{"id":143736,"date":"2015-02-23T15:42:01","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T15:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=143736"},"modified":"2015-02-23T15:50:35","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T15:50:35","slug":"financial-war-us-wants-trigger-wave-russian-bankruptcies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/financial-war-us-wants-trigger-wave-russian-bankruptcies\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial War: US Wants to Trigger Wave of Russian Bankruptcies"},"content":{"rendered":"

[translated by Eric Zuesse, from German Economic News<\/i>:]<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de\/2015\/02\/23\/finanz-krieg-usa-wollen-pleite-welle-von-russischen-unternehmen-ausloesen\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Financial War: US\u00a0wants to trigger wave of\u00a0Russian bankruptcies<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

German Economic News\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Published: 02\/23\/15 12:55 clock\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a042 Comments<\/span><\/p>\n

The US government insists on a tightening of sanctions against\u00a0Russia, and demands that the EU follow suit.\u00a0Washington now wants\u00a0sanctions that will have a “devastating\u201d effect, which Russia must\u00a0\u201csuffer.\u201d\u00a0Financial measures are planned to trigger a\u00a0wave of bankruptcies in Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond over the weekend had a visit by\u00a0US Secretary of State John Kerry, concerning the US plan.\u00a0Washington expects the EU to cooperate to force the Russian economy\u00a0to its knees.<\/span><\/p>\n

The US will drastically tighten sanctions against Russia:\u00a0US Secretary of State\u00a0John Kerry said this weekend in London that Russia was “guilty of gravely violating the Minsk truce.”\u00a0Kerry said Russia had the city Debalzewo attacked, and\u00a0supported paramilitary warriors in the region, and contracted new troops near Mariupol.\u00a0Kerry said: “This is a violation of the ceasefire.\u00a0We are serious: there will be more\u00a0actions that cause additional pain in\u00a0the Russian economy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He went on: “There is a serious discussion between us and our European allies, as to what\u00a0sanctions we will bring next and when they are due to come into force.\u00a0I\u00a0am confident that there will be additional measures in response to Russia’s violations\u00a0of the ceasefire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond fully backed the remarks by Kerry.\u00a0A few months ago American Vice President Joe Biden explained how the US\u00a0created the EU\u2019s role in the strategy directed against Russia.\u00a0The collaboration now\u00a0appears to function somewhat smoother than it did at first.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the EU level, politicians can apparently no longer resist America\u2019s pressure.\u00a0Thus, the\u00a0EU observer\u00a0reported\u00a0several unnamed\u00a0permanent EU officials saying that further sanctions are inevitable.\u00a0The EU Observer also\u00a0quoted a senior US official, explaining America\u2019s strategy.\u00a0Whether this official is\u00a0Daniel Fried, who coordinates the sanctions between the US and the EU, is unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Americans hope that the next step will have “devastating”\u00a0impact on the Russian economy.\u00a0Thus, there could be a wave of bankruptcies\u00a0among Russian companies, because many companies risk bankruptcy if loans\u00a0due\u00a0in dollars during the coming year cannot be rolled over. [Bankruptcy would be expected because the value of the ruble has plunged and many more of them will thus be needed in order to pay the balance due.]<\/span><\/p>\n

To achieve this goal and take advantage of the plunged ruble, the US government intends to resort to a technical trick to\u00a0shorten the\u00a0duration of existing loans and credits, which Russian banks, energy\u00a0companies and arms companies\u00a0have in European and American banks.\u00a0US\u00a0officials told the EU observer: “If we want, we can make sure that they are really\u00a0suffering.\u00a0The inability to raise new capital hurts most — there is no alternative to\u00a0US and European financial markets.\u201d [Thus, there will be bankruptcy.]<\/span><\/p>\n

Another US contact said in Brussels, that the\u00a0exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payments system [the ability to transact business electronically instead of via paper records]\u00a0would again be discussed and again\u00a0reinforced.\u00a0The Americans had tried this step, which is particularly feared by the\u00a0Russians, a few months ago, by direct pressure, but failed because\u00a0the independent SWIFT organization refused to obey Washington.\u00a0However,\u00a0when America succeeds on this,\u00a0the cash flow to Russian companies will be suppressed.\u00a0Russia is therefore rushing to install an\u00a0alternative to the SWIFT system, hoping to reduce the impact on the Russian domestic payments when America pulls the plug and disconnects Russia from SWIFT.<\/span><\/p>\n

The American rating agencies have already strengthened sanctions by\u00a0classifying Russian government bonds as junk.\u00a0This downgrade means that some large\u00a0US pension\u00a0funds are legally obliged to withdraw from their Russian government\u00a0bonds.<\/b> [That forces the ruble\u2019s value down even further.] <\/span><\/p>\n

EU observer also reports that the Americans intend to deliver\u00a0weapons soon to Ukraine.\u00a0This is the next step [in America\u2019s war against Russia], which is set in a recently adopted US law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Russian violations of the ceasefire, that are alleged by the Americans, line up with the\u00a0previously existing [dubious American] argument, as follows:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a:\u00a0It is completely unclear\u00a0who shot at Maidan [the coup in February 2014].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

b: The\u00a0shooting down of passenger flight\u00a0MH17\u00a0is also not even beginning to be elucidated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

c: The killers of\u00a0civilians in\u00a0Odessa [in a massacre of pro-Russian demonstrators by burning them in the Trade Unions Building on 2 May 2014]\u00a0are also\u00a0unclear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

d: Who is shelling\u00a0Mariupol\u00a0is likewise unclear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

e: Who was\u00a0behind the rocket attack\u00a0on the\u00a0bus in Donetsk\u00a0is also unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each one of these events had been taken by the Americans as an\u00a0opportunity to impose tougher sanctions against Russia. [Each one of these excuses by America for economic sanctions against Russia was dubious, but the EU went along anyway.]<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not known whether there will be any response by the West to the actions of Ukraine\u2019s Right Sector and other anti-Russian Ukrainian extremists:\u00a0The right-wing paramilitary militias have\u00a0informed that they\u2019ll not\u00a0even adhere to the Minsk agreements [but Kerry ignores that].\u00a0They also have established\u00a0their\u00a0own general staff,\u00a0and refuse to follow orders from the official Ukrainian army regarding their\u00a0military operations against the pro-Russian rebels.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the behavior of the extreme right in Ukraine, the opinion of the EU and of the\u00a0Americans is not known. [Publicly, there is no opinion on that, but only on attacking Russia.]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Because Zuesse has found German Economic News<\/i> to be the world\u2019s most reliable general-news source, especially on matters pertaining to international relations, he frequently cites it as a source, and this is also why he translates some of its articles into English, so as to make them available in the English-speaking world as well.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[translated by Eric Zuesse, from German Economic News:] http:\/\/deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de\/2015\/02\/23\/finanz-krieg-usa-wollen-pleite-welle-von-russischen-unternehmen-ausloesen\/ Financial War: US\u00a0wants to trigger wave of\u00a0Russian bankruptcies German Economic News\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Published: 02\/23\/15 12:55 clock\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a042 Comments The US government insists on a tightening of sanctions against\u00a0Russia, and demands that the EU follow suit.\u00a0Washington now wants\u00a0sanctions that will have a “devastating\u201d effect, which Russia must\u00a0\u201csuffer.\u201d\u00a0Financial measures are planned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":142647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[115,30,32,96,873,535,59,77,872,524,92,523,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-143736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-cia","12":"tag-cover-up","13":"tag-dollar","14":"tag-global-news","15":"tag-military","16":"tag-oil","17":"tag-ruble","18":"tag-russia","19":"tag-terrorism","20":"tag-ukraine","21":"tag-usa-news","22":"tag-warfare","23":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}