From Volume 37, Issue 44 of EIR Online, Updated Nov. 19, 2010
Russia and the CIS News Digest

LaRouche Exposé of British Agents Breaks Out in Russia

Nov. 12 (EIRNS)—A segment from Lyndon LaRouche's March 13, 2010 webcast, "The Ides of March," has electrified the Russian-language segment of the Internet, after being reposted by the military-linked KOB-TV channel on Yandex's video service. The excerpt deals with the history of the Strategic Defense Initiative and its rejection by Soviet leaders Yuri Andropov and Mikhail Gorbachov, whom LaRouche called members of "the British school of treason, from a Russian patriotic standpoint." Placing former privatization czar and current head of the state corporation Rosnano, Anatoli Chubais, in this same grouping, LaRouche said that their alliance with the British Empire's Inter-Alpha Group is "behind the major problem we have today."

While the Russian voiceover of the LPAC video of this webcast had been viewed on RuTube by around 10,000 people since its initial posting last April, attention to it exploded after the re-publication on KOB-TV. The KOB movement, its Russian initials standing for Concept of Public Security, was founded by the late Gen. Konstantin Petrov of Russia's Space Forces.

At least 20,000 viewers downloaded the LaRouche segment in the past six days. The surge coincided with President Dmitri Medvedev's participation in the G-20 meeting in Korea, where today he reiterated postures based on the Gorbachov-Chubais influence, saying that the world crisis is essentially over, and that Russia can proceed with its plan to make Moscow a "world financial center."

KOB-TV retitled the LaRouche segment, "On the Traitors to Russia." Scores of Russian Internet users have posted links to it in their blogs or sent the links out by Twitter. A selection of comments, some more accurate than others, includes these:

"Not everybody knows that the Americans were quite seriously planning a nuclear strike against the USSR in 1976. LaRouche lays bare the evidence. He names the names of the traitors within our country's leadership, who destroyed the USSR and are destroying Russia today. After watching this video, you will no longer wonder why disgraced oligarchs and politicians settle in London."

"The well-known American economist, ex-intelligence operative [sic], public figure, and former Presidential candidate, one of the best informed people in the world, tells about the traitors in the Soviet and Russian leadership and their collaboration with the West. He says that the last Soviet leaders, like those today, were and remain under the West's control."

"This should be seen even by schoolchildren, who need to know the truth!"

The 18-minute section republished by KOB-TV can be found in EIR of March 26, 2010, pages 26-30, from the subhead "The Genesis of the SDI," through to the section on Haiti (http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2010/2010_10-19/ 2010-12/pdf/18-57_3712.pdf).

China, India, and Russia Intensify Consultations

Nov. 14 (EIRNS)—As the financial system continues to drag the world's population to the abyss, leaders of China, India, and Russia have intensified their consultations. The foreign ministers of the three nations are meeting in the southern Chinese city of Wuhan on Nov. 14 and 15. This 10th meeting of the three foreign ministers is attended by India's External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Chinese Foreign Minster Yang Jiechi. On the sidelines of the two-day meeting, each minister is also meeting in pairs to conduct separate bilateral talks.

Chinese officials said that the RIC (Russia-India-China) grouping would continue to strengthen dialogue among the three, and would make efforts to create a sound environment for the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world. Besides the strategic issues, they said, RIC discussions will focus on issues relating to disaster relief, agriculture, and public health, deepening communication among academic, industrial, and business circles, as well as promoting multilateral cooperation and democratic international relations.

The last meeting of the RIC foreign ministers was held in Bangalore in October 2009, during which the three countries discussed issues relating to terrorism, climate change, and reducing the impact of global recession, among others.

In December, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will visit New Delhi. Preparations are afoot to set up the agenda for their talks.

Russia, China Committed to Advanced Rail Infrastructure

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Both Russia and China have just asserted their commitment to building advanced railway infrastructure. At the High-Speed Rail World 2010 international conference in Madrid, Russian Railways (RZhD) official Denis Muratov yesterday described the economic benefit of building the planned Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway. Although Sapsan trains are already running on this route on conventional tracks, the new project will build dedicated tracks that will greatly increase speed, efficiency, and safety.

The total socioeconomic benefit of building Russia's first national high-speed line could reach 1.8 trillion rubles, Muratov, general director of RZhD subsidiary Skorostnye Magistrali, told the conference. The feasibility study projects costs at 1.2 trillion rubles, but that could be reduced 20-40%. "The draft project is being drawn up with the involvement of international financial, technical, and traffic consultants with extensive international experience in high-speed rail projects," Muratov said. Substantial increase in population mobility will benefit both cities and adjoining regions, he said, and increase rail transport in comparison to air and car travel, an environmental benefit. Travel time on the 660 km rail line will be cut to 2.5 hours, and the track will be able to carry 42 pairs of trains travelling at up to 400 km/h, and 14 million passengers per year.

Russia is also proposing international projects. Medvedev told South Korean media Nov. 8, that developing joint trilateral projects among North and South Korea and Russia will help normalize the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Projects include a gas pipeline, and linking the Trans-Korean Railroad with the Trans-Siberian Railway. RZhD and North Korea's Railways Ministry signed a contract to rebuild a 40 km rail connection in 2008.

In Beijing, the Chinese Ministry of Railways refuted a report this week in the Financial Times, which claimed that China's high-speed rail project is being reconsidered because it is "unaffordable and impractical." However, the ministry said that the huge national project requires strategic planning of ultra-high-speed line construction with other forms of transportation, the Global Times reported today. Ministry spokesman Wang Yongping told the Legal Mirror Nov. 9 that China is confident about its ultra high-speed railways and the program is developing in a healthy and promising way. The ministry had refused any comment on the Financial Times report.

Japan's Real Interests Lie in Cooperation with Russia

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Political tensions between Russia and Japan will not seriously affect the two nations' economic cooperation, Prof. Oleg Bogomolov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told China's national news agency Xinhua in an interview published Nov. 9. The two countries—which have still not signed a peace treaty to end World War II, although their actual combat was brief—are still divided by territorial disputes, but such divisions do not define either nation's fundamental interests; geopoliticians have recently been trying to play up "Russia and China against Japan" as the scenario of the month for the Asia-Pacific region. There is sufficient sanity in Japan, Lyndon LaRouche pointed out today, to ensure that the potential for economic cooperation with Russia will overcome such tensions.

As LaRouche stressed, it is important that the countries involved go ahead with economic projects like the Bering Strait tunnel. Construction will be a physical asset. You can't lose if you go ahead. The world needs physical assets rather than monetary assets. Japan also depends on raw materials. Monetary values are worthless. You can blame the British for that.

"The economies of both countries [Russia and Japan] have not been in their best shape," Bogomolov told Xinhua. "Japan eyes Russia as a market for its car industry. Japan hopes to invest heavily in Russia's Far East, because those investments promise high return. Japanese business looks forward for participation even in such a science-fiction-sounding project like building a tunnel under the Bering Strait. Of course, Japan needs Russian raw materials, as always."

Bogomolov, who was director of the Institute for International Economic and Political Studies of the USSR (now Russian) Academy of Sciences from 1969-98, was strongly critical of the "wild" liberalism of shock therapy. He said that discussions at the APEC summit in Yokohama Nov. 13-14, will be tough, due to trade and currency conflicts, but Russia wants to reach its goal of better balancing trade with its partners in the region, particularly with China, the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

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