The COVID Vaccine You Never Heard Of

The Western press, as mouth pieces for the powers that be, fo everything to maintain a bubble of silence around most any topic that does not fit their owners' aims. This of course extends to COVID, one of the most politicized themes ever.

As such, it is no surprise that Russia, whose image the US maintains of a backwater poverty stricken black hole of evil, is never mentioned in the development of medical practices or for that matter COVID vaccines. One will of course hear all about US, UK French and German efforts and even occasionally about the efforts of the new black hole of evil, China, but never about Russia.

So a country that has one of the lowest death rates from COVID, it should be no surprise that Russia is the leader in COVID vaccine research and soon production. The low death rates are in part from treating patients with direct blood oxygenation and helium to breakup the clots, instead of just putting a patient on a ventilator till either his lungs blow out or secondary infection takes him. My own aunt who is 76 and was down to 30% lung capacity was put back on her feet in 2 weeks.

It will come as a shock to most people who exist in the Western information bubble that Russia has 17 different vaccines in research and that one of them is completing its final trials: second wave of human trials, with a 100% success rate of creating immunity in the volunteers. Worst case symptoms have been medium flu symptoms and low fevers.

Best of all, specifically anti COVID immune cells have been identified with full immunity developed in all patients.

The Sechenov University team has completed its work and are being fast tracked for mass production, with the aim of producing 30 million vaccines before the end of the year. Keep in mind that on average, studies are finding that over 20% of the population already has naturally established immunity, mostly from asymptomatic infections. The additional vaccines, representing another 25% of the population will bring the total to nearly 50%, even more so as more people will continue to gain immunity naturally. By year's end, Russia will have full herd immunity in the works. August will see the first mass production of a fully tested COVID specific vaccine from a country the US elites have called a gas station that produces nothing.




Is it any wander than that last week the US, UK and Canada simultaneously blamed mythical Russian hackers for sabotaging their vaccine programs. One has to save face some how. Sanctions to follow.

Vaccinations are totally voluntary, as forced vaccinations have been ruled unconstitutional, in Russia.

The Top 18 Other Constitutional Amendments to the Russian Constitution

The referendum is over and 78% of the Russian voters gave their support for the constitutional amendmentS. You may have noticed I capitalized the "S", which was for most of my western readers who from reading their national."journalism" may be found lacking in knowledge that there were other amendments but the "Putin is now King" amendment that the Western mouth pieces are all yelling about. As a matter of fact, even many opponents of President Putin staying on came and voted for the changes, all for one reason: to give Russia the tools it needs to break the last chains of Western post Soviet colonialism.

To that one point, what the mentioned amendment does is zero out the number of served terms previously for Putin, Medvedev and Yeltsin (ok, little chance he will run again) to run for 2 more consecutive terms. So this is no guarantee of being in office, but most western media seemed to miss that point.

What is more important, especially to "woke" western liberalism are the other changes.Russia is a conservative Christian nation state, more akin to what the West was in the 1950s and 1960s then to the woke, extreme liberal mayhem and politically correct oppression that it has become.

The amendments to the constitution were presented to voters as a major blow to the colonial constitution written by US State Department "advisors" aka handlers of Boris Yeltsin and given to him to pass right after he had 550 people killed in the Russian White House (parliament) revolt, in 1993.

What most westerners are not aware of is that Russia was always viewed as an enemy by the Western elite and they were quite vocal about pointing this fact out, even though at this point in the 90s Yeltsin had dismembered (with the help of Gorbachev) the Soviet State, murdered the Russian army, and gave and signed anything demanded from him by his Western handlers.


Just a few examples:

Russians have no one to blame but themselves for the brutal dictatorship they built in their own country and imposed on their neighbors. (Chrystia Freeland, Financial Times, 29 May 1996)

NATO has proved itself to be peaceful and the West's CFE commitments add to that assurance. But as Russia recovers and rearms, as history suggests it will, Moscow's imperialist urge might well rise again. Then it will be too late and 'provocative' to redraw the defense line. (William Safire, International Herald Tribune, 3 Oct 1995)

There is an expansionist mentality among Russia's ruling elite, deeply rooted in the country's past, which makes it difficult for them to consider forming a partnership with the West. This almost permanent urge for territorial expansion has at the same time become a scourge for the Russian people who continue to live in appalling poverty in a country rich in resources. (Jan Nowak "What NATO can do for Russia", Washington Times, 19 April 2000)

So what were the main other amendments?

1. Only the federal government can set up governmental structures in the territories of Russia.

2. The territory of the Russian Federation can not be divide, partitioned or annexed to or by anyone else and any actions committed in that vein will be considered treason.

Yes, under the colonial constitution RF had nothing in it about maintaining territorial integrity or about treason on these grounds being..welp treason.

3. RF is the lawful inheritor of the former Soviet Union. This includes all treaties and treaty organizations.

4. The RF has a unified 1000 year history. It has a culture and belief in God passed on to us from our ancestors as well as government traditions.

5. Civil servants and elected politicians are now officially banned from having bank accounts outside of Russia and from holding a second citizenship or permanent residency. As unbelievable as this may sound, some two dozen members of the Russian Duma (parliament) are also citizens of other nations, primarily US, UK and Israel. As a matter of fact, the leaders of various progressive bills to strip parental rights and pro LGBT groups are US citizens. Go figure.

6. The Constitution now enforces that the country's minimum wage can not be lower than the minimum cash required for life above the base poverty line.

7. The RF remembers those who defended the Motherland and will defend the historic teuth from changes.

8. The well being of children is top priority of the government, which will provide the optimal conditions for development of spiritual, just, emotional, physical and intellectual development. The development of patriotism, citizenship and respect for elders. The government prioritizes family based education but takes upon itself responsibility for orphaned children.

9. Government language is Russian. Russian is the main language among thr many equal nationalities of the RF.

10. Provinces have a right to set their own local language which will be used in parallel with Russian.

11. RF guarantees to all its nationalities the right to their own language, creating conditions for its study and conservation.

12. Culture in the RF is a unique blend of all its component nationalities and is upheld and defended by the government.

13. The government guarantees the defense of the rights of Russian ethnic minorities located outside of RF.

14. The only official currency of Russia is the ruble. The currency is controlled by the Central Bank.

15. Government guarantees its obligations to pay pensions and to index those pensions yearly.

16. No international laws or treaties can supersede Russian federal laws.

17. President is the guarantee of the Constitution and the freedom and rights of the citizens.

18. Candidates for presidency can not be younger than 35 and must have lived the past 25 years in RF. He can not have duel citizenship or residency or foreign accounts.

There are of course many more minor amendments that will be discussed later and there impacts.

Свобода!!!! Freedom!!!

Свобода!!!!

In a radical turn around from previous statements, the mayor and city council of Moscow have announced that as of tomorrow, 9 June 2020,  all curfews, walking times by building and electronic pass in Moscow will end, period. 

On the 14th all summer cafes will also open.

Previously, the mayor Mr. Sobyanin had stated that the next phase of easing of restrictions would only commence on the 14th and that it would last months. That there would be no big celebrations on the 24th June, when the rescheduled 75th Victory Parade is to take place and so on. 

Guess our president V.V. Putin showed the mayor who is boss. Thank God.

This is the second good news of the week, as this week summer has finally arrived and the rainy weather with temps in the low to mid 10s, which has hung over Moscow and surrounding areas, form Europe, has been in place for some 4 weeks. Now temperatures are in the upper 20s to lower 30s and rising and sunny.

Just perfect weather for the residents of Moscow, some 13-17 million, to come out to the parks for fresh air, sunshine, vitamin D and exercise, just what is needed to boost immune systems.

 

https://tass.ru/obschestvo/8675085

Post COVID 19, A World Only For The Rich

As most people with any lick of understanding of how the economic world works, at least in its present incarnation, understands that the rich, the really rich, are little affected by the downs of the economic cycles.

There are several reasons for this, one amongst which is mentality quite separate from the middle and lower classes. Many in the modern lower 95% of any modern society are dominated primarily by two strains of though: a duty to pay off any debts taken upon their shoulders and a live for today and face tomorrow when it comes mentality. Both of these are sure to always lead to disaster in a long enough time scale and even more so in the present post COVID economic collapse.

First, the mentality of the "duty to pay off debts". Believe me, the rich do not share your ignorant mental state, ignorant because it ignores the business construct of any such interest laden debt, that of mutual risk. Sure they foster that mental state on the lower 95% to make sure the poorer classes will spend their last penny in savings to pay off what will more than likely be confiscated anyways. They teach you that default and bankruptcy should be cringed at, as some how below real people of character. However, they themselves have no such qualms, never had and never will. Just look at how many times the president of the United States, Mr. Trump, has filed bankruptcy, as a millionaire and billionaire.

In truth, their approach is the correct one. When one takes out a loan, one is entering into a mutual risk agreement with the creditor.  The creditor knows there is a risk that the creditie will not pay off the loan and the creditor sets the loan rates accordingly. The creditie knows that there is a chance that he will not be able to pay off the credit and will loose the object of that credit and should, though most absolutely do not, set his priorities on payments (and thus the overall value of the credit) accordingly. At all times a cost vs benefit analysis should be done by the creditie, at all times during the credit pay off period. If it becomes a bad investment, and a house or car is just that, an investment, not your property or your "home" but a cold blooded investment up until the point it is 100% paid off, the creditie should be ready to cut his losses and return the keys to the creditor. This is especially true when the creditie looses their soul source of income.

Bankruptcy and default not a slur words and the rich have never had a second thought of utilizing the tools set before them to reinvent themselves and safe guard their wealth. 

Secondly, is the mentality of living for today. Most of the rich have plans and plans within plans. Those that work take on contracts with contingency plans, the golden parachutes of modern speak. They are always looking for better opportunities and will jump ship as needed. They do not hold loyalty to their companies as those companies do not hold loyalty back to them. This is especially true the lower one goes on the employee grade. Modern corporations will not think twice about down sizing or reducing paid staff as needed to dictated by economic prudence. The bigger the corporation the more this is the truth, with a few exceptions, primarily in smaller, talent dependent companies, such as consultancies, who are only as good as their talent and must be ready to plus up on a very short notice.

Of course, this was not always so. Under the more socialist models, it was disallowed and in some countries such as France, it is still very difficult, but in any Neo-liberal economic model, labour is a resource, as my MBA B-School professors taught us, a view I never agreed with, but that is irrelevant as 99% did.

The Rich are always on the look out, following trends, switching and reinventing themselves, their industries and their locations as need be.

However, as is the problem with all Neo-liberal economies, the super accumulation of wealth, whether its flaunted or kept behind tall walls, in the hands of a very small subset of society, has been on a relentless drive. In most Neo-liberal societies wealth and property ownership by the top 5% is often between 60-80% of that nation's total wealth. With that comes a power over politics unmatched in by any other segment and perpetuates the wealth accumulation.. As a matter of fact, if one takes away the description of the supposed form of government and compares wealth distribution in the Neo-liberal "democracies" with that of most Middle Eastern dictatorships, such as the Saudis or Kuwaitis, one will find more commonalities then discrepancies. With wealth comes real power.

Now we reach the post Covid reality, which is very quickly coming upon the majority of the world. Prior to now, in the global lock down, much was written about this and even more ignored. The majority of the lower 95% preferred to believe in the myths of the V shaped rebound: "just you wait, as soon as the doors open, it will be back to work and just like before". Like before was already broken and slowly sinking, now the corks are out of the barrels and water has poured in.

The reality is that many businesses aimed at the middle class and poor are gone. The cost of credit to open new ones and for the lower 95's purchasing are skyrocketing.  Social distancing laws are a force multiplier on price. Additionally, with mass unemployment will come a massive downward push on most salaries, even as meager savings are destroyed on survival.

Lets take commercial flying for example. With airliners required to seat passengers in every other seat, this will lower occupancy in large planes by 30% and in small commuter planes by up to 60%. Associations of commercial airliners and experts have already predicted an average cost of increase in tickets of 40%. This will put commercial flying out of the reach of the majority of Neo-liberal societies suffering from downward pressures on wages and lack of credit to fuel spending. Equally so for small and many medium sized businesses.

The average office manager will think twice before sending an employee to a conference or training. Sure, online trainings will take up some of the slack, but they are rarely of the same caliber or bring in the same revenue for the hosting company. Again, downward spiral of a negative feed back loop.

As fewer and fewer economy classes passengers will be available, ticket prices will inadvertently rise, making them yet more inaccessible, until the primary target will be the cost immune rich. I have flown on business class only flights, those do exist and they will start to expand, pushing out the unaffordable economy class flights. More and more, we will return to an era where only the rich flew and had that mobility.

A similar process will start to take place in many other industries: restaurants, live entertainment, vacationing, housing, upper education, insurance and medicine and so forth.

Additionally, as all of this is happening, already often bankrupt local governments are finding tax income streams collapsing while outlays are exploding. Like it or not, they will have to raise taxes, further destroying their economies, or force austerity, further destroying their economies or like several American cities have already done: file bankruptcy and quit the game.

The present landscape and its socioeconomic trends are moving much of the Neo-liberal world into a full tilt dystopia, something more akin to Latin American realities: a tiny upper crust that owns 80% of everything, a service/managerial educated 20% who owns the remaining 20% and 79% in total grinding poverty, debt slaved to the top 1%. A bright happy future this is not.

COVID-19 A Visual Model

So these guys at Visual Science a Russian start up have created this create and super detailed COVID-19 model, for all of you science geeks looking to figure out how the dread of humanity actually looks.

Enjoy.

Another Blow to US Business Prospects in Russia

Today the news hit the papers that a group of US Congressmen, led by Eliot L. Engel, have put together a new bill of sanctions upon Russia for the alleged violations of human rights.

“Vladimir Putin is a cruel authoritarian with a long track record of silencing civil liberties, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, political opposition, and democracy. We need only to look at the violent killing of Putin-critic Boris Nemtsov to see how Putin brutally suppresses those who speak out against him,” Engel said.

As I have written in the past, Russian freedom of the press is in quite good health, better health, one might say then the US corporate clone media. As for political freedom, Russia has 5 parties in parliament and over 700 registered parties in the country, many times more than the US or any of the other Western countries who have declared themselves the arbiters of democracy. Additionally, as to Boris Nemtsov, a man who by the time of his death, was a long gone political has been and could not have garnered 3% of the vote in the previous elections, having him gunned down across from the Kremlin, in broad day light only made sense in an Austin Powers movie or for a foreign power in need of a new martyr for a fake narrative.

So let us take stock of this situation. In the middle of a COVID exasperated but long foretold economic collapse, with spiraling systematic mass unemployment and mass bankruptcies of major retail corporations, meat rationing due to the closure of meat plants and the destruction of herds by bankrupt farmers, and a run away Fed that has now decided to print without end, the US has decided to up the anti.

Not satisfied with its endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and illegal intervention in Syria replete with the mass theft of Syrian oil, it finds itself on the brink of war with Iran and Venezuela, with new tensions with Cuba, with bad blood with its European vassals after out and out piracy of German, French, Italian and Canadian (ok they are not European) medical supplies. The US has launched in effect a war of words, accusations and again trade with China, a war threatening to turn hot. It has extremely tense relations with Turkey, has attempted to strong arm Saudi Arabia, the very nation because of whom the US dollar is the world's reserve currency. Even India has started to again distance itself after America's ham fisted attempts at putting pressure on that nation.

So in the midst of a total collapse in world credibility and partnership, the insanity that is the modern US government, to include both parties of the Congress, has decided to reignite the pressure and standoff with Russia, by creating yet more sanctions.

Russia has had waves of sanctions launched against it in the past 7 years. First for the democratic choice of Crimeans to leave the Ukraine after a western sponsored nazi coup, then for Ukraine's genocidal war against the Donbass that has thankfully failed, followed by the fictitious 2016 Russian election tampering, the comedy show of the supposed Skripel poisonings and for Rosneft continuing business dealings with the legitimate Venezuelan government, instead of confiscating and pocketing billions of Venezuela's oil revenues, like some others. I am sure I have missed a few more.

To this end, President Putin will now face ever stronger domestic pressure to respond in kind and further more so since Russia sent a plane of medical aid to the US and was already rewarded by howlers of Russophobia in the US media. Russian public opinion was very angry about any Russian sent help to the US which is seen by many as an aggressor. To that end, to put his hand out, President Putin took a hit to his own popularity. That this has now been repaid first by the western MSM screaming about cynical political ploys and now with additional sanctions, President Putin's position can not help but harden. Additionally the Medvedev Atlantist neo-liberal block has effectively been removed from power and those still remaining in positions, neutered.

So what does this mean for US business: more of the same as it has for the past 7 years. US business has lost market space, has lost revenue and opportunities. Not only has US business lost large chunks to European and Asian competitors, Russia through aggressive import substitution has created manufacturers who first filled Russia's own needs and are now starting to come onto the world market as competitors to those same American corporations.

Just a few examples: Exxon was forced out by Obama from the northern Russian marine oil fields. Rosneft brought Exxon in because Exxon already had the technology it needed. With Exxon gone, Rosneft was forced to invest its own funds into developing those same technologies and once developed, it is now free with its own patents to compete and to compete at a lower production margin. Exxon itself, in just one trillion dollar light sweet crude field, a field in a sea of many such fields, lost $100 billion over a 10 year period and the US taxpayers equally lost $10 billion in taxes.

The various large scale Russian infrastructure projects, such as the Amyrsk LNG plant, the World Cup football stadiums, the expansion of various Russian oil refineries over the past 5 years and so on have also seen strict banning of any US based vendors. When asked America's political instability towards Russia is the given reason.

Even world credit card markets now have the Mir card as a new competitor. True, still in the early stages on the world stage, it has taken over a large chun

In a post Corona and more precisely mid Greater Depression era, these major projects will be some of the few still left ongoing. The pressure on US business, with such huge closed markets, along with a loss of markets in China and a broken EU, will be enormous. What can readily be the very lifeline for millions of jobs is no more and can be no more in the face of the cowardliness of American business leaders to call out the insanity of Washington.

Such is the price of silence.

Russia: Where to Head in the Post COVID Economic Crash

Let us face it, the Western world's and its satellite's system of Debt-Finance driven paper growth was broken long before COVID showed up and gave it the coup de grace in the back of the head. The system was showing severe strains and creaking under its engorged weight in H2 2019 and Recession was in the air. It was the big white elephant in the room, about which only a few dared to talk to loudly.

COVID's arrival did two things: on the one hand, it turned what was apt to be a medium strength recession into a depression that may make the Great Depression look relatively mild and on the other hand it gave the politicians an excuse for all their 30 years of folly and self enrichment and thus a way out without changing anything. Additionally, it has presented the western central banks the opportunity to play out their latest insane theory: the Modern Monetary Theory...that is, print print print and its all good to print some more. Perpetual Quantitative Easing. A crack binge of epic proportions with a naive belief that nothing bad will arise from it. Ask the Romans how well that worked out for them, or the last Mongol dynasty of China. Two thousand years of history proves otherwise, but then again, History has ended, correct?

I wrote months before COVID lock-downs why anyone working remotely should already be living in Russia, it only makes economic sense. Now for the rest.

The West was already facing steep youth unemployment, with the US suffering in the 25-30% margin, many of the starter jobs having been taken either by illegal aliens, for the low skilled, or by H1Bs and automation for the higher skilled labor pool. Europe, even worse, with some EU members hitting the 50% mark. With COVID this will only get worse.

Russia is in a unique position. For one, it has a giant reserve of half a trillion dollars that is actually growing, due to the increase of the cost of gold, even as the government pulls funds to support the economy. The government has done a lot to make sure that Russia is well positioned to come out of this in one piece. The crisis has given feeder stock to many Russian industries, some created in answer to COVID that will feed industrial production in the years to come.

Additionally, with debt to revenue of 16% of GDP, as opposed to most Western nations of 80-150% and growing rapidly, and because of the endless anti-Russian sanctions, Russia is mostly immune from the crashing banking and tsunami of debt storms rolling down on these economies. The final plus is that the Russia lock-down looks set to serious lifting in mid to late May and in all will last only about 1.5 months, as opposed to the 2-3 month lock downs or longer in the West.

This of course means there will be greater opportunities in the Russian market for all those western unemployed engineers and scientists, well greater than sitting around on a bankrupt government dole.
Metallurgists, industrial engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers are in extremely short supply and that considering that Russia graduates more engineers than any other nation, almost twice as many as second place America.  It is also huge and experts are needed.

With all of this, where do you think that venture capital is going to go? To bankrupt struggling western economies or to where it can still earn some semblance of a profit?

Finally, for those who fancy themselves social conservatives, Russia is definitely a go to place. Society is naturally conservative and old fashioned. More akin to the majority in the West in the 60s, 70s and 80s rather than the present. In other words, the good old days the present leading generations remember from their childhoods. Christianity is not frowned upon, it is celebrated. Getting on a plane or a public bus, one is apt to see icons of Christ or the saints on the dashboard of the driver or in the corner of the niche for the stewardesses. Like wise moderate Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Shamanism, Catholicism can be found practicing in peace and without interference. Even in this COVID madness, the churches were never closed, because under the Russian constitution, the government has no right to interfere in religious matters.

In a roll of good news, the Russian government has continued to liberalize immigration policies. In a follow on article, I will outline just how easy it is for Americans to move to Russia and get citizenship.

Amongst other things, the requirement to give up the previous citizenship has been removed, effectively allowing duel citizenship for anyone who is not directly working for the government, in politics or working on secret projects. Additionally, anyone who has a spouse or child who is a Russian citizen no longer has to pass the Russian language test (though you will be hard pressed with work if you do not learn Russian) and the 3 year living in Russia requirement to put in for citizenship.

Next on the list is the reform of the Temporary and Permanent Residency programs. The order is to first get the Temp, which lasts 3 years and then put in for the Perm program. The Permanent Residency used to require reissue every 5 years but is now life long, as long as at least 183 days a year are spent in Russia. The cross hairs are now on the Temporary Residency which will be removed totally with everyone going directly to Permanent Residency.

Russian Highly Qualified Specialist work visas are also relatively easy to get, as long as you have a sponsor. In all, it takes less than a month to get the visa processed.

So if you have not wondered, you should be. If you have not planned, you should be. There is still a light in the middle of this bleak spring of despair.

The Wisdom of Dollar Deleveraging

A wisdom of the Orthodox Church states that God sends us our enemies for reasons, often to make us realize our mistakes, or to push us in the right direction to do that something that we are otherwise loath to do. Because of this, a true Christians, especially an Orthodox Christian, should pray for his enemies, as they are God sent instruments.

As such, the all out financial and economic attack upon Russia by the West as a whole, led by the USA, has had many economic benefits for Russia. Sanctions and counter sanctions have allowed Russian agriculture to boom and Russia who once imported 20% of its food, is now one of the world's biggest exporters of wheat, rice, pork, chicken and many more. Those, like Poland and the Baltic statelets, who howled the loudest for sanctions were hit the worst by the agricultural counter sanctions, with many thousands of farmers and fishermen loosing their livelihood. Additionally, import substitution has seen many dozens of new manufacturing plants open, from high tech cable producers to Mercedies and Nissan and Russian made goods are now on export world wide, with resource extraction only accounting for 21% of GDP, on par with the USA, and 40% of government tax earnings.

But the biggest boon that has come to Russia is the financial de-levering. This was, by far, the hardest hits by the West, causing the most panic and pain in the Russian markets, causing Russian businesses to be cut off from European lenders and faced with expensive Russian credit. The one week shut down by Visa and Master Card processing caused more panic in 2014.

All of this has had a profound effect over the past 6 years. One of the first growths that came from 2014, was the creation of the Mir Card, Russia's own credit card that is now wide spread domestically and growing internationally, albait, so far slowly, but growing. Visa and Master Card never created another artificial shutdown again and have been forced by law to process all Russian purchases in Russia, creating protection against shut downs and prying eyes of western intelligence.

After this came a far from complete reorganization on the banking sector, with many small and often corrupt banks closed down. Big banks consolidated, and while this creates its own problems, it also creates more control on the porous market with routes for money laundering out of the country.

An amnesty was given for a no questions asked repatriation of rubles from offshore bank accounts. Quite a few businessmen repatriated all or some, many more did not and when Western countries found them as soft targets for confiscation of billions of dollars, pounds, euros, they had only themselves to blame but also served as excellent lessons for others not to follow.

Additionally, the rates for loans and credits were sharply reduced, especially for such industries as agriculture and machine building. Likewise, loan rates for mortgages have also drastically come down, from 17-21% in 2014 to 6.5% in 2020, along with various other government incentives for first time buyers and for families with 3+ children.

Russia lowered taxes, made tax paying straight, transparent and easy, moved up radically in the Ease of Doing Business from the mid 120s in 2014 to 28th place in 2020, ahead of such economies as Japan, Spain, China, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and India.

But the two key moves that Russia has taken and which are now going to pay off with vast dividends were to transfer the reserves out of dollars and to go on a huge gold buying spree that has lasted a goodly 6 years now. Dollars make up 22% of the Russian reserve, still to much and a painful future loss but not crippling and nothing that can be used to hamstring or blackmail the Russian economy.

So how has this helped? Well, first we shall speak of the gold. Gold is the ultimate value reserve. When foundationless fiat currencies, formerly just printed paper, but now generated computer bits, are in inflationary valued free fall, gold escalates in value. So as Russia has been forced to spend much more on her economy this year, due to, the dollar value of her reserve funds have actually grown. From 23 March 2020 to 23 April 2020, Russia's reserves grew 18.5$ billion to 569.7$ billion and are set to continue to grow as gold is now sighted to continue growing towards $3000/ounce from its year start in the $1300 range.

But best of all, was Russia selling off more than 70% of her US treasuries and obligations. China, has proven not so lucky and the US, backed into a corner by her immense preCorona debt of $23 trillion and looking set to expand that debt by $3-10 trillion more in this year alone and let us face it, now that the Federal Reserve has drawing rights to the Blackrock run slush fund to give out to their friends as they see fit, it will definitely be the entirety of those $10 trillion. So US debt is set to rise to 33$+ trillion.

So what has the US and its vassals in Europe started to do? That is correct, lay the quasi-legal frame work for annulling that debt, specifically a portion of that debt held by China and whom ever else gets into Washington's cross hairs. The first shots were fired by Trump at the WHO, followed by a German paper accusing China of spreading Coronavirus and thus owing Germany $164 billion in "damages".

As if on coordinated cue, various US congressman have pushed through bills that claim much higher margins than just a mere "conservative" $164 billion. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Martha McSally of Arizona are pushing the "Stop COVID Act", blaming everything on China, God forbid one takes a hard look at one's own record, but I degress, and demanding that China wave the $1 trillion debt America owes it. “We haven't talked through exactly what that way forward would be," she said. "But we do know that there are more people that agree that China should be required to make some form of restitution for this."

I wonder if the average man can do the same with the bank? Look, I am in a bad way and its your fault Mr. Bank, now wave what I owe you and of course I am not going to give back all the neat stuff I bought or look at my own sorry record, just wave what I owe you.

I think not.

So the future is obviously going to be very interesting and luckily Russia will be able to sit the US-China economic, financial and maybe military war to the side, at least as much as possible. That the US will more than likely default out on their debts to Russia is a gimmy. Once the US starts defaulting on whatever grounds it likes, with China, it will continue to creatively find other reasons to do so with other nations, to include its European vassals, whether they realize it or not. That China will retaliate and nationalize US factories and watch its own more limited American holdings nationalized, is also a no brainer.

In this, we must make sure that Russia does not become a dumping ground for Chinese products looking for markets, but that we grow trade with China in a sustainable manner. As for the US, once the euphoria of giving it to the Chinese settles, they will quickly realize that opening factories is not the same as flicking on a light switch but is an effort that takes 1-2 years, some times longer and setting up new supply chains is no easy deal either. Here to, we may find leverage, but it should be leverage that is predicated on strict political milestones and paid for in what matters, gold.

An Apology From a Czech Citizen To the Russian People

The following is a letter of apology that was sent to the Russian embassy in Czech for the actions of the mayor of Prague using the Covid-19 to tear down the memorial of General Konev.

VELVYSLANECTVÍ RUSKÉ FEDERACE V ČESKÉ REPUBLICE

nám. Pod Kaštany

160 00 Praha 6

Victory over fascism is the most important event for the Russians. And it’s not only for those who witnessed the war, but also for young people. Any damage, removal or other insult to these symbols, regardless of whether they are devoted, to the ordinary soldiers or commanders, the majority of Russians consider it as a personal insult.

The argument of Mr. Kolář for removal of the statue of Marshal Konev was that the statue in Prague 6 was repeatedly poured in red color as a reminder that Marshal Konev had blood on his hands as a suppressor of the nationwide uprising against the dictatorship in Hungary. For me only the fact that the Hungarians are at this time settled is also evidenced by the Soviet soldier’s memorial at Freedom Square in Budapest, which nobody spilled red. By the way, there is a statue of President Reagan on the same square. Maybe this could be an incentive for a thought for the Mayor of Prague 6.

What kind of person is Mr. Kolář, when he has to strengthen his ego by fighting with a long-dead person? What kind of primitive he is that have to tear down memorials for his personal visibility? Probably not a genuine person. He's a superficial hypocrite instead of helping his citizens in times of crisis, he decided to tear down historical monuments, while people sew masks at their homes and humbly tolerate quarantine, others abused the state of emergency for their own political actions because the mayor of Prague 6 Ondřej Kolář removed the statue of Konev in a situation of a ban on gathering, and he also dared to joke about it and said he did that because general Konev had no mask. How to describe such behavior? He is a poor man and a coward, someone who in order to win, leads a duel with the dead.

 

Only the ones who dont want to see, cannot unsee it. Only the ones who dont want to hear, cannot unhear it and only the ones who dont know, would never understand.

That is why he was able to dishonor the symbol of the thousands of Soviet soldiers who put their lives for ours. 26 million were killed before the evil was stopped. At least we can thank them and not forget.

Thanks for the sacrifice druzya.

I personally apologize here to the granddaughter of Marshal Konev Yelena Koneva and the Russian Federation at the same time and believe me, dear Russian friends, that Prague is not all of Czech Republic and Kolář is not everyone. I believe that such actions are political misery, it is totally unnecessary and counterproductive, and only cause unnecessary waves of hate.

“People are always shouting they want to create a better future. It's not true. The future is an apathetic void of no interest to anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.”      ≈Milan Kundera ≈                                                                                                                                        

Kateřina Roszková

 

Sincerely K.R. - citizen of Czech Republic

 

Every Catastrophe Offers Opportunity

In true form, when ever one door closes another door opens.

With Covid-19 ravaging supply chains all over the world, medical supply chains have found themselves no exception. From the early days of the pandemic in China to the now global crisis, it quickly became evident that outsourcing the majority of your medical materials and equipment manufacturing, including ingredients for medication, to one country, is hardly a good idea.

Long before Covid-19 became a household name or was even thought up, various voices in Russia were urging the government to more fully invest in local manufacturing of at least medicines if not the equipment for hospitals. The government was slow to act, however the financial and economic war that the West declared on Russia in 2014 brought more attention and political will to this issue.

As President Putin made it his aim for the drastic improvement of the Russian medical system, especially outside of the top 5 major cities, it quickly became obvious that importing all the needed medical equipment would prove to be a very expensive endevour and one that was wrought with tensions as the US Congress played its favorite game of Tariff Russia. Thus, investments were already being realized in the medical fields for manufacturing of state of the art medical equipment for various purposes in Russia: from x-ray to artificial/assisted breathing machines.

Along comes Covid-19 and world wide everything unravels. Luckily for Russia, or a God send, you decide, the plague hit Russia almost last and has only in the past 2 weeks started to rev up. This gave Russia an additional two months to ramp up manufacturing in many sectors and to start to move fringe developments and technologies into full on exploitation. There is nothing like a war time footing to move technology along at rates otherwise not imagined. Survival is the real mother of innovation.

And so, Russia now stands on the precipice of coming out of this as a power of modern medical manufacturing. Below we will go over only a few of the new or expanding productions. As more information appears I will of course update this post.

This can be equally seen in the 16 new infectious disease hospitals being built across the country. These, unlike the Chinese container temporary Wuhan facility, are permanent state of the art facilities with 41 days start to turn key completion build cycles. Each of the hospitals are set up for 500-1000 beds and all the equipment has been procured from Russian companies. From top of the line adjustable beds, to surgical equipment, monitoring systems and stations, ambulances and assisted breathing machines. All are being delivered now and this is only possible because they are localized production, not imports from China or Europe.

So, we will start with the big heavy weight of the Covid-19 season: artificial/assisted breathing machines.

At present, Russia has some 44.000 units of various age and capacity in service, Japan 23.000. As a further comparison, Krasondar, the main southern commercial center with a population of about one million people has 950 such units in service. Milano, the main Italian industrial center with a population of 1.3 million coupled with horrid air quality, had 48 units.

As of March, Russia was producing some 300 state of the art units per month. With massive government support, the production is being increased to 500 units this merry month of April, with the aim of 2500 units monthly by the close of May and peaking at 3.000 units. Of course this level of sustained production is well past the capacity needs for Russia itself, but it will go to fill export orders. As of now, 30 nations have either placed or in the process of placing orders for machines.

The units are being produced by Shabe Holdings, a division of Rostec, in their Uralskii Optical-Mechanical manufacturing plant.

Other key productions of masks and garments are also taking off. Small and medium sized businesses are retooling. Production of the high grade masks has reached 2.1 million units per week with another 300.000 coming online this week. Of course this does not fill the demand but considering previously Russia was importing all of this volume, this has gone a long way in manufacturing from basically nothing.

Two technopark universities in Ekaterinburg and Tymin have also begun printing plastic masks (they still require cloth for the breathing filters) on 3D printers, in serial production. While still at small batches of 500 units per 2 days of printing, the proof of concept in a production environment has been provided, opening the doors to mass production that does not require outsourcing and international logistics or major manufacturing facilities. Equally they are printing replaceable parts to assisted breathing equipment, such as plastic valves that must be changed once every 24 hours.

Medical garment manufacturing, robes for doctors, at 6.000 units daily. At present this is well below daily consumption and stocks are filling the gap. However, manufacturing is being ramped up to 25.000 units per day, as even heavy industry giants like Komaz and Tatneft are retooling for a new manufacturing branch job.

The big bottle neck is cloth for the medical gowns which is still mostly imported from China. In steps Chaikovskii Textile which has come up with a new medical material Panatseya PP180 which is a light weight, flexible material that is inhospitable to bacterial, fungal and viral microorganisms. The textile also is not absorbent, so liquids do not penetrate and cause stains. Full sustained production is in its early stages set to ramp up.

March goggle manufacturing was at 12.000 units per day with the aim of reaching 22.000 units per day by end of April.

Additionally, by end of March, respirators production had reached 20.000 units per day.

Of the seventeen key medications used in treatment of Covid-19, fourteen are manufactured in Russia, the remaining 3 are having to be imported. Unfortunately, this is a much slower ramp up issue, but one that has once again been high lightened as a weak link.

Russian pharma companies are also working on 7 separate vaccines, with live human trials on 60 volunteers (these people are already chosen and half are the scientists themselves) set to start by end of May/early June. Due to the long incubation periods of this virus, testing will take at least 1 month. Generiym, one of those companies, has patented and pushed into full scale production an express test for Covid-19 that delivers results in 30 minutes with a 94% accuracy rate. Yes, I know, the western media has not squeaked a word about this, which should not be in the least surprising.

Other high tech equipment is being manufactured by such companies as Litharinskii Optical Glass Plant, working with Germanium lenses to manufacture top of the line thermal imaging equipment that allows a doctor to scan a crowd up to 30m out and identify individuals in the crowd whose body temperatures are out of norms set.

Evromedservise is now manufacturing a full line of medical furniture with built in ultraviolet radiation lamps for quick and full sterilization of medical equipment and supplies.

Rosatom Helskia has produced large scale radiation sterilization equipment that will sterilize up to 58 million masks per month. Their work contract goes into effect this month.

To keep this engine of production and innovation chugging, the Russian central bank has relaxed all lending requirements to any company starting or currently manufacturing medicines, medical supplies and medical equipment.

Now we will see in what position Russia will be on the medical equipment markets once all of this settles out. Next time you are at your doctor's, the equipment might just read "Made in Russia".