Capital Rewards
(…which will most likely end up in the pockets of the same kind of oligarchic crooks…)

The old satirical aphorism of…if government ran it…crime wouldn’t pay…is all wrong. With most of the former Soviet republics now transformed into “sovereign nations” that’s not the case at all…and the Ukraine is probably the most glaring example of that.

As the old Soviet system collapsed its former commissar power-elites quickly grabbed and looted every state-owned asset that they could get their hands on, allowing them to become the new power-elites of their now independent countries…as today’s oligarchs…in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Khazakstan, etc., trading in their old-style Stalinist couture for Armani, Prada, Gucci, with proper accessories such as Rolex and Patek-Phillipe.

The problem with such oligarchy is that it not only monopolized their countries’ wealth, it also hogged most of the economic means to produce it as well, and operated on the basis of cronyism, and, much like any other organized crime syndicates, only shared the benefits of such monopoly with those who were a part of it. Everyone else…was left to suck hind tit. Worse yet, because of that, their national treasuries were quietly misappropriated, and governance at all levels became even more inefficient, corrupt, and graft-ridden, than before.

Thus, the period of chaos and turmoil that we’ve seen in all of them since the collapse of the Soviet system ended up in classic gang-type conflicts, as various oligarchic cliques maneuvered for control of the levers of political power so as to further extend and tighten their grips on the economic machinery of their respective countries. In Russia, that ultimately led to the accession of Czar Vladimir as the top autocrat in power.

In the Ukraine, they ended up with Mr. Yanokovich. There, however, the peasants did not remain passive, exploding instead into a mass revolt, fed up with the corruption and incompetence of his mob’s governance, barely allowing him to escape being lynched, forcing him to seek refuge under the wing of his overlord Czar Vladimir, in Russia, while the people sacked and looted his palatial estate of all his ill-gotten gains and treasures.

Unfortunately for the Ukraine, the rest of their political elites appear to be much of the same ilk as Yanokovich, which does not bode well for its future renaissance as a viable and stable national economy. Thus the recent offers by the US and the EU to provide it with some $15-16 Billion in financial aid to re-start its economic machinery will simply ended up as capital rewards…which will more than likely end up in the pockets of the same kind of oligarchic crooks…as Yanokovich.

All of that, however, will do nothing to really resolve the basic elements of this crisis as it relates to Russia.

The key factors of that, which seem to be ignored by everyone, have to do with devising better ways to integrate Russian economic capacities with the rest of Europe, and, how best to minimize the negative impact of NATO’s eastern extensions on Russian perceptions of such moves as being essentially… hostile.

Those who decry Putin’s objectives to create a Russian counterpart to the EU are not only being short-sighted but hypocritical as well. If it’s acceptable to have an EU, and/or NAFTA in the West, why is it wrong for Russia to seek a similar economic Trans-Eurasian association for itself? The global economic inter-connections we have today have already evolved into de facto regional economic groupings. So what if there was an effort made to establish a wider and much broader economic relationship stretching from the Urals to Gibraltar? Would that not create a stupendously dynamic economic region for all its members…not to mention the rest of the world as well?

As for the NATO factor, a decade ago we suggested that it was an anachronism because the reasons for it no longer existed. Europe is all grown up now. Would it not be better to replace NATO with the EU’s own defense establishment, and, to invite Russia to be a part of it as well? Would not such proposals permanently eliminate Russia’s perceptions that the rest of Europe prefers to keep it forever out in the cold?

So long as such aspects of our relations with Russia are not addressed, Russia will forever be like the proverbial growling grizzly trying to bash in the cabin door.

CENTURION