE, and Egypt.
Eurasian Integration
All interlinked developments concerning SCO, BRICS, EAEU, and other multilateral mechanisms – now happening at breakneck speed – are converging in practice into a concept formulated in Russia back in 2018: the Greater Eurasia Partnership. And who better to define it than Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: “Our flagship foreign political project is to [build] support for the concept of the Greater Eurasian Partnership. What we’re talking about is facilitating the objective process of forming a broad integrative configuration that is open for all countries and associations across our vast continent.”
As Lavrov routinely explains now in all of his important meetings, this includes “interlinking the complementary development plans” of the EAEU and China’s BRI; expanding interaction “within the framework of the SCO with the involvement of SCO observer states and dialogue partners;” “strengthening the strategic partnership” between Russia and ASEAN; and “establishing working contacts” among the executive bodies of the EAEU, SCO, and ASEAN. Add to it the crucial interaction between BRICS+ and all of the above; literally, everybody and their neighbor all across the Global South is queuing up to enter Club BRICS.
Russia is now reassuming the role of global champion of a new world order that the Soviet Union held at the start of the 1920s. In such context, the rage and uncontrolled Russophobia by the collective west is just plain impotence: howling the frustration of having “lost” Russia, when it would have been a no-brainer to keep it on its side. During the 15th BRICS Summit, 22-24 August 2023, in Johannesburg, South Africa, chaired by South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, six new countries were admitted to the bloc. The BRICS are now called the BRICS-11 and include the five original nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The new members invited to join the bloc as of 1 January 2024 are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The summit took place with big fanfare and expectations. Some 40 countries were invited, all wanted to become members of the BRICS, but just six new ones made it. Another group will probably be included in the bloc during next year’s BRICS summit, hosted by Russia.
For them, mostly the Global South, BRICS is the golden heaven to escape to, from the predatory fangs of the west, mostly from the US-dollar economy that can punish and sanction right and left, all those who do not behave according to the “mandates” of the west, also called the “rules-based order”.
Because international laws have been abolished by western rulers, and replaced de facto, by their rules-based orders. As a result, no judge will go against the elite, and the western rulers… no matter how many war crimes, criminal offenses against human rights, child abuse, child- and women trafficking, they commit – “they”, include the highest ranks of government and international institutions, are safe.
Even before the by-now obvious was playing out – have you ever seen the International Criminal Court (ICC) legally pursuing a western elite-criminal? One of those multi-multi- billionaires who make their own rules? For example, for pedophilia? Was the United States ever accused of war crimes, of human rights abuses? Despite the tens of millions killed alone since the War on Terror started with 9/11? Or Israel, committing genocide against the Palestinians? Never.
The privately-owned ICC (a Rothschild organization) can easily be scrapped as a representative of international law, and even as an international organization. Every judge knows that his life or the lives of his loved ones would be in danger, if he or she were to legally try one of the high-flying western criminals, i.e. the real criminals.
Most of the BRICS contenders want to get out from under the iron fist of the dollarized west. They seek rescue in the East. BRICS for them is the proximity to the East – as the bloc was created and is led by China and Russia, two countries which rightly earned the reputation of coexisting with the west, but in economic and monetary independence. BRICS members are hoping to rely on the military might of SCO.
One of the BRICS propaganda slogans is “De-Dollarization” — come hell or high water; get out from under the dollar-based sanctions grid.
BRICS
The world has truly never seen anything like BRICS, an organization that unites the most diverse group of not only nation-states, but actual civilization states. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa don’t really seem to have much in common, and yet, their ties within this framework are growing stronger by the day at this point. What’s more, BRICS is rapidly turning into a BRICS+ concept that brings in even more new members. Namely, during a recent summit in South Africa, the organization announced that Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates will become full members in just a bit more than four months. The importance of BRICS+ is perhaps best seen in the joint diplomatic effort of its members to deescalate tensions in various parts of the world, even turning decades-old (or even centuries-old) rivalries and enmity into solid partnerships. A recent example of this is the thawing of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two Middle Eastern countries that have been at each other’s throats for nearly half a century. This also includes proxy wars, such as the one in Yemen. Joint efforts of Russian and Chinese diplomacy have been particularly significant in this regard and most importantly, it worked. Both Middle Eastern countries will join BRICS on January 1, 2024.
An important side effect of this could be the end of the aforementioned war in Yemen, where US complicity in aggression against the unfortunate country has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, near-constant hunger, extreme poverty and overall destruction.
In addition, BRICS+ is also expanding its footprint in Africa, a particularly vulnerable part of the world that has been subjected to brutal oppression and colonialism by the political West. This process has been ongoing for approximately half a millennium now and continues to this very day, albeit in a more sinister form of neocolonialism. The recent example of Niger illustrates this perfectly. BRICS+ will inevitably accelerate the dismantling of this exploitative system. Russia is helping Africa to escape from under the tyranny of the French Rothschilds.
South Africa is already a founding member, but with Ethiopia and Egypt joining, BRICS+ will get two more African nations on board, both with a millennia-old history. This is a particularly alarming prospect for the political West, primarily the United States. Namely, they’re trying to save what’s left of Western power projection in Africa, but with BRICS+ strengthening the sovereignty of its members, this US-led effort will be in vain.
Once again, this is an extremely diverse group of countries that seemingly have very little in common. However, they’re all united in a quest to ensure their sovereignty and prosperity. Truth be told, this will be a handful for BRICS+ diplomacy, but the process is irreversible at this point.
This isn’t to say that BRICS is without its problems already, but these are being tackled. Rapprochement between the two Asian giants-China and India – isn’t only important within the BRICS framework, but also for global security, as both countries are heavily armed, including with thermonuclear weapons.
In Latin America, BRICS+ is bound to include most of the continent, a particularly important prospect, as it’s now faced with a resurgent Monroe Doctrine. Namely, the US is doubling down on its neocolonialist policies in Latin America to prevent or at the very least slow down the advent of multipolarity. Most alarmingly for the Rockefeller Empire, BRICS+ not only ensures (geo)political sovereignty, but also a cultural one, because it allows the development of different civilizational models, as no member of the organization, no matter how powerful, aims to impose its system of societal values and development on any other country.
As previously mentioned, this is a truly terrifying concept for the political West, as it aims to do the complete opposite. By imposing its (at this point extremist and simply degenerate) neoliberal policies, the political West is prolonging the effects of neocolonialism and its dominance over entire continents. These extremely damaging policies can only be prevented through the strengthening of national sovereignty and precisely BRICS+ is the only way to achieve it. Needless to say, the prospect of having 30 or more countries join such an organization is a complete disaster for the US-led political West, as it nullifies the concept of sanctions and/or direct aggression.
Needless to say, this is a net positive for the (actual) world, as the current “rules-based world order” benefits only one center of global power. Worse yet, this comes at the expense of everyone else, costing them peace and normal development. That’s why the Rockefeller Empire will use its vassal in Washington DC to pursue neocolonialism everywhere it can. Precisely BRICS+ ensures that it can’t.
Welcome to the new Eurasian Mantra: Make Economic Corridors, Not War.
China’s State Council has released a crucial policy paper titled ‘A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions’ that should be read as a detailed, comprehensive road map for a peaceful, multipolar future. That is if the US – of course faithful to its configuration as War Inc. – does not drag the world into the abyss of a hybrid-turned-hot war with incandescent consequences.
In sync with the ever-evolving Russia-China strategic partnership, the white paper notes how “President Xi Jinping first raised the vision of a global community of shared future when addressing the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2013.” That was ten years ago, when the New Silk Roads – or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – was launched: that became the overarching foreign policy concept of the Xi era. The Belt and Road Forum in Beijing has just celebrated the 10th anniversary of BRI, and re-launch a series of BRI projects.
“There is no iron law that dictates that a rising power will inevitably seek hegemony. This assumption represents typical hegemonic thinking and is grounded in memories of catastrophic wars between hegemonic powers in the past.”
While criticizing the “zero-sum game” to which “certain countries” still cling to, China completely aligns with the Global South/global majority, as in “the common interests of all peoples around the world. When the world thrives, China thrives, and vice versa.” When it comes to building a new system of international relations, China prioritizes “extensive consultation” among equals and “the principle of sovereign equality” that “runs through the UN Charter.” History and realpolitik, though, dictate that some countries are more equal than others.
An Arabian proverb asserts, ‘If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk together.’
BRI Caravan Rolls On
The white paper notes, factually, how “more than three-quarters of countries in the world and over 30 international organizations” had joined the BRI, and refers to the sprawling, ever-expanding connectivity framework of six corridors, six routes, an array of ports, pipelines and cyberspace connectivity, among others via the New Eurasian Land Bridge, the China-Europe Railway Express (a “steel camel fleet”) and the New Land-Sea Trade Corridor crisscrossing Eurasia. A serious problem may involve China’s Global Development Initiative, whose fundamental aim, according to Beijing, is “to accelerate the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Well, this agenda has been designed by the self-described Davos elites and conceptualized way back in 1992 by Rockefeller protégé Maurice Strong. Its inbuilt wet dream is to enforce the Great Reset – complete with a nonsensical zero-carbon green agenda.
Better Listen to Medvedev’s Warning
The hegemon is already preparing the next stages of its hybrid war against China – even as it remains buried deep down into a de facto proxy hot war against Russia in Ukraine. Russian strategic policy, in essence, completely aligns with the Chinese white paper, proposing a Greater Eurasian Partnership, a concerted drive towards multipolarity, and the primacy of the Global South/global majority in forging a new system of international relations.
But the neocon psychos in charge of the hegemon’s foreign policy keep raising the stakes. So it’s no wonder that after the recent attack on the HQ of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a new National Security Council report leads to an ominous warning by Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev: “NATO has turned into an openly fascist bloc similar to Hitler’s Axis, only bigger (…) It looks like Russia is being left with little choice other than a direct conflict with NATO (…) The result would be much heavier losses for humanity than in 1945.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, has revealed that Ukraine has suffered a staggering 90,000 battlefield deaths since the start of the – failed – counteroffensive four months ago.
And Defense Minister Shoigu all but gave away the game in terms of the long-term strategy, when he said, “the consistent implementation of measures and activity plans until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”
So the SMO will not be rounded up before 2025 – incidentally, much later than the next US presidential election. After all, Moscow’s ultimate aim is de-NATOization. Faced with a cosmic NATO humiliation on the battlefield, the Biden combo has no way out.
Both the Chinese and Russian leaderships know quite well how the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) works. The kinetic aspect of MICIMATT is all about protection of the global interests of the Rockefeller family and their big US banks, investment/hedge funds and multinational corporations. It’s not a coincidence that MICIMATT monster Lockheed-Martin is mostly owned by Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street. NATO is essentially a mafia protection racket controlled by the US and the UK that has nothing to do with “defending” Europe from the “Russian threat.” The actual MICIMATT and its NATO extension’s wet dream is to weaken and dismember Russia to control its immense natural resources.
This article continues in Part 2
