Month: June 2024

As the heads of state and government of what used to be the seven major industrialized countries of the world gathered in Italy June 13-15 for their annual summit, they had to face the fact that they can no longer lay down the law for the rest of the world. Even in their own nations, most of them are very […]

An important step on the road to a BRICS trade currency unit, which Russian President Putin referred to at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (see SAS 24/24), was a meeting between BRICS Bank (NDB) President Dilma Rousseff and prominent Russian economist Sergey Glazyev, on the sidelines of the forum. Although details of the discussion are not available, the fact […]

French President Macron’s decision to dissolve the National Assembly after the catastrophic showing of his majority in the European elections, and to hold elections three weeks later on June 30, created a huge shock in France (cf. SAS 24/24). While it is constitutional, it is a last ditch effort which has been used only a few times by governments seeking […]

The international Schiller Institute’s two-day conference, “The World on the Brink: For a New Peace of Westphalia!” opened June 15 at a time of extreme crisis, and served as a platform to not only review the nature of the causes of the emergency, but to discuss principles for solutions. A preliminary program was included in last week’s Strategic Alert, and […]

On June 3, the U.S. State Department prevented U.S. citizen Scott Ritter from boarding his flight to St. Petersburg, Russia, and seized his passport. Ritter, a former U.S. Marine officer and United Nations weapons inspector who has become a prominent opponent of the current war policy, was traveling to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). He was […]

The Parliament of the European Union, the institution that loves to lecture the rest of the world about democracy, is in fact powerless. It cannot legislate on its own initiative and cannot even dissolve itself. Its function relative to the Executive of the EU, the Commission, is similar to that of consultative bodies under absolute monarchies. Only once during a […]

The three parties of the German government coalition (SPD, Greens, FDP) were all among the losers of the election for the European Parliament. For the Greens, it was a smashing defeat, as they lost 40% of the votes they got four years ago, as a result of the growing disgust at the party’s war policy and the Green Deal, both […]

Despite all the hype in France around the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-day, the Renaissance party of President Macron could not avoid a stunning disavowal of his policy in the June 9 European Parliament elections. As expected, the party of Marine Le Pen, the National Rally, came in at over 31%, more than double the score of Renaissance […]

The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) brought together leading actors in the economic and political sectors from many countries in the world to discuss not only trade and investment opportunites, but also fundamental questions related to international relations and to the reorganization of the international financial system to promote cooperation. As Russia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the […]

The purpose of the never-ending series of sanctions the West has imposed on Russia, we are told repeatedly, is to weaken the Russian economy, and to force Moscow to accept the “rules-based order”. They have certainly weakened the European economies due to soaring energy prices and the restriction of trade, but what happened in Russia? That question was answered indirectly […]