US sends more troops to Russia’s borders, weighs sending anti-aircraft systems

Andre Damon

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of an additional 500 troops to Eastern Europe, amid mounting demands in the US media for a more direct military intervention by the United States against Russia.

The announcement, made public by the Pentagon on Monday, brings the total number of US troops deployed to NATO countries in Eastern Europe to 14,500, spread from Estonia and Latvia on Russia’s border, through Romania in Southern Europe.

A senior defense official said that the move was “supportive of our efforts to be able to defend NATO airspace if needed.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley greets a soldiers of the U.S. Army, at the Training Range in Pabrade, some 60km.(38 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, March 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

The Pentagon revealed that, Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last week went to, in the words of CNN, an “undisclosed airfield near the Ukrainian border that has become a hub for shipping weapons,” to supervise firsthand the running of weapons into the country.

In addition, the United States “is considering supplying critical air defense systems to NATO allies in eastern Europe as anxiety mounts that the Russians could consider launching missiles or aircraft against the alliance’s eastern flank,” CNN reported Monday.

CNN wrote that “the idea centers around the concern that Russian missiles or aircraft might deliberately attack targets inside NATO territory at some point if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides those nations are a risk to his invasion because of their support for Ukraine.”

The report added, “The most likely systems that could be deployed by the US are likely to be the Patriot and the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system.”

The announcement that the Pentagon is “considering” stationing these anti-aircraft systems in NATO territories adjacent to Ukraine comes as demands grow from figures within both US parties and the military for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which would be an effective declaration of war with Russia.

The figures calling for this action include Democrats Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Republican Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Roger Wicker, and four-star US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove.

Over the weekend, they were joined by West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, as well as Evelyn Farkas, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia and also a Democrat, who condemned to the Hill the Biden administration’s refusal to support a no-fly zone.

“I don’t want to telegraph to Putin ahead of time what we want to do, especially because we know he’s capable of practically anything and we are trying to deter him from further horrific action, from cutting off future options for Ukraine, assistance to Ukraine or our defense of NATO,” she said.

Despite these demands, the White House has for now resisted calls to directly engage Russian aircraft, preferring to funnel a torrent of weapons to Ukraine and wage scorched-earth economic warfare against Russia

Politico reported that “There is growing support on both sides of the aisle for a ban on oil imports from Moscow, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday indicated that the U.S. was working on the prospect with European allies.”

The US and NATO have up to this point sent Ukraine 17,000 anti-tank missiles and 2,000 stinger anti-aircraft missiles, CNN said it was told by a US official.

The staggering pace of US weapons transfers to Ukraine was spelled out in a report in the New York Times Monday morning, “when the president approved $350 million in military aid on Feb. 26… 70 percent of it was delivered in five days.”

The rapidity of the deployments makes clear that the gun-running operation was prepared well in advance of the Russian invasion.

As the Times wrote, “The military was able to push those shipments forward quickly by tapping into pre-positioned military stockpiles ready to roll onto Air Force C-17 transport planes and other cargo aircraft, and flying them to about half a dozen staging bases in neighboring countries, chiefly in Poland and Romania.”

The article expresses significant unease about the scale of the weapons transfers into Ukraine, warning, “So far, Russian forces have been so preoccupied in other parts of the country that they have not targeted the arms supply lines, but few think that can last.”

The Times notes that US has made an effort to avoid being seen as “a ‘co-combatant’ in the war,’ engaged in a ‘direct conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.’

But the Times warns that “as the weapons flow in and if efforts to interfere in Russian communications and computer networks escalate, some US national security officials say they have a foreboding that such conflict is increasingly likely.”

The article concludes, ominously, “In the case of Ukraine, a senior American official said, the question resonating around the White House is more like: ‘Tell me how we don’t get sucked into a superpower conflict.’”

Meanwhile, the war is already being seized upon as the pretense for massively expanding US military spending, coupled with attacks on bedrock social programs.

“NATO Needs More Guns and Less Butter,” blared an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, demanding that Social Security and Medicare be gutted by means-testing them.

In accompanying editorial, the Journal demands, “Any conflict would require enormous amounts of munitions, and on current plans US forces could run out of some of the most lethal and important stuff in weeks. The Pentagon needs to ramp up planned purchases of long-range anti-ship and joint air-to-surface standoff missiles—now.”

COVID-19 infection rates and deaths on the rise in Germany

Tamino Dreisam

Although war propaganda has shouldered the pandemic out of the news, the coronavirus is still running rampant in Germany and worldwide. After a brief decline in the infection rate in Germany, the numbers have shot up again in recent days. From Wednesday to Thursday, the seven-day incidence per 100,000 residents rose to 1,174. Within one day, 210,673 infections were registered and 267 died. On Friday, as many as 217,593 people were confirmed to have caught the coronavirus and 291 died. The seven-day incidence rose to over 1,200.

Infection rates are extremely high across Germany. In 408 of 411 counties, the seven-day incidence is above 500 and in 290 counties it is above 1,000. A nationwide seven-day incidence of over 1,200 means that more than 1.2 percent of the population is infected with the virus every week. In 29 counties, the incidence even exceeds 2,000.

Medical workers in protective equipment, Station 43 of the Berlin Charité Hospital (Image: DOCDAYS Production)

The facts expose the official claim that the Omicron variant is “mild” as a lie. The number of severe cases remains stable and high. The adjusted hospitalization incidence is 12.5 per 100,00 residents, representing 10,000 new hospitalizations in Germany last week alone. Two-thousand coronavirus patients require intensive care. There has been a general increase in hospitalized cases, especially in the last four weeks.

The number of deaths is particularly alarming. Just since the beginning of the week, 1,118 people have died in Germany of the coronavirus, including many young people. On average, at least one child has died every week since the beginning of winter.

Fueling the number of severe cases and deaths is, among other things, the continued growth of outbreaks in medical facilities and nursing homes. In the past week, 208 active outbreaks in medical facilities were officially reported (compared to 187 the previous week) as well as 517 outbreaks in nursing homes and homes for the elderly (472 the previous week). In nursing homes and homes for the elderly, an average of 13 people were infected in each outbreak.

About nine percent of those infected in medical facilities outbreaks died from the infection. In nursing homes and homes for the elderly, the figure is as high as 13 percent. This week there were 149 more mortal cases than the week before.

Schools and kindergartens have been particularly inundated by mass infection. The 5-to-14-year-old and 15-to-34-year-old age groups have the highest incidences of infection, 2,467 and 1,644, respectively. In the last four weeks, 746 outbreaks were recorded at day care centres and 847 outbreaks in schools. These number are understatements, however, and are expected to rise retroactively as late reports trickle in.

The rapid spread of the even more infectious Omicron sub-variant BA.2 threatens to further aggravate the situation. Within just one week, its share of the infection incidence has increased from 25 to 38 percent. Even the Robert Koch Institute (RKI, the German federal agency responsible for disease control and prevention) warns that “due to the higher transmissibility of the BA.2 sub-lineage ... a significantly slower decrease or renewed increase in case numbers cannot be ruled out.”

Despite the persistent high case numbers and the threat of an even larger pandemic wave, the federal and state governments are ending the last remaining coronavirus protection measures. They are putting profits ahead of lives and declaring the pandemic politically over. In mid-February, a conference of federal and state governments decided on a corresponding three-step plan .

In the first step, all private contact restrictions for vaccinated and recovered persons were lifted on February 18, the so-called “2G” rule (vaccinated or recovered) was abolished in retail stores nationwide and the wearing of FFP2 masks was no longer generally required.

On Friday, the second step of the re-opening plan was implemented, which includes relaxation of safety requirements for hotels, restaurants and large events, as well as the reopening of clubs.

In hotels and restaurants, the “3G” rule (vaccinated, recovered or recently tested) will soon apply in place of the “2G” rule, regardless of infection rates. In addition, the ten-person limit at tables will be abolished. Clubs will be allowed to reopen under the “2G-plus” (vaccinated, recovered and recently tested) in the near future.

Particularly conducive to infection is the massive increase in the number of spectators permitted at large events. In indoor venues, where up to 4,000 visitors were previously allowed, up to 6,000 visitors will be permitted, assuming a 60 percent occupancy rate.

For large outdoor events, the permissible number of spectators will be more than doubled. Previously, up to 10,000 spectators were permitted in most German states. Soon, up to 25,000 spectators will be permitted for events with a capacity of up to 75 percent.

In two weeks, on March 19, the Infection Protection Act, which forms the legal basis for the current measures, will expire. As a final re-opening step, all remaining measures are to be discontinued on March 20. All that will remain is an undefined “basic protection” based on mask wearing and social distancing.

In addition to the relaxed policies of the federal and state governments, the RKI decided that as of Thursday, no country is considered a high-risk area. The RKI justified the decision by only classifying countries as high-risk areas where a “more dangerous” variant than Omicron is spreading. Soon, therefore, there will no longer be a quarantine requirement for entry into Germany, rather only the 3G rule.

COVID deaths hit 6 million worldwide as Omicron mutation devastates Hong Kong

Benjamin Mateus

Two years ago this week, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak threatening the globe a pandemic. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned at that time, “I’m deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.”

On that day there were fewer than 100,000 documented cases and the global death toll was just under 5,000, but the number of cases outside of China was increasing exponentially as new confirmed cases were reported in country after country.

Now the number of reported COVID cases has reached 445 million and the number of reported COVID deaths has passed the 6 million milestone. And the pandemic, after being suppressed for nearly two years in China through its successful Zero COVID policy, has now resurfaced in at least one part of that country, the autonomous trading center of Hong Kong.

Even the latest horrific figures on deaths and infections are official totals only, missing enormous numbers of pandemic victims, particularly in the poorer countries.

According to estimates of global COVID infections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) the number of new cases in 2022 alone has already exceeded 2.5 billion, due to the extreme contagiousness of the Omicron variants. One widely cited estimate of the global excess death toll is 19.9 million (according to the Economist), or 3.3 times the official number.

Not all the excess deaths are directly caused by SARS-CoV-2, but they have taken place because of the impact of the pandemic, and as a consequence of the policies adopted by capitalist governments around the world that have chosen to force the world’s people to endure a continued assault by a deadly pathogen rather than carry out basic public health measures to eliminate it once and for all.

Edouard Mathieu, head of data for the Our World in Data portal, told the Associated Press , “Confirmed deaths represent a fraction of the true number of deaths due to COVID, mostly because of limited testing, and challenges in the attribution of the cause of death. In some, mostly rich, countries that fraction is high, and the official tally can be considered to be fairly accurate, but in others it is highly underestimated.”

Instead, the policies of “living with the virus” have culminated in shedding of masks, ending of all protective measures like quarantines and lockdowns, resumption of travel and reopening of businesses all across the globe. As indicated by cellphone data, population mobility is above the pre-pandemic level. Concerted efforts have gone, not into a public health offensive against the virus, but into a propaganda offensive claiming that the Omicron variant is “mild” and that the coronavirus should be accepted as “endemic,” one whose deadly consequences are to become part of everyday life for the foreseeable future.

Many of the countries and regions that had pursued an elimination strategy in the last few months have renounced such public health measures at significant detriment to their population. The situation now in Hong Kong is quite troubling and, as when Omicron was first reported in South Africa just a few months ago, may be a harbinger of the dangers awaiting many other countries.

Figure 1 Daily new confirmed cases COVID-19 per one million people United States vs Hong Kong. Source Our World in Data.

Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, has a population of over 7.5 million. It had persisted in its Zero COVID policy, but the local government’s efforts began to weaken in the face of the highly transmissible BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, which broke through in January and began to spread quickly. While playgrounds, gyms and salons remained closed, thousands went to the Mong Kok flower market and temples before celebrating the Lunar New Year holidays.

In an opinion piece published in the South China Morning Post, Regina Ip wrote, “It’s hardly surprising that large-scale outbreaks occurred afterwards in densely populated public housing areas. Little was done to mitigate the scope for deadly outbreaks at congested homes for the elderly, long highlighted as potential disaster areas.”

The head of the COVID Response Expert Team of the National Health Commission, Dr. Liang Wannian, who arrived in Hong Kong on February 28, instructed health officials that “the goal of ‘dynamic clearing’ is not to blindly pursue zero infections, but to cut off the chain of transmission as soon as possible to minimize the occurrence of infection, severe illness, and death.”

New COVID cases remained nominal at around 700 per day until the first week in February, when they exploded, reaching over 50,000 per day. From around 12,650 cumulative cases at the start of the New Year, case numbers have now catapulted to 440,000. Ninety percent of all cases have occurred in just the last three weeks.

In that same three weeks, the death toll jumped from a low of 219 to 1,774, with deaths each day so far in March equal to the total cumulative deaths in the two years of the pandemic. One hundred percent of all sequenced SARS-CoV-2 viruses from Hong Kong harbor the I1221T mutation at the BA.2 sub-variant’s spike protein, suggesting that this mutation offers the virus an important advantage.

The death toll on a per capita basis is extremely high and worrisome, considering it is linked to a new mutation. As shown in Figure 2, the per capita rate being witnessed now in Hong Kong is higher than any seen in the United States throughout the pandemic, underscoring the deadliness of the Omicron variants.

It appears that in Hong Kong many among the elderly are least vaccinated. Mistrust of government vaccination campaigns and misinformation about the vaccines meant that this group remains extremely vulnerable, a factor in the high rates of deaths being seen. Reports are also surfacing of the impact on children.

Figure 2 Daily new confirmed deaths COVID-19 per one million people United States vs Hong Kong. Source Our World in Data.

There are reports that bodies are piling up at Hong Kong’s hospitals and mortuaries. Lau Ka-hin, a senior administrator at Hong Kong’s hospital authority, informed the media, “There has been a surge of COVID-related deaths. We can’t process the transferal of bodies; therefore, you will see some bodies [stored] in accident and emergency rooms. The bodies of [the] deceased patients need to be moved to public mortuaries for autopsy and investigation.”

According to the South China Morning Post, health authorities are planning to repurpose half of all hospital beds for COVID-19 patients this week to accommodate the exponential growth in cases. Hospital Authority chairman Fan Hung-ling told the Post, “The original idea was to convert 30 percent of beds in public hospitals, but with the escalating new cases, the expert group led by Dr. Liang has suggested increasing it to 50 percent. Two hospitals, Tin Shui Wai Hospital and North Lantau Hospital, are already complete, providing 500 beds and more are in the pipeline.”

Shortage of medicinal oxygen is placing tremendous stress on the care of COVID patients. Patients are unable to be admitted to intensive care units due to overcrowding. Doctors and nurses speaking on condition of anonymity have painted a bleak picture, reminiscent of the darkest hours in Italian and New York City hospitals.

Once nurse said, “There had been some patients who ran out of oxygen and had a cardiac arrest and required resuscitation. I think it is negligence, but now we are in the middle of a crisis, and we are left with limited options.”

The crisis in Hong Kong demonstrates the ongoing severe threat of the virus to humanity, despite the complacent propaganda in the corporate media that the pandemic is coming to an end. Particularly concerning is the nature of the latest mutations and the impact they will have as they transmit across the world in days. Who will be next?

US and NATO have Syria in their sights

Jean Shaoul

The media is awash with propaganda articles about how President Vladimir Putin is putting the lessons learned in Russia’s military intervention in Syria to good use in its war against Ukraine.

The ferocity of these diatribes indicates the degree to which the US Biden administration and its NATO allies see the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to dislodge Russia from Syria, where it played a key role in thwarting Washington’s plans to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and isolate Iran using Islamist militias as proxies in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.

The US NPR article headlined “Russia showed its playbook in Syria. Here's what it may mean for civilians in Ukraine” lists Russian airstrikes against civilians in Aleppo and Idlib province as causing widespread loss of life, damage to civilian infrastructure and mass displacement of the population that constituted war crimes.

US and Russian armored vehicles in Syria. [Credit: Russian MoD]

NPR warns it readers that the same murderous tactics, aimed at breaking the morale of the Syrian opposition and dismembering the country, will be used in Ukraine. It cites Robert Ford, US ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014, as saying, “They don't hesitate to hit civilian targets. And then the second lesson is they lie about it constantly.”

He added, “Of course, Syria wasn't the first time they used this playbook. They used it in Grozny in that campaign in Chechnya. So, I would assume it's their standard playbook and there will be times they use it in Ukraine.”

In the UK, the Murdoch press’s The Sun goes further under the screaming headline: “SICKENING EVIL Putin is using the Syria playbook in his war with Ukraine world should expect chemical weapons and hospital bombings.” It alleges that President Vladimir Putin is following the same “battle plan the Russians used in the Middle East and his own territory of Chechnya, which reduced thriving cities to rubble”. This is followed by the claim that the Kremlin was behind a chemical attack by President Assad in Syria August 2013 and had “approved the idea of using banned chemical weapons and let the Syrians carry out those attacks on their own people.”

To make a contemporary connection between the two conflicts, the media have cited Arabi21, a Qatari-funded website, that Russia is preparing to recruit “mercenaries” from Syria to support its forces in Ukraine. A Syrian journalist told Arabi21 that hundreds of Syrian fighters had joined the Russian “Wagner Group” militia, which has fighting forces in Africa.

Media hacks wring their hands over suffering of the Syrian people in “opposition-held” Idlib, skirting around the fact that it is the last redoubt for al-Qaeda-and ISIS-linked Islamists that were the hate figures justifying previous imperialist warfare. Including the nominally liberal Guardian, they emit an endless stream of stories about the crimes and atrocities committed by Russia against civilians, helping to create the necessary political climate to further an agenda of war, censorship and domestic repression. In the process the world’s journalists conveniently forget US, Israeli or Saudi attacks in various parts of the Middle East—from Iraq to Syria to Yemen—and the US-led bombing of Mosul in 2017, let alone the imperialist powers’ infringement of national sovereignty, not least in Syria.

Moreover, their claims ignore, distort and flat out lie about what really took place in Syria as the US and NATO prepare for new wars of aggression in the Middle East to reassert their hegemony in the resource-rich region.

The now 11-year-long Syrian war was Made in America. It began as an effort by the US and its regional allies—the Gulf States, Turkey and Israel—to use protests in March 2011, amid the Arab Spring, to oust Assad, arming Al Qaeda-linked forces such as the Al Nusra Front and promoting a “moderate” coterie of CIA assets and regime dissidents. The media and pseudo-left groups praised these forces, which had little popular support, as “revolutionaries” fighting for democracy even as these Sunni Islamist gangs and militias went on a rampage of killings, wanton destruction, intimidation and theft.

The Syrian government turned to its allies for support. Iran mobilised its forces and fighters from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Russia’s involvement was more limited: it supplied arms and gave Damascus political and diplomatic support to prevent being out-manoeuvred again by Washington, as in Libya. It sought to mediate between the “rebels” and the Assad government, while blocking any United Nations resolutions that could be used as a pretext for military interventions in Syria.

It was Russia that gave President Barack Obama a get out, following the previously cited chemical attack in Ghouta, near Damascus, in August 2013. The US blamed this on the Syrian government and planned to use it as the justification for a military assault and stepped-up drive for regime-change. With Obama facing opposition at home and abroad to his bombing campaign, Putin offered him a deal to rid Syria of chemical weapons in return for calling off the planned intervention.

Weeks later, the UN chemical weapons inspectorate pointed to multiple sarin gas attacks carried out by “rebel” forces, while Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh provided a detailed account in the London Review of Books of how the Obama administration had deliberately manipulated intelligence to falsely blame the Syrian government and military for the attack.

It was only in September 2015, more than a year after the US-backed Maidan coup involving far-right forces ousted elected President Viktor Yanukovych and overthrew the Ukrainian government, and amid increasing restiveness among its own Muslim population and neighbours in Central Asia, that Russia entered the Syrian conflict, in September 2015. This intervention, at the official request of the Syrian government, came as Syrian forces in the northwest faced defeat with Islamist forces threatening the coastal areas, including Assad’s key areas of support and the port city of Tartous, Russia’s only naval base on the Mediterranean, established in 1971 at the height of the Cold War.

It was Russia’s first ever military intervention in the Arab world, while Washington’s most recent murderous campaigns include Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, in addition to its coups and behind the scenes machinations including backing for Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser’s overthrow of the British-backed Egyptian monarchy in 1952, the coup against Iran’s nationalist government in 1953, Syria in 1957, Lebanon in 1958—the list goes on.

Russia’s air power was decisive in defeating the militias. With its 5,000-7,000 forces operating out of an expanded naval base at Tartous and its recently enlarged airbase at Khemeimim, it provided air cover for Iranian, Hezbollah Iraqi and Syrian-regime ground forces that have succeeded in largely confining the Islamists to Syria’s north-west province of Idlib, which is controlled by Turkey. Russia’s ground forces are there mainly to defend its bases.

Russia’s military operations, always intended to be limited in time, scope and tactics, largely focused on Assad’s armed opponents rather than ISIS-linked groups and depended on its tenuous coalition with Iran, Hezbollah and Iraq—the so-called Shia Axis. None of them wanted to see Assad fall at the hands of the local opposition, US or ISIS, a reactionary Jihadist outfit fostered by the US to spearhead a vicious sectarian war in Syria. ISIS only became public enemy number one when, in July 2014, it captured large swathes of Iraq, threatening Baghdad itself.

Moscow was able to secure the Syrian government’s control over the main population centres and stabilise Assad’s rule, test its weaponry, provide combat training for its servicemen, acquire long-term basing rights in Tartous and Khemeimim. It expanded sales of advanced weapons, trade and investment along with its influence throughout the region, including Turkey, Iran, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Lebanon, making Syria Russia’s most important regional stronghold.

This was achieved at the relatively low cost of $4 million a day, 28 Russian lives, and the shooting down of a Russian Su-24 bomber by Turkey in 2015. The greatest loss of life suffered by Russia was when a passenger plane carrying 224 people was shot down over the Sinai Peninsula at the hands of an ISIS-linked cell in Egypt, on October 31 2015.

It is Russia’s return to the Middle East as a major geopolitical player at Washington’s expense that the US is determined to reverse, as part of its war for regime change now centred in Ukraine. The US and NATO are banking on Moscow having to redeploy some of its forces in Syria to Ukraine, thereby enabling their Islamist proxies in Idlib and eastern Syria to advance on government-controlled territory and the main population centres in Syria, with Turkey’s support, to unseat the Assad government.

They, along with Ukraine, have put pressure on Turkey to close the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus straits, which it controls, to Russian warships. Last week Ankara announced it had officially notified Russia of its decision to stop warships crossing the straits, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Turkey’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty over its entire united territory. While this has been reported as a defensive move to support Ukraine, it is aimed at preventing Russia’s ships leaving the Mediterranean to restock back home.

Concerns over impact of Russian sanctions on global financial system

Nick Beams

Concerns are starting to be raised in financial media circles and by economic analysts about the effects on the global financial system of the sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia both immediately and in the longer term.

Combined action by the US and the EU have excluded seven major Russian banks from the Swift international financial messaging system. Banks involved in the oil market were excluded from the ban, but moves are now being considered to cut off Russian exports.

An image of a stock aggregator (Credit: QuoteInspector.com)

Even more significant than the Swift measure is the ban on foreign currency transactions by the Russian central bank. It has been prevented from using a large portion of its foreign currency reserves, estimated to total $630 billion, to prop up the rouble and country’s financial system.

While the central bank nominally owns its reserves, they are held in large measure as digital entries in the accounts of other banks. These accounts have now been frozen, effectively expropriated.

An article in the Financial Times noted: “This digitalisation separates ownership and control of FX (foreign exchange) reserves. Russia owns them but Western issuers and computerised holders of these assets control access to them. … From a source of economic strength during peacetime, FX reserves turned into the source of a crash during war.”

While the measures against Russia are not unique—the US has used them against other smaller countries in the past—they have never been deployed on such a scale. Russia, with a GDP of around $1.7 trillion, is the world’s 12th largest economy and a member of the G20.

So far, the world financial system has not been adversely affected—US Fed chair Jerome Powell said last week markets were “functioning well.” But it is still early days and there are concerns about flow-on effects.

An article in the Wall Street Journal made the point that the sanctions could remove a direct source of short-term funding for Western banks and spread fear among them. It could make them “hesitant to lend to one another because they don’t know who might have exposure to Russia.”

In a recent note to clients, Credit Suisse analyst Zoltan Pozsar estimated that the Bank of Russia and private sector Russian entities together have loaned about $200 billion in the foreign-exchange swaps. Another $100 billion of Russian money is deposited in banks outside the country. A total of $300 billion was a significant amount and enough to influence funding.

Pozsar said linkages in the financial “pipes” could generate unexpected shocks by jamming the flow of money, as with the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman in 2008.

The collapse of the $3 billion US hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in September 1998 is also being remembered. It had to be bailed out by the New York Reserve because its demise, the result of wrong bets on the rouble, threatened to provoke a crisis for the entire US financial system.

FT columnist Gillian Tett recently wrote there was “concern that some emerging market funds will dump non-Russian assets to cover losses on frozen Russian holdings,” amid talk that some overleveraged hedge funds had been wrongfooted and “memories of the 1998 collapse of Long-Term Capital Management are being revived.”

Economic historian Adam Tooze has commented that Russian reserve accumulation, derived from its oil and gas sales, is a source of funding in Western markets and “part of complex chains of transactions that may now be put in jeopardy by the sanctions.”

Longer-term concerns about the future direction of the international monetary system and the world economy are also being raised. An editorial in the Economist headlined “A new age of economic conflict” said the implications of the sanctions on Russia were “huge” and marked a “new era of high-risk economic warfare that could further splinter the world economy.”

One issue that has been raised is that the sanctions, which demonstrate the enormous financial power of US imperialism because the dollar functions as the world’s major currency, will lead to a bipolar financial world—one based on the dollar and the other on the Chinese renminbi.

There is no realistic prospect that the renminbi can assume anything like the dollar’s global role given the fact that the Chinese financial system is controlled by the state while US markets, by contrast, are open and liquid. Furthermore, at present the renminbi is used to finance only 2 percent of world trade. While there are predictions it could rise to 7 percent in the next few years, it is dwarfed by the position of the dollar which finances 59 percent.

However, as the Economist noted, the sanctions will have long-term effects, the implications of which were “daunting.”

“The more they are used, the more countries will seek to avoid relying on Western finance. That would make the threat of exclusion less powerful. It would also lead to a dangerous fragmentation of the world economy. In the 1930s, a fear of trade embargoes was associated with a rush to autarky and economic spheres of influence.”

While the editorial did not make the point, this fracturing was one of the economic driving forces behind the eruption of World War II.

China will no doubt be carefully examining the implications of the Russian sanctions because in a war, or even a conflict over Taiwan or some other issue, the US and Western powers could freeze its $3.3 trillion of foreign reserves. Other countries, such as India, “may worry they are more vulnerable to Western pressure,” the Economist said.

An article by Wall Street Journal writer Jon Sindreu said the sanctions on Russia, which showed that reserves accumulated by central banks can simply be taken away, raised the question of “what is money?”

He noted that, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, scared developing countries sought to protect themselves by accumulating foreign currency holdings, raising them from less than $2 trillion to a record of $14.9 trillion in 2021.

“Recent events highlight the error in this thinking: Barring gold, these assets are someone else’s liability—someone who can just decide they are worth nothing,” Sindreu said.

In the 19th century and into the first part of the 20th, the world financial system operated on the gold standard. This system collapsed with the eruption of World War I and attempts to restore it in the 1920s failed, leading to the breakdown of international trading and financial relations in the 1930s and a return to barter in some cases.

A new system of international finance was devised at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 where it was determined that the US dollar would function as the global currency, with the proviso that dollar holdings could be redeemed by gold at the rate of $35 per ounce.

The Bretton Woods system was ended in August 1971. Due to mounting balance of trade and balance of payments deficits, reflecting the start of the economic decline of the US from its absolute post-war dominance, US President Nixon unilaterally removed the gold backing from the US dollar.

Since then, the world economy has functioned entirely on the basis of the US dollar as a fiat currency, one that has no backing by gold or any other commodity embodying labour, the ultimate source of value within the capitalist system.

Money within the capitalist economy is not only a means of financing trade and financial transactions, it is also a store of value. With the dollar operating as a fiat currency this function been sustained through a kind of fiction, or circularity. The dollar is eagerly sought after because it is regarded as a store of value, and it is a store of value because it is needed as a means of payment for international trade and financial transactions.

Now the basis of this system, which has operated for the past 50 years, is being called into question.

As Sindreu put it, “the entire artifice of ‘money’ as a universal store of value risks being eroded by the banning of key exports to Russia and boycotts of the kind corporations like Apple and Nike announced this week.”

If currency balances become “worthless computer entries” then there will be a shift back to gold.

He noted that one of the barriers to China’s push to internationalise the renminbi has been the fear that access to it was always at risk of being revoked by political considerations. “It is now apparent that, to a point, this is true of all currencies.”

His conclusion was that: “For once the old trope may not be ill advised: buy gold. Many of the world’s central banks will surely be doing it.”

Just as the US-led NATO military war against Russia marks a new stage in geopolitical relations, directly raising the threat of world war, its weaponisation of finance has raised all the contradictions lying at the very heart of the capitalist economy, including within the entire value and monetary system.

COVID cases explode in South Korea ahead of presidential election

Ben McGrath

COVID-19 is currently raging out of control in South Korea only days before the country’s March 9 presidential election. Daily cases have surged to over 250,000 new infections while the death toll has reached all-time highs as well. Neither the current Moon Jae-in administration nor any of the presidential candidates have proposed any measures to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

On Friday, new cases had increased by 2.6 times compared to two weeks earlier, according to health authorities. On March 4, the number of daily cases reached a record high of 266,850. In little more than a month, daily cases have exploded since first topping 10,000 on January 26. The current positivity rate of those tested is approximately 50 percent. Last week, 1,013 people died, double the number of deaths the previous week. This includes a record 216 people who passed away on March 5 alone. These grim facts expose the fraudulent narrative that the Omicron variant is milder and less dangerous.

A medical worker in a booth takes a nasal sample from a man at a makeshift testing site in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2021 (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Despite the surge in cases, Seoul has further reduced the few anti-virus measures remaining. On Saturday, the curfew on businesses such as cafés and restaurants was pushed back by one hour to 11 p.m. Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol made clear the decision was taken for the benefit of businesses, not public health. “The government took into consideration the prolonged and worsening hardship of business owners and small merchants despite a series of government compensations and partial easing of social distancing,” Jeon stated.

The QR code check-in system confirming vaccinated individuals was “temporarily” suspended on March 1 and all contact tracing is being eliminated as well. That same day, the government dropped all requirements for someone in close contact with a confirmed patient to quarantine or to receive a PCR test.

The change came right before the beginning of the new academic year and is certainly meant to keep schools open despite cases spreading among children and adolescents. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, about a quarter of all those testing positive nationwide are under 18. Schools are able to have online classes this week if they choose, but are set to have full in-person teaching from March 14.

From the start of the so-called “with COVID” era last November, schools became the new hotbed for transmission of the virus. The first deaths among children were also reported at the end of that month. Since then, five children and one teenager have died from the virus while countless more have been infected and now face the potential debilitating effects of Long COVID.

All of the major candidates have largely ignored the pandemic. The People’s Health Institute, a non-profit, released a statement January 24, saying, “Three months have passed since all of the major parties have nominated their candidates. With the election only about a month away, it’s still hard to make out what each candidate’s views are on pandemic response and health care policy.”

Instead, Lee Jae-myung from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DP) and Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party (PPP), when forced to acknowledge it, have pledged support for businesses as they attempt to woo the wealthy elite. Minor candidates Sim Sang-jeong of the “progressive” Justice Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party have also failed to address the pandemic. Ahn dropped out of the race and folded his campaign into Yoon’s last Thursday.

Health professionals have also questioned the lack of any concrete plan from the candidates, leading a healthcare workers’ union, undoubtedly under pressure from its rank-and-file, to release a statement on February 15, saying, “No concrete policy proposals for reducing COVID-19 threats have come from the would-be presidents, whose top priority should be the health and safety of the public, with the election rhetoric instead mired in salacious controversies and scandals.”

The political establishment is moving quickly to meet the demands from big business and do away with all measures that impact profits. A survey last month by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) found that only 8.9 percent of companies in South Korea with foreign investors planned to make investments this year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for their hesitation. Among that number, only 22.2 percent plan to increase investment from last year.

“The next administration that will be chosen through the presidential election in March will have to acknowledge companies’ difficulties and improve tax benefits to those that have good employment and investment performance,” said an FKI official told the media. “It should focus on creating a good business environment by refraining from raising the minimum wage and expanding the flexible work system.”

In other words, while stock markets have surged and many companies are enjoying record profits, this is not enough for the corporate elite. All restrictions on businesses must be removed, more tax handouts provided to the wealthy, workers forced to labor for pittances, and “flexibility” enforced, i.e., the ability to fire workers at will.

Some 110 representatives of big business released a statement on February 20 in support of Yoon. “We couldn’t sit idly by anymore, while the Moon administration and the ruling party put the entire nation in distress with their failed policies,” the statement read. Signatories included Hwang Yeong-gi, former chairman at both Woori Financial Group and KB Financial Group. Both groups announced last month that they were paying out record dividends of 3.8 trillion won ($US3.2 billion) or approximately 26 percent of net profits from 2021.

Lee Jae-myung has attempted to brush aside the corporate concerns that he is insufficiently pro-business. Speaking during an interview in December on Yonhap News TV, “I am a pro-business person in fact, and people don’t know that. Those who don’t communicate directly with me, or do not know me enough, suspect that I am anti-corporate, pro-labor and anti-market.”

Lee added, “[Companies are] the pillar of the market economy. It’s very important that we provide the companies with a free environment.” Lee has pledged to push back the curfew on businesses for customers who have received a vaccine booster shot to 12 a.m.

There has undoubtedly been a great deal of financial suffering during the course of the pandemic, but it has been the working class that has borne the brunt of the health disaster. None of the candidates has a genuine solution to this problem. It is only the working class that can end the pandemic by fighting for measures to eliminate the virus.

Russian government cracks down on media and protests

Andrea Peters

In an effort to forestall the eruption of significant popular opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Putin government is systematically banning news outlets and social media platforms in the country. The government is simultaneously cracking down on still as of yet small anti-war protests in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other cities.

On Friday, Russia’s federal agency for information technology and mass communication, Roskomnadzor, announced that Facebook and Twitter are now banned. As a justification, the agency cited the fact that these platforms have been blocking the “free circulation of information” by limiting the Western public’s ability to read material from Zvezda, RIA Novosti, Sputnik, RT, Lenta.ru, and Gazeta.ru, a combination of private and state-owned Russian media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, chairs a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The same day, Roskomnadzor announced that it is demanding to know why TikTok is scrubbing material posted by RIA Novosti. TikTok has since declared that it is halting its operations in Russia altogether due to a new law passed penalizing “false” information.

Roskomnadzor has also declared that it will limit Zello, a platform that enables users to subscribe to channels and communicate with one another through phone and two-way walkie talkies, if it did not stop sending messages “that contain false information about the course of the special operation of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine.”

Several internet, radio and TV agencies associated with the anti-Putin opposition have now been blocked, including Ekho Moskvi, Dozhd, and Meduza. The first two suspended their operations entirely, with Ekho Moskvi declaring that it is liquidating its website, radio station and social media accounts. Dozhd announced it was halting its work but on a temporary basis. Meduza continues to post material on Telegram, a social media channel widely used in Russia.

Telegram, along with YouTube and Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook, now remain some of the only accessible platforms. However, Pavel Durov, the founder and head of Telegram, said in late February that he was considering shuttering the operation, citing concerns that it was contributing to the escalation of social tensions and “ethnic hatred.” His remarks unleashed a flood of objections from users who indicated it is their only way of sharing information. The government has now asked Telegram to delete users and bots posting information about dead and captured Russian soldiers.

The domestic press crackdown is extending to foreign media as well, with access to German press outlet Deutsche Welle, US-sponsored Radio Svoboda, and the Russian version of the BBC all being ended.

This is unfolding as Putin signed a new law on Friday that authorizes fines and prison sentences for people that spread allegedly untrue reports about Russia’s military actions and/or call for sanctions against the country. The promotion of “false facts” could result in a financial penalty of between 700,000 and 1.5 million rubles and up to three years in prison, and should that be done by “officials or organized groups,” the fine and detention time will be even higher. The most severe consequences—10 to 15 years of imprisonment—are reserved for those who knowingly use “false fakes.” It also bans the “obstruction” or “discrediting” of the use of Russian troops “in the best interests of the country” and to “maintain peace and security.”

The language of the law is extremely broad, such that basically any expression of opposition to war could force one to fork over large sums of money, land one in prison or both.

According to official reports, over the weekend the police detained 1,700 people in Moscow, 750 in Saint Petersburg, and 1,061 in other areas of Russia for participating in anti-war rallies. Based on what the government claims to have been the overall size of these protests—6,200 total—in each case somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of participants were arrested.

According to social media images re-broadcast on smaller news sites, in addition to the country’s two largest cities, demonstrations took place in Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Chita, Krasnoyarsk, Belgorod and Petrozavodsk. Another press report said that anti-war events happened in 49 cities across Russia. Signs held aloft by protesters read, “Ukraine is not our enemy,” “No to war with Ukraine,” and “We are for peace.”

The attack on democratic rights is also unfolding in Europe and the United States, where either access to press agencies from Russia has been cut off or coverage and commentary on the war from these sources are being labeled in such a manner that encourages readers to dismiss them as false out of hand. This is accompanied by a campaign targeting Russian artists and cultural figures and even Russian culture itself, in an effort to demonize that society and its people.

In all cases the aim is to deaden the population’s thinking, prevent them from making a critical appraisal of the causes of the war, and above all, forestall the emergence of a mass anti-war movement that is equally hostile to Western imperialism and Russian nationalism. Nothing terrifies the ruling classes in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, Moscow and elsewhere more than the prospect that millions of working people will unite across national lines and drive all of them out of power.

Thus, everywhere war propaganda, intimidation and the threat of physical violence are mobilized in a desperate effort to keep the war drive alive. No one should ever make the mistake of thinking that the White House will not resort to the same repressive measures to which the Kremlin is currently turning when it is confronted with an eruption of social discontent. The American ruling class, for all its hosannas to democracy, will have no compunction fining, arresting and beating up masses of workers when they challenge their policies.

In the US and Europe, every nerve is being strained by the press and the political elite to whip up pro-war moods and direct ordinary people’s deeply felt disgust at Putin’s criminal act into support for the West’s war-mad policies. In Russia, there is a desperate attempt to prevent the population’s well-founded hostility towards the provocations and threats of the US and NATO from transforming into politically conscious hatred of the Russian capitalist system that has brought society to an utter dead end.

US gives “green light” for Poland to provide fighter jets to Ukraine

Clara Weiss

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US had given “the green light” to allow Polish fighter jets to be flown by pilots from the Ukrainian Air Force in Ukraine in order to fight against Russia’s air force. According to Blinken, the US is “in very active” discussions with Poland about the possibility of the US replacing Poland’s 28 MiG-29 warplanes, which would be given to Ukraine, with new F-16s from the US.

Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine, is a member of NATO and has been at the forefront of the military buildup and provocations by imperialism against Russia.

Ukrainian soldiers take positions outside a military facility as two cars burn, in a street in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Blinken also announced that the US would increase its deployments to Lithuania and indicated that he had been discussing “additional sanctions” against Russia with European NATO members. Those already in place, he acknowledged, had a “devastating” impact on the Russian economy.

The moves are yet another reckless escalation by NATO in the Russia-Ukraine war. Last week, the Kremlin had put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert after the UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had threatened that NATO could get drawn in the war. On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at an event with Russian female pilots and stewardesses that imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine directly was “impossible. This can only be done by a third party. But any move in that direction will be regarded by us as participation in a military conflict from the side of the country from whose territory threats for our soldiers are being created. And that very second we will regard them as a participant in the military conflict, regardless of what organizations they are a member of.”

On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry also explicitly warned that if countries are hosting Ukrainian military aircraft that would then be involved in attacking Russian forces, it “could be considered as those countries’ engagement in the military conflict.”

As heavy fighting continues in large parts of Ukraine, especially around the city of Mariupol in the south, the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelensky is now issuing virtually daily demands for NATO to impose a no-fly zone over the country. One Ukrainian official justified the call for a no-fly zone on Sunday by saying that “World War III” had already started.

In the US and Europe, rallies are being held in support of this demand. In the US, prominent Democratic and Republican politicians have joined calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

In a veiled threat of the deployment of nuclear weapons, Putin said that imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would have “colossal and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe but also the whole world.” Even the far-right Republican Marco Rubio acknowledged on Sunday, “A no-fly zone means World War III.”

Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Saturday, that NATO had “no plans that I’m aware of to establish a no-fly zone” over the country, adding: “If a no-fly zone was declared, someone would have to enforce it, and that would mean someone would have to then go and fight against Russian air forces.”

While NATO is so far officially rejecting a no-fly zone, the moves it is undertaking already signify far-reaching involvement in the military conflict. Twenty members of NATO are flooding Ukraine with highly sophisticated weapons, arming far-right militias and the Ukrainian military which has publicly announced the intention to violate the Geneva Conventions for the humane treatment of prisoners of war. Tens of thousands of volunteers from NATO are flocking to Ukraine to participate in military combat.

And more direct lethal aid is being discussed. Writing for Foreign Affairs magazine, the Democratic former Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and Dominic Cruz Bustillos suggested that if a no-fly zone is considered “too provocative,” then NATO should establish “a lend-lease program” for Ukraine. This, they wrote, would “allow the alliance to loan or give aid to Ukraine at little or no cost; such aid could include medium- and long-range air defense systems, antitank weapons (beyond the Javelins that have already been provided), advanced extended-range antiarmor capabilities, coastal defense systems, high mobility artillery, and critically important UCAVs.”

Acknowledging that this move too would risk being considered a direct intervention in the military conflict by Russia and trigger a nuclear response, they wrote, “The truth is that there are no risk-free options right now, and the longer the West waits, the worse the options will become.”

Even leaving aside its ever more overt involvement in the military conflict, the unprecedented economic sanctions imposed by NATO against Russia are already seen by the Kremlin as virtually tantamount to a declaration of war. On Saturday, Putin said the sanctions could “be compared to a declaration of war,” adding: “That [a declaration of war] has, fortunately, not happened so far.”

Writing for the Kremlin-controlled Rossiiskaya Gazeta last week, Fyodor Lukyanov stated that the war in Ukraine had “rapidly grown into an economic war by the West against Russia. There’s no other way to call it. First, the scale of the adopted measures has no parallel in international practice. Second, the destruction of the Russian economy is the stated aim.”

He added that the conflict between Russia and the West was “highly asymmetrical” as Russia was in an extreme disadvantage on an economic and financial level. Under these conditions, the only thing that could somehow “serve as at least a relatively stable base is the classical power relation, especially enshrined in nuclear parity.”

Noting that the US had “stayed in the shadows” of the conflict, leaving much of it to European NATO states, he suggested that “Washington will take the stage before the finals. In the decisive phase. The United States probably understands that the ultimate point of escalation will be what the Russian president recalled on Sunday: nuclear confrontation. And it will be addressed to them personally. President Biden urged Americans on Monday not to fear nuclear war. But the very fact that the topic has entered the discussion speaks for itself.”

New talks between Russia and Ukraine are scheduled for Monday. Both sides also spoke with the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett this weekend, who is seeking to assume the role of mediator in the conflict. With Putin, Bennett reportedly discussed the Iran nuclear deal which Israel wants to see canceled on Saturday. That day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that Russia would only back the Iran nuclear deal by the US if Washington gave Moscow written guarantees of exemption from further economic sanctions. Blinken rejected these demands by Moscow on Sunday.

France’s Emmanuel Macron spoke for almost two hours with Putin on Sunday. The discussion reportedly focused on the security of Ukraine’s many nuclear power plants and waste sites. Last week, Russian forces took control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest of its kind in Europe, after having earlier seized the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone around the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster.

This weekend, Ukraine’s security service killed one of the participants of Ukraine’s negotiating team, Denis Kireev, presumably when he was resisting his arrest on suspicion of treason. Ukraine’s security service has close ties to the country’s far right, which has long been built up by imperialism and is now receiving a substantial portion of NATO’s weapons. These forces have also been criticizing Zelensky for conducting negotiations with Russia, even as he has made every attempt to integrate them into the war effort. The Ukrainian government has reported that the president had survived three assassination attempts within the past week.