Topic: RUSSIAN AFFAIRS                    

PHOENIX - Remember Dr. Sergey Y. Glazyev from the third segment of our recent "Russian Trilogy?" He is the well-known Russian economist, politician and chief of the Russian Federation Council's Information Analysis Administration, who publicly attacked last month Zbigniew Brzezinski's ideas about how to break up and ultimately destroy Russia (see TiM GW Bulletin 97/12-4c, 12/14/97).

Well now Dr. Glazyev is taking on Yeltsin's "reformers" - the serfs of the New World Order's financial elite.

"Our reformers' financial strategy is leading Russia toward catastrophe," Dr. Glazyev told the Sovyetskaya Rossiya in an interview published Dec. 6. "This (Russia's current banking policies) could be followed by the state's financial bankruptcy."

This policy "is correct only from the standpoint of the international financial speculators' community," Dr. Glazyev fumes. "Because in these conditions they are calmly shipping all their capital out of our country along with vast amounts of interest. Whereas the Russian population and the bankrupt state will continue to wear the shackles of debt."

Shades of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea...? You bet.

But what Dr. Glazyev finds especially galling is that the Russian government is allowing an unrestricted flight of foreign capital from the country. Meanwhile, foreign bankers had brazenly and openly refused to meet their obligations to Russia's Central Bank, as you saw in "Slaying the Russian Bear to Save the 'Asian Tigers?'" (TiM GW Bulletin, 97/11-11, 11/15/97).

So while the Wall Street "Hoover" is working overtime sucking the money out of Russia, the IMF and its private banking cronies have stopped the inflow of any new foreign funds. In other words, they are bleeding Russia dry. And the Yeltsin government seems to be aiding and abetting these financial terrorists.

Sound familiar? You bet. That's exactly what Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole and others did when they reached into the pockets of American taxpayers to bail out Wall Street bankers in Mexico in 1995, as well as now in East Asia.

What are the consequences of such actions? In a word - socialism!

"For all the talk about opening Korean markets and breaking up crony capitalism, the IMF's chief project these days seems to be finding new ways to socialize the world economy," barked the WALL STREET JOURNAL in a stunning Dec. 17 editorial, "Socialist International." "Before giving them another big dollop of money, someone should ask Messrs. (Robert) Rubin (the U.S. Treasury Secretary) and (Michel) Camdessus (the IMF chief) whether their aim is to bail out the good old boys of world business, or to protect the inherently risky, but ultimately vast potential of global free markets."

The editorial was stunning not because of what it said - it is, after all, quite evident that PUBLIC funds are being used and public interests abused to protect some PRIVATE bankers. And it is also quite evident that one form of cronyism is replacing another - the Wall Street old boys cronyism is supplanting the Asian crony capitalism, as the former duplicitously condemn the latter.

The "Socialist International" editorial was stunning because of WHO said it - the newspaper which for over one hundred years has been the gospel of Wall Street.

Meanwhile, what should the Russian government have done if it were truly Russian, rather than an NWO elite's stooge that it seems to be?

"It would have been in Russia's national interests to temporarily suspend the free export of capital from Russia as soon as the flight of speculative investments began," Dr. Glazyev says. After all, "the outflow of Western investments from the state short-term bond market, according to some estimates, is already approaching $4 to $5 billion" (out of some $20 billion held by the non-residents before the outflows began).

"At the same time it should stop the free conversion of the ruble into foreign currency, except for the servicing of import operations until the market calms down," the Russian economist adds. "This would make it possible to consolidate the currency reserves of both the Central Bank and the commercial banks, and in the long term would aid the policy of 'de-dollarizing' the economy."

Sounds like a prescription which may have also helped the "Asian tigers" prevent their demise and eventual financial slavery to the IMF. But alas, how can one expect the Russian adherents of the Almighty Dollar to betray their NWO bosses, and implement a policy of "de-dollarizing the economy," as Dr. Glazyev put it? Only a change of government could bring about a change in its "greenback religion." And only desperation could bring that about.

If Dr. Glazyev is right, such a doomsday is not too far off. "According to current assessments, the Central Bank has already spent around $8 billion on servicing the flight of foreign speculative capital," he says. "If you bear in mind that its gold and currency reserves totaled around $20 billion, there will be enough currency to last only until the end of the week if the current situation persists."

Maybe that's why the IMF suddenly softened its stance last week, and is now considering advancing to Russia some of the funds it had withheld earlier. The DOW JONES news wire reported on Dec. 12 that the IMF will restart its $10 billion loan program to Russia. The IMF said a mission that wrapped up work in Moscow on Dec. 12 recommended the release of the next $700 million loan payment to Russia. Russian officials have said they expect the money to arrive in early January.

Meanwhile, Russia's banks are also suffering enormous losses. Unlike the foreign bankers, they cannot take all their assets abroad. "In these conditions, a very real paralysis could soon seize the country's entire payments and money system," Dr. Glazyev warns.

So a grim Russia faces a cold and an uncertain winter. For, IMF's $700 million is merely a Band-Aid which will hardly stop the international bankers' bleeding this country dry. Maybe the Russians should give Glazyev's "de-dollarizing" a chance and their own quislings a boot?

Also, check out... "Is NWO Spinning Out of Control?", "Yeltsin-IMF Deal: Feeding Drugs to Drug Addict", "Russia's Privatization: A Financial Crime of the Century," "Russia is Still the Bogey", "Kremlin and Wall St/NWO-Two Rival Gangs?", "What Dr. Glazyev Didn't Notice in Brzezinski's Ideas," and "Bleeding Russia Dry" - all TiM GW Bulletins from December 1997, plus "Yeltsin's 'Red October II'" - TiM GW Bulletin 98/3-10, 3/31/98).

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns: "Russia, IMF, and Global House of Cards",  "Rekindling NATO to Fuel Cold War..."