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Kissingers Secret Meeting With Putin

Written by Mike Whitney (Related)

Friday, 20 July 2007

by Mike Whitney

"RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for British airspace yesterday, as the spirit of the Cold War returned to the North Atlantic once again. The incident, described as rare by the RAF, served as a telling metaphor for the stand-off between London and Moscow over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.” (Times Online, Richard Beeston; “RAF scrambles to intercept Russian bombers, 7-18-07)

" Men are always wicked at bottom unless they are made good by some compulsion .”

-Niccoló Macchiavelli

When a political heavyweight, like Henry Kissinger, jets-off on a secret mission to Moscow; it usually shows up in the news.

Not this time.

This time the media completely ignored — or should we say censored—Kissinger’s trip to Russia and his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, apart from a few short blurps in the Moscow Times and one measly article in the UK Guardian, no major news organization even covered the story. There hasn’t been as much as a peep out of anyone in the American media.

Nothing. That means the meetings were probably arranged by Dick Cheney. The secretive Veep doesn’t like anyone knowing what he’s up to.

Kissinger was accompanied on his junket by a delegation of high-powered
political and corporate big-wigs including former Secretary of State
George Schultz, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, former Special
Representative for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament
Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr., former Senator Sam Nunn and Chevron
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David O'Reilly.

Wow. Now, there’s an impressive line up.

The group was (presumably) sent to carry out official government
business as discreetly as possible. The media obviously complied with
White House requests and kept their mouths shut.

The array of talent in Kissinger’s delegation suggests that the US and
Russia are engaged in sensitive, high-level talks on issues ranging
from nonproliferation and Missile Defense, to energy exploration and
development, to the Iranian “enrichment” program and partitioning of
Serbia (Kosovo), to the falling dollar and the massive US current
account deficit. The US and Russia are at loggerheads on many of these
issues and relations between the two countries has steadily
deteriorated.

No one really knows what took place at the meetings, but judging by
Kissinger’s parting remarks; things did not go smoothly. He said to one
reporter, ``We appreciate the time that President Putin gave us and the
frank manner in which he explained his point of view.”

In diplomatic phraseology, “frank” usually means that there were many
areas of strong disagreement. Presumably, the main “bone of contention”
is Putin’s insistence on a “multi-polar” world in which the sovereign
rights of other nations is safeguarded under international law. Putin
is ferociously nationalistic and he will not compromise Russia’s
independence to be integrated into Kissinger and Co.’s wacky the new
world order.

The Empire Strikes Back

Less than 48 hours after the “Russia-USA: A View on the Future”
conference had ended, British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband
announced that the British government “would expel four diplomats from
the Russian Embassy in London in response to Russia’s refusal to
extradite Andrei K. Lugovoi, whom the British prosecutors accused of
using radioactive Polonium 210 to poison a Kremlin critic and former
K.G.B. agent, Alexander Litvinenko, last fall.” (New York Times)

The expulsion of the diplomats is a clear indication that Bush ordered
his “new poodle” Gordon Brown to begin a campaign of harassment against
Russia.

The British action is unprecedented and outlandish. The Russian Foreign
Ministry was evidently thunderstruck by the move. After all, Britain
has refused to honor 21 requests from Russia to extradite
gangster-oligarch Boris Berezovsky and the Chechen rebel leader Akhmed
Zakayev, who currently live in London. As Deputy foreign minister
Alexander V. Grushko said, “If Russia used the same formula, the
British embassy would be short about 80 diplomats now.” The hypocrisy
is shocking to say the least.

Besides, who is going to believe that the British government has taken
a sudden interest in the death of a former-KGB agent? Heck, the Brits
kill more Iraqis in a day around Basra then anyone in the Kremlin kills
in a year. The whole thing stinks of political opportunism much like
the investigation of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Russia is presently exploring its options for retaliation, but the
implications of unexpected clash are obvious; the US and Britain have
placed Russia on their “enemies list” and are planning to execute a
guerilla war of harassment, slander, and covert operations intended to
deepen the divisions between Europe and Russia. Naturally, Putin will
continue to be demonized in the western media as a looming threat to
democratic values.

Ultimately, the goal is to pit Europe against Russia while the
Pentagon, the CIA, and M-15 settle on a long-term strategy for gaining
access to vital petroleum and natural gas supplies in Central Asia and
the Caspian Basin. That is still the main objective and both Putin and
Kissinger know it.

So far, Putin appears to have the upper-hand in this regard because he
has skillfully strengthened alliances with his regional allies — under
the rubric of the Commonwealth of Independent States — and because most
of the natural gas from Eurasia is pumped through Russian pipelines. An
article in “Today’s Zaman” gives a good snapshot of Russia’s position
vis a vis natural resources in the region:

“As far as natural resources are concerned Russia's hand is very
strong: It holds 6.6 percent of the worlds proven oil reserves and 26
percent of the world's gas reserves. In addition, it currently accounts
for 12 percent of world oil and 21 of recent world gas production. In
May 2007, Russia was the world's largest oil and gas producer.

As for national champions, Putin has strengthened and prepared Gazprom
(the state-controlled gas company), Transneft (oil pipeline monopoly)
and Rosneft (the state-owned oil giant). That is why in 2006 Gazprom
retained full ownership in the giant Shtokman gas field (7) and took a
controlling stake in the Sakhalin-2 natural gas project. In June 2007,
it took back BP's Kovytka gas field and now is behind Total's Kharyaga
oil and gas field.” (“Vladimir Putin’s Energystan and the Caspian”
Today’s Zaman)

Putin — the black belt Judo-master — has proved to be as adept at
geopolitics as he is at “deal-making”. He has collaborated with the
Austrian government on a huge natural gas depot in Austria which will
facilitate the transport of gas to southern Europe. He has joined
forces with German industry to build an underwater pipeline through the
Baltic to Germany (which could provide 80% of Germany’s gas
requirements) He has selected France’s Total to assist Gazprom in the
development of the massive Shtokman gas field. And he is setting up
pipeline corridors to provide gas to Turkey and the Balkans. Putin has
very deliberately spread Russia’s influence evenly throughout Europe
with the intention of severing the Transatlantic Alliance and,
eventually, loosening America’s vice-like grip on the continent.

Putin’s overtures to Germany’s Merkel and France’s Sarkozy are
calculated to weaken the resolve of Bush’s neocon-“Trojan Horses” in
the EU and put them in Russia’s corner. Putin is also attracting
considerable foreign investment to Russian markets and has adopted “a
‘new model of cooperation’ in the energy sector that would ‘allow
foreign partners to share in the economic benefits of the project,
share the management, and take on a share of the industrial, commercial
and financial risks’". (M K Bhadrakumar “Russia plays the Shtokman card ”,
Asia Times) All of these are intended to strengthen ties between Europe
and Russia and make it harder for the Bush administration to isolate
Moscow.

The CFE and the impending Missile Defense Crisis

Last week Russia announced the suspension the Conventional Armed Forces
in Europe Treaty (CFE) in retaliation for Bush’s plans to put missile
defense system into Poland and Czechoslovakia. The United States had
never really complied with the provisions of the treaty anyway, but
that hasn’t stopped Europeans from reacting with genuine concern.
Russia is now free to redeploy its troops and heavy weaponry to its
western-most borders. This is bound to cause a stir among the
former-Soviet states in Eastern Europe. The move does nothing to
enhance Russian security, but it does raise awareness of how Bush’s
provocative Missile Defense is putting Europe on the firing-line.
Missile Defense is a “lose-lose” situation for everyone involved; it
greatly increases the likelihood of a slip up which could end in a
nuclear exchange. Still, the expansion of NATO is a crucial part of the
neocon plan for controlling the world’s dwindling resources; so we can
expect that the present stand-off will only intensify as the warring
parties jockey for position. The sudden appearance of Kissinger,
Schultz, Rubin and Nunn suggests that the situation has gotten so
worrisome that the Masters of the Empire are actually emerging from the
shadows and getting directly involved. They have dropped the silly
pretense that our celluloid-figurehead president is actually directing
foreign policy at all. He isn’t.

But what can they do?

It is true that NATO has pushed itself into Poland, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Estonia
and Lithuania. But to what advantage? Putin will never allow NATO in
Ukraine or Georgia — even if it means turning off the gas spigot and
letting Europe freeze to death in the dark.

Cheney calls this blackmail. Maybe. But to others it looks like a
straightforward way of telling people that there's a price to pay for
bad behavior. If that’s blackmail — let them hire an attorney.

Kosovo: "The chances of independence are nothing"

Russia and the US are bitterly divided on the issue of Kosovo
independence. “Kosovo independence” is a nothing more than a catchy
moniker that was cooked up in a far-right think tank to express the
geopolitical objectives of its advocates. It’s also a way of minimizing
the US-generated ethnic cleansing which has made “partition” seem
palatable. Its supporters are the usual assortment of western
busybodies, neocons and globalists. Their dream is to weaken Serbia by
splitting it up and making it more accessible to foreign interests.

Pro-American Secretary General Ban Ki Moon tried to quickly push
through a resolution on independence at the UN Security Council this
week, but Russian diplomats stopped him in his tracks.

No dice, Ban.

“I am deeply concerned about the lack of progress,” Ban muttered
apologetically. “Any further delay is not desirable for the Balkan
States or the European countries.”

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin was uncharacteristically outspoken in
his rejection of the proposed resolution. When he was asked by a
reporter about the likelihood of the Kosovo independence”, Churkin
growled, “The chances of that are nothing.”

Well said, Vitaly.

Kosovo is an interesting case that sheds a bit of light on the
maneuverings of the globalist-claque and their plans for world
domination. Chaos and death follow their every move. Their modus
operandi is “divide and rule” through the indiscriminate violence and
massive clandestine operations.

Russia deserves credit for not buckling under US pressure. Putin is
opposed to rewarding “separatist” movements or of letting the United
Nations dissect sovereign nations according to the whims of its main
contributors. This angers the scheming globalists, but it is a sensible
position. The UN’s mandate is to prevent wars of aggression — not
redraw national borders. Just ask the Palestinians how well it worked
out last time the UN got involved in the “nation-inventing” business.

Irina Lebedeva reveals the real motives behind Kosovo independence in
her article “USA-Russia: Hitting the same Gate, or playing the same
game?”

“The North Atlantic alliance documents indicate that the bloc aims at
the “Balkanization” of the post-Soviet space by way of overtaking
influence in the territories of the currently frozen conflicts and
their follow-up internalization along the Yugoslavian lines are set
down in black and white. For example, a special report titled “The New
North Atlantic Strategy for the Black Sea Region”, prepared by the
German Marshall Fund of the United States on the occasion of the NATO
summit, already refers to Black Sea and South Caucasus (Transcaucasia)
as a “new Euro-Atlantic borderland plagued by Soviet-legacy conflicts.”
And the “region of frozen conflicts is evolving into a functional
aggregate on the new border of an enlarging West.” Azerbaijan and
Georgia in tandem, the report notes, provide a unique transit corridor
for Caspian energy to Europe, as well as an irreplaceable corridor for
American-led and NATO to bases and operation theatres in Central Asia
and the Greater Middle East.”

Okay. So, NATO’s real goal is to break-up existing countries into
smaller parts, undermine nationalism, incite ethnic conflicts and
create a “new Euro-Atlantic borderland” that provides a “transit
corridor for Caspian energy to Europe” as well as a jumping off spot
for other military bases.

Sounds a lot like Iraq, doesn’t it?

This should dispel the notion that the US cares about the Muslims of
Kosovo or that America bombed Belgrade into rubble to “get rid of the
dictator, Milosevic”. That’s all half-truths, misinformation or
outright lies. America’s only interests are bases and oil. Period.

Escalation and the prospect of a wider war

An article was posted last night (7-18-07) by the Times Online:

"RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic
bombers heading for British airspace yesterday, as the spirit of the
Cold War returned to the North Atlantic once again. The incident,
described as rare by the RAF, served as a telling metaphor for the
stand-off between London and Moscow over the murder of Alexander
Litvinenko. While the Kremlin hesitated before responding to Britain’s
expulsion of four diplomats, the Russian military engaged in some
old-fashioned sabre-rattling. (Times Online, Richard Beeston; “RAF
Scrambles to intercept Russian bombers)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2093759.ece

This is a good example of how quickly hostilities can escalate when
leaders feel overly confident in their poor judgment. Russia is not to
be trifled with. Putin will not be hounded or humiliated into
submission. He won’t be starved like the Palestinians, bombarded like
the Iraqis, or abducted and tortured like the Empire’s other so-called
enemies. If Brown and Bush decide that its “good sport” to poke the
Bear with a stick—so be it. But, they should be aware of the
consequences. Russia only spends 5% of what the US allocates yearly for
military expenditures, but it can still flatten Washington and London
in a matter of minutes. That’s always worth considering.

Putin: "Glavny protivnik", the main enemy?

Putin is not America’s enemy. He is a fierce nationalist who has led
his country out of depression and anarchy into prosperity and resurgent
patriotism. He has stabilized the ruble, consolidated his regional
power, and elevated the standard of living for every class of Russians.
The Russian Federation now has the third largest FOREX reserves, the
largest natural gas deposits, and—on many days—provides more oil to
foreign markets than Saudi Arabia. The country has regained its
international prestige and it has become a force for peace and
stability in the region.

The West — and particularly the United States — needs to come to grips
with Russia’s ascendant place on the world scene. Russia is not going
away. Petroleum and natural gas are becoming scarcer and more costly by
the day. Russia’s power will naturally grow in proportion to the
diminishing of crucial supplies. This cannot be avoided without
initiating a third and, perhaps, final world war.

America’s preeminence in the world depends to great extend on its
ability to control the global economic system. That system requires
that the dollar continue to be linked to oil reserves. But everywhere
the petrodollar is under attack. The only solution is to control
two-thirds of the world’s remaining petroleum –which is in the Caspian
Basin—and demand payment in dollars.

But that plan has failed. The war in Iraq is lost and the longer
America stays, the harder the fall will be. Oil will not continue to be
traded in petrodollars, the USD will lose its place as the world’s
“reserve currency”, and America will slide into a long and agonizing
economic downturn.

The machinations and secret “shuttle diplomacy” of Kissinger and his
cohorts will amount to nothing. The situation is irreversible.
Geography is fate.

We need to extend the olive branch to Russia and prepare for the
inevitable shifting of world power. In the meantime we need to
withdrawal from Iraq and let the inescapable struggle for political
power begin. Our presence only increases the violence.

American leadership can still be salvaged if we eradicate the cancer
that has infected the body-politic and restore the principles of
republican government. But that won’t be easy. The small cadres of
ruling elites who control policy are driven by a force more powerful
than the procreative urge or even the will to survive. They are
overwhelmed by a sense of “entitlement” — the fanatical belief that
they were born to run the world. This is the rich man’s fundamentalism.

The only way the US can play a productive role in the world’s future,
and participate in the species-threatening decisions which face us all
(global warming, peak oil, nuclear proliferation, famine, disease) is
by removing this poisonous element from our political life and holding
them accountable for their long list of crimes. Otherwise our
confrontations with Russia, Venezuela, Iran and others will become
increasingly uncontrollable and violent causing suffering and death on
an unimaginable scale.

It’s up to us.

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