A Monday Olio

While Crooke’s SCF essay and chat with Judge Napolitano being the recent usual Monday fare, there’re many more happenings, such as the media contrived sensation over the various promotions and retirements that are generally termed in an opposite, negative manner. The main fact is almost all the discussion over these moves were made behind the scenes with one slight exception: Putin’s 11 May meeting with Denis Manturov (Acting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade) and Sergey Chemezov (General Director of the State Corporation Rostec) which generated this meager read-out:

Vladimir Putin: Dear colleagues,

Just recently, at a meeting with the Government – – Denis V. Manturov, heard what I was saying—I said that we should not have any disruptions in our current work until the new Government is formed.

The complex that Denis Valentinovich is engaged in – the entire industry: both the defense industry and the civil industry-everything is concentrated here.

A significant amount of work is being done in this area within Rostec, and I would like to talk to you now about how this work is being built now and how we plan to build it in the near future.

I know that much has been done, everything is functioning, but there are also issues that require special attention. We will focus on them today. [My Emphasis]

As you see from the above photo, no notes were made yet by any of the participants as the cameras were still in the room and the expressions on two faces were rather stern with concern and very attentive. What’s known is Head Secretary of the Security Council Patrushev was promoted into retirement as he’ll be 73 come July and was replaced by Shoigu, the change actually being a promotion as he directly replaces Patrushev bypassing Dmitri Medvedev who remains Deputy Secretary. And as fate would have it, there was a Security Council meeting today attended by the new permanent members, although the usual roster of attendants wasn’t provided by the Kremlin in its read-out as usual, which nowadays has become very sparse:

Vladimir Putin: Now we will talk about a topic that is always for us priority in the external sphere is building relations with our closest with the independent states formed in the post-Soviet Space. The Minister of Finance and I [Anton Siluanov] said that in Russia's new political cycle, we must pay even more attention to this and talk about how we will organise this work from all points of view, including organisational ones.

We will return to this later, but now In fact, let's start this conversation, this discussion on one of the aspects of this multi-vector work.

I give the floor to the Foreign Minister. You are welcome Sergei Viktorovich [Lavrov]Please.

The topic discussed was foreshadowed at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council’s Summit and by recent CIS and CSTO meetings along with events in Armenia and Georgia. And as usual when few statements are made while its clear many discussions are happening, there’s a raft of sensationalized speculation in Russian and foreign media.

One article divorced from all the hullaballoo was Pepe Escobar’s “De-Dollarization Bombshell: The Coming of BRICS+ Decentralized Monetary Ecosystem” that introduced us all to a new player, The Unit Foundation, which in addition to its linked primary promotional site has also published a White Paper describing what it is and isn’t. I left a few questions for Pepe at his VK, and I’m sure more will be aired.

Prior to Lavrov’s Security Council appearance, he attended a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs where he again stated Russia’s position toward the upcoming confab in Switzerland aimed at once again seconding Zelensky’s unnegotiable “plan” and emphasized the following not once but twice:

Our cause is just. If they want to go to the "battlefield", then it will be so. Look at how they are now "lamenting" about the steady broad advance of our Armed Forces. [My Emphasis]

Lavrov very rarely repeats himself, thus meriting the additional emphasis.

Despite his 50 years as a Russian diplomat, very few will recognize Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov who’s been kept very busy since 7 October 2023 and never seems to be interviewed despite the scope of his job. That changed with his interview by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences "New Eastern Outlook” which is centered on Russian/African relations where Russia has exhibited some visible gains relative to the Outlaw US Empire’s setbacks:

Question: In connection with the intensification of our country's foreign policy towards Africa, how quickly will we be able to gain the set pace, and what will it depend on?

Answer: In fact, the pace has already been picked up, and, in my opinion, quite impressive: after all, over the past five years, two full-scale summits have been held in the Russian-African direction, the same number of parliamentary conferences, the Action Plan of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum for 2023-2026 has been adopted, the first Russian-African conference of foreign ministers is being prepared, and a number of bilateral and multilateral documents on high-status cooperation have been signed. Trade is growing, the number of African students studying in our country is increasing, new areas are opening up and forms of interaction that have not existed until before are being created.

The extent to which we will be able to maintain – and, preferably, increase – this momentum will depend on many circumstances, but first of all, on the political will of the parties, the creativity and perseverance of business, and the enthusiasm of the public. And, last but not least, from external factors, which are not always favourable: suffice it to recall the coronavirus pandemic, which relatively recently seriously slowed down the dynamic development of Russian-African relations. Nevertheless, we at the Russian Foreign Ministry are optimistic and see the same attitude among our partners.

Question: What, in your opinion, is the main result of last year's Russia-Africa Summit for the participating countries in the political, economic and humanitarian spheres?

Answer: The second Russia-Africa Summit, held in St Petersburg on July 27-29 last year, demonstrated the participants' firm commitment to further strengthening cooperation, making it strategic, and concentrating on effectively addressing the priority tasks of our partnership. The fundamental coincidence of our approaches with the Africans to the formation of a fairer world order on an equal basis and based on the principles of international law was confirmed.

At the same time, Russia's priority is to support the strengthening of the sovereignty of African states and ensure the national security of the continent's states. Progress in these areas, taking into account the cultural and historical characteristics of African countries, as a counterbalance to the Western policy of neocolonialism, became a cross-cutting idea of the St Petersburg summit and a doctrinal consolidation of our common attitude towards the continent as an emerging centre of a multipolar world.

Within the framework of the summit and its results, agreements were recorded on the entire spectrum of Russian-African cooperation, and the main vectors of upcoming joint work in the political, trade, economic, investment and humanitarian spheres were identified. They are brought together in the above-mentioned Action Plan of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum for 2023-2026, and the conference of foreign ministers scheduled for this autumn should assess the progress made, make adjustments, if necessary, and clarify the further course of action.

Q: Who are our main competitors in Africa? And what can we offer this continent that others can't?

A: Interest in Africa around the world is now great and constantly growing, because we are talking about the "continent of the future" with truly inexhaustible natural and human resources, which is also an increasingly capacious and high-margin market in a number of positions. Therefore, the rivalry of external players for a "place under the African sun" is serious, and, in addition to the traditional contenders represented by the states of the "collective West", more and more representatives of the "global East and South" are participating in it: China, India, Turkey, the countries of the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, Latin America. The list, as you can see, is long and tends to expand.

Russia is not afraid of fair competition and is ready for it, offering itself to Africa, primarily as a serious guarantor of stability and security, as well as providing its traditional and newly acquired competencies, sometimes unique. Judging by the reaction of our African partners, there is a growing demand for our country's assistance in the Sahara-Sahel zone, as well as across the continent.

What we categorically do not accept is the West's attempts to dictate to Africans with whom they can do business and with whom they cannot. But, fortunately, they themselves are increasingly resolutely rejecting such neocolonial encroachments.

In building our cooperation with African countries, we proceed from the principle that the African continent is not an arena of confrontation between major international players, but a new, growing, diverse, original and global pole of power. Russia is ready to actively help strengthen the existing potential of African countries, without setting any political conditions and without offering unsolicited advice – this is our competitive advantage.

Question: For more than two years now, the whole world has been living in new geopolitical realities that have changed dramatically since the start of the special military operation. How has this affected the work of Russian companies in Africa, because sanctions have been imposed against many of them?

Answer: Today's realities are amending our relations. In the context of unprecedented political and economic anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the "collective West", it is necessary to significantly reconfigure many parameters and mechanisms of interaction with African countries. At present, work is underway at all levels to develop new tools. First of all, this applies to trade and economic ties. I am referring to the establishment of transport chains, foreign trade payment systems, as well as ensuring food, energy, sanitary and epidemiological security in Africa.

Even in these difficult conditions, vigorous work continues in specific areas, including the construction and modernisation of infrastructure and industrial facilities, exploration, production and transportation of minerals, the promotion of Russian developments in the field of medicine and digital services, and the expansion of supplies of Russian products. Not only our exports are increasing, but also imports from African countries. The federal executive authorities, in cooperation with our embassies, are actively assisting Russian businesses in their work on the African track, including in the search for promising areas for effective access to the continent's markets.

At the same time, large Russian economic operators have been successfully operating in Africa for a long time and on the whole, and the current situation in the world only contributes to the further growth of their interest in this continent. We also see the reciprocal interest of our African partners, especially in direct investment from Russia based on domestic technologies applicable in African conditions.

Question: To what extent is Russia ready to cooperate with African countries in new promising areas, such as digital technologies, peaceful nuclear energy and space exploration, and to what extent does Africa need this?

Answer: Moscow has consistently advocated the development of the entire range of economic ties with Africa, both with individual states and with regional associations, and in the near future, with the emerging African continental free trade area. At the same time, there are no sectoral or thematic restrictions on cooperation with them for the Russian side – on the contrary, Russia is focused on strengthening the technological sovereignty of African countries along the entire chain of competencies – expertise, adaptation and transfer of technologies, creation of enterprises, training of specialists.

Recently, the focus of our economic cooperation has been gradually shifting towards high technology. As an example, we can cite the creation of a national satellite communication and television and radio broadcasting system in Angola, the construction of a space tracking station in South Africa. Cooperation projects are being discussed with a number of African States in the field of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the exploration of outer space and the adaptation of its results. We see great interest in these areas on the part of Africans and are trying to satisfy it as much as possible.

This also applies to information and communication technologies. Russian ICT companies offer package solutions in the field of digitalization, expansion of telecommunications networks, creation and implementation of mobile operating systems, radio monitoring and cybersecurity. At the same time, as the week-long Russian-African seminar at the Higher School of Economics held at the very end of last year in Moscow showed, some of the partners' developments are of interest to us as well.

Question: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of our embassies were closed on the African continent. Now active work is underway to restore them. In which countries have diplomatic missions already been opened and are planned to open in the near future?

Answer: Following the second Russia-Africa Summit, our country's leadership set the task of expanding Russia's diplomatic presence on the African continent, not only in the countries where it was curtailed in the 1990s. A few more "points" are next in line - where exactly they will open, we will report as soon as they are ready.

Question: This year marks the 50th anniversary of your diplomatic career. What has changed in the work of a diplomat over the years?

Answer: Half a century is a long time by human standards, and in a sense, almost everything has changed. Suffice it to say that when I came to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the main "working tools" of a diplomat were a ballpoint or ink pen (for the especially skilled - a typewriter) and a wired landline phone. Now without a computer, a mobile phone with a wide range of functions and Internet access, preferably stable and fast, people of our profession cannot imagine their lives.

The ratio between the various components that make up the work of a diplomat has also changed. Our profession has become much more open and public, which, of course, has its pros and cons. The importance of universalism has increased: not in the sense that a diplomat should know and be able to do a little of everything, but in the context of a deeper and more thorough economic, legal, and media qualification. What has not gone anywhere is the ability to establish and maintain personal contacts, as well as knowledge of foreign languages and their use in work. The constants remain high professionalism within the framework of functional and country specialization, broad and deep knowledge of international issues, general erudition, interest in the history and culture of the states and regions where the diplomat is located or in which he is engaged.

Question: To conclude our conversation, our traditional question. What is Africa like? What attracts and fascinates you about it? Why did it sink into your soul?

Answer: Africa is huge, literally immense, very diverse, and at the same time has common features for different regions and peoples. Many things attract and fascinate: the power and beauty of nature, the richness of flora and fauna, the abundance of monuments of ancient civilizations, but most of all - the inexhaustible vitality of the people inhabiting the continent, their worldly wisdom, common sense and ability to overcome difficulties and adversities, finding joy and a reason for fun in the ordinary. Actually, this is what conquered the continent and still does not let me go. I am always ready to fly to Africa, receive guests from there, meet with Africans. [My Emphasis]

It’s true that Covid hurt the progress of Russian/African relations and set them back about five years in some areas but actually advanced them in others. The West made some profound errors that Russia capitalized on and continues. There’s lots of work to do in Africa and Africans want to do most of it themselves, something that both Russia and China understand. Sharing technology and teaching Africans to run it themselves instead of trying to make the arrangement into a rent seeking play is now very visible to Africans and most of the Global Majority. Also, about half of Africa is Moslem, and Russia’s opposite of Islamophobia is very well received.

Africans will have seen yet more duplicity from Team Biden that Alastair Crooke describes in his SCF essay, “Who tried to pull the rug on Netanyahu, and why?” The Zionists decided they didn’t want to attend the negotiations at Cairo or Doha and allowed Team Biden to speak for them which resulted in terms being offered to Hamas that it found agreeable to, which were then announced and sparked celebrations within Palestinian enclaves. Crooke was asked by Judge Napolitano during their chat what he thought of this incident to which the Zionists immediately declared they were against. IMO, it ought to be clear by now to the Global Majority that the Zionists will not stop their Genocidal Crusade until they are forced to stop. Crooke again explains where the force is coming from that will make the Zionists quit and how that strategy is working. The outcome of this happening is that Biden clearly has no leverage over Netanyahu because of the circular money flow into Occupied Palestine and back into the coffers of AIPAC and then into politician campaign funds. Biden saying he’ll withhold some classes of bombs was met with predictable AIPAC fury that forced many key politicians to confess their preference for Genocide, which is still the solution wanted by a majority of Zionists. But they’re losing because they lack the will to engage Hamas in its underground home. And to his delight, Netanyahu says the war will go on for another ten years, which IMO is very doubtful. That’s the synopsis of the two Crooke items.

A few closing items. TASS in Russian reports how the EU is trying to lie its way out from the consequences of its own many statements since the SMO’s beginning:

The European Commission considers statements that the European Union wants victory in Ukraine on the battlefield to be disinformation, despite the fact that this phrase was previously written by the head of the EU diplomatic service, Josep Borrell. This was stated by EU Foreign Service Representative Peter Stano at a briefing in Brussels. Commenting at the request of journalists on the phrase of Sergei Lavrov, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to reappoint as head of the Foreign Ministry, that if the West “want [a solution to the conflict in Ukraine] on the battlefield, then it will be on the battlefield,” Stano considered it “ misinformation and distortion of reality." In turn, the head of the press service of the European Commission, Eric Mamer, called the same question from journalists incorrect. "The European Union is not on the battlefield. It is Russia that wants victory on the battlefield. Asking us about this, excuse me, means ignoring everything we have said on this topic before," he argued. He also said that the European Union is "an organization based on a philosophy of peace." Borrell was the first European official to say that the conflict in Ukraine “must be won on the battlefield.” He wrote about this on April 9, 2022 on X (formerly Twitter) after a visit to Ukraine in the company of the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. From that moment on, this phrase was constantly repeated throughout 2022 and the first half of 2023 by many European politicians, and then disappeared from the vocabulary of European officials. This roughly coincided with the defeat of the so-called Ukrainian offensive last summer.

In the internet age, it’s almost impossible to cover up your previous statements. An excellent catch by TASS which also reports on another arrest of a Russian General:

"Lieutenant General General Kuznetsov was detained as a suspect in a criminal offense. The case is being investigated by the Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee," the source said.

Andrei Martyanov comments:

Ivanov, obviously, was just the start of a larger cleaning process in Defense Ministry. As you already noticed the pattern--these are auxiliary, however extremely important, services of Defense Ministry which are being purged of people who are noted for unbecoming. It is also clear that they have been in "development" by FSB and Investigative Committee for some time. I think some of it--I am speculating here--also is related to Prigozhin and Wagner and money laundering schemes. It is a healthy process.

Imagine what the FBI would uncover if it actually performed its job.

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