It Will Be Known as the ‘LaRouche Century’
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—The leaders of nine countries, representing around 25% of the GDP of the world with over half of the world’s population, finished the two-day annual conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the historic city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Their “Samarkand Declaration” delineates a non-aligned force in the world, alive and well, determined to forge a pathway out of the tired, geopolitical morass of the London-Washington dollarized system. The necessity for the large-scale infrastructure projects, centered around China’s Belt and Road, is never more apparent, given the induced breakdown of supply chains of food and energy. And the specific necessity of recruiting national currencies to settle trading accounts has been a feature of the bilateral meetings amongst the participating countries, and also of the final conference declaration. Importantly, the curtain is being pulled back on the Wizard of Oz.
The address of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin described the SCO as uniquely situated to handle the “fundamental and irreversible changes” in the world’s economics and politics. The SCO has “a considerable part of global natural resources” along with “a powerful intellectual and technological potential.” New “centers of power” are emerging, outside of the dollar-denominated world, capable of acting, not upon “some rules, which nobody has seen” being forced on them, but upon universally-recognized principles of the rule of international law and the UN Charter—that is, equal and indivisible security, “respect for each other’s sovereignty, national values and interest.” These principles “are devoid of all elements of egoism.”
Yet the SCO is officially only nine countries, centered around China, India and Russia. However, many countries take their measure of the events in Samarkand, finding the rekindled spirit of Bandung, of the Non-Aligned Movement, bringing back alive the hopes and dreams of a world where advanced countries and developing countries enjoy and benefit from each other’s strengths—rather than calculating how to take advantage of the weakness of one’s neighbor.
One would think September 16 witnessed an outbreak of common sense.
Yet, a deeply rooted insanity, a sort of “dance of St. Vitus” infection of the mind, spreads amongst some Western elites. For example, the kabuki theater performance by the IAEA’s Board, collectively voting away reality—finding that Russian security personnel at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant threaten a nuclear disaster, evidently because Kiev’s forces are induced to launch artillery shells at them—is just one clinical manifestation of the disease. Friedrich Schiller wrote of the disease in his Wilhelm Tell play, where subjects are to bow down to a hat on a stick on a lowly mountain pass, completing the induced mental slavery required by oligarchs.
The overt form of the mental disease is still the driving mania that the West’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia will militarily defeat Russia, isolating China, and breaking apart both countries. Or that, for the sake of another round, attempting to paper over a metastasized financial derivatives bubble, one can drive 7-8 billion people into abject poverty, disease and early death.
The spirit of the Non-Aligned Movement, now energized and oriented around the self-conscious strategic designs of a modern Gottfried Leibniz such as Lyndon LaRouche, is the actual “game-changer.” As Sergey Glazyev, of the Eurasian Economic Union, alluded to it, in his commemoration of the 100th birthday of Lyndon LaRouche, LaRouche’s genius, and unrelenting courage, looked the actual problems in the eye, summoned up the intellectual strength and vision to fashion solutions appropriate to the depth of the problem—and an outbreak of thinkers and leaders, having studied such solutions, are emboldened to fight for them. A real new world economic design—if not now, then when?
• Watch Harley’s Updates with Harley Schlanger on Monday September 19, 2022: Every weekday morning on The LaRouche Organization, Schlanger will give you the strategic briefing you need to start your day.
NEW ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Putin Addresses SCO on New ‘Emerging Centers of Power’ Based on International Law
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—Speaking today at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Heads of State Council, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the point that the SCO is now the largest regional cooperation organization in the world. Over half of the world’s population lives in SCO member states, accounting for about 25% of the global GDP—and those states “have a powerful intellectual and technological potential and a considerable part of the global natural resources.”
Putin welcomed both Iran’s “earliest possible accession” to the SCO in the documents to be signed today and Belarus’s beginning the accession process; and then he named those countries that are new dialogue partners, and those that have begun the process of obtaining that status. There are many more countries, he added, that seek membership in or association with the SCO. All are welcomed, he said, because the SCO is a “non-bloc association.... We are open to working with the whole world.”
He emphasized that in a very complicated international situation, the SCO is not “marking time,” but rather continuing to develop and build its role in addressing international and regional issues—maintaining peace and stability “throughout the vast Eurasian space.” And take note, he said, of the coming changes in global politics and the economy which “are about to undergo fundamental and irreversible changes.”
How? There are new “centers of power” emerging, and the interaction among them is not “based on some rules, which are being forced on them by external forces and which nobody has seen, but on the universally recognized principles of the rule of international law and the UN Charter, namely, equal and indivisible security and respect for each other’s sovereignty, national values and interests.”
The joint efforts of SCO member states in politics and the economy are based on these principles, he underscored, “which are devoid of all elements of egoism.” Hence, there are broad prospects for “continued mutually-beneficial cooperation in politics, the economy, culture, humanitarian and other spheres.” He mentioned the importance of international transport corridors, to expand intra-regional trade and advanced industrial and scientific and technological cooperation.
Strengthening economic cooperation is key, Putin said, through expanded trade and investment and business projects. Of particular note, he emphasized the importance of “increasing the volume of settlements in national currencies,” now being widely discussed and implemented in those nations seeking alternatives to the “rules-based order.” The Russian President added that the SCO is addressing energy and food problems, resulting from “certain systemic errors in the world’s leading economies in the field of finance and energy.... Our policy is not selfish.” But he urged other “participants in economic cooperation” to stop using the tools of “protectionism, illegal sanctions and economic selfishness to their own advantage.”
Of some note, Putin addressed the issue of still-existing sanctions that limit Russia’s ability to export food and fertilizer to developing countries. Last May, after the UN-Turkey agreement was brokered to allow the export of Ukrainian grains from its ports, which Russia agreed to, Western nations promised that sanctions would be lifted on Russian food and fertilizer exports. That promise was not kept. Putin pointed out that sanctions on Russian shipments were lifted only for EU countries, so they are the only ones that can purchase Russian fertilizer. “What about the developing, poorest countries around the world?” He had told UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Sept. 14 ago about the 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizer that are stocked at EU ports. “We are ready to make them available to developing countries for free,” Putin announced. He reported he had told Guterres to use the UN’s influence on the European Commission to demand that they “lift these clearly discriminatory restrictions on developing countries and provide access for Russian fertilizers to their markets.”
SCO’s Samarkand Declaration a Roadmap for Economic Cooperation, Independent Development
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—While this news service doesn’t yet have the complete text of the Samarkand Declaration signed today by the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), reports from other sources highlight some of the central issues addressed and agreed to by the group.
Chief among them is the statement that the SCO as an organization is open to cooperation with other states—that it is not directed against any other states or international organizations and seeks broad cooperation with them “in accordance with the goals and principles of the UN Charter, the SCO Charter and international law on the basis of mutual interests and common approaches to solving regional and global problems.”
The Declaration states that the SCO seeks to ensure peace, security and stability, “joint countering of new challenges and threats in the territory of the organization,” strengthening trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian relations among countries. Moreover, SCO members intend to further develop cooperation in politics and security, trade, economy, finance and investments, cultural and humanitarian relations “in order to build a peaceful, safe, prosperous and environmentally friendly planet Earth.” Central Asia is considered to be the core of the SCO, and efforts will be made to ensure “prosperity and peace, sustainable development and the formation of a space of good neighborliness, trust and friendship.”
Central to the issue of independent economic development, unfettered by intrusive demands of foreign powers or financial institutions, is the Declaration’s statement that its member nations have agreed to expand the practice of gradually increasing the share of national currencies in mutual payments. This discussion is taking place among many developing nations seeking to free themselves from the straitjacket of the dollar system.
The Declaration states that SCO countries “noted the acceptance of the Roadmap on gradually increasing the share of national currencies in mutual payments by concerned SCO member states and declared for expansion of these practices.” In addition, member states “stressed the necessity to ensure financial support of project activities for fully untapping the investment potential of the organization and in this respect continuing consultations on the issue of the creation of the SCO Development Bank and the SCO Development Fund.”
There was great concern expressed about the threat to security posed by terrorism, separatism and extremism in all its forms, and member nations committed themselves to taking active measures to eliminate the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism and suppress recruitment activities and cross-border movement of terrorists, counter extremism, the radicalization of youth, and the elimination of “sleeper cells”—or locations that terrorists use as safe havens.
The Declaration also emphasized the urgent need for resolving the situation in Afghanistan as soon as possible, to contribute to maintaining and strengthening security in the SCO region. It called for establishing Afghanistan as an “independent, neutral, united, democratic and peaceful state free of terrorism, war and drugs.”
(The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has posted its English translation of the Samarkand Declaration from the Russian original.)
The World Knows India and Russia as ‘an Unbreakable Friendship’
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—Western ideologues, who have tried to drive a wedge in between India and Russia, breaking their historic collaboration, have had a hard time this year with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But they will try to make the most they can out of Modi’s interchange today with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Modi’s call today for negotiations with Ukraine for peace. However, a brief look at the televised discussion between the two, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, tells a different story.
Modi called for an early cessation of hostilities and the need for talks and diplomacy: “I know today’s era is not of war. We discussed this issue with you on phone several times, that democracy, diplomacy and dialogue touch the entire world.” He said he hoped to talk about “how we can move forward on the road of peace in the coming days,” and to understand Putin’s viewpoint. “Today the biggest worry before the world, especially developing countries, is food security, fuel security [and] fertilizers. We must find ways to solve these problems and you will also have to consider it.”
Putin responded in part: “We will do our best to make it stop as soon as possible. However, unfortunately, ... the leadership of Ukraine announced that it was abandoning the negotiation process and declared that it wants to achieve its goals by military means, ‘on the battlefield,’ as they say.”
Modi: “The relationship between India and Russia has deepened manifold. We also value this relationship because we have been such friends who have been with each other every moment for the last several decades and the whole world also knows how Russia’s relationship with India has been and how India’s relationship with Russia has been and therefore the world also knows that it is an unbreakable friendship.”
Putin: Russia’s strategic and privileged partnership with India is developing very rapidly. The two sides are actively engaging at international platforms on all key global issues and it is important that “It is important that we constantly coordinate our positions.... Clearly, constructive relations are developing in the economic sphere. Trade is growing, including due to additional deliveries of Russian fertilizers to the Indian market, as you asked. The volume of fertilizers delivered from Russia to India increased by more than eight times.... I hope that this will help Indian farmers to manage the difficult challenge of providing food for the country’s population.”
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Lebanon and China Join in Peaceful Nuclear Energy Research
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) signed an agreement on Sept. 15 to collaborate on scientific research into the peaceful uses of nuclear power. Lu Kun, Vice Director of ASIPP told the signing ceremony via video, that “through this agreement, AUB and ASIPP will carry out more detailed collaborating activities, from fusion and plasma research, to students training and scientists’ exchange.” Bilal Nsouli, director general of the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission, spoke of how the initiative will open new doors for future regional leaders to receive a high-quality education in science and technology. Other scholars and officials from the two countries were present to mark the occasion.
As significant as the agreement is in itself, China’s Ambassador to Lebanon Qian Minjian located its broader importance. As reported by the NAM News Network (a news site of the Non-Aligned Movement), Ambassador Qian noted: “This cooperation marks a breakthrough in cooperation between China and Arab states, in the field of peaceful development and use of nuclear energy. China firmly supports the inalienable right of all countries, particularly developing countries, to use nuclear energy peacefully. With the steady development of the global nuclear energy industry, promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear technology is of great significance in ensuring energy security, coping with climate change, and promoting economic and social development.”
COLLECTIVE INSANITY
The IAEA Board of Governors Gives Kabuki Theater a Bad Name
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—Twenty-six of the thirty-five countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors actually voted yesterday for a resolution calling upon Russia to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine.” Note, the resolution might have covered their sophistry by writing, “cease all actions against and/or at the plant.” At least, that is sort of like “cease beating one’s wife and/or living in your house.” The latter is going on, while the former is suggested of having a more or less equal chance of going on.
But, while one might quarrel with the tortured English, it appears that the IAEA’s Board has adopted Kiev’s bizarre position that Russia is both policing the plant and is acting against the plant that they are at. That is quite a finding, especially considering that the IAEA team that Kiev finally allowed to get to the Zaporizhzhia plant was there when the Ukrainians fired American-made ammunition at the plant. Nor were the IAEA allowed to examine and/or comment upon the evidence of previous artillery casings and the like from previous attacks. That team presented a silly report, that there’s artillery damage to the plant, which should stop—but, gee, we couldn’t say where the damage is coming from. The IAEA Board has gone beyond both silliness and ignoring the evidence, and seems to have simply embraced a bizarre world, where up is down and down is up.
Otherwise, it decries presence of Russian forces and Rosatom personnel at the ZNPP “which continue to pose serious and direct threat to the safety and security of these facilities and other civilian personnel, thereby significantly raising the risk of a nuclear accident or incident, which endangers the population of Ukraine.” Don’t blink. The Russian personnel secure an important facility in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast that they control, providing electricity for the last six months to both Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled areas. The “serious and direct threat” is none other than, by their presence there, that they are drawing artillery fire from Kiev’s forces. But, evidently, it is not permitted to mention the 800-pound gorilla in the room.
Finally, the Board “deplores the Russian Federation’s persistent violent actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine.” So, evidently, Russia not only beats his wife, but beats other wives in the neighborhood—that is, a serial wife-beater.
It might be the last time that office-holders, administrators, functionaries and the like are compelled to perform a ritualistic “kabuki” theater, but the IAEA Board’s performance will be hard to beat.
UNITED STATES
White House Advises China To Isolate Russia
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—The White House displayed an ineffectual and rather pathetic nervousness yesterday over the bilateral meeting of China’s Xi Jinping with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Spokesman John Kirby told CNN: “Our message to China has been consistent: this is not the time for any kind of business as usual with Putin.” Failing to condemn Russia is leaving China “isolated from the rest of the international community which has largely condemned what he has done in Ukraine.” While the U.S. recognizes that China has refrained from providing military aid to Russia, China can’t be neutral. Washington wants China to pick its side on Ukraine. “We don’t think that this is the time for anybody to be on the sidelines. The whole world should be lined up against what Mr. Putin is doing.”
One can only wonder at China’s purported isolation—but even more so at a Washington that has been trying its best to isolate China, providing advice that China should isolate Russia.
UKRAINE
Kiev’s Terror Campaign Assassinates Civilian Officials
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—The Prosecutor-General of the Lugansk People’s Republic (L.P.R.) Sergey Gorenko was blown up in his office today. Also assassinated was his deputy, Yekaterina Steglenko. The head of the L.P.R. Leonid Pasechnik stated that a home-made bomb was employed, and that Kiev was to blame. Kiev, he said, “has crossed all the red lines. Today’s incident once again confirms that Ukraine, under its current leadership, is a terrorist state.”
Earlier today, at least five U.S.-made HIMARS missiles, according to RIA Novosti, targeted and hit the civil administration building in Kherson city. Kirill Stremousov, the deputy chair of the military-civilian administration, said the strike was meant specifically to take him out. The attack wounded a member of the military-civilian administration, Ekaterina Gubareva, and killed a driver of one of the officials. She called the strike a “craven act of terrorism.”
Earlier this week, the Russian FSB named Ilya Bondarchuk, a present or former officer of Ukraine’s SBU, as one of Kiev’s coordinators of assassinations of civilian officials. He is charged with providing money, weapons and targets for hired underlings to carry out assassinations in Kherson and Crimea. The FSB provided quotes from audio recordings, in which Bondarchuk instructs a man with the operational name of “Mahmud.” The latter had been detained and turned by the FSB. Targets included the mayor and the deputy chief of police in a Kherson region municipality, and three Crimean ministers.
This assassination of one Crimean minister, Vadim Volchenko, was rated at 400,000 hryvnias. Bondarchuk instructing Mahmud’s recruit, named “Kid”: “There are ministers there, you understand? How much money do you need? I will give them to you. At least they all come to work in one place. How much per head, bro, per head?” Mahmud was the go-between who got a Glock and a grenade to “Kid.” Kid was asked: “Can you do it before everyone’s eyes, so that they see it, so that there is a resonance?”
Members of Bondarchuk’s assassination squads were rounded up, without succeeding in their missions.
The New ‘Bucha’ Massacre at Izyum
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—Before the poor victim of hyperventilating stories of Russian genocide at Izyum, led by head cheerleader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, suffers from another “Bucha mass murder” horror story, one should quietly listen to what Serhii Bolvinov, the chief police investigator for the Kiev authorities in the Kharkiv region, actually reported to Britain’s Sky News, regarding the scene of the so-called mass burial site of nameless civilians.
Bolvinov explained that the 440 graves are marked with individual crosses, some with identifications, some without. The exhumations so far showed that the victims died from various causes—all associated with victims in a battle. “We know that some were killed [by a bullet], some died because of artillery fire, so-called mine explosion traumas. Some died because of airstrikes.... So the reasons of death will be established during the investigations.”
Bolvinov makes no mention of any evidence of torture. In contrast, President Zelenskyy makes no mention of soldiers dying in battle, only speaking of torture and executions.
Izyum was the site of intense fighting a few months ago. A lot more than 440 of Ukraine’s forces died in those battles. That the Russian occupiers actually took the time, at this site, to bury everyone individually and provide crosses and some identification should be the beginning of the story.
EUROPE
European Parliament Declares Hungary a ‘Systemic Threat’ to Our Values
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—The European Parliament, dominated by left-wing/Social Democratic factions, approved a report yesterday, establishing that Hungary is not a “democracy.” Worse, it is declared a “systemic threat” to European Union values, because of its “hybrid system of electoral autocracy.” The EU Parliament has called on the EU Council to act, presumably pre-emptively, in order to avoid possible “violations of the principles of the Rule of Law.” They demand the EU Council to invoke Art. 7 of the EU Treaty, which prescribes sanctions against member states.
The reaction from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party was not long in coming, which stated that the European Parliament is “still busily attacking Hungary even amid the current crisis. The people of Europe are enduring an energy crisis thanks to Brussels’ failed sanctions, yet the left-wing European Parliament’s priority, even so, is to attack Hungary.... Brussels wants to punish Hungary ... and withhold the money that is due to the country.” Aside from Hungary’s opposition to Brussels’ sanctions regimen, Fidesz attributed the EU Parliament vote to the Hungarian government’s refusal to allow illegal migrants into Hungary and LGBTQ propaganda into schools.
Of note, the European Parliament had adopted a resolution in June calling for the immediate entrance of Ukraine into the EU. Apparently, a government that blacklists its enemies, closes down opposition television and radio stations, and bans political parties is not a threat to “EU values.”
Germany’s Top Military Officer Warns Don’t Underestimate Russia
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—Germany’s highest military official, Army Chief Inspector Eberhard Zorn, a man not given to public controversy, dared to warn against underestimating Russia’s military potentials and overestimating the Ukrainian options on the battlefield. An English-language version of his tweet has drawn angry responses by a number of British and U.S. experts.
The prize for the most hysterical response seems likely to go to the former Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe, Gen. Ben Hodges, whose entry reads: “Finland alone would beat the Russian troops. Lithuania and Poland would take Kaliningrad within one week, and the Russian Navy is hiding behind Crimea although Ukraine does not even have a navy.” Evidently, one should not underestimate the fantasy life of the “war with Russia” crowd.
German Petition for Ending Anti-Russian Sanctions and Opening Nord Stream 2
Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—The “Dessau Declaration” for a Ukraine ceasefire, an end to sanctions and to confrontation with Russia, and for opening the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, is circulating throughout Germany, with an initial 9,600 signatures gathered. Around 80% of these come from eastern Germany. The initiators of the declaration, the “Craftsmen for Peace,” had held the first rally of 2,000 in Dessau on Aug. 28. Their plan is to build up nationwide momentum for mass protests, culminating in Berlin.
Reach us at www.larouchepub.com
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Postscript by Fran
Once again we see the ubiquitous phrase “Rule of Law” being used, this time by the EU: “The EU Parliament has called on the EU Council to act, presumably pre-emptively, in order to avoid possible “violations of the principles of the Rule of Law.” They demand the EU Council to invoke Art. 7 of the EU Treaty, which prescribes sanctions against member states.”
I would draw attention to the true meaning of that phrase and encourage readers to fully absorb the ramifications and meaning for all United Nations participating countries by checking out this document:
and this video:
Secrets in Plain Sight:
"In the official Chinese and Russian statements regarding Thursday’s meeting between Presidents XI Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Samarkand lies not a scintilla of evidence that China’s support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has weakened.
In my view, if Putin decides to up the ante in Ukraine, XI would be likely to support him. Most analysts of China doubt that this would extend to China’s stirring up trouble in the South China Sea or opposite Taiwan, but most Chinese analysts did not expect China to tolerate, much less endorse, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So your guess is as good as mine.
Underneath the ‘Dear Friend’ professions of solidarity lies a concrete-reinforced commitment, so to speak, indeed a China-Russia entente that bespeaks an intention to coordinate closely – including before any major military initiatives against the U.S. or its proxies." writes Ray McGovern who works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. His 27-year career as a CIA analyst includes serving as Chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch and preparer/briefer of the President’s Daily Brief. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/no_author/dear-friends-xi-and-putin-project-unity/
I would wager that few in the West have heard of the SCO let alone know what it has been doing over the last twenty years. While the satanic US/NATO offer the world sanctions and war, the SCO has been offering peace and prosperity through trade. The SCO has been taking the lead in de-dollarizing world trade with the intention of depriving the US/NATO of the means to wage war given to it by the US dollar's status as the primary global reserve currency. The US's ignominious ejection from Afghanistan allowed the SCO to make an important step forward. The SCO has now reached a size and strength where it can realistically hope to sideline the US/NATO, making US/NATO look like a drunk gun slinger in a seedy saloon on the edge of town.
The market for physical silver bullion appears to be heading rapidly towards collapse (ie, run out of metal). The silver futures market already broke in July. Warren Buffet rightly called futures "weapons of financial mass destruction." Collapse of the silver market would hyper-inflate the dollar and cause the entire Western financial house of cards to fall, leaving the SCO countries in the pre-eminent position.
So what trick, I wonder, will the US/NATO attempt to distract us from their multiple failures in Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, the financial markets and the resultant collapse? I dread to think and unfortunately I don't think we have long to wait.
https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/london-silver-inventories-continue-to-plummet-as-metal-exits-lbma-vaults/