Author: Christine Schier

Geopolitical pressure is increasing on Europe to cut all oil and gas imports from Russia, and thus usher in a nightmare of energy blackouts, industry collapses and price inflation, including food rationing. The German debate on the issue is telling. The leading German “climate protector” Ottmar Edenhofer of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research told the Rheinische Post on […]

Before Russia’s military operation in Ukraine began in February, famine was already spreading in many parts of the world, although there a near black-out in most media of the mass suffering in food-short Afghanistan, Yemen, Congo, Haiti, and other places of acute need. According to the World Food Program, the number of people at the brink of famine has risen […]

In response to the unprecedented set of sanctions imposed on Russia by Western powers, the Russian government announced March 10 a package of measures to defend the national economy. The key measures include: Departing foreign companies will be taken over by “external management”, i.e., by Russians, to keep them running and maintain jobs. Foreign capital flows out of the country […]

Ever since Russian officials announced on March 7 that documents had been found in Ukraine indicating that the United States has been funding some 30 biological laboratories in that country, that were working on potential biological weapons, there has been an uproar on the issue. Finally, on March 12, the UN Security Council held an emergency session called by Russia […]

There are two distinctly different dynamics co-present in the world today. One is committed to war and destruction in a geopolitical order and the other to a re-alignment of nations for sound mutual development. The second outlook was favored by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in a March 7 international press conference on the sidelines of China’s annual national legislative […]

During her intervention March 7 on CGTN’s “Dialogue”, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche described the need for an entirely new world security and development architecture. The other two guests on the live panel discussion hosted by Li Quiyuan were Prof. Victor Gau Zhikai of Soochow University and Peter Kuznick of American University in Washington DC. They also stressed the urgency […]

On Feb. 25, Moody’s and Fitch downgraded Russia’s sovereign debt to junk, with Moody’s downgraded it again on March 6, to Ca, the second lowest on its scale. A default on Russia’s $100 billion foreign debt is now given an 80% probability. Rating agencies are known to be tools of financial warfare, and their latest move shows how they are […]

The renewed spike in energy prices, however, has no direct relationship to the new “economic Iron Curtain” (cf. previous item). Sanctions have hit neither oil nor natural gas. The hyperinflation of energy prices is a story entirely made in the West. As we have often explained, energy prices are determined by financial speculation on commodity markets. Reuters reports that the […]

On Feb. 28, the Swiss government (Federal Council) adopted all the sanctions the European Union has imposed on Russia, thus overturning the Federation’s long tradition of neutrality. The decision was a reversal of the government’s previous announcement that it would not support EU sanctions, but would nonetheless work to prevent Switzerland from being used to circumvent them, and it came […]

President Putin has repeatedly stressed that the “de-nazification” of Ukraine is a primary goal of the Russia’s “special operation”. But the importance of that statement has been consistently played down (or even denied) by Western propaganda. Nonetheless, there have been a few exceptions to that unspoken rule. For example: * The Gray Zone and Consortium News ran an article on […]