🇩🇪National Security Strategy. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday unveiled the country's first-ever comprehensive "National" Security Strategy (NSS) seeking to provide an overview of the country's foreign policy. As expected in a country run by a colonized political elite whose allegiance lies overseas, national economic interests have been sacrificed. Germany will spend 2% of its economic output on defense against the imaginary threat posed by 🇷🇺Russia, which the NSS document calls "the biggest threat to Europe". As to 🇨🇳China, German "national" security strategists warn that Beijing is trying to use its economic might to achieve some unspecified political goals. Germany views China as "a partner, competitor and systemic rival." Good luck, China. Beijing has to deal with the schizophrenic red, yellow and green coalition currently sinking Germany. One day they treat you as a partner and the next as a rival. Germany wants to preserve its cooperation with China, the US is pulling it in the opposite direction....and no one can provide relief to the mental toll of cognitive dissonance experienced by its bickering leaders. @LauraRuHK

🇩🇪 La Germania ha partorito un topolino: la sua prima Strategia di Sicurezza Nazionale. Il cancelliere tedesco Olaf Scholz e il ministro degli Esteri Annalena Baerbock hanno presentato mercoledì il primo programma per la Strategia di Sicurezza "Nazionale" (SSN), documento di 76 pagine che nelle intenzioni dovrebbe fornire le linee guida della politica estera tedesca, improntata ad una nuova postura bellicistica. Come ci si aspetta in un Paese gestito da un'élite politica coloniale che deve dimostrare fedeltà al centro dell'impero, gli interessi economici nazionali sono stati sacrificati. La Germania spenderà il 2% del PIL per difendersi da un'immaginaria minaccia russa, che il documento definisce "la più grande minaccia per l'Europa". Per quanto riguarda la Cina, gli strateghi tedeschi avvertono che Pechino sta cercando di usare la sua potenza economica per raggiungere "obiettivi politici". Quali siano questi pericolosi obiettivi politici non e' dato sapere, come al solito la vaghezza serve ad alimentare l'ansia. Detto cio,' si procede a definire la Cina come "un partner, un concorrente e un rivale sistemico", con buona pace della logica. Auguro buona fortuna a Pechino che deve trattare con la schizofrenica coalizione rosso-giallo-verde, la stessa che sta affondando la Germania - un giorno la Cina viene considerata un partner e il giorno dopo un rivale, a seconda del vento che tira a Washington. Quando ha un guizzo di pragmatismo realista la Germania insiste nel voler preservare la cooperazione reciprocamente vantaggiosa che ha con la Cina, ma poi gli Stati Uniti la spingono nella direzione opposta.... e a quel punto nessuno può aiutare i leader tedeschi a trovare sollievo dal disagio psicologico che la dissonanza cognitiva provoca loro. @LauraRuHK

This is what British media think of Boris Johnson: he is a pathological liar. And yet they are perfectly happy to believe his tall tales about Russia and Ukraine. @LauraRuHK https://t.me/dimsmirnov175/49668

“Influence and Perception Management Office” (IPMO) is one of many Pentagon's agencies that have been set up to influence and change the beliefs and behavior of politicians and stakeholders in both the private and public sector. Kit Klarenberg took a look. https://www.mintpressnews.com/exposed-disturbing-details-of-new-pentagon-perception-management-office/284962/

RAND ACKNOWLEDGES U.S. REGRESSION ➡️ WELCOME TO NEO-FEUDALISM - According to a report recently published by the RAND Corporation, U.S.-China rivalry might unfold under conditions characterized by a blend of some aspects of modern life with a regression of other aspects, a condition the authors label neomedievalism.
Key Findings: * the decline of the centralized nation-state
* the return of entrenched inequalities and expansion of illicit economies.
* Pandemics, banditry, and ecological and natural disasters
* Preindustrial aspects of warfare: siege warfare, irregular and protracted conflict, the privatization of warfare, and the prominence of intrastate conflict. Recommendations: Coping with domestic and transnational threats and deterrence of attacks that threaten political legitimacy should have a priority equal to or higher than deterrence of conventional military attack.
The conservation of military resources and the avoidance of major war will become critical to national success. A new reality: Total victory is infeasible, targeting the political legitimacy of the rival becomes more attractive.
A perpetually tenuous level of popular support for the government will deepen the military's dependence on mercenaries, unmanned systems, and coalition partners for combat operations. @LauraRuHK https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1887-1.html

RAND RICONOSCE L'INVOLUZIONE DEGLI STATI UNITI ➡️ BENVENUTI NEL NUOVO MEDIOEVO - Secondo un rapporto recentemente pubblicato dalla RAND Corporation, la rivalità tra Stati Uniti e Cina potrebbe avvenire sullo sfondo di una regressione a condizioni che gli autori definiscono di "neomedievalismo".
Caratteristiche principali: * il declino dello Stato nazionale centralizzato
* il ritorno di forti disuguaglianze socio-economiche e l'espansione di economie illegali.
* Pandemie, banditismo, disastri ecologici e naturali.
* Aspetti preindustriali della guerra: la guerra d'assedio, i conflitti irregolari e prolungati, la privatizzazione della guerra e la prominenza di conflitti interni. Raccomanda: La gestione delle minacce interne e transnazionali e la deterrenza degli attacchi che minacciano la legittimità politica dovrebbero avere una priorità pari o superiore alla deterrenza degli attacchi militari convenzionali.
Conservare le risorse militari ed evitare grandi guerre. Uno scenario nuovo: Se la vittoria totale sul nemico diventa impossibile, puntare a indebolire la legittimità politica del rivale.
Con la diminuzione del sostegno popolare al governo occorrerà servirsi di mercenari, droni, robotica e alleati della coalizione per le operazioni di combattimento. @LauraRuHK https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1887-1.html

"Air raid sirens blared and the Ukrainian air defense was activated". Well, that's part of "perception management". This is the usual show that welcomes foreign delegations to Kiev. Today the African delegation, which includes leaders from South Africa, Senegal, the Comoros and Egypt, is in town on a peace mission, hoping to mediate between Ukraine and Russia. Tomorrow the delegation will hold talks with Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. @LauraRuHK

St.Petersburg - Vladimir Putin began his speech at the SPIEF's plenary session. You can watch it here in Russian https://rutube.ru/video/ab9f3ef0162a7f131fe377dba5a4a400/ or here in English https://sputnikglobe.com/20230616/putin-addresses-spief-2023-plenary-session-1111203695.html

⚡️SPIEF 2023 Putin: Russian Economy Rebounded, Better Inflation Than Most Of West - Putin

The second quarter of last year was the most difficult for the Russian economy, when the whole fabric of business and economic life was redrawn, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the SPIEF plenary session Friday.

▪️The strategy chosen by the Russian authorities and business has worked

▪️GDP growth by end of 2023 may be under 2%, it will allow Russian economy to keep pace with world leaders

▪️inflation lower than in many Western countries; close to record low of 2.9%

▪️unemployment is at 3.3%, it has never been so low.
❗️Russia gradually reducing dependence on oil, gas, this trend gaining momentum

▪️The country’s state finances are generally balanced, Russia chose the path of expanding freedom of entrepreneurship;

▪️The defense spending must be increased for the country's security;

▪️Russia never expelled anyone from the Russian market, everyone has right to choose. The authorities will support new Russian owners of the former foreign companies in country.
Massive North-South Corridor Expansion Planned by 2030
Vladimir Putin has been speaking about intl and domestic markets at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Russian President outlined the north-south transport route to challenge the Suez Canal and the impact of sanctions:

📍Investment in cargo fleet, infrastructure growing.
📍Foreign company exodus from Russia didn't impact market - if brands produced in Russia their work was carried on by other companies.
📍Requests to prevent foreign companies coming back... but door is open should they want back, we're not afraid of competition.
📍Russia never opted for self-isolation.
The Inherently Ugly Neo-Colonial System Has Ceased To Exist
The multipolar world order is strengthening, this is an inevitable process.
Russia has been and will be involved in the world economy. Last year, our exports set a new record of $592 billion - a third came from the non-commodity sector.
Russia's trade with countries whose leaders defy boorish pressure from the West has increased several-fold.
🌾 Russia is the world's number one wheat exporter. Russia is also among the top five grain exporter countries.

⚡️ Russian authorities are preparing new mechanisms for cross-border trade, about 90% of settlements with EAEU countries are now in roubles, with China 80% in roubles and yuan.

The unlawful freezing of Russian assets abroad is theft, medieval robbery.

Changes all over the world and in all spheres are cardinal, profound and irreversible. ▪️ Those who try to artificially limit something suffer first of all from this, sanctions do not interfere with our development

▪️ Making some countries blindly follow the interests of others in the modern world is difficult, and sometimes impossible.

▪️ The West has brought itself to a sharp increase in inflation, pouring money into its economy, and now they are trying to cover up their mistakes with Russia.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner: "In view of the necessary cuts in our own national budget, we are currently unable to make any additional contributions to the European Union’s budget."

The finance minister's comments come following complaints from the European Commission that aid to Ukraine has "exhausted" the bloc's long-term 2021-2027 budget "to the maximum," and hints that Germany and other major EU economies should pitch in to make up the difference. (Source: Sputnik)
@LauraRuHK

❗ Vladimir Putin on NATO's involvement in the Ukrainian conflict:

▪️ NATO is drawn into the war in Ukraine;

▪️ US instead of contacts with Russia, has chosen to supply equipment to Ukraine, we will burn it - let's see what happens next;

▪️ If F-16s are based abroad, let's see how to hit them, this is a serious danger of further involvement of NATO;

▪️ I do not rule out that if there had been a different administration in US, then perhaps it would have been possible to take a different path in the situation with Ukraine.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt_unc2

Putin and What Really Matters in the Chessboard — Strategic Culture
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/06/15/putin-and-what-really-matters-in-the-chessboard/

If you want heavy metal thunder, this is it.

Russian singer Yulia Chicherina on those Russians who left the country after the start of the SMO. "They need to find out what the Americans did to the Japanese who lived in America during WWII (I'll tell you a secret: the Japanese were locked up in concentration camps).
How is it that so many of our media people, scientists and artists have found themselves in such an unnatural position in such unnatural places?

Thirty years ago we turned into a Western colony which did not need its own culture, but needed dough, banks and oligarchs. Russian culture was pushed into a corner and replaced by deceitful, corrupt showbiz. The West has foisted its nonsense, depressive blackness and hatred of all things Russian on us. And rapture and worship of rampant consumption and all things carnal in general became the purpose of life. There was no place in this life for heroism and selflessness.

When one wades through waist-deep in icy water during a winter battle, one doesn't catch a cold, not even a runny nose. People become younger and fresher because in a critical situation the organism starts fighting off all kinds of illnesses. The same thing is happening now to our culture: the SMO is our icy water. And it is the duty of the state to help this process. The healing effect has already begun, but the officials in charge of culture are excessively short-sighted: they punish the puppets, but do not go after the puppeteers.

We should understand that radio, television, the Internet, festivals, cinema, theatre and literature are all weapons in the battle for minds in this hybrid war; we just need to take them away from the enemy." https://t.me/julia_chicherina/2722

Xi Jinping met Bill Gates and gave him a lot of "face", that is he treated him as an honored guest and said he was the first American friend he had met in Beijing this year. If you want to know what US elites are up to, you need to keep them close. Sun Tzu's quote comes to mind, you probably know which one. Gates' Global Health Drug Discovery Institute is in Beijing and China learns a lot about research that is carried out there as is done jointly. If it weren't beneficial to China's interests and posed a risk to China's security, this institute wouldn't be allowed to operate. As simple as that. @LauraRuHK

Zelensky offers zero flexibility to African leaders
Ukraine’s leader has again rejected the offer to mediate an end to the conflict

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky brushed off the African Union peace initiative on Friday, insisting there can be no negotiations with Russia. The high-ranking delegation, led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, visited Kiev and is headed to Moscow next

Zelensky also told reporters that Ukraine was greatly helping African nations with food security and setting up “grain hubs” on the continent “with our partners,” accusing Russia of using hunger and social instability as a tool of political pressure.

The grain Kiev exported under the terms of the Black Sea Initiative, however, has mostly gone to the EU and ended up as animal feed. Meanwhile, the UN has failed to unblock the export of Russian food and fertilizer to Africa, which used to account for a far greater share of the continent’s needs.

The African Union mission got off to an inauspicious start in Warsaw, when Polish authorities held up Ramaphosa’s security detail. While in Kiev on Friday, the visitors were reportedly told to take shelter from incoming “Russian missiles.”

“There's obviously some deliberate misinformation being spread here,” Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya later told South African media, adding that the delegation didn’t hear any explosions or see anything out of the ordinary.

Zelensky has previously turned down the Vatican’s offer to mediate a ceasefire as well, telling the papal envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi earlier this month that he would only accept the terms of his own Ukrainian “peace formula.” Moscow has dismissed it as delusional and said that any peace talks will be with Zelensky’s “masters” in the West, rather than their puppet. (Source: RT) @LauraRuHK