Russian Anti-Globalists Post LaRouche Warning of Dark Age

The Russian site anti-glob.ru has a precis of Lyndon LaRouche's Nov. 16 webcast, headlined: "LaRouche Warns: New Dark Age On the Horizon." Citing LaRouche's analysis of the profound crisis of the economy and financial system, the summary said, "The crisis, LaRouche believes, could plunge humanity into a New Dark Age, like the one that ended in Europe with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in the 17th Century. If the preceding period could be considered that of the Normans and the Venetians, it was the Anglo-Dutch liberals, who afterwards exerted the major influence on world events.... In LaRouche's view, these 'players' stood behind Napoleon and Hitler, and, later, behind Kissinger and Shultz. LaRouche again stated the need for a thorough-going reform of the financial system, and associated great hopes with the new generation, the 18-30 year-olds, on whose shoulders falls the burden of saving humanity. This generation was represented at the webcast by a group from the LaRouche Youth Movement. They performed a hymn set by Bach, dedicated to the Peace of Westphalia."

Anti-glob.ru is one of the sites that has posted the Russian translation of LaRouche's Nov. 9 release, "Bush Sings His Swan Song." The site also is covering a recent tour by Ukrainian economist Natalia Vitrenko, chairman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine. In between leading demonstrations in Sevastopol, Crimea (Ukraine), against NATO's presence in the region, Vitrenko has been lecturing in such locations as Tiraspol, Transdniestria (Moldova), and Rostov, Russia, on the disaster IMF policies have been for Eastern Europe. Her main graphic is her 2000 Presidential campaign poster, showing LaRouche's "Triple Curve" pedagogical sketch of hyperinflation and physical economic collapse.

Lugar Wants NATO Measures vs. Russian Energy 'Threats'

Speaking at the Riga, Latvia NATO summit on Nov. 28, Richard Lugar (R-Ind), outgoing chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the greatest security threat to Europe is not terrorism, but "energy scarcity and manipulation ... which could lead to armed conflicts." Referring to Russia, Lugar said that, "a natural gas shutdown to a European country in the middle of winter could cause death and economic loss on the scale of a military attack." NATO "must determine what steps it is willing to take if Poland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, or another member-state is threatened as Ukraine was...."

Lugar proposed a new REFORGER exercise, used during the Cold War to prepare for massive Soviet troop attack, this time to supply a "beleaguered member" with energy resources. NATO should authorize participation with like-minded nations, such as Japan, Australia, South Korea, Finland, and Sweden, he suggested, and form new alliances with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia, effectively, to encircle Russia. NATO should invite [anti-Russia] Georgia to join the Alliance, Lugar proposed, and support Ukraine's joining NATO.

The Financial Times writes that the OECD has released a report on the Russian economy, saying the Russian state is tightening its grip on key industries, and that natural gas giant Gazprom has an "insatiable appetite for asset acquisition." Two weeks earlier, the Financial Times had publicized a NATO experts' report, puffing up the alleged danger that Russia will form a gas cartel and blackmail Europe (EIR Online, Nov. 21).

Defense Minister Presents Russia's View of NATO

"Of course, some Russians feel uneasy about the fact that a NATO summit is taking place so close to St. Petersburg," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told the Nov. 27 issue of the German weekly Der Spiegel. "But I take a more relaxed view. If NATO had staged a major military maneuver in Latvia, with tanks and aircraft, it would certainly have triggered concern within the Russian military." Nonetheless, Ivanov said, "The Baltic states are small countries in a region that is especially free of conflict and tension, militarily speaking. We do not understand why NATO needs its own military infrastructure in this region."

Asked about Russian air defense missiles in Belarus, as a response to the U.S. sale of F-16s to Poland and the installation of anti-missile defenses there, Ivanov said Russia did not intend to feed into a new Cold War. "F-16s are attack aircraft, whereas our S-300 air defense system is only designed to defend our own territory," he said. Ivanov added that, while many impoverished Russians are anti-Western because of their circumstances, Russia as a whole is committed to its identity as a European country.

Situate Litvinenko Case In Strategic Crisis

Lyndon LaRouche situates the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London, in the context of the global crisis, where the British-Dutch oligarchy wants to destroy the U.S.A. once and for all. In response to a report from an EIR contact, who commented that polonium-210 is one of the worst, most easily traceable ways to assassinate someone, LaRouche said that the key is "the vehicle, not the missile." The vehicle is that the United States is now on the very edge of being destroyed, and the Cheney plan for Shi'ite-Sunni war is the latest step in that process. It's obvious, he said, that the United States cannot get out of Iraq any longer. They have to fight their way out, and cannot get out with all their equipment; yet, even with that lost situation, there is still a push for further wars. Why? Because the target is the destruction of the U.S.A., through these expanding wars.

Everything is geared to a confrontation with China and Russia, by the Anglo-Dutch imperialists. If the Litvinenko case is not related to that coming confrontation with Russia and China, then it is of relatively little interest, LaRouche said.

The source also suggested that the London case might be practice for a "dirty bomb," a conventional bomb that spreads radioactivity. LaRouche asked, "To what end? A dirty bomb actually has little effect." If the intention was to create panic, then the target, once again, is the U.S.A., because the target of such a panic is nuclear power. "The British hate us [the U.S.]," LaRouche added. "My enemy wants to destroy technological progress—to reduce the population in size, and reduce the people who survive to beasts. [To them], this means eliminating progress with the goal of reducing the world population to about 1 billion people. Reduce China to about 100 million people. No nation-states, and you play with them like toys. This is the return of the Venetian Crusader system."

The Russian intelligence picture is complicated, LaRouche noted. There is a Boris Berezovsky-type of "financial KGB" that was created by one-time KGB chief, later Soviet top leader Yuri Andropov; there are elements in the current security service, the FSB, which are trying to rebuild the KGB, but as a new Cheka, the 1920s spy agency under Felix Dzerzhinsky. Such networks, operating in London, might easily kill Litvinenko, or any other Russian intelligence operative, if they thought they were being spied on. This inter-intelligence war is of minimal interest, per se; it is only interesting, LaRouche said, if it is part of the strategic picture of the Anglo-Dutch imperial plan to build to a confrontation with Russia.

Gaidar's Illness Feeds Frenzy Over Poisonings

Former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, the radical-liberal economist who presided over "shock therapy" in the early 1990s, collapsed during a conference presentation in Ireland Nov. 24. Hospitalized in Dublin, after vomiting blood, Gaidar was then flown to Moscow and is being treated at a hospital in an undisclosed location. Gaidar's press secretary said Nov. 30 that doctors consider his illness the result of poisoning by an "unnatural" substance. News media rushed to draw links to the Litvinenko case, insofar as ex-KGB man Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko in early November, was Gaidar's former security chief. But, no official diagnosis of Gaidar's condition has been announced. On Nov. 29, he was well enough to take a phone call from President Putin.

Anatoli Chubais, Gaidar's political ally and now CEO of the national power company, said Nov. 30 that Gaidar had nearly died, according to RIA Novosti. He suggested that the incident was part of an attack on the regime, saying that, "The deadly triangle—Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, and Gaidar—would have been very desirable for some people, who are seeking an unconstitutional and forcible change of power in Russia."

Ukraine Parliament Fires Pro-NATO 'Orange' Ministers

Presaging a showdown with President Victor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian Parliament fired three cabinet ministers, on request from Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych: Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, and Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko. Tarasyuk was a key holdover from Yushchenko's period as "Orange Revolution" victor (2004-2005), and a chief advocate of Ukraine's joining NATO. Yushchenko had managed to keep him in the government, even as opposition parties dominated this year's parliamentary election, as a result of which Yanukovych is now Prime Minister. Lutsenko was also an Orange Revolution organizer.

Tarasyuk's undermining of Yanukovych came to a head at a Nov. 30 cabinet meeting. Yanukovych read aloud a letter from Tarasyuk's Foreign Ministry, informing him that they had cancelled the Prime Minister's trip to Washington; the letter accused Yanukovych of failing to get Yushchenko's approval of guidelines for the talks. Evidently, Yanukovych was going to tell people in Washington, that Ukrainians overwhelmingly reject joining NATO. Telling Tarasyuk it was regrettable that they had "failed to find an understanding on how to work together over these three months," Yanukovych announced he was formally sending a negative evaluation of Tarasyuk to the Supreme Rada, and asking for appropriate action.

Russians Offer Help on Trans-Saudi Railroad

On Nov. 19, the day before the Saudi leaders gave the green light for the plan to build a "Saudi Land-Bridge" rail line going east-west across the nation, a delegation of Russian industrialists, led by former Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov, arrived in Riyadh. Primakov, who is now chairman of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was joined by Russian railway experts, including the Russian Railway director, Vladimir Yakunin.