The EU’s Russian asset sequestration scheme is the only device that is left for the EU to fund Ukraine for the next two years, now that Trump has taken the US out of the picture. At first sight, the European Commission’s special purpose vehicle sounds too good to be true, a bit like the repackaged subprime mortgage bonds in the early 2000s. What this episode taught us is that the purpose of structured finance, always and everywhere, is to hide risk and to circumvent laws. The EU’s Russian asset sequestration scheme is destined to blow up. The political reality in the EU is that the governments in Germany, France, Spain, Italy or the UK are not ready to make the political and financial sacrifes for Ukraine.

Stvari, ki bi jih radi danes pozabili, kot da se niso nikoli zgodile:

1. Ruski predsednik Vladimir Putin je leta 2007 svaril pred širjenjem Nata proti ruskim mejam v nasprotju z obljubami leta 1990:

10 Feb 2007: Vladimir Putin was invited to speak at the Munich Security Conference. He questioned NATO’s eastward expansion and its role in promoting tension and distrust between Russia and the West. Putin: “It turns out that NATO has put its frontline forces on our borders…”

“I think it’s obvious that NATO expansion does not have any relation with ensuring security in Europe. On the contrary,” Putin added, “it represents a serious provocation that reduces the level of mutual trust.”

Putin asked, “Against whom is this expansion intended? What happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?”

Putin reminded the audience what German Diplomat Manfred Wörner, then serving as NATO General Secretary, said on 17 May 1990 in Brussels: “The fact that we are ready not to place a NATO army outside of German territory gives the Soviet Union a firm security guarantee.” Where are these guarantees?

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V isto kategorijo vrhunske človeške neumnosti spada tudi spodnja novica. Ukrajina je prepredena z ruskimi plinovodi, skozi katere teče najcenejši plin na svetu. Toda zaprla je pipe in se odločila, da bo raje kupovala 4-krat dražji ameriški utekočinjen plin in ga prek Grčije po transbalkanskem plinovodu prek Bolgarije, Romunije in Moldavije prenašala do Ukrajine. Zelenski se ob tem veselo smehlja, kajti (tudi) račun za plin bodo na koncu plačevali evropski davkoplačevalci. Other peoples money.

Robert Skidelsky je legenda med ekonomskimi zgodovinarji. Med drugim avtor fantastične 3-delne biografije Johna M. Maynarda. In seveda redek glas razuma med intelektualci v aktualni kakofoniji. Njegova nappved je, da bo po koncu sedanje ere globalizacije nujno prišel val protekcionizma in z njim fašizacija v notranji politični situaciji držav. Naslednja možna faza je vojna.

Nekoč so bili dvoji bogovi gotskega rocka – Sisters of Mercy in The Mission. Nato pa sta prišla Nirvana in grunge