Eurasia note #97: Ukraine Incursion Enters Week Two

War spreads from Eurasia, to West Asia to Africa: where next?

• Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region has now lasted a week.

• They may feel the same elation as Gazans at the attack upon their enemy

• Will it last, and how will Russia respond?

• Foreign Policy journal openly discusses assassination of Putin

• NATO seeks to make war "Trump proof" - escalation unavoidable

• As Western economy totters, war is one of the few profitable sectors

• U.S. and France seemingly withdraw from Africa

• Where Russian and Ukrainian forces also clash

• The global, centrifugal privatisation of war as business

See also: Eurasia note #32 - Ukraine May Meet Its Gladio - Insurgents may drag Russia into a version of Italy's 'Years of Lead' or Greece's 'Z' (Mar 09, 2022)
NATO Fury At Hungary's Peace Train - Summit pits Western leaders against People (Jul 11, 2024)
Eurasia note #6: Making Sense of Taliban - Media bakes a fresh Afghan narrative daily (Aug 22, 2021)

2,100 words or about 10 minutes of your company.

TEXT

“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
―T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Tbilisi, Aug 13, 2024

Urgent appeal

Influential voices were taken out by U.S., British and European authorities long before they came for family members who post on Facebook — logical, if you think about it.

Why me? The state targeted the media just before Covid. I was hounded out of network television at least three times (I kept bouncing back) and in my last job as an executive producer I had a powerful influence over content; my son was poisoned (but survived, thank God); a honeytrap failed to entice me but my assets were hacked and stolen.

The state knows who you are from birth if you are on the radar. With parents in intelligence it was a fact — they already worked for the state.

In my attempt to survive as a writer even the most prominent British alt media site dropped me after one article. The long arm of the law. The slow thud of footsteps.

Unfortunately I am not financially idependent. Far from it. I live hand to mouth as an exile. I am still censored, views and comments disappear even on Substack. So please become or renew as a paying subscriber, if only so I can hand the flame to my son.

Sorry to be plain. It has come to this.

On the up side, I’ll increase the Moneycircus content, with news and finance from Georgia, a useful bolt hole if you are considering it and more personalised interaction for paid subscribers — you suggest the podcast.

There is so much we can do and share — training, encouragement — even an agony aunt forum on Subscribe Star: we’re all tired of war jaw.

Introduction

Having said which, toot for Russia, unite with Ukraine, but if you’re canny you’ll take a step back and look at the players and the interests who play them.

We witness a brazen attempt to broaden the territory of Russia-Ukraine conflict. See how the same two countries pop up in Africa, in Niger, Mali and more.

NATO talks about making its wars “Trump proof” so that they will continue whoever sits in the White House.

As Ukraine’s troops (and a lot of foreign mercenaries) poured over the border into Russia, U.S. senator Lindsey Graham arrived in Kyiv to offer more booty. President Vladimir Putin said peace talks are now, “off the table.”

Western newspapers talk openly about assassinating Putin but to what purpose? Military and intelligence are increasingly privatised (75 per cent according to U.S. estimates) and answer to private interests.

Soldiers will secure mineral resources on behalf of the bankers who pay them. The fate of Russia or Africa will be the same. The reason the bankers are abandoning Europe is that it does not have nearly as much — you guessed it — mineral resources.

In a post-industrial society, the money power no longer needs the people’s workforce! Why do you we see Western policies of degrowth?

The riots that we witness in Britain are mere teething pains, as the British people wake up to the reality that they are in the firing line.

The NATO “think tank” the Atlantic Council hopes the attack into the Kursk region will show Russia to be more vulnerable than previously thought.

European elections delivered a rebuke to the war party and put NATO on the back foot.