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Independent researcher/writer based in Hong Kong since 1997. Reformed academic. My long-form, analytical articles are collected here https://laura-ruggeri.medium.com/ email: lauraru852@yandex.ru
The first export train to China has been sent from the Belt and Road terminal in Russia's Tatarstan.
A train carrying 76 containers with the products of the agro-industrial complex of the Republic of Tatarstan was sent to China.
The event brought together representatives of government, business, and the logistics sector.
The terminal is part of the largest logistics complex in the country, a project implemented by the Alabuga Special Economic Zone. The key financial partner is VTB Bank. The terminal's capacity is 8 thousand containers of one–time storage, the length of the site is 1.05 km.
Due to its advantageous location, both small and medium-sized and large businesses will be able to use the facilities of the complex. Petrochemical products and agricultural products will be supplied to China while Russia will receive components for industrial enterprises and consumer goods ordered online.
The container terminal will receive and send at least one freight train a week.
The implementation of the project allows looping container shipments to and from China. /channel/dxlc_alabuga/92
According to Andrei Ilnitsky, a member of the presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, the global elites have unleashed a war of annihilation against Russia, their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat. "The main operational enemy and strategic enemy" of Russia is not only the United States, its vassals and the NATO bloc. According to him, "it's this oligarchy striving for power over the world - a transnational elite consisting of individuals, groups, institutions and companies of the "collective West" with an Anglo-American dominant. It is this "system of influence" that launched an all-out offensive against Russia in order to destroy the Russian state.
As Andrey Ilnitsky noted, a deep war is already underway: "A war for remaking the world, a war for the world's resources – human, intellectual, material, fossil fuels – is already underway."
So far, the deep state war for hegemony over the world has a hidden, deep nature and is being waged by hybrid methods. But as the price of resources rises, it will one day equal the costs of war. "And then, with a high degree of probability, the owners of the deep state will unleash the Third World War in the open," the political scientist suggests.
He recalled that according to the US National Security Strategy and the UK Foreign Policy Strategy, Russia is considered as their main adversary and main threat. For Western elites, the political scientist believes, Russia is "an enemy so principled that it is not allowed to exist in any form, even in the form of a vassal."
The main reason is that "we have taken away from them the ability to plunder the world with impunity, and challenge the military superiority of the West, which has been the foundation of its global economic, political and cultural dominance for five centuries."
At the heart of deep warfare technology is a web that envelops the world like a spider's web. Often these networks are outside the legitimate control of the state and society, in the so-called gray zone, where there is no war and no peace.
As an example of the global nature of vulnerabilities, Ilnitsky cited the worldwide failure of Windows in July 2024.
So far, it is more like "reconnaissance in combat". But there will be more, Ilnitsky warns.
He listed the forms and methods of "deep war": regular breaks in Internet cables; failure of satellites; accidents at strategically important infrastructure facilities; power outages; the growth of "accidental" but synchronous epidemics; waves of migrants; induced political revolts and coups, etc.
"All these are components of a deep war that is tangible for many, but hidden and understandable only by the real actors. A war that affects everyone," Ilnitsky concluded.
In a deep war, there are no "critical battles", instead there are operations and processes of different scales that "accumulate damage" in the existing system, leading to tectonic changes at the deepest levels of the functioning of the world system. @LauraRuHK
https://www.mk.ru/politics/2024/11/07/epidemii-i-blekauty-politolog-nazval-formy-glubinnoy-voyny.html
Donald Trump has officially nominated Marco Rubio for secretary of state. Given that this Neocon puppet was placed under personal sanctions by both China and Russia, including a ban on entering these countries, choosing him as head of US diplomacy is a rather undiplomatic, one could even say provocative, move. /channel/LauraRuHK/9338
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Documents and internal communications shared with Indian newspaper The Sunday Guardian suggest that a colour revolution was recently attempted in Cambodia by US agencies in collaboration with local opposition forces. They exploited the issue of Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA) agreement to push the Cambodian government to the back foot and subsequently execute a long standing operation to remove the incumbent government from power and install a pro-Washington face in Phnom Penh.
Cambodian authorities believe that a series of subversive activities carried out in the past few months were an initial step in a broader effort to incite a “colour revolution”. ▪️The protest could not turn into a large-scale event due to the government knowing about it in advance.
Last September Cambodia announced it would withdraw from the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA) agreement while stating that the move was aimed at “disarming" the opposition and maintain peace and solidarity.
▪️The anti-government groups are being funded by US-based NGOs like NDI, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Soros' Open Society Foundation (OSF), who were dealing with anti-government groups including KMD (Khmer Movement Democracy ), CNRP (Cambodia National Rescue Party) which was led by Mu Sochua (Vice Chairman ) and its chairman Sam Rainsy, with the intention of overthrowing the current Cambodian regime and re-establishing a pro-American government. https://sundayguardianlive.com/top-five/biden-administration-backed-organisations-plotting-colour-revolution-in-cambodia
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency ('DOGE'). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump said in a statement.
🔴 DA GENE SHARP A SOROS: ORIGINI E DECADENZA DELLA "STRATEGIA DEL CAOS"
Ironia della sorte, ciò che sembrava un’espressione di potere, monopolio e dominio del dollaro, ha portato all’erosione di quello stesso potere.
L'ANALISI DI @LAURARUHK
(Lettura altamente consigliata del giorno)
https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/dettnews-la_strategia_del_caos__laura_ruggeri/5871_57659/
Fast forward 9 years and the Zio-Con puppet is set to become Secretary of State. Marco Rubio has built his brand in Washington on playing tough with Iran and China. Rubio was the most hawkish option on Trump's shortlist for secretary of state, and he has in past years advocated for a very aggressive stance on China, Iran and Cuba. Trump may still reconsider his choice, but appears to have settled on this "perfect little puppet". @LauraRuHK
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“According to available information, the Americans and the British are viewing the sabotage on the Nord Stream pipelines as one of many methods to advance their economic interests. They could attack other infrastructure facilities, including undersea fiber optic cables that provide communications throughout the world.”
“Since the hegemony of the West began to falter, Washington decided to bring chaos to the energy market, including by destabilizing maritime transportation"
The secretary of Russia's Security Council Sergei Shoigu will visit China on Nov. 11-14 for talks with top Chinese officials.
Shoigu will hold meetings with Wang Yi and Chen Wenqing, and visit the Zhuhai Air Show.
Consultations will address strategic security issues as well as a wide range of topics related to bilateral cooperation. Shoigu has an excellent working relationship with Chinese officials and his visits tend to produce significant results. @LauraRuHK
Mon dernier article, en français. Merci, Zanzibar, pour la traduction. https://substack.com/home/post/p-151269865
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing of satellite components outside Taiwan due to "geopolitical risks."
Starlink suppliers such as China-Moon Industrial have confirmed SpaceX's request to move production to Thailand. Another partner, Wistron NeWeb, has already started manufacturing Starlink components in Vietnam and plans to expand production. (Source: SCMP) @LauraRuHK https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3285352/spacex-asks-taiwanese-suppliers-move-production-abroad-geopolitical-risks?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article
Vladimir Putin at the Valdai International Discussion Club.
"The modern world is unpredictable. If you look back 20 years and evaluate the scale of changes, and then project these changes onto the coming years, you can assume that the next twenty years will be no less, if not more difficult. And how much more difficult they will be, depends on the multitude of factors. As I understand, you are coming together at the Valdai Club exactly to analyse all these factors and try to make some predictions, some forecasts.
There comes, in a way, the moment of truth. The former world arrangement is irreversibly passing away, actually it has already passed away, and a serious, irreconcilable struggle is unfolding for the development of a new world order. It is irreconcilable, above all, because this is not even a fight for power or geopolitical influence. It is a clash of the very principles that will underlie the relations of countries and peoples at the next historical stage. Its outcome will determine whether we will be able, through joint efforts, to build a world that will allow all nations to develop and resolve emerging contradictions based on mutual respect for cultures and civilisations, without coercion and use of force. And finally, whether the human society will be able to retain its ethical humanistic principles, and whether an individual will be able to remain human."
Messaggio rivolto a coloro che si indispettiscono perche' scrivo in inglese. Questa critica l'accetterei da chi abitando fuori dall'Italia da decenni pubblica in italiano oltre che in altre lingue. Chapeau. Magari se mi passate il suo nome gli chiedo come fa. In un mondo ideale avrei una giornata di 48 ore e tradurrei tutto quello che scrivo in cinque lingue. Siccome pero' vivo nel mondo reale, esistono dei limiti oggettivi.
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Lithuania can no longer afford the cost of living in a parallel universe 🤣 https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202411/1322587.shtml
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27 Oct 2021 - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested US$75 million in the first Ukrainian Green and Sustainability-Linked Eurobond ("SLB") ever issued by the Ukrainian corporate, "National Power Company "Ukrenergo."
6 Nov 2024 - Ukrenergo announces it will suspend payments on its green sustainability bonds. ▪️The EBRD is Ukraine’s largest institutional investor and has significantly increased its finance to Ukraine since the war. Last June the EBRD reconfirmed its deepening partnership with USAID by signing an MoU with shared objectives regarding Ukraine’s "resilience and recovery." I am trying to keep a straight face while writing this post. 😅 @LauraRuHK
📄 On 11 November the UN General Assembly Third Committee approved by a large majority the resolution "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance".
The document, co-authored by Russia, condemns trends that are cause for concern in many countries around the world, including in the United Kingdom.
Among them are the rise of skinhead groups, racist and xenophobic violence, antisemitism, Holocaust denial and Islamophobia. The importance of commemorating victims of slavery and slave trade is also acknowledged.
The vote, symbolically, took place on Armistice Day. Yet, the UK delegation voted against the resolution.
Given the many sacrifices of the British people in the defeat of Nazism in 1945, as well as the clear stance taken by the UK Government against recent manifestations of far-right extremism, this is bewildering.
A grim, yet legitimate question is whether London’s decisions on such profound issues are now driven by fleeting considerations of geopolitical expediency rather than basic principles of human morality.
❓ Can the UK Government still tell right from wrong?
E' stata una faticaccia tradurre in italiano il mio ultimo articolo ma ritenevo fosse importante farlo per permettere a chi ha ascoltato o letto il mio intervento sulla genesi e la crisi delle rivoluzioni colorate come strumento di guerra ibrida https://medium.com/p/853b9e1af995 di approfondire un tema che avevo introdotto solo brevemente: la pubblicazione della prima opera di Gene Sharp, un vero manuale di guerra ibrida, coincide con la fine di Bretton Woods, e l’inizio di una nuova fase di finanziarizzazione dell’economia americana. La destabilizzazione dell’ordine monetario e la destabilizzazione attraverso le rivoluzioni colorate dell’ordine mondiale che era emerso dopo la fine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale sono due facce della stessa medaglia e hanno posto le basi per la globalizzazione a guida americana. Buona lettura! 👉 https://medium.com/p/6e36c2cd027c
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Tulsi Gabbard was nominated by Trump to serve as Director of National Intelligence. If confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard will oversee the US intelligence community, which includes the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI. A vocal critic of US foreign policy, she ran for president in 2020, positioning herself as an anti-war candidate. In 2023 she came out as a supporter of the genocidal entity known as Israel. @LauraRuHK
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No surprise here. John Ratcliffe, former Director of National Intelligence, is Trump's pick for CIA Director. He is an anti-China hawk and says the US should conduct joint attacks on Iran with Israel. @LauraRuHK
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Trump has officially picked Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Hegseth is known to Americans as a Fox News host who often lashed out at wokeism for weakening the Armed Forces. Hegseth has advocated for a tougher stance against China and Iran and is a staunch supporter of the Zionist genocidal entity.
He served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and reportedly persuaded Trump to pardon three American soldiers (Blackwater contractors) convicted of war crimes. They had murdered Iraqi civilians. @LauraRuHK
Marco Rubio & Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong secessionist currently serving a prison term for his subversive activities. Rubio is under Chinese sanctions for interfering in China's internal affairs - he openly supports secessionist forces and sponsored The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019, a federal law that requires the U.S. government to impose sanctions against mainland China and Hong Kong officials accused by bogus NGOs of suppressing human rights. If Marco Rubio is appointed Secretary of State, China-US relations will nosedive. @LauraRuHK
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Donald Trump has picked China hawk Mike Waltz as his National Security Advisor.
In addition to being a Neocon war hawk who worked for Cheney and Rumsfeld, Waltz is also a proponent of a deeper relationship with India. In 2023, he went on the say that the United States should formalise the alliance with India. Waltz supports U.S. military interventions, is pro-NATO, and advocates for increased military spending. @LauraRuHK
Is it clearer now why the Deep State let Trump win the elections? As the green agenda and wokeism had actually weakened the US, domestically and on the global stage, a correction was needed. Enter Trump.
"Trump, with his competitive instincts, inclination to disrupt the status quo, and sense of urgency, could be the kind of leader to push the United States much closer to where it needs to be. As president, he would need to build up the country’s military capabilities, fortify the domestic industrial base and reduce foreign economic dependencies, and consolidate key political alliances, all in service of strengthening the United States’ hand in the face of mounting geopolitical risks. (...)The Biden administration has reversed several of Trump’s policies, shifting focus to action on climate change. In a second term, Trump would be determined to take advantage of the United States’ abundant supplies of oil and gas, which could also offer opportunities to support European and other allies.
A return to a policy of energy dominance, which acknowledges the central role of fossil fuels until other sources can both meet energy needs and do so at a competitive price, would allow the United States to break out of a harmful cycle with China. As the United States and Europe look to replace oil with alternative energy, they turn to China as the world’s leading provider of solar, wind, and battery products. By instead leaning on fossil fuels as the United States’ principal energy source while giving renewable industries time to build up in Western countries, Washington can increase its room for maneuver."
The US military-industrial complex is worth trillions of dollars. The US will continue to fabricate threats to sell weapons to its allies vassals, regardless of who sits in the White House. If Washington decides to disengage from Ukraine it's only because its strategy failed and cannot push any further without triggering a major escalation, which no one wants. Washington is more than happy to let Europeans deal with the mess as long as they keep paying for the privilege of picking up crumbs. Israel on the other hand is a different ally. Though it's not such a good customer since it's used to freebies, it will continue to get a preferential treatment. As to the rest of US vassals, they will be forced to cough up more money for 'protection'. @LauraRuHK
Can birds of different feathers fly together and function effectively as a flock? In 2017 Giulio Gallarotti argued that great diversity not only does NOT inhibit the effectiveness of the BRICS as a bloc, indeed it demonstrates that greater diversity in fact augments the effectiveness of the BRICS as a vehicle for generating soft power in the international system for these nations. In the case of the BRICS, more diversity leads to greater influence. https://shs.cairn.info/journal-hermes-la-revue-2017-3-page-183?lang=en#re4no4
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During the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club, Vladimir Putin made these very important remarks about the conflict in Ukraine:
"Our opponents find new ways, instruments, to try to get rid of us. Now, they use Ukraine as such instrument, they use Ukrainians, whom they shamelessly drill against Russians, effectively turning them into cannon fodder."
Kiev received orders from overseas to hold the ground in Russia’s Kursk Region at all costs until the US presidential election. As a result, Kiev lost over 30,000 troops over more than three months of hostilities - "more than the Kiev regime’s total losses during the entire year of 2023."
Good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine are impossible without Kiev’s neutrality. This is the main precondition to make sure that Ukraine does not become an instrument in someone else’s hands: "The basic preconditions for the normalization of relations will not be established, and the situation would unfold by an unpredictable scenario. We would very much like to avoid it."
The border between Ukraine and Russia should run along the line determined by the sovereign decision of the residents of Donbass and Novorossiya who joined Russia following the results of the referendum: "Everything depends on the dynamics of the ongoing events."
Moscow is ready for peace talks on Ukraine, based not on Kiev’s "wishlists that change from month to month but <…> on the situation on the ground and the agreements that were reached in Istanbul."
Ukraine needs not a temporary truce, but a long-term settlement, which is crucial for the two brotherly peoples: "It should not be about a truce for half an hour or six months, just for weapons and ammunition to be delivered there. We should create favorable conditions for restoring relations and future cooperation in the interests of the two peoples, which are certainly brotherly, no matter how much the situation has been complicated by rhetoric and today’s tragic events." (Source: TASS) @LauraRuHK https://tass.com/politics/1869419
Over a year ago i asked the question "Who will be the fall guy for the US fiasco in Ukraine?" Trump's victory makes it easier for Washington to blame failure on the previous administration. Actually, if Harris had won it would have been more complicated to find a way out because Democrat donors are far more invested in Ukraine than Republican ones. Washington is in a
Zugzwang, and none of the moves it can make in Ukraine will lead to a good outcome. Trump delivering on his campaign promise to end the conflict would be a safer option for the US than escalating it. That might explain why the Deep State chose not to rig the election. /channel/LauraRuHK/6482
The ruling 'traffic light' coalition made no sense to start with, something that recent elections in Eastern Länder exposed very clearly. It was so fragile it collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he will fire Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
Politico points out the latest crisis "came just hours after Donald Trump’s clear win in the U.S. election, a result that stunned German political leaders who fear Trump’s tariff policies will give Europe’s biggest economy a hard ride." Oh, really? The U.S. blew up the Nord Stream, dragged Berlin into its proxy war in Ukraine, demanded financial and military aid for Kiev, Brussels imposed boomerang sanctions on Russia and tariffs on Chinese EVs... but they fear Trump. 😂 @LauraRuHK
NATO has no prospects and therefore should disband.
"In my opinion NATO's prospects are gloomy because it has become an aggressive and cynical political bloc" - the head of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapolov said on November 7.
He clarified that after dissolving the organization, NATO's countries need to find their separate path for development or join the BRICS. Earlier, on August 29, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and political consultant Earl Rasmussen said that a split had formed among NATO countries due to doubts about the alliance's policy of confrontation with Russia and China. (Source: iz.ru) @LauraRuHK https://iz.ru/1786844/2024-11-07/deputat-kartapolov-prizval-nato-samoraspustitsia
Some reflections prompted by the debate surrounding my latest article. ▪️If we agree that the state is a tool of class rule, we should ask ourselves which class is ruling. The US government has outsourced even its core functions to unelected interest groups heavily invested in the MIC, MICI or in Ray McGovern’s definition MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank) complex. That complex is virtually unaffected by popular vote, it can easily accommodate the negligible deviations proposed by either party. It doesn’t matter whether you get a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. ▪️Many pundits offer interesting observations about the so-called Deep State but fail to see the big elephant in the room: class relations. The capitalist state organizes the interests of the dominant classes and disorganizes the dominated classes. That is what it does, did and will continue doing unless it faces an organized resistance that cannot be coopted. An empirical approach is necessary to understand the nexus of power, but insufficient. It needs to be informed by a coherent theory of the state otherwise we end up naming all the agencies and organizations that form this mind-boggling network and miss the forest for the trees. ▪️The outsourcing of more and more functions of governance from representative institutions to public private partnerships, NGOs, corporations and private actors hasn't dissolved state power, it has made it more pervasive and internalized (ideology serves this purpose). The dominant class cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. All that is solid doesn't disappear when it melts into air, to paraphrase Marx. And that applies to class domination as well. The silver lining is that contradictions don't disappear either and we should learn how to leverage on them. @LauraRuHK
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