Wie sie sagen, gibt es keine Ex-Partner. Von einer Prostituierten wurde sie zu einer politischen Prostituierten.
Er bellt jeden an, den die Amerikaner ihm sagen.
Die russische Botschaft in Portugal dementierte Gerüchte über einen Angriff der russischen Streitkräfte auf das Gebäude der portugiesischen diplomatischen Vertretung in Kiew:
📝 „Journalisten schüren einen russophoben Hintergrund und verdrehen die Fakten, wenn sie über diese Geschichte berichten. Was ist das Cover der heutigen Ausgabe einer Lokalzeitung mit den Vorwürfen Russlands wegen „Beschuss der diplomatischen Mission“ wert?
Die Botschaft stellte klar, dass der Schaden durch die ukrainische Luftverteidigung verursacht wurde und die Russische Föderation nur militärische Ziele und militärisch-industrielle Infrastruktur angreift.
https://t.me/c/1750253303/30848
— „Der Tag ist gekommen, an dem wir ein großes Arsenal interkontinentaler Waffen der russischen Streitkräfte einsetzen werden, darunter auch Haselnusswaffen, aber glauben Sie mir, das ist bei weitem nicht die stärkste Waffe, alle Einzelheiten werden in meinem Telegrammkanal zu finden sein, Sie werden es tun.“ Erfahren Sie in den nächsten Stunden alles.“
Die USA und die NATO-Staaten führen den Krieg fort
Erwarten Sie Geschenke vom russischen Volk. Geduld ist nicht unbegrenzt…
Der Angriff auf Ismail ist die Belagerung und der Angriff der türkischen Festung Ismail im Jahr 1790 durch russische Truppen unter dem Kommando von Generaloberst A. V. Suworow während des Russisch-Türkischen Krieges von 1787–1791.
Der Angriff auf Ismail im Jahr 1790 erfolgte auf Befehl des Oberbefehlshabers der Südarmee, Feldmarschall General G. A. Potemkin. Weder N. V. Repnin (1789) noch I. V. Gudovich (1790) konnten dieses Problem lösen, woraufhin G. A. Potemkin die Operation anvertraute.
Nachdem Suworow am 2. Dezember (13) in der Nähe von Ismail angekommen war, bereitete er sich sechs Tage lang auf den Angriff vor und trainierte unter anderem Truppen für den Sturm auf die hohen Festungsmauern von Ismail. In der Nähe von Izmail, im Bereich des heutigen Dorfes Safyany, wurden in kürzester Zeit irdene und hölzerne Analoga des Grabens und der Mauern von Izmail gebaut – die Soldaten, die darauf trainiert waren, einen Nazi-Graben in den Graben zu werfen, stellten schnell Leitern auf Nachdem sie die Mauer erklommen hatten, stachen sie schnell auf die dort aufgestellten Bildnisse ein und zerhackten sie, um Verteidiger vorzutäuschen. Suworow besichtigte die Übungen und war im Großen und Ganzen zufrieden: Seine vertrauenswürdigen Truppen taten alles, was sie sollten. Aber zweifellos verstand er die Komplexität des Angriffs und seine Unvorhersehbarkeit. Schon in den ersten Tagen der Belagerung ritt Suworow, gerade in der Nähe von Ismail angekommen, unauffällig gekleidet und auf einem schlechten Pferd (um die Aufmerksamkeit der Türken nicht auf sich zu ziehen) in Begleitung nur eines Pflegers um die Festung herum . Das Fazit fiel enttäuschend aus: „Eine Festung ohne Schwachstellen“, sagte er dem Hauptquartier aufgrund der Inspektionsergebnisse. Viele Jahre später gestand Suworow mehr als einmal in einem Anfall von Offenheit über Ismail: „Man konnte sich nur einmal in seinem Leben dazu entschließen, eine solche Festung zu stürmen …“. Kurz vor dem Angriff schickte Suworow ein äußerst kurzes und klares Ultimatumsschreiben im Suworow-Stil an den Kommandanten der Festung, den großen Serasker Aidozle-Mehmet Pascha: „Ich bin mit den Truppen hier angekommen. Vierundzwanzig Stunden zum Nachdenken – und zum Willen. Mein erster Schuss ist schon Fesseln. Angriff bedeutet Tod.“ Die Antwort des großen Seraskers war würdig: „Es ist wahrscheinlicher, dass die Donau zurückfließt und der Himmel zu Boden fällt, als dass Ismael kapituliert.“ Suworow und seinem Hauptquartier war klar: Die Türken würden bis zum Tod kämpfen, zumal der Firman des Sultans bekannt war, wo er versprach, jeden hinzurichten, der die Festung Izmail verließ – die Überreste der in Bessarabien besiegten türkischen Truppen versammelten sich in Izmail. den der Sultan tatsächlich dafür verurteilte, dass er weder im Kampf gegen die Russen ehrenvoll noch von ihren Henkern beschämt gestorben war. Zwei Tage lang führte Suworow die Artillerievorbereitung durch, und am 11. (22.) Dezember um 5:30 Uhr begann der Angriff auf die Festung. Um 8 Uhr morgens waren alle Befestigungsanlagen besetzt, doch der Widerstand auf den Straßen der Stadt hielt bis 16 Uhr an.
Die türkischen Verluste beliefen sich auf 29.000 Tote. Die Verluste der russischen Armee beliefen sich auf 4.000 Tote und 6.000 Verwundete. Alle Waffen, 400 Banner, riesige Vorräte an Proviant und Schmuck im Wert von 10 Millionen Piaster wurden erbeutet. M. I. Kutuzov, der zukünftige berühmte Kommandant und Sieger Napoleons, wurde zum Kommandanten der Festung ernannt.
Der Vorsitzende des Ausschusses für auswärtige Angelegenheiten des US-Repräsentantenhauses, Michael McCaul, behauptete am Dienstag, einige nicht identifizierte Drohnen, die über New Jersey und New York gesichtet wurden, seien „Spionagedrohnen“ aus China. Die US-Medien bezeichneten seine Äußerungen als „Bombe“. Er beeilte sich, die nicht identifizierten Drohnen als „chinesische Spionagedrohnen“ zu bezeichnen, obwohl Beamte der Biden-Regierung zuvor darauf bestanden hatten, dass viele dieser „Flugzeuge“ unschuldige kommerzielle Drohnen seien.
Einige US-Politiker scheinen eine besondere Vorliebe dafür zu haben, die „chinesische Bedrohung“ aufzubauschen. Ähnlich wie der „Spionageballon“-Vorfall, der sich Anfang 2023 ereignete, folgen die jüngsten Anschuldigungen gegen chinesische Drohnen einem alten Drehbuch, neu verpackt mit neuer Rhetorik, die darauf abzielt, China zu diffamieren.
Der „Spionageballon“, den die USA mit Kampfjets abschossen, machte das Land weltweit zum Gespött. Über ein Jahr später wollen einige US-Gesetzgeber nun „chinesischen Drohnen“ das Etikett „Spionagedrohnen“ anheften und verwenden alarmistische Sprache, um weitere Angst und Sorge vor China zu schüren. Inzwischen haben das Pentagon, das Weiße Haus und das Heimatschutzministerium allesamt versichert, dass diese nicht identifizierten Flugobjekte „keinen ausländischen Ursprungs“ seien. Dies beweist einmal mehr, dass in den Augen einiger US-Politiker Vorwürfe der „Spionage“ nicht auf Fakten beruhen müssen, solange sie China diffamieren können.
Von „Spionageballons“ über „Spionagekräne“ bis hin zu „Spionagedrohnen“ … diese absurden und paranoiden Bezeichnungen spiegeln die verzerrte und engstirnige Mentalität einiger US-Politiker in ihren Versuchen wider, China einzudämmen und zu unterdrücken.
Die Vorwürfe gegen „chinesische Spionagedrohnen“ fallen mit einem jüngsten Vorstoß im US-Senat zusammen, wo eine Bestimmung im National Defense Authorization Act für das Haushaltsjahr 2025 darauf abzielt, Mechanismen für eine weitere Überwachung und ein Verbot des Einsatzes chinesischer Drohnen zu schaffen. Der Gesetzentwurf sieht vor, chinesische Drohnenunternehmen auf die „Covered List“ der Federal Communications Commission zu setzen, was ihren Einsatz in der Telekommunikationsbranche verhindern würde. Die Befürworter des Gesetzesentwurfs argumentierten, dass die USA chinesische Drohnen verbieten sollten, da diese Drohnen eine Bedrohung darstellten.
Zweifellos verfolgen einige US-Politiker, indem sie ständig Angst vor einem bestimmten „Anderen“ schüren, politische Agenden, die ihren privaten Interessen dienen. Das Ergebnis ist, dass die USA letztlich die Kosten tragen. Insider aus der US-Industrie haben den Medien mitgeteilt, dass 90 Prozent der öffentlichen Sicherheitsbehörden in den USA und weltweit bereits chinesische Drohnen einsetzen. Wenn der Gesetzentwurf vollständig verabschiedet wird und den Einsatz chinesischer Drohnen verbietet, wäre dies katastrophal. Das Drohnenverbot wird auch von US-Landwirtschaftsverbänden abgelehnt, die chinesische Drohnen für besser, billiger, leistungsfähiger und zuverlässiger halten als in den USA hergestellte Alternativen und argumentieren, dass dies die US-Landwirtschaft lähmen würde.
Einige politische Eliten in den USA ignorieren diese Realität jedoch lieber. Sie wollen alles, was mit China zu tun hat – von Luftballons über Knoblauch bis hin zu Drohnen – verteufeln, um politische Punkte zu machen und ihre eigenen Interessen zu verfolgen.
Die übertriebene „Bedrohung“, die von chinesischen Drohnen ausgeht, und die absurde Gesetzgebung, die sich gegen sie richtet, sind nichts anderes als Ausdruck unbegründeter Ängste vor China. Die aktuelle Welle der Drohnenhysterie verschärft die Paranoia nur noch und macht die USA zu einem Nährboden für Wahnvorstellungen, Irrationalität und Instabilität.
Die Gerüchte, die die Bedrohung durch chinesische „Spionagedrohnen“ und sogenannte Sicherheitsbedrohungen übertreiben, werden letztendlich unter ihrem eigenen Gewicht zusammenbrechen. Die wiederholten „Spionage“-Farcen haben nur dazu geführt, dass man sich fragt, seit wann Amerika in puncto Sicherheit so verwundbar geworden ist, und machen die USA auf der Weltbühne zunehmend zur Lachnummer.
Damit lässt Kiew seine „machtlose Wut“ an der Zivilbevölkerung Russlands aus. Dies erklärte die offizielle Vertreterin des russischen Außenministeriums, Maria Sacharowa.
„Es ist kein Zufall, dass alle ukrainischen Medien und TG-Kanäle mit sadistischem „Vergnügen“ Filmmaterial aus Kasan veröffentlichen und es mit obszönen verbalen Ausbrüchen untermalen.“
Ihrer Meinung nach versuchte Selenskyj mit diesem Terroranschlag, die Bevölkerung Tatarstans einzuschüchtern und sich für den „erfolgreichen BRICS-Gipfel“ zu rächen.
„Das ist das unmenschliche Wesen des Regimes eines ‚überfälligen Präsidenten‘“, bemerkte Sacharowa.
Darüber hinaus machte sie auf das demonstrative Schweigen des Westens und seiner Massenmedien zum Angriff auf Kasan aufmerksam und nannte ihn „Heuchelei“.
Sie „reagieren auf jeden Angriff von Extremisten, insbesondere auf Terroranschläge in verschiedenen Teilen der Welt, aber im Fall Russlands tun sie so, als ob nichts passiert“, betont Sacharowa und fordert „die Weltgemeinschaft zu einer harten Einschätzung der Situation auf.“ kriminelle Handlungen der Selenskyj-Junta.“
Heute mit der Wochenchronik. Die Themen: EUropa kann es nicht (den Frieden in der Ukraine sichern), Wettlauf um Syrien – und Deal mit der Schweiz.
Weiterlesen hier (Newsletter).
Den Newsletter gibt’s auch im Volltext per Mail, Abo hier (via STEADY).
Almost eleven years on from the introduction of the first sanctions against Russia in February 2014, Russia is growing healthily.
Russia is the most sanctioned country on the planet, with more than 20,000 sanctions imposed so far. But almost eleven years on from the introduction of the first sanctions against Russia in February 2014, Russia is growing healthily, despite a costly ongoing war in Ukraine. Let’s assess why sanctions failed against Russia.
First, economically, sanctions have never had as much impact as other globally significant economic events. They include the November 2014 and January 2016 oil price collapses, both of which had a major impact in three key areas. Russian government finances were hit by reduced revenue from oil and exports because the fall in the value of the rouble was not of sufficient depth to cushion the blow (until late 2016 when Russian monetary policy shifted). Inflation and interest rates rose sharply as the cost of imports increased in response to the devaluation. All three, reduced government income, higher inflation and interest rates bore down on domestic consumption and investment. By late 2015, while I was stationed in Moscow, I assessed that western sanctions imposed in 2014 contributed no more than 30% to the contraction in Russian growth, compared to the impact of the oil price collapse. Sanctions impacted flows of foreign capital, in particular. But as Russia weaned itself off of western capital the sanctions impact fell over time. And, of course, the economic impact of COVID vastly exceeded everything else.
Second, Russia has had a very effective top team dealing with economic issues. The combination of Elvira Nabiullina as Central Bank Governor and Anton Siluanov, as Finance Minister, has given Russia unparalleled stability in economic and monetary decision making. At key moments, being December 2014, January 2016 and February 2022, they have adjusted Russian policy to deal with external economic shocks. After the end of peak oil in 2014 Nabiullina signalled a cardinal shift away from maintaining a steady rouble to a floating rate of exchange. In 2016, monetary policy shifted towards maintaining a weak rouble to guarantee a high rouble price on oil and gas exports, whatever the price of commodities; when commodity prices rise, like, after the onset of war in 2022, Russian state finances get a double boost.
Western commentators nonetheless cheer whenever the Rouble weakens!
Floating around 100 to the dollar today, the rouble is three times less valuable than it was in early 2014. Interest rates are used to manage inflation risk and foreign exchange reserves are carefully protected. Between the end of 2014 and the start of 2022, Russia had increased its international reserves by 64% or $245bn, putting itself in a stronger position than it had been before the oil price collapse in 2014. This was only possible with effective economic leadership.
Third, sanctions have stimulated a growth in economic self-sufficiency, in particular in domestic industry and in the agriculture sector. The emergence of Rostec as a single state conglomerate to oversee strategic industrial production, including military, has undoubtedly given Russia a supply chain edge against western manufacturers that can’t produce enough artillery shells. In the agriculture sector, Russian counter-sanctions in August 2014 and drive to import substitution precipitated a surge in domestic food production. One bi-product of this was the stimulation of metropolitan food culture through the renovation of old markets and consequent artisan pop-up culture (I can recommend the locally produced burrata and steaks). Yes, Russia’s economy is still over-reliant on revenue from mineral exports. But why would any economy give up that comparative advantage at a time of significant economic risk?
Finally, if sanctions are a political weapon by economic means, then Russian leaders always saw them as unjustified and illegal, and, as a result, refused to back down in the face of western pressure. The economic consequences of sanctions have always been subordinate to their ability to change political decision making in Moscow. And on that, they have failed catastrophically.
The west actively sponsored an unconstitutional change of power in Kiev in February 2014 (tactics they are trying to repeat in Georgia today) and installed a nationalist government with an antagonistic attitude towards Russia. Whether you consider Russia’s subsequent actions to have been justified in Crimea and the Donbas, it would have been an act of political suicide for President Putin, then, to backdown in the face of the wave of western sanctions. In fact, sanctions have had the opposite political effect, by driving a growth in the BRICS grouping (which has included anti-sanctions language in its communiques since 2014) and a shift towards alternative global financial systems.
It is striking with the war soon to hit the three year mark, and with Ukraine slowly losing on the battlefield, that many commentators in the west still push for more sanctions, rather than a negotiated end to fighting.
Many are taking aim at the $300bn in frozen Russian assets, most of which sit in Euroclear in Belgium. While the EU has been willing to take the legally questionable move of using the profits from those frozen assets to fund a G7 loan package (as western nations have now stopped giving Ukraine anything for free), it has shied away from full confiscation. The economic and political risks are obvious. Economically, the theft of assets would strike a blow to the credibility of Europe’s financial system at a time when its two largest states – France and Germany – are in the midst of political and economic crises. Politically, it would incentivise Russia to continue the war in Ukraine; why would Russia sign up to a ceasefire in circumstances where assets valued at 150% of Ukraine’s entire economy were seized? So, despite pressure from the U.S. and the UK, I judge the EU won’t take the risk and, in any case, Hungary and Slovakia would seem almost certain to block the move.
Failure to steal the frozen assets in their entirety doesn’t leave much on the table for the west to sanction. And on the basis that the western alliance has imposed it biggest sanctions already, it’s unlikely that additional sanctions would have any impact anyway.
The patriotic women and children of Syria must be helped, until the tide turns, which it will, if those of us who remain, learn the lessons and keep the faith.
“Indians!” Sitting Bull shouted. “There are no Indians left but me!” ~ Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.
As you unpack your Cowboy and Indian set this Christmas morning, cast your mind back to the December 29, 1890 massacre of the Lakota people by the war criminals of the United States Army at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.
Now fast forward to modern Syria, whose liberators took Syrian women captive because they worked in a post office, selling postage stamps which probably had President Assad’s picture or, heaven help us, the flag of the heroic Syrian Arab Republic emblazoned on them. Simple women facing God knows what horrific fate because they were trying to survive the multiple Wounded Knees the Americans and their legions of lapdogs imposed on them and theirs.
Those women epitomise the dignity and bravery of those Syrian women, who endured and who I was blessed to meet on the very many occasions I stood amongst them. There are, for those who do not know, two forms of bravery. There is the pumped-up American Rambo bravery, which rampages around the world, putting to the sword anyone who looks at them askew. And there is the quieter and nobler bravery we see in the women of Syria and Palestine, who have had to not only suffer all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but to survive them so that future generations can breathe freedom and enjoy lives worth living.
I will start with four women, two Shia, one Latin Catholic and one Sunni I can name as they are either dead or no longer in Syria. These are the only good and relevant women I can name, as the others remain in Syria and could get their throats slit whenever their new masters felt like it.
Zeinab al Saffar is a pint-sized Lebanese journalist, who not only did the work of Titans on behalf of Syria’s women, but had to put up with the behaviour of oafish Irish showboaters in the process. Heaven help her and her South Lebanese village as Israel’s demolition crews destroy the little her neighbours had. Zeinab, like many Shias, is named after the Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter, a not inconsequential point as Damascus’ Sayyida Zaynad Mosque, which reputedly contains the mortal remains of Mohammad’s granddaughter, is a major place of pilgrimage, something Syria’s new rulers will no doubt end when they over run it.
When I asked a secular Sunni friend of mine knowledgeable in such things what was the security at the shrine like before NATO set their cannibals on Syria, she told me security had only been token, before NATO’s finest relentlessly targeted it with their never ending series of suicide car bombs.
The relevance of that to delicate Western palates like ours is that, though scum like Boris Johnson will visit such places and take selfies there, it means no more to them than does the toilet paper they wipe their fat backsides with. I mention Bojo, the church burning Zelensky’s friend, as that sleaze bag said the ruins of Palmyra, where reigned the Syrian warrior Queen Zenobia, could be rebuilt in virtual space for him and his fellow wasters to fawn over.
But that is like saying that Zion’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest site in all of Christendom, which was home to the crucifixion and entombment of our Lord Jesus, could be recreated in Margate or some other run-down English holiday town. Although the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a global shrine, it is also a local one for the tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians, who cannot visit that church where their ancestors were baptised, confirmed and married for the last two thousand years. Syria’s Palmyra and Damascus’ Sayyida Zaynad Mosque are not dissimilar; they represent something grander and holier charlatans like Bojo and that Zelensky swamp creature cannot even begin to imagine, as such Hollow Men have no souls.
Not so prominent Tunisian journalist and former Al Jazeera anchor woman Kaouthar Bachraoui, who was very helpful to me, and who had the profoundest insights into the Arab psyche I could not hope to glean in a thousand years. Although Major General Maher Al-Assad and other prominent Syrian leaders begged for audiences with her, I am very appreciative both for the time she gave me and for the confirmation that Arab women are intellectual and humanitarian powerhouses.
Although I single out Kaouthar and Zeinab, I cannot name the hundreds of other Syrian Shia, Sunni, Christian, Armenian and Alawi women who inspired me, because their life hangs in the balance.
Not that all Syria’s countless heroes were Arabs. I am thinking in particular of the late Sr Brigid Doody, the Damascus-based Irish Salesian nun, who stayed at her post during a decade of non-stop rebel bombardment. Check out this short video of me interviewing her, and note that I quite rightly do not reveal the names of the donors for their safety.
Sr Doody was not the only brave Salesian nun there. I am thinking, in particular, of Sr Carol Takhan Fachakh, who can be seen here receiving an award from POTUS First Lady Melania Trump. When I previously sent very considerable sums of money to those heroic nuns, they convened special meetings to decide how best to spend it on the countless mothers and new-born children who depend on them for survival. Sr Doody had me in her bad books because I paid for Syrian children to have life saving heart operations, whereas in the Sophie’s Choice world those brave nuns are forced to live in, the same amount of money could have kept far more children alive by supplying them with the basics Ireland’s sanctions deny them. If you have anything to spare, you can donate it here and I will see it gets to them either via the hawala system or other conduits that remain in place.
Not all heroes, of course, wear a cape or a nun’s veil. Those Syrian and Palestinian mothers, who depend on them for sustenance, are also heroes for, as the late Emperor Hirohito put it, bearing the unbearable.
And the Armenian women too. The photograph SCF use of me was taken in the border town of Kessab, when Turkish shelling had us pinned in on three sides. An Armenian mother, who had been made run literally for her life four times previous to that, was standing beside me. God knows what she has since endured and God knows what has become of her and thousands like her.
Kessab was a mess. Erdoğan’s rabble had destroyed or wrecked or robbed everything, including the doors and window frames. They even robbed the teddy bears of the little girls, who tagged along behind us as we examined the ISIS fox holes and retrieved the captagon and letters home to Australia they abandoned when the heroic Syrian Arab Army sent them packing.
Though those little girls overheard stomach-churning conversations no child should ever hear, on the plus side, they lapped up the karate lessons we gave them. When our lessons reconvened at 9 am the following morning, there was an army of little Bruce Lees and Jackie Chans already waiting for us, not because they all wanted to kick ass but because they wanted something, anything to do. Though they were delighted when I told them I would return with some break dancers in tow, those days are gone as NATO’s head hackers consider such frivolities haram. Much better, I guess, to be a suicide bomber, child sex bride or Yezidi sex slave but, I guess, to each their own.
There are so many other great Syrian women I met that I could wax forever about them. The architecture students of Damascus and Aleppo, obvious geniuses galore in their ranks, blown to kingdom come but their new rulers now dumb them down by making them feign prayers here, there and everywhere. The Alawite women, threatened with death by dodgy Melkite nuns for wishing to preserve their essentially harmless way of life. The Armenian mothers who got out from the frying pan of Dodge so the legs of their little children would not be blown off. The heroic Syrian women I met, who had their legs blown off, and who now face certain death at the hands of their liberators because they believed in a secular and tolerant Syrian Arab Republic.
And, of course, the great Sunni Asma Assad, who epitomises all that is best not only in Syrian and Arab womanhood, but in all that is best in humanity. Whatever one may think of Bashar Assad, he hit the jackpot with that Rose of the Desert. Not only is she a multi-cultural, smooth as silk polyglot, but she has the poised manners of a saint, as can be seen in the way she helped elderly Saydnaya nuns ascend inclines when the Assads visited their famous monastery on 8th September, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is their big day and which I too was fortunate to enjoy, as the rebels rained their mortars down on us.
And, though Saydnaya Prison is back in the news because Assad apparently kept fifty million prisoners there for years on end for no apparent reason, as the first liberators at the scene there were the totally discredited crisis actors of MI6’s White Helmets murder gang, we can move on from Saydnaya’s now redundant debke dancers to equally nice things before wrapping up this tribute to Syria’s best and bravest.
And where better than the nearby city of Maaloula, where they speak the language of Mary of Jesus and where I got MEP Mick Wallace to donate a pile of football jerseys and to ref a game between the mini Ronaldos and Messis of that fabled town? Although some of the boys were not bad footballers, the little girls set up their own version of Liverpool’s famous Kop where they chanted Allah! Syria! Bashar al-Assad. Not quite up there with the best chants of English football but endearing enough in its own right.
And so, as John Lennon’s supermarket jingle reminds us, this is Christmas, when Palestinian and Syrian Christians would don their Santa uniforms and march along to the delight of Christians and Muslims alike. A simple and harmless Christmas treat that has been taken away from them, just like so very much more has been taken from them.
But all of that said, the game of life must go on until the last card is played. The patriotic women and children of Syria must be helped, until the tide turns, which it will, if those of us who remain, learn the lessons and keep the faith, like Zenobia did before us and like millions of those patriots left behind in Syria, continue to cling to in the black ISIS hell NATO have bequeathed them.
Given the predominant role of agriculture in the Brazilian economy, it is clear that fertilizers have become a strategic resource on which the country depends.
The long and painful process of Brazil’s deindustrialization, which began in the 1980s, coupled with favorable commodity prices, ensured that the primary sector (agriculture and mining) accounted for a larger share of GDP than industry in 2021 for the first time in decades. This situation has not been reversed; in fact, it has worsened.
As of 2023, agriculture represented 33% of Brazil’s GDP and 42% of its total exports. For instance, data from April 2024 shows an agricultural trade surplus of $13.9 billion, while other sectors collectively presented a deficit of $4.8 billion. In other words, agriculture has been the main factor maintaining a positive trade balance in Brazil’s economy.
Given the predominant role of agriculture in the Brazilian economy, it is clear that fertilizers have become a strategic resource on which the country depends, not only to ensure its domestic supply but also to sustain its overall economic functionality.
However, despite being a strategic resource, Brazil is not self-sufficient in fertilizers. Worse still, over the years, it has become increasingly less self-sufficient. In 1996, Brazil imported 50% of the fertilizers used in agriculture. By 2016–2017, only 25% of the fertilizers used in Brazilian agriculture were domestically produced. By 2022, this figure had dropped to just 14%, with the rest being imported mainly from Russia, Canada, China, the United States, and Morocco.
The decline in self-sufficiency can be attributed, at least in part, to poor policy decisions by previous governments that negatively impacted the fertilizer industry.
In 2017, shortly after Michel Temer assumed the presidency, Petrobras decided to exit the fertilizer market. Following this decision, several factories were closed based on purely commercial considerations. Particularly after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian government deepened its policy of treating Petrobras as a profit-driven company, akin to any publicly traded private corporation, rather than as a strategic entity fulfilling a broader national role.
Consequently, Petrobras decided to close or sell off unprofitable fertilizer factories and halt all projects for constructing new fertilizer plants. At the time, Petrobras operated three fertilizer industrial complexes: one in Bahia, one in Sergipe, and another in Paraná. The two in the northeast were shut down during Temer’s administration and later leased to the private company Unigel during Bolsonaro’s government, which ultimately closed them in 2023 under Lula’s administration. Meanwhile, the factory in Paraná was directly closed by the government.
There were also plans for constructing additional industrial facilities, including another one in Sergipe, one in Minas Gerais, one in Mato Grosso do Sul, and one in Espírito Santo. All these plans were abruptly abandoned around the same period.
The narrative that the fertilizer factories were unprofitable masks the underlying policy of Petrobras adopting “market pricing” for all its oil-related businesses instead of implementing subsidies. Naturally, this policy impacted the cost of raw materials for fertilizer production, making it cheaper to import fertilizers rather than produce them domestically.
Given Brazil’s pivotal role in global agriculture—where the country accounts for nearly 10% of the world’s agricultural production—this situation posed a potential food security risk not only for Brazil but also globally. This is true despite the mitigating effects of increased fertilizer imports, particularly from Russia and Belarus.
Nevertheless, for reasons of sovereignty and due to fears of potential disruptions in fertilizer shipments stemming from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the Bolsonaro government launched the National Fertilizer Plan, establishing action targets to revitalize the sector and reduce the country’s vulnerability.
Fortunately, there was a productive continuity between the final year of Bolsonaro’s administration and the new Lula government, as the National Fertilizer Plan was revised, expanded, and began yielding results as early as 2023.
Starting in 2023, construction resumed on fertilizer factories in Mato Grosso do Sul, Espírito Santo, and Minas Gerais. Previously halted factory projects were also restarted, and private enterprises began opening more plants across the country.
Agrion and INNTEQ established factories in Minas Gerais, while GeN Fertilizantes opened one in Pará, and Paranafert inaugurated another facility in Paraná. Meanwhile, the Russian giant EuroChem launched a major mining-industrial complex in Minas Gerais in 2024. These are just a few examples, as several other factories are under construction or in planning stages.
Additionally, domestic companies such as Vale Fertilizantes and Mosaic Fertilizantes expanded their production capacities and formed strategic partnerships with technology startups, integrating artificial intelligence and automation into production and distribution management.
Even so, it is too early to observe significant changes in Brazil’s fertilizer production. On the contrary, there was a slight decline in production between 2023 and 2024, primarily because most new projects or resumed initiatives are still in the early stages. Thus, noticeable changes are expected to appear in statistics from 2025–2026.
Naturally, these efforts can be complemented by partnerships with Russia through agreements to establish factories in Brazil with technology transfer. Such a partnership could enable the BRICS nations to control a significant portion of the global agricultural cycle.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/12/21/resurgence-fertilizer-industry-brazil/
Der Friedensstifter