This entire avalanche of sanctions was imposed on top of decades of debt looting of the Global South by the City of London and Wall Street. Small wonder, then, that the vast majority of the Global South now considers the dollar an unreliable currency, which is toxic and destructive. Small wonder that calls (and actions) for “de-dollarization” are spreading quickly across the Global South—as we also document below.
As the ratcheting up of sanctions came heavily into play in early 2022, the U.S. Federal Reserve began raising the Federal funds rate dramatically: On March 18, 2022, the first quarter-point rise occurred, and 2022 ended nine months later with the Fed rate at 4.33%.
The combination of these two processes brought to the surface a long-simmering discussion in the Global South about how to get out from under the toxic dollar system. Then on March 10, 2023, the U.S.’s Silicon Valley Bank failed, followed by Credit Suisse of Switzerland on March 19, and the implications of these bank failures led to a parallel discussion about Glass-Steagall in the United States and Europe.
Nor has Russia been the only country targeted with sanctions and related economic warfare. Others include China, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea. In the case of Syria, the June 2020 Caesar Sanctions have been instrumental in destroying the Syrian economy, and leading to today’s 90% poverty rate in that country. In Afghanistan, the U.S. also “froze,” i.e., stole, nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash to the nation immediately after the Aug. 15, 2021 fall of Kabul, depriving the country of the minimal resources needed to alleviate hunger and even the deadly famine sweeping the country.
Perhaps most shocking and revealing were the well-publicized comments by two unnamed White House “senior administration officials” at a background press briefing Jan. 25, 2022, detailing “the severity of the economic consequences we can and will impose on the Russian economy,” including “an atrophying of Russia’s productive capacity over time … [to] hit Putin’s strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy.” The two officials threatened that the United States, the UK and Europe “are unified in our intention to impose massive consequences that would deliver a severe and immediate blow to Russia.”
This was one month before Russia’s SMO began.
The dollar itself was quickly weaponized. On Feb. 24, leading Russian banks were put on the sanctions list, making it impossible for them to conduct business with the West. On Feb. 26, some $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves held in Western banks was seized—with the stated intent of expropriating it outright. On April 4, the U.S. Treasury took steps to make it impossible for Russia to make payments that were coming due on its foreign debt, in an effort to force an involuntary default with all of its consequences. On June 3, nearly all Russian banks, with only a handful of exceptions, were banished from the SWIFT international financial communications system—the long-threatened “nuclear option” designed to destroy the Russian financial system and economy altogether, by decoupling it from the West.
Throughout this period, Russia was denied access to Western technology, capital goods, and other economic inputs, in the stated expectation that this would plunge its economy into depression, create social chaos, and ultimately lead to the overthrow of President Putin.
The EU has marched in lockstep with the United States and UK on the sanctions policy from the very beginning, enacting 10 sets of measures since February 2022, with an 11th now under review.
Immediately after President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) of Feb. 24, 2022, Western sanctions against Russia were ratcheted sharply up: Some $300 billion of Russia’s foreign reserves, the part held abroad, was summarily seized; trade was blocked; and London and Washington endeavored to force Russia to default on its debt obligations. The “ruin” of Russia was declared the strategic objective.
It should be emphasized that the sanctions regimen against Russia (and other countries) was in force long before Feb. 24, 2022—as we document in the chronology below. In fact, as far back as July 31, 2014 the Council of the European Union had adopted Council Decision 2014/512/CFSP, which called on member nations to “prohibit transactions in or the provision of financing or investment services … issued by state-owned Russian financial institutions.” The resolution also prohibited “the sale, supply, transfer or export of certain sensitive goods and technologies” to Russia.
Just as Russia’s SMO was not “unprovoked military aggression,” but rather the result of 30 years of NATO expansion eastward (violating explicit official promises given to the Soviet Union and Russia), which dramatically escalated after the 2014 coup d’état against the democratically elected Yanukovych government of Ukraine; so too the Global South’s steps toward de-dollarization are also not a matter of “unprovoked economic aggression” against the United States and its currency. Rather, they are survival measures adopted in defense against economic and financial warfare, responding to explicit statements by U.S. and other officials that their goal is to “reduce the ruble to rubble” and make sure the Russian economy is “cut in half” (President Joe Biden, March 26, 2022) and “ruin Russia” (German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Jan. 24, 2022).
hello Greg......i just want to thank you for directing us subscribers thru an email update to any interview that you make........
Killer interview GM ... Rashid M ain’t bad either
Facts ❤
Btw... all you people were informed about this by MSM... I think so
Now time for Cheese cake & coffee on a beautiful day in the Netherlands - EU
🤗🌻❤
Ps3:
This entire avalanche of sanctions was imposed on top of decades of debt looting of the Global South by the City of London and Wall Street. Small wonder, then, that the vast majority of the Global South now considers the dollar an unreliable currency, which is toxic and destructive. Small wonder that calls (and actions) for “de-dollarization” are spreading quickly across the Global South—as we also document below.
As the ratcheting up of sanctions came heavily into play in early 2022, the U.S. Federal Reserve began raising the Federal funds rate dramatically: On March 18, 2022, the first quarter-point rise occurred, and 2022 ended nine months later with the Fed rate at 4.33%.
The combination of these two processes brought to the surface a long-simmering discussion in the Global South about how to get out from under the toxic dollar system. Then on March 10, 2023, the U.S.’s Silicon Valley Bank failed, followed by Credit Suisse of Switzerland on March 19, and the implications of these bank failures led to a parallel discussion about Glass-Steagall in the United States and Europe.
Ps2:
Nor has Russia been the only country targeted with sanctions and related economic warfare. Others include China, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea. In the case of Syria, the June 2020 Caesar Sanctions have been instrumental in destroying the Syrian economy, and leading to today’s 90% poverty rate in that country. In Afghanistan, the U.S. also “froze,” i.e., stole, nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash to the nation immediately after the Aug. 15, 2021 fall of Kabul, depriving the country of the minimal resources needed to alleviate hunger and even the deadly famine sweeping the country.
Ps1:
Perhaps most shocking and revealing were the well-publicized comments by two unnamed White House “senior administration officials” at a background press briefing Jan. 25, 2022, detailing “the severity of the economic consequences we can and will impose on the Russian economy,” including “an atrophying of Russia’s productive capacity over time … [to] hit Putin’s strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy.” The two officials threatened that the United States, the UK and Europe “are unified in our intention to impose massive consequences that would deliver a severe and immediate blow to Russia.”
This was one month before Russia’s SMO began.
The dollar itself was quickly weaponized. On Feb. 24, leading Russian banks were put on the sanctions list, making it impossible for them to conduct business with the West. On Feb. 26, some $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves held in Western banks was seized—with the stated intent of expropriating it outright. On April 4, the U.S. Treasury took steps to make it impossible for Russia to make payments that were coming due on its foreign debt, in an effort to force an involuntary default with all of its consequences. On June 3, nearly all Russian banks, with only a handful of exceptions, were banished from the SWIFT international financial communications system—the long-threatened “nuclear option” designed to destroy the Russian financial system and economy altogether, by decoupling it from the West.
Throughout this period, Russia was denied access to Western technology, capital goods, and other economic inputs, in the stated expectation that this would plunge its economy into depression, create social chaos, and ultimately lead to the overthrow of President Putin.
The EU has marched in lockstep with the United States and UK on the sanctions policy from the very beginning, enacting 10 sets of measures since February 2022, with an 11th now under review.
Sanctions Provoke De-Dollarization
Immediately after President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) of Feb. 24, 2022, Western sanctions against Russia were ratcheted sharply up: Some $300 billion of Russia’s foreign reserves, the part held abroad, was summarily seized; trade was blocked; and London and Washington endeavored to force Russia to default on its debt obligations. The “ruin” of Russia was declared the strategic objective.
It should be emphasized that the sanctions regimen against Russia (and other countries) was in force long before Feb. 24, 2022—as we document in the chronology below. In fact, as far back as July 31, 2014 the Council of the European Union had adopted Council Decision 2014/512/CFSP, which called on member nations to “prohibit transactions in or the provision of financing or investment services … issued by state-owned Russian financial institutions.” The resolution also prohibited “the sale, supply, transfer or export of certain sensitive goods and technologies” to Russia.
Just as Russia’s SMO was not “unprovoked military aggression,” but rather the result of 30 years of NATO expansion eastward (violating explicit official promises given to the Soviet Union and Russia), which dramatically escalated after the 2014 coup d’état against the democratically elected Yanukovych government of Ukraine; so too the Global South’s steps toward de-dollarization are also not a matter of “unprovoked economic aggression” against the United States and its currency. Rather, they are survival measures adopted in defense against economic and financial warfare, responding to explicit statements by U.S. and other officials that their goal is to “reduce the ruble to rubble” and make sure the Russian economy is “cut in half” (President Joe Biden, March 26, 2022) and “ruin Russia” (German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Jan. 24, 2022).
Source: LaRouche
Please (must) read;
Some LaRouche Essentials for Transition to a New International Financial System.
June 07 2023