Power Play Behind Regime
Change in Russia
The Empire of Chaos dream of regime change
in Russia has always hinged on controlling
large swathes of Eurasia.
By Pepe Escobar
March 17, 2015 "ICH"
- "Sputnik"
- With “friends” like European Council
President Donald Tusk and top NATO commander
Gen. Philip Breedlove, the EU certainly
doesn’t need enemies.
Gen. Breedhate has been
spewing out his best Dr. Strangelove
impersonation, warning that evil Russia is
invading Ukraine on an everyday basis. The
German political establishment is not
amused.
Tusk, while meeting
with US President Barack Obama, got Divide
and Rule backwards; he insisted, “foreign
adversaries” were trying to divide the US
and the EU – when it’s actually the US that
is trying to divide the EU from Russia. And
right on cue, he blamed Russia — side
by side with the fake Caliphate of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.
Tusk’s way out? The EU should
sign the US corporate-devised racket known
as Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP), or NATO on trade. And
then the “West” will rule forever.
NATO may indeed incarnate the
ultimate geopolitical/existential paradox;
an alliance that exists to manage the chaos
it breeds.
And still, revolving
around NATO, there are many more
diversionist tactics than meet the eye. Take
the latest uttering by notorious Russophobe
Dr. Zbigniew “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski.
In a conference at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, Dr. Zbig advanced
that the US and Russia should have an
understanding that if Ukraine becomes a
member of the EU, it won’t become a member
of NATO.
Well, dear Doctor, we got a
problem. The EU has zero interest
in incorporating a failed state on
(immensely expensive) life support by the
IMF, and technically mired in a civil war.
On the other hand the US has
undivided interest in a Ukraine as NATO
member; that’s the whole rationale of the
relentless post-Maidan demonization
of Russia.
Call it the Dr. Zbig
maneuver; neo-con wishful thinking; what
certain key Empire of Chaos/Masters of the
Universe factions would die for; or all
of the above; the ultimate target is regime
change and dismemberment of Russia. Russian
intelligence knows all about the
inside story.
To forestall it, there
would be only one possible settlement,
including; end of sanctions on Russia; end
of the raid on the ruble/oil price war;
eastern European nations out of NATO; Crimea
recognized as part of Russia; eastern
Ukraine totally autonomous but still part
of Ukraine.
We all know this won’t
happen anytime soon – if ever. So a nasty
Cold War 2.0 atmosphere is bound to prevail
– alongside with relentless demonization
reaping its benefits. A new Gallup poll
shows most Americans now see Russia – ahead
of North Korea, China and Iran – as the US’s
public enemy number one and the greatest
threat to the West.
Let Me Take You
on a Missile Cruise
The Empire of Chaos dream
of regime change in Russia has always hinged
on controlling large swathes of Eurasia. A
puppet in Moscow – a carbon copy of the
drunken stooge Yeltsin – would free
up Russia’s immense natural resources
for the West, with those from the contiguous
Central Asian “stans” as a bonus.
If on the other hand Russia
maintains its influence, even indirectly,
in Ukraine and on Central Asia’s oil and
natural gas wealth, Moscow is capable
of projecting itself again as a superpower.
So once again this is largely about the
domination of Eurasian Pipelineistan;
anything else means a direct threat to the
unipolar world.
Russian intelligence is very much aware
of relentless US pressure geared to breaking
parts off of Russia, weakening them,
until Russia becomes a chaos wasteland not
dissimilar to Iraq or Yemen – with natural
resources then flowing freely to the West.
That’s why the pressure
has been ratcheted up to nearly nuclear war
proportions. Some adults in the EU though
are starting to get the picture.
The EU simply does not
have the funds to really invest in the
Central Asian stans, or to pump billions of
(devalued) euros into pipelines
through Azerbaijan. Libya, Nigeria and the
Middle East (from Iraq to Yemen) are a mess.
The EU has no energy security in the Middle
East and North Africa, and without Russia
will have no energy security at all.
This set of circumstances
unveils the specter of Cold War 2.0 turning
hot as even more bewildering. Needless
to add, Poland, Ukraine, and other hapless
Eastern Europeans would be mere pawns if a
full-blown civil war does break out in
Ukraine – the explicit aim of that American
fantasyland, the Kaganate of Nulands, or
Nulandistan.
In a – admittedly
terrifying — war scenario, Russia would seal
eastern Ukraine airspace against US air
power using an array of sophisticated
defensive missiles. Tactical nuclear weapons
would be used for the first time. Europe
would be basically defenseless as NATO’s Dr.
Strangeloves would be tempted to launch a
full-scale nuclear war. Still, NATO’s ICBMs,
cruise missiles and jet fighters would not
pierce the S-400 and S-500 Russian defensive
missile systems.
Provoking the Russian bear is a
self-defeating proposition. Russia quitting
the landmark Treaty on Conventional Forces
in Europe is really serious business; NATO
is beyond alarmed. Not to mention Moscow
announcing it has the right to place — and
may even have placed — nuclear weapons
in Crimea. Meanwhile the Russian military
continue to test NATO’s defenses by flying
their planes into NATO’s defensive
perimeter.
Eurasia swings from one
minute to another from reconciliation
to provocation. Cui bono? Moscow is a master
in keeping Washington and NATO guessing.
Watch That Lady
Sing
It was Putin that first
wanted, years ago, to create a vast trade
emporium from Lisbon to Vladivostok, also
including China, using high-speed rail
to avoid the US-controlled seas. That was
the trade-fuelled original plan, rather
than a China-Russia alliance against NATO.
What the Empire of Chaos
achieved in Ukraine, at least for now, was
to divide Eurasia into three competing
blocks; Germany-France allied with the US (but with
both now having second thoughts);
Russia; and China offset by Japan. Once
again, that’s Divide and Rule — with the US
as perpetual hegemon always capable
of adapting and tweaking its proverbial
bomb-and-bully foreign policy strategy.
Yet it ain’t over till the
fat (geopolitical) lady sings. The
Russia-China strategic partnership keeps
evolving – check out the upcoming BRICS and
SCO summits in Russia this summer. The oil
and natural gas wealth of Russia and Central
Asia will keep performing their U-turn
towards China and Asia. And in a few years
the “Exceptionalists Rule the Waves” mantra
will cease to be a game-changer.
Regime change? Keep
dreaming.
Pepe Escobar’s latest
book is "Empire of Chaos". Follow him on
Facebook.
