- "Taxation of currency speculation and transactions in dollars and euros on the domestic market".
- "Serious investment in R&D in order to accelerate the development of our own technological base in the areas affected by sanctions - first of all the defense industry, energy, transport and communications."
And last but not least, "the de-dollarization of our foreign exchange reserves, replacing the dollar, euro and pound with gold."
The Russian Central Bank seems to be listening. Most of these measures are already in place. And there are signs that Putin and the government are finally ready to grab the Russian oligarchy by the balls and force them to share risks and losses at an extremely difficult for the nation. Goodbye to stockpiling funds taken out of Russia offshore and in Londongrad.
Glaziev is the real deal. In December 2014 I was at a conference in Rome, and Glaziev joined us on the phone. Reviewing a subsequent column I wrote at the time, between Rome and Beijing, I was stunned: it's as if Glaziev was saying these things literally today.
Allow me to quote two paragraphs:
"At the symposium, held in a divinely frescoed former 15th century Dominican refectory now part of the Italian parliament's library, Sergey Glaziev, on the phone from Moscow, gave a stark reading of Cold War 2.0. There's no real "government" in Kiev; the U.S. ambassador is in charge. An anti-Russia doctrine has been hatched in Washington to foment war in Europe - and European politicians are its collaborators. Washington wants a war in Europe because it is losing the competition with China."
"Glaziev addressed the sanctions dementia: Russia is trying simultaneously to reorganize the politics of the International Monetary Fund, fight capital flight and minimize the effect of banks closing credit lines for many businessmen. Yet the end result of sanctions, he says, is that Europe will be the ultimate losers economically; bureaucracy in Europe has lost economic focus as American geopoliticians have taken over."
Gotta pay the "tax on independence"
A consensus seems to be emerging in Moscow that the Russian economy will stabilize quickly, as there will be a shortage of personnel for industry and a lot of extra hands will be required. Hence no unemployment. There may be shortages, but no inflation. Sales of - Western - luxury goods have already been curtailed. Imported products will be placed under price controls. All the necessary rubles will be available though price controls - as happened in the U.S. in WWII.
A wave of nationalization of assets may be ahead. ExxonMobil announced it will withdraw from the $4 billion Sakhalin-1 project (they had bailed out on Sakhalin-2, deemed too expensive), producing 200,000 barrels of oil a day, after BP and Norway's Equinor announced they were withdrawing from projects with Rosneft. BP was actually dreaming of taking all of Rosneft's participation.
According to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the Kremlin is now blocking asset sales by foreign investors looking to divest. In parallel, Rosneft, for instance, is bound to raise capital from China and India, who are already minority investors in several projects, and buy them out 100%: an excellent opportunity for Russian business.
What could be construed as the Mother of All Counter-Sanctions has not yet been announced. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev himself hinted all options are on the table.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, channeling the patience of 10,000 Taoist monks, still expecting the current hysteria to fade away, describes the sanctions as "some kind of a tax on independence",
with countries barring their companies from working in Russia under "huge pressure."
Lethal counterpunches though are not excluded. Apart from completely de-dollarizing - as Glaviev recommends - Russia may ban the export of titanium, rare earth, nuclear fuel and, already in effect, rocket engines.
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