Photo: RIA Novosti, Vladimir Putin<\/p>\n
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With the world focused on the collapse of the Cyprus banking system and the seizing of depositor\u2019s funds, an unprecedented move by western financial institutions, the demonization of Russia and President Putin by the West and its agents has once again taken off in full swing. This is necessary to hide the fact the West is in fact robbing Russian businessmen and Russian depositors of money that they in fact have no right to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, the favorite avenue for demonizing Russia and a column I have taken to task in the past for their acidic fantasy-based hyperbolic Russophobic rhetoric and propagation of out-dated cold war stereotypes, an offshore writer bashes Russian business and demonizes President Putin blaming him and Russian oligarch\u2019s for the Cyprus banking crisis. The piece is so provocative, lacking in balance and the majority of the points it makes are so far from reality it demands an answer.<\/p>\n
The writer of this particular piece, Ben Judah, is apparently from Instanbul, Turkey, a fact that may point to the New York Times now farming out their vitriol to other countries. He begins his attack piece by deriding Russian Business, the demonization of which is clearly necessary amid the current scandal and as Russia is on the verge of becoming the new business hub of the modern world, a fact that has been assisted if not caused by the economic failure and the downfall of Europe and the West.<\/p>\n
His piece starts: \u201cThe blue-glass skyscrapers of Moscow City (fragments of Russia\u2019s boom-time dream) are visible from the Kremlin walls, within which there was once hope that those towers could supplant the West\u2019s financial centers. When the sun sets behind them, you can see that many of the offices lie empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
First off and this is minor, the glass of the skyscrapers is not really blue and the offices are not visible as he states, unless one is hovering in a helicopter alongside them. Second calling them \u201cfragments of Russia\u2019s boom-time dream\u201d and saying the many offices lie empty is completely disingenuous and detached from reality, for the simple reason that Moscow City is still under construction and the project is still in its inception phase. So strike one Mr. Judah.<\/p>\n
I could contrast the former World Trade Center in New York and how those building had hundreds of offices which were empty, and how the building were condemned due to asbestos and then destroyed with people inside as a catalyst for the PNAC plan for global domination, and I would be basing such an assessment on facts, not fantasy, but I won\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n
His second paragraph begins his attack on Russia banking and financial practices, an attack which is nothing but conjecture and opinion parading as facts. Mr. Judah says: \u201cIn fact, the real hubs for Russian banking are in other countries. Moscow\u2019s billionaires squirrel their fortunes abroad, and many businessmen register their companies as British, Dutch, Swiss or Cypriot \u2014 anything but Russian Whistle-blowers would have us believe that even President Vladimir V. Putin stashes his money offshore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Judah is obviously unaware of Russian legislation to stop the flight of capital from Russia, and ignores the fact western businessmen and billionaires, in particular Americans, are the world\u2019s experts in hiding capital and escaping their share of the tax burden. We could talk about Swiss Banks and the thousands of \u201coffshore tax havens\u201d used by the West and how American companies outsource all of their work overseas because it is cheaper, as apparently the New York Times now does, but we won\u2019t go there either will we?<\/p>\n
As for Mr. Judah\u2019s whistle blowers? First off too convenient, name one Mr. Judah, second off citing anonymous whistle blowers as a basis for accusations against the president of country is a cheap trick and third off where are the details and the facts?<\/p>\n
In contrast I could write thousands of pages detailing the financial machinations of the United States, the manipulations of foreign markets, the undermining and taking over of foreign economies, the flight of capital from the United States, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the ongoing attempt to take over the world militarily which will lead to the eventual total demise of the U.S. and its allies as their military adventurism, more and more overstretches their ability to pay for it. We are seeing that today.<\/p>\n
As for whistle blowers? Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, Jeremy Hammond, are true individuals I could cite for starters, but we won\u2019t go there right now, will we?<\/p>\n
Mr. Judah says: \u201cRussian money is frightened of Russia\u201d, Russia has \u201ccrude capitalism\u201d, \u201cMr. Putin never delivered secure property rights\u201d, and \u201c\u2026Russian money is paranoid; since 2008 alone more than $350 billion in capital has fled the country.\u201d I would like to know where he gets his figures. These statements are so obviously patently false when you look at projects like Moscow City, as Mr. Judah did, and Skolkovo, and hundreds of other massive ventures taking place all over Russia. And again there is Russian legislation banning the practice he mentions and Russia has in fact pursued criminals who have taken billions out of the country, criminals such as Boris Berezovsky, who are then given asylum and protected by the West. But we won\u2019t go there either now will we? Nor will we mention the fact that even if the figure of $350 billion is correct, it pales to the trillions U.S. war profiteers have stolen from the American people since 9-11<\/p>\n
He says; \u201cThese billions craved secrecy and security, and financial islands inside the European Union welcomed them\u201d, ignoring the fact that by welcoming them these institutions to which he refers were taking part in illegal flight of capital from Russia and becoming fabulously rich.<\/p>\n
He continues by claiming Cyprus was the most important offshore location for Russian money and by inference caused the collapse in the Cypriot banking sector. This is completely false, Russian money kept and is keeping much of the European economy viable, including that of Cyprus.<\/p>\n
He says, \u201c\u2026 its bloated banking sector was wrecked by a gigantic exposure to Greek bonds. To save Cyprus from bankruptcy, a decree from the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank (known as \u201cthe troika\u201d) is now confronting depositors in Cypriot banks with the loss of as much as 60 percent of deposits greater than $100,000, alongside tough new capital controls.\u201d This is closer to the truth but ignores the fact that taking 60% of deposits is in fact stealing the money of innocent depositors to pay for failed policies, something one might expect in a banana republic and not the EU.<\/p>\n
The demonization by the New York Times and its writers of Russia, Russian businessmen, Russian oligarchs and President Putin in necessary for the West and for their financial manipulators in this case for one simple reason: as I said above, through the IMF, the EU and the ECB, they are literally \u201clegally\u201d robbing Russia and Russian businessmen of billions upon billions of dollars that they have no right to. That is the real story here.<\/p>\n
The result of Western financial machinations in Cyprus will no doubt be felt well into the future. No doubt the \u201cparanoid Russian money\u201d will no longer be so readily at the disposal of the European and Western economies, already on the brink of total collapse, money which we have seen is keeping many major western financial entities afloat.<\/p>\n
Another result may be the fleeing of monies from other countries as it becomes clear that western \u201csafe havens\u201d are not in fact safe, and that financial regulators can just come in and seize whatever monies they see fit when they need a short-sighted and quick \u201cfix\u201d.<\/p>\n
Unlike the West, Russian businessmen and Russia will recover and the fiasco and the money grab in Cyprus are just more indicators that the West is faltering and on the brink of collapse. Perhaps now offshore monies will flow to other places, perhaps to Moscow City? Could be, you never know.<\/p>\n
As for Obama, who I mentioned in my headline, the current global financial situation, one I would say is on the brink of collapse, is the responsibility of U.S. based and American controlled financial bodies, so in answer to Mr. Judah\u2019s question, no President Putin did not sink Cyprus, the West did. I offer this question then for everyone to ponder in response: Did Obama Sink the World? Look around you, the answers to that question are everywhere.<\/p>\n