After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, Western leaders led by President Joe Biden vowed the Kremlin would face historic isolation that would bring its war machine to a halt and cripple Moscow’s economy. However, nearly seven months into the war, Russia has maintained its economic strength as Moscow has found several partners worldwide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a conference of 14 world leaders in Uzbekistan. The countries at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in Samarkand make up over half the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy. The SCO is the second largest global body after the UN.
As the summit opened, Iran signed a Memorandum of Obligations to become a full SCO member. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi noted the growing relationship between sanctioned countries is helping to overcome problems. "The relationship between countries that are sanctioned by the US, such as Iran, Russia or other countries, can overcome many problems and issues and make them stronger," he said in Uzbekistan. "The Americans think whichever country they impose sanctions on, it will be stopped. Their perception is a wrong one."
Putin held two high-profile bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. First, Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. XI said Beijing and Moscow would work together to assume the roles of great powers. "China is willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to inject stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social turmoil,” he said.
The second meeting was with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his meeting with Putin, Modi discussed the growing ties between New Delhi and Moscow. "Relations between Russia and India have significantly improved. We believe they are extremely important. We are friends, and for decades we have always stood shoulder to shoulder," he said. Modi continued, "[t]he whole world is aware of the nature of Russian-Indian relations, and the world also knows the deep friendship, in particular the personal friendly ties that bind us. We first met in 2001 when I was in state government in India, and our friendship has only grown stronger ever since."
Both XI and Modi raised the issues of the Ukraine war with Putin, though both stopped short of condemning the Russian invasions. In his statements, Putin acknowledged the war in Ukraine but deflected blame to Kiev and the West. While the Western press has emphasized Modi’s mention of an "era of peace," it failed to note the growing economic ties between Russia and India. In just the energy and fertilizer sectors, New Delhi has vastly increased its import of goods from Moscow over the past six months.
In March, Biden declared Putin would be "isolated from the world." Putin’s ability to travel abroad and attend major summits with world leaders shows Biden’s vows to isolate Russia have so far failed.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
“In March, Putin would be “isolated from the world.” Putin’s ability to travel
abroad and attend major summits with world leaders shows Biden’s vows to
isolate Russia have so far failed.”
Now 75% of the worlds population lives in Non-aligned nations. How’s that isolation going?
Tough to pull them all together. Modi has done some terrible things to Muslims and his record of getting close to the Zionists makes tension with Pakistan. Turning the people of Kashmir & Jamu into Palestinians is a sad reminder how corrupt this world is.
I would not quite define these issues the samw way. I have a guide that never lets me down. Whenever I hear Western media and politicians hyperventilate over some horrible things some other countries and leaders have done -/ I made it my business to research tthe issue, And 9 out of ten times it smells like fish and looks fishy – pretty much our foreign policy, Modi has been under attack for a long time. Before he came to be the President, he was even sanctioned byUS. To just take one example of those you mentioned, doing terrible things to Moslems. I am not getting into party politics or extremests, but looking at Modi policies, West tried and failed to faise Moslem popularltion — which is a substsntial percent of India, to riot. Whatvwas the cause? Citizenship law. The law put into geopardy many immigrants without some documentation — that is — their pursuit of citizenship would take longer. But this provision affected ogher groups as well. Second reason Moslems were supposed to get mad about iis the preferential treatment minorities frim Pakistan and Afghanistan received. Because Christians, Shia, Sufis and Bahai faiths were prosecuted — India gave them right to apply for asylum. The law was not antimoslem, just because it provided for asylum for endangered religions.
The issue is now irrelevant -/ even though Western press likes to pull out of moth balls .
It has become irrelevant due to massive changes in Moslem world in the last few years. This puts India on the side of Moslem world. If one only looks at post-US Afghanistan. Since,m Russia-China-India SCO has accepted into membership Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, Iran became 9th member of top decision makung SCO body.
And having nust been inducted into the body, with other members, new applications for admission have just been approved: Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Maldives and Myanmar.
At present — most of the Gulf region would become members of SCO. Add to that Egypt -/ abd the licture is complete. Afghanistan is a member with observation status. It is clear where the develooment of Afghanistan will come
from.
As these developments take place, Moslems have figured out that Midi is working with China and Russia to expand integration between West Asia — Arab world — with East and South Asia.
Modi is a careful politician, and knows that the country with dozens of ethnicities, languages and religions is vulnerable to color revolutions.
And has to play acciordingly.
If you look carefully into other issues, none are clean cut.
“Modi is a careful politician, and knows that the country with dozens of ethnicities, languages and religions is vulnerable to colour revolutions.”
Indeed.
Yes , he can become a victim of his success from divisiveness. . Already other parties are scrambling to become more Anti Muslim .
America can easily still invert the game , reverse the process and put Hindus and by extension BJP on the defensive by playing various cards in Punjab ( Sikh ). Kashmir ( Muslim ) and Christian in North East and language in the south .
I think there is a good chance that India under Modi might be reasonably immune to the infamous “divide and rule” manufacturing unrest principle somehow originated in Britain, perfected by the US.
India is still divided by its caste system, where the Brahmins have ruled the roost for centuries, but there are far more lower caste folk like Modi, who now takes this into account to some extent. I have been to India several times and I must admit that I would never want to live there. No wonder so many Indians are leaving for Europe and America.
Many of my doctors are Indian; clearly they did not wish to stay there. My PCP describes India as “ chaotic “.
Cultural aspects of India are intensely beautiful.
People who love and study them enjoy every moment they spend in India.
Home made Indian food is nothing short of divine.
And the most serene and stunningly attractive women I have ever seen in my life were from India.
And the Indian music .. I am lost for words now ..
Not to mention magically invigorating and exquisitely aromatic leaf tea from Assam and incredibly full-bodied, almost wine-tasting coffee ..
As for where to live, we should all live at home.
Somehow my spiritual home has always been near St Mary’s Well – a few minutes walk from Jesmond Dene in Newcastle Upon The Lovely Tyne.
One way or another, most of Sting’s and Dire Strait’s music reminds me of home.
But then again, who cares ..
There are certain aspects of Indian culture that I also appreciate; their sitar music and curries. I visited the Taj Mahal the most stunningly beautiful monument commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Indian women I also find very attractive. Kashmir, New Delhi and Calcutta are interesting, but unappealing. I also traveled to Bhubaneswar and Puri in Orissa.
As to where one should live given the choice, I do like Westchester County in New York, where I live now. My only reservation is the brutally cold winters. For that reason I would now like to live in La Jolla, where one of my grand daughters goes to school.
Having traveled quite extensively across the world, I discovered Hawaii and the Oregon coast with its beautiful beaches to be very appealing. I have done three road trips from coast to coast in the US with my family by different routes both north and south, taking in several national parks, camping and also staying in nice motels that were wonderful experiences.
I also travelled extensively. Been to the US on many occasions, including New York (stayed in Manhattan and Hamptons a few times), many places in Texas, Miami, and LA. Somehow visiting Mexico was much more interesting for me. Otherwise, small villages in rural Andalusia, Spain, are still my favourite places to visit. Landing in Gib on the way from London is an experience in itself.
You should probably consider visiting Cote d’Azur, where I spend most of my time these days. There is a direct flight from New York to Nice. Antibes is perhaps the best place to stay for a first-time visitor.
As for coastal landscapes and beaches, nothing beats the reserved beauty of Northumberland and the West of Scotland for me. https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/tours/driving-road-trips/7-days-west-scotland/
When I lived in Sheffield in the nineteen sixties, I owned a house in Totley, that had a view of the Yorkshire Moors. From there I once planned a trip to Scotland, taking a flight from Manchester airport to Glasgow, but the hotel staff changed my room number, so I did not receive the early morning wake up call and missed the flight. Instead, I rented a car and drove north on M 74 for 220 miles that took three hours. The mountain route was stunning with no traffic and no people evident back then.
The trip was concerned with my selling Tantalum capacitors sourced from Germany to Emihus, located just north of Edinburgh at Glenrothes, then known as Silicon Glen.
BJP ‘s roots run deep into the communal racial political groundwater of RSS . RSS ‘s ideas could be traced back to the 1858 when Muslim ‘s political power was wiped out bringing the most strident Aryan philosophy of Hinduism to the fore like Trump brought the most racist white supremacists to the limelight of acceptability.
Muslim divisiveness arose in response to these developments.
RSS – BJP – Hindu outfits never supported independence movements and actively sabotaged .
RSS was instrumental in initiating Kashmir Jammu problem and unilateral ethnic
cleansing of Muslim from Jammu provoking Pakistan to mount a response .
In 1971 RSS and Hindu political outfits protested against Soviet -India friendship .
It was also against Soviet presence in
Afghanistan .
1991 RSS -BJP openly supported Gulf war and protested India’s neutrality .
It has always been enthralled to British -American system of hegemony ,power and
finances . It draws it strengths mainly from Business community and religious leaders of most radical Hindu sects . Later has been spearheading it’s reach to the rest of India on pure religious messages of hate , entitlement , grievances that have poor historical base .
RSS -BJP ‘s rose to power from 1987 has been based on pure anti -Muslim stance
and anti -Muslim violent activities .
Modi himself was involved in mosque demolition and in allowing riots in Gujarat in resonate to false claims of Muslims starting fire on a train .
That template –
violence before election – keep on
replaying because BJP has no other card to play to win vote .
Modi has never been able to tell US that war isn’t the right way but he says that to Putin .
BJP sees that wind is blowing against its
western deity of 250 years . It is trying to
position and triangulate .
It knows US can use the Muslim to damage it . It also knows that US is losing steam fast and is not a reliable ally like Russia is . But it also knows that it’s patriotism and nationalism model
more on the western than on Chinese or Soviet or Russian .
The nationalism is a veneer , a sheen to
gaslight Indians while the business community bills the country and religious tensions prevents emergence of common Hindu Muslim fronts .
Citizenship law based on documents and identities in a country that never had any proper birth record until 2000 and continues to be plagued with poor
documentation of property , education and birth records have aided BJP’s core
mission to disenfranchise Muslim and render people stateless .
Realities in ME ( Syria Iran Afghanistan ) and power of China and Russia ‘s pivoting away from west, decline of west,
and uncertain future of Israel have forced
a reckoning that India is ill prepared and historically not ready to navigate or accept .
India has no interest at stake here except the interest of the rich upper caste Hindu . If west could ensure continuation of that perks , India would readily jump the ship and join NATO .
Thank You for your elucidation of Modi”s situation. I think he is evolving. You are my favorite poster on the entire internet with your encyclopedic knowledge of E European peoples and their prejudices and even was it working or living in Yemen, writing in Bosnian & English. You have always seemed virtually flawless in your prognostications and analysis. Your only flub in my memory was what I apprehended as your seeming embrace of MBS, and the departure of MB Niaf. I had a bad feeling bout MBS and I think that most would agree he certainly is no savior. Sadly I get the same feeling about Modi and I wonder if you have somehow overlooked his glaring Hindu supremacists mindset and Islamophobic zeal. I haven’t been to Kashmir & Jamulately, but it seems that their screams are not heard, and anyone who makes any sort of common cause with Netanyahu in occupation and denial of basic human rights like internet & travel is a rogue, undeserving of our respect or even and or our understanding. But I just cannot think of ANYONE commenting in these pages who is even close in understanding of the shifting sands of power and influence to your prolific work to enlighten those of us with less time, dedication or aptitude to seeing things as they really are. 1000s of thanks are due 2 you & your great dedication.
One can’t help but wonder how through the course of a single generation, albeit one with appreciable longevity, did the collective West come to be ruled by a clown car full of cretins?
The answer to your questions is in Romans 1:18-32.
That’s quite a passage!
Jordan Peterson the other day said it was because of the decline in civic engagement that allowed extremists to take control of political parties and civil society in general, so the political leadership has come to serve very narrow sets of interests.
I didn’t think anybody still took that dude seriously.
And I’m not sure he is part of “civil society” himself
Civil society refers to something specific, it’s not too do with values or ethics, it’s the non-coercive bodies that make modern life function – political parties, professional associations, trade unions, academia, charities, school governing bodies, etc. They all act as pillars holding up democratic government. But they’ve been falling apart for decades now.
Thank you for clarifying — I learned something today!
The Western headlines were that Putin did not get support.
Our press indulges in fantasy, fed by a pro-war propaganda campaign that is well funded and ubiquitous.
The UK population is being conditioned for WW3 , i am 70 plus years old and i have never seen so many programs / films ect about war on TV .
Making it sound like they criticized Russia’s defense of Donbass. Echoing U.S. media. Completely false.
All China said was that they had “concerns” about the war, which is not criticism. Of course any war brings concerns, regarding of which side you support. What the media “forgot” was their strong support for Russia.
And Modi? The media you think of wrote that he said “our time is not one of war”. That would be criticism of Russia? It’s the exact opposite. Because right before that, Putin had said Russia sought negotiations to bring peace, but Zelensky chose to fight a long war instead. THAT is what Modi then replied to, saying yes, this is an era of peace, not war. He was agreeing with Putin’s criticism moments earlier of Zelensky, for wanting war. He then mentioned his warm memories of the first time he met Putin, reminiscing about what jobs the both men had at that time.
Read the book , the GUARDIANS OF POWER AND THE MYTH OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA , it tells you all you need to know about how the MSM works hand in clove with politicians.
And yet CNN, the CIAs news network, sees every development worth reporting as a huge setback for Russia. What a shame that Russia uses such clumsy force in it’s censorship, when mere blacklisting and hunger are all the threats required to keep most American press issuing the correct propaganda.
“And yet CNN, the CIA’s news network…” It was right under my nose and I missed it. I can see it clearly now. Brilliant!
“In his statements, Putin acknowledged the war in Ukraine but deflected blame to Kiev and the West.”
Goodness, what a creepy little article, written by a small minded little insect with no memory to speak of.
Here is an appropriate response by Paul Craig Roberts:
Russia is unable to defend itself because its liberal leaders prefer agreements, on which they themselves say no reliance can be placed, to force. The Kremlin still believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that it can overcome Western “misunderstandings” of Russia and negotiate a peaceful multi-polar world of cooperation.
God help us.
The West, the G7, NATO seem to think that they are “the international community” but this is far from the case.
WWIII is already underway. It is an opening act.
Simply put, Western economy and governance is still based on colonial model. Colonial model demands that dependencies can economically develop only to the extent required by dominant economies. This model in ts today’s form was implemented by Brittain, and at first tightly controlled, The key was control of production and trade. A colony would be incentivized or ordered to produce a specific crop, like sugar cane, tobacco, cotton. But a colony had to sell all of its acroos to Brittain and transported on British ships. Then all that was not resold in UK, was sold to other countries.
The “free trade” rules came later, and only because the colonial masters were so far ahead in industrial development and scientific field — and the “free” trade favored them.
Fast forward to American century, “decolonization” was a process whereby former colonies, instead of being individually owned by Western countries, system such as IMF and World Bank instead created pools of Western capital, and loans to the undeveloped (third world) countries created the income stream going back to colonizers. In addition, export dependencies remained. In short, without development, no country could change its dependent, serf-like status. It had to sell its resources for goods produced in the West.
West decided to “globalize”, that is, to take the model of financial colonization further, and create a massive factory floors all around the globe. Why keep dirty industries at home, when the third world will compete for the woork, and West retains control over the process, giving it the cheap goods and use their earnings for the purchase of expensive western technology and goods.
It did not go to plan.
China had experienced their century of humiliatiin at the hands of Western interests, India was notvready to be recolonialized and worked with Soviet Union to beefcup its industry and defense. But while China ooened its doors, and Western industries flooded its vast countryside, it had its own plan for development and its own hold on finances. Siviet Union economic model was not sustainable — certainly not in the world of TV and movies, where the benefits of their system paled in the comparison with flashy western lifestyles.
But Lerstroyka brought a rude awakening, and backlash.
And the end of 20 century signaled changes in the world, US trampling over Yugoslavia and taking over Kosovo, was a wake up call to the world not willing to be subjected to “humanitarian” interventions. Putin came to power in Russia, China survived Tiennamin. Middle East was next, and with 9/11, everything from Central Asia, Caucases, Balkans were in turmoil.
In 2000, Shanghai Cooperation Organization was born. Chastened Yeltzin, with revenge in heart, went to China to sign the deal. Which even then read: “to establish a new, more just, world order”.
And two decades forward — China’s technological and scientific advancements are eclipsing Western in sone areas, while Russia refocused on its Soviet strengths, science, space, military technology., energy, grain production (non-GMO), food self-sufficiency.
And it was inly a matter of time that US concludes the obvious. Colonial economic model does not work if the non-colonial countries establish the level of developmnt that discourages them from selling their resources cheaply, and getting into unfavorable deals,
Creating regional conflicts, divide and conquer, all stalled and countered, frustrated. Frim Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, to French ambitions in Sahel, or slipping fortunes of Latin America, Southeast Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.
But most frustrating to US is Russia. German economic strength is based on plentiful and cheap Russian gas and oil, factories opened in Russia, and massive trade to China using continental transit.
The challenge became more complex, and the logic behind “empire strikes back” obvious.
All US had to do is find an ideologically suitable leadership in Ukraine to start an European offensive. Then continue with pressure and containment of China. Things worked out in US favor, with Zelenski fronting Galicia Nazis, and weakness in German politics bringing to power aggressive Green party. And they were given disproportionate power — ministry of the economy and foreign affairs. All Greens in Europe are WEF global vigilantes, ready to bring their economies down for the glibal radical environmentalism. But they are not naive babes in the woods. These people understand perfectly well that deindustrialization of Germany, with ripple effect on Europe, is needed for US power to be unquestioned. To prevent Germany and Europe as a whole to link with Eurasia. And to prevent Chinese technology modernizing European ports, railways, telecommunications, and set new standards. And while US has no product to compete, it can slow down China by blocking free trade in variohs products China became reliant on.
Thus four tracks. Push Russia into defending populatiin of Donbas and using the invasion mantra force Europe to tow US line. Second track is to block resources for European development. Energy and raw materials, gtains from Russia, technology from China. Thereby destroying economies. An opposite from Marshal plan — a Morgentau plan for Germany and Europe. It is working — a record low for Euro and Pound. As well as Japan. Third track is to pin China into tensions with Taiwan. Another leadership similar to Ukraine -/ perfectly happy to sacrifice population,
And fourth track is environmental — pressuring Africa. countries against building pipelines to tap into African energy resources for developent. Collective West is trying to block several pipelines designed to tap into Nigerian energy sources, all in the name of fragile environment! While those countries have electricity blackouts, and cannot sustain transit or industry.
The question remains, when US plotted hard to suck Russia into Ukraine — was Russia sucked into it, or was this a deliberate on Russia’s part and with an understanding of SCO? Because avoiding conflict became harder and more costly in terms of global reputation and influence.
There is no rush in Russia’s operations. It is unpredictable and surely deliberately so. It makes sense to start conflict with US in Eurole. Europe benefited from the ambvivalence — relationship with Russia and China, but always deferring to US judgment.
This had to end. Either Europe is indelendent or it is not. This needed to evolve and become clearer.
In the meantime, one would think that an organiization run by Russia, China and India -/ would be less attractive to potential applicants. Just the opposite is true. SCO had inaugurated this year Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. While newly approved applicants are Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Maldives and Myanmar. SCO is half of world’s population and is the largest international organization after UN.
Typical wishful thinking after the summit. They di not like each other, they ignored Putin, China wants to dominate. That passes for BBC analysis these days.
Ukraine is a sideshow in the global struggle for development. For shaking off the colonial economy in all its historic iterations, and deciding independently and with like minded countries how to provide better life. With ups and downs, progress and regression, with the mutual assistance and with all limitations — one thing is
clear.
Colonial mentality is an economic and social anachronism.
its 1917 all over again
Interestingly, a couple of highly relevant quotes are omitted from this piece:
https://www.reuters.com/world/indian-pm-modi-tells-russias-putin-now-is-not-an-era-war-2022-09-16/
I’m interested in Mr. Anzalone’s reasons for failing to include them.