HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE:
Creating a World Worthy of
the Dignity of Mankind
[PDF version of this transcript]
Helga Zepp-LaRouche gave this address, videotaped Dec. 8, to a Dec. 22, 2014 Conference in Dubna, Russia.
Dear participants of the Dubna Conference,
I think you are all aware that the world is at an extremely dangerous moment, and that if the present policies of the U.S. government, the British, NATO, and the EU, were to be continued, a thermonuclear war, in all likelihood, would occur, and would lead to the extinction of civilization.
I think it is clear that both the Russian and the Chinese governments are fully aware of this danger, and if you listen to the speech President Putin gave, his annual speech to both houses of the Russian Federation, he said one thing which I think is absolutely clear: What the present crisis is all about, is not about Ukraine. He emphasized that if they would not have found the Ukraine crisis, they would have found another avenue, and that is exactly what I think is absolutely true. And I'm not saying that as an opinion, but I'm saying that as somebody who has been actively involved, together with Mr. LaRouche, for a very long time, to try to change the direction of the world towards a peace order for the 21st Century.
Now, when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, we proposed an economic program which we called the Eurasian Land-Bridge, the New Silk Road, which was the idea to connect the population and industrial centers of Europe with those of Asia, through so-called "development corridors"; and in that way, we could have saved the industrial capacity of the former Comecon countries by using these capacities to build up infrastructure development corridors throughout Asia and Europe; and in that way, changed the conditions of the landlocked areas of the Eurasian continent to provide for a better living standard for all people on this continent.
Unfortunately, that was not the policy of the British and the American governments at that point, because they very clearly said, and stated, that their aim was, at that point, to turn Russia from a superpower into a raw-materials-producing Third World country. And therefore, they basically applied the first form of warfare, which was the so-called "shock therapy."
We followed that very clearly, because we had the plan to develop the Eurasian continent, and we saw that the shock therapy was never meant to do anything good to anybody, but it succeeded in reducing the Russian industrial capacities in only three years, from 1991 to 1994, to one-third of its level from '91. And what this period did, the '90s, the Yeltsin period—I think there are two very important books which describe that: One is from Sergei Glazyev,[1] and the other is from Professor [Stanislav] Menshikov,[2] who was a very dear friend of ours, and who unfortunately just passed away; and they both describe that form of warfare as "genocide."
The Aim: Regime Change in Russia
The present offensive against Russia really began at the end of the '90s with the two Chechen Wars, which were financed by Boris Berezovsky, from London, and others. Also a big role was played by the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, which was founded by the American neo-cons in 1999. Among the founding members were [Zbigniew] Brzezinski, Alexander Haig, Richard Perle, James Woolsey, Robert Kagan, who is still very important in the Obama Administration, and he is married to nobody else but Victoria Nuland. And I'm pretty sure that it is that grouping, to which President Putin referred in his recent speech, when he said that these Chechen terrorists were received on the highest level, and they were, [although] being murderers with blood on their hands, called "rebels," "freedom fighters," and so forth, by these people.
Now, the aim, already in the '90s, but especially since President Putin came back, was that of regime change in Russia, and also all the East European countries where still remnants of the pro-Russian attitude existed. And the promise not to expand NATO to the borders of Russia, obviously, was broken. Victoria Nuland, the wife of Robert Kagan, who is now the Assistant Secretary of State in the State Department responsible for Europe and Eurasia, was bragging in December 2013, that the American government spent $5 billion, on Ukraine alone, for the color revolution.
The Russian military in the meantime has clearly defined color revolution as a form of war, even if it's not declared. Also, Foreign Minister [Sergei] Lavrov has clearly stated that sanctions are not a device to change the policy of Russia, but simply to topple President Putin.
Putin, in his speech, said the real aim is the Yugoslavia model for Russia, the dismemberment of the whole state; and it is also clear that the EU Association Agreement, which started and triggered the Ukraine crisis, was aimed in the same direction, because it would have flooded the Russian market with cheap European Union products, destroying important capacities in Russia.
The Ukraine crisis was entirely caused by the EU, and naturally by their American collaborators, and one can say, masters. Because the so-called Maidan was the color revolution activists, but this time, reinforced through the old Nazi networks dating back to Bandera period of the Ukrainian Nazis collaborating with the Nazi invasion in the 1940s. And these people were groomed in the entire postwar period by the CIA, by MI6, and by the BND [German foreign intelligence].
Then you had the fascist coup on the 21st February, which again was heavily controlled and sponsored by Victoria Nuland, who bragged in this famous taped phone conversation, that they wanted to put their man "Yats" [Arseniy Yatsenyuk], into office. And so, this is entirely a combined warfare-color revolution-NATO expansion to the borders of Russia, sanctions; and therefore, one should listen to the former Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, who believes that the conflict between NATO and Russia is on the way, that it already has begun with an information war, with psychological pressure on the minds of the people, a demonization of Putin—and China, by the way—and that military force proper will be only the final stage in this process that we are already seeing today.
And when he was asked if he thinks it can be still stopped, he said, "Unfortunately, I believe it is no longer possible. The mechanism has been set in motion; our adversaries' aims have been clearly defined: While we are alive, they will try to prevent Russia becoming their equal partner militarily or economically."
The Alternative
Fortunately, that is only one reality: It is real, but there is another one.
Since the BRICS conference, the summit in Fortaleza in Brazil this July, a whole, completely different world dynamic has been formed by the BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa], which have now inspired many other countries in the world, the Latin American countries, the CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States], the UNASUR [Union of South American Nations], the APEC [Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation] countries (minus the United States), but also the ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries, Egypt; many countries have now started to take optimism from the fact that, centered on the strategic alliance between Russia and China which was formed in May of this year, and then continued through the process of the BRICS, especially after President Xi Jinping put the offer of a New Silk Road on the table—which, by the way, is exactly what we had proposed in '91 with the Eurasian Land-Bridge/New Silk Road—a complete explosion of optimism has started among many, many countries of the developing sector.
New financial institutions are being created, or have been created already. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the New Development Bank of the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization bank, the New Silk Road Development Fund, the bank of the SAARC [South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation] countries—the South Asian countries; and there is right now, a complete change in the dynamic, because many projects which were intimidated by the IMF conditionalities for decades are now being realized.
China is helping to build a second Panama Canal in Nicaragua; China is helping to build a transcontinental railway from Brazil to Peru; nuclear cooperation is occurring among many, many countries. And if you look at the explosion of optimism, which, for example, is occurring in India since Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister: He has promised to build 100 new cities in India, to create 1 million jobs every month for the young people of that country; he has just announced that he will revive the 31 water-management projects which were put on ice after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
China has accomplished an economic miracle which is unmatched in the world. China, after the Deng Xiaoping reforms, was able to transform China from a very poor country into an economic miracle, in which they accomplished in 30 years what most countries of the industrialized sector needed two centuries for. And this proposal for the New Silk Road—what China is offering is to take that Chinese economic miracle and let every country which wants to do so, participate in that effort.
After the APEC conference in Beijing, recently, Xi Jinping offered to President Obama that the United States and other major countries are all invited to participate in the New Silk Road and into these new financial mechanisms. Now, it is my firmest conviction that it is not hopeless, that that offer can be taken up.
For example, in Germany, you have right now, a complete revolt in the industry against the sanctions: Just yesterday, a new advertisement, an appeal to the government and the parliament was issued, signed by 60 important personalities from [Gerhard] Schröder, to Roman Herzog, to Horst Teltschik, the former head of the Munich Security Conference, and many others; and the title of this appeal, by the way, is "War Again in Europe? Not in Our Name!"
So there is a resistance, and this is very important, and we have to make sure that the evil deeds of such people as Victoria Nuland are becoming known, and that we counter this war propaganda. My husband has called for the removal of Victoria Nuland, just to slow down this war machine.
Eliminate the Real Cause of War
But I think the real remedy will only come if we eliminate the real cause for this war, and that is the fact that the trans-Atlantic financial system is about to blow out. The collapse of the oil price is not only hurting Russia and Iran. It is potentially blowing out the entire trans-Atlantic financial system, because the oil companies and the shale oil producers have accumulated $1 trillion debt, which they can only pay if the oil price is between $80-120. So we are looking at a repeat of the secondary mortgage crisis of 2007.
Therefore, I believe the only real war-avoidance policy is that we get civilization into a completely new paradigm. We have to stop thinking in terms of geopolitical interests, and we have to define the common aims of mankind, and we have to define the present situation from the future: How do we want mankind to look in 10 years, in 100 years, in 1,000 years? And there, the question of joint space exploration and such things will become absolutely crucial.
Now the immediate route to go this way, is therefore to take up the offer of President Xi Jinping for the United States and Europe to join the New Silk Road. We have just produced a report which shows the unbelievable number of projects and things for the future which would change and transform the face of the Earth, and I think that this blueprint, "The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,"[3] is something we absolutely have to make the major issue of discussion, as the only alternative to the extinction of civilization.
I'm optimistic that we can do it. That's a guarantee I don't have, but I think it's worth the effort to try everything possible to change the agenda, and to discuss the common aims of mankind: How do we get out of this crisis, and how do we create a world which is worthy of the dignity of man, and of the identity of mankind as the only creative species in the universe.
[1] Sergei Glazyev, Genocide: Russia and the New World Order (EIR, 1999). Available from larouchepub.com.
[2] Stansilav M. Menshikov, The Anatomy of Russian Capitalism,(EIR, 2006).
[3] Available from larouchepub.com