COLD WAR, ACT TWO: OTHER ASPECTS OF THAT RUSSIAN DOMESTIC CLEARING LAW
This article came to me from Mr. V.T., who has also been following the story of the domestic clearing law just passed by the Russian state Duma and signed by President Putin. There's more teeth in this law than is being reported by the lamestream pressititutes of the Western media.
Taking a page from the mercantilist playbook, Mr. Putin seems intent to study tactics, and reverse them. For one thing, the law requires Visa and Mastercard, if they wish to remain in operation in Russia, to pay the Russian government $3.8 billion in fees. Impose a sanction? Here, have a (large) fee. Increase the sanction? Here, have an increased fee. I have to laugh, because this type of reversal is playing the sanctions game to the hilt, and there's little that can be done about it. Notably, the law did not require Visa and Mastercard to leave Russia, which it would have if Mr. Putin was the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth neo-Stalinist devolution and throwback that he's portrayed to be by the lamestream media, and particularly by the American "conservative" talk radio.
By playing the sanctions card, the American oligarchy appears to have committed a blunder, and you've just got to love the Russian strategic sense here, which is heavily fried like a pirogi in a dollop of artery-clotting ironic humor: because Visa and Mastercard can opt not pay the fee, stomp out of their Russian play pen like angry petulant children, and lose the profits of their Russian business, which will be eagerly snapped up by Mr. Putin and his own cronies. Or, they can sulk, sourly pay the fee, continue to do business in Russia with slightly smaller profits, and still be enriching the coffers of Moscow, which will doubtless turn over some of the money to Roscosmos to help in its lunar commercialization plans while the chief of Roscosmos continues to advise NASA to use trampolines to get into space
. (I have this vision of Mr. Putin and his advisors, as they cooked this one up, sipping hot strong Russian black chai from a samovar Russian-style, through a sugar cube, and cackling amongst themselves as they hatched this one.)
But now, adding insult upon insult, and a heaping tablespoon of rock salt to the open fester, there's something else in the law and I hope you caught it:
"The new law forbids international payment systems from cutting off services to Russian clients and obliges them to base their processing centre in Russia. To ensure their good behaviour, international operators will have to place a security deposit in Russia's central bank equal to the average value of two days' worth of transactions."(Emphasis added)
So, Visa and Mastercard are welcome in Russia: just pay a fee and put your processing center in Russia, where we can get to it quickly if we have to.
Now, as the article goes on to point out, the Russian domestic clearing system is not a substitute internationally for Russian businesses conducting international trade.
But that, as I've been arguing all along is the next step. Imagine, however, if this system were to include Russian banks penetrating the West's Visa and Mastercard franchises to such an extent that these names become substantially "BRIC-sized," or "Russianized." A nightmare scenario for the western oligarchs(or, at least, to some of them who still have a shred of patriotism or belief in western cultural values), to be sure. (For the rest, it will simply be another way to make money, so why not?)
So, this is one to watch, and don't be surprised if someday, rather than getting endless (and, I hope they take notice in London) rejected and declined offers for a LIBOR-rigging major British Bank credit card, you get an invitation from a Russian bank for your very own Visa or Mastercard (sans Cyrillic characters of course), at better rates than those LIBOR-rigging banks can offer you. That, of course, is a long way off, but if the BRICSA nations are successful in establishing mechanisms of international clearing independent of the West, it could happen.
The question is, will western consumers buy it?
See you on the flip side.
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Joseph, use of snark like “lamestream” undermines your credibility. If you must persist, at least be original.
Charles, I’ve been using lamestream media for a long time.
How does it undermine credibility? Should we not call something as it is?
oh boy, and now a Russian rocket goes down…whether true or not by ufo or just a plain ole false flag, it is a pretense to escalate bankster war 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIIKKyBhd-E
Those who would be glad to use Russian financial services are the ones who now are denied such under the DOJ’s “Operation Choke Point” program which essentially cuts off payment services for legitimate business it considers “objectionable”, such as firearms dealers, online charities, porn stars, coin dealers, tobacco sales, etc etc etc … you get the picture … See today’s Daily Bell, headline “First They Came for The Porn Stars … “
BTW, I think the article Dr Farrell refers to is from the May 6th Guardian titled “Russia demands $3.8bn security deposit from Visa and Mastercard”
Noticed, as a Daily Bell subscriber, that article you have referenced, Margaret. Then a little later RT’s report of the destruction of the Proton rocket with Russia’s “most advanced satellite” to date, which the good jedi commented on above.
Busy day! Thanks for the info on the May 6 Guardian article.
Hi Vader_Etro, You’re welcome. Then you probably also noticed DB’s other article, very apropos of Dr Farrell’s ongoing discussions: Are Russia and China About to Announce the End of the US Dollar Era?
“Once Russia, along with numerous allies, makes the fateful move, you can be sure many nations will follow. They already are trying to do so. Why? Because the US is the most destructive force on the planet, and its achille’s heel is its “exorbitant privilege” known as the US dollar by most, and the Federal Reserve Note by those ‘in the know.’ … A ‘de-dollarized’ world, as it is called in Russia, will change the lives of millions of Americans.” … Fair warning!
In a week or less, eh?
rt.com/business/160520-key-russia-china-deals/
rt.com/business/160124-vtb-bank-china-currencies/
Noises in Russia——KA CHING
Noises in USA———OH NO—–swiped
Checkmated again, don’t you just love it, Visa and MasterCard didn’t have a chair when the music stopped, and Putin was playing the tune.
Yes you forgot to give the link to the article. Well Vladimir Putin is sure turning the tables on the West. And speaking of Roscomos telling the USA to use trampolines to launch their satellites they’re no longer selling rockets engines to the USA if they will be used to launch military payloads and will not back the plan to extend the International Space Station use to twenty twenty four. Serves American right thanks boobs real long range thinking.
actually Marcos a trampoline is a much more effective means of motion in a vacuum. Where as a rocket has nothing to push against, with a trampoline there will be a equal and opposite action. the nasa engineers should thank the Ruskies for helping them solve there space motion problem with a very simple solution, think of the billions in fleecing they have saved us sheeple.
Unfortunately, there’s no link to the (unnamed) article forwarded to Dr. Farrell by Mr. V.T., and hope this can be fixed. But I agree with LGL below while waiting to see if the misgivings of loisg are warranted.
I hope Putin knows what he’s doing…I keep getting the feeling that he’s in over his head, and being played. At the very least, this is going to anger the western oligarchs and now they may bring in their accomplices and who knows what will be happening in Russia in a month or two. I am almost convinced that it is too late to fight these guys as they have their own means of enforcing their will on anyone.
LoisG — My reaction is the exact opposite. I keep watching the western faction stumbling and bumbling and backing up and TRYING to find some leverage in this situation, unsuccessfully, and I am amazed that the subtlety with which Putin manages to parry and deflect…WITHOUT getting drawn into a battle. No small feat, I am thinking!
I agree “our” side won’t give up and will use every dirty trick in the book and I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing for the average American that the Russians are making such amazing traction on so many levels.
I just wish sanity would break out in the Anglo-American elite…but then I wish a lot of things…heavy sigh… 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhpc8i1V0fo
age 44, employed as Director of Ukraine largest gas supplier, Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden.
lol, so much for may the best man win….nepotism…hehe, so much for the theories of Platos republic.
as a side note, our former minister of health has won a impartial lottery awarding him a exclusive contract to produce medical “mary jane”. What a lucky guy.
If it’s a better product, the answer is yes.
Take the proliferation (and dominance in some case) of foreign brands in the auto industry is the US market for exampple…
Kicking the money changers in the temple, right between there crooked eyes.
Good One!
Sipping the mud latte and wondering with the seven degrees of relegation if the travesties that have be felled sir Bob and Mick , coupled with the JP Morgan suicides can be tied in with all this theater?
Great quote from Plato BTW…..he was I presume following input command prompts.
Couldn’t wait to use it, Plato’s letter.
Sometimes it come down to: Fate vs Free Will.
Is this letter an expression of it?