The Digger

"In Russia, Vladimir Putin’s evil genius matters less than pressures from the ultrarich, US foreign policy, and the ravages of the neoliberal Yeltsin years" Excerpt: "Wood’s Russia isn’t a reascendant superpower on the march. It’s a relatively weak, isolated nation teetering on the brink of instability and held together by a nationalism that has become newly powerful this decade. Its GDP per capita is around a sixth of the US’s and a quarter of the OECD average, with sluggish growth forecast for the future. Its mortality rate has long outpaced its fertility rate, with its population forecast to plunge in the coming decades. And far from a military threat, its 2015 military budget wasn’t even a tenth of that of NATO’s, let alone that of the US, while more and more of its neighboring states join the Western military alliance and China grows in power on its southern border (though Russia does still possess a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons). Moreover, it’...

If Putin was advocating socialism US' psycho-leaders would have ended life on earth as we know it by now. So what irks these neoliberal-neocons in Washington about brutal dictator Putin's capitalist economic model is that it smacks of Keynesianism. And that, for this lot, is a bridge too far already; a dangerous, near existential step in the wrong direction. Start at 1:30 for some examples of brutal dictator Putin's national investment projects and objectives.

Excerpt: "Back in March 2016 we created  a list of news items  that accused Russia and its bear riding president Vladimir Putin of weaponizing things. Others have since  copied   the   idea . Several of the pieces listed in it are products of the recently uncovered  British government financed disinformation campaign , or of similar efforts by other governments. But these are only a part of the general anti-Russian reflex that is ingrained in our 'western' culture. Nothing else can explain the craziness of these 'weaponizing' claims. The updated list with some 65 issues, ideas and things that Russia allegedly 'weaponizes' will hopefully help to convince people that most of what is said or written about Russia is likewise blatant nonsense. How Putin's Russia turned  humour  into a weapon    BBC, December 2018 Weaponizing  an Economy : The Cryptoruble and Russia’s Dystopian Future    U.S. Army Tra...