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Friday, February 16, 2024

Ukraine, What is the End-Game? The Privatization of An Entire Country MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY

Introduction

The US has conducted numerous wars since the end of what is euphemistically called the post war era:

Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen… and now Palestine and Ukraine. 

The unspoken objective is not to “win the war” but to engineer the destruction of entire countries, create political and social chaos, with a view to ultimately “picking up the pieces” and taking control of the national economies of sovereign nation states.

This hegemonic agenda is also conducted through “regime change”, “color revolutions” and the concurrent demise and criminalization of the state apparatus coupled with “strong economic medicine” and the imposition of a soaring dollar denominated debt.

That is what happened in Vietnam. The destruction of an entire country which was then “privatized” in the early 1990s: 

“Vietnam never received war reparations payments from the U.S. for the massive loss of life and destruction, yet an agreement reached in Paris in 1993 required Hanoi to recognize the debts of the defunct Saigon regime of General Thieu. This agreement is in many regards tantamount to obliging Vietnam to compensate Washington for the costs of war.”

The NeoCon agenda which is embedded in America’s military and intelligence agenda is to “Destroy Countries”.

It is a profit-driven agenda: “Destruction” leads to “Reconstruction”. 

What is at stake is the engineered economic and social destruction of sovereign nation states.

The creditors are there to “pick up the pieces” and “appropriate real wealth”. 

The Privatization of Ukraine 

This article focusses on the NeoCons’ agenda to “privatize countries” on behalf of the financial establishment, with specific reference to Ukraine.  

Ukraine is a country with a vast territory and tremendous resources. 

The Euromaidan Coup d’Etat (supported by the U.S.) and the onslaught of the war in February 2014 have triggered a crisis in commodity trade as well as the dislocation of all sectors of economic activity.

Ukraine has become an impoverished broken-down Nation State, with an unmanageable external debt of the order of $150 billion 2023.

Moreover the Biden administration has granted $ 75 billion in military aid, a large amount of which will have to be reimbursed.

Debt conditionalities apply but they have taken a different form.

We are no longer in the realm of IMF “strong economic medicine”, austerity measures and ad hoc privatization measures. Since early 2022, the outright “privatization of Ukraine” namely the entire country is contemplated with the support of BlackRock and JPMorgan. 

What is unfolding is the corporate take over and appropriation of an entire country.

BlackRock, which is the World’s largest portfolio investment company together with JPMorgan have  come to the rescue of Ukraine. They have set up the Ukraine Reconstruction Bank.

The stated objective is “to attract billions of dollars in private investment to assist rebuilding projects in a war-torn country”. (FT, June 19, 2023)

“… BlackRock, JP Morgan and private investors, aim to profit from the country’s reconstruction along with 400 global companies, including Citi, Sanofi and Philips. … JP Morgan’s Stefan Weiler sees a “tremendous opportunity” for private investors. (Colin Todhunter, Global Research June 28, 2023)

The Kiev Neo-Nazi regime is a Partner in this Endeavour.

War is Good for Business. The greater the destruction, the greater the stranglehold on Ukraine by “private investors”:

“BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase are helping the Ukrainian government set up a reconstruction bank to steer public seed capital into rebuilding projects that can attract hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment.” (FT, op cit)

The Privatization of Ukraine was launched in November 2022 in liaison  with BlackRock’s  consulting company  McKinsey, a public relations firm which has largely been responsible for co-opting corrupt politicians and officials Worldwide not to mention scientists and intellectuals on behalf of powerful financial interests. 

“The Kyiv government engaged BlackRock’s consulting arm in November to determine how best to attract that kind of capital, and then added JPMorgan in February. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced last month that the country was working with the two financial groups and consultants at McKinsey.

BlackRock and Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy signed a Memorandum of Understanding in November 2022.

In late December 2022, president Zelensky and BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink agreed on an investment strategy..............


Read it all: https://michelchossudovsky.substack.com/p/what-is-the-end-game-the-privatization

Concluding Remarks: It’s Big Money “Highway Robbery”

Ukraine is in the stranglehold of Big Money. BlackRock and JPMorgan.

Ukraine’s Privatization Initiative sets a precedent. Entire countries can be privatized.

Wars are money-making operations for the Military Industrial Complex (MIC).

There have been 3 peace initiatives since 2014 including Minsk 1 and 2 agreements, and Istanbul (March-April 2022) of which the draft was signed by representatives of Ukraine and Russia. The implementation of these Peace initiatives was the object of sabotage.

Peace as well as “Cease Fires” are not “Good for Business”.

“Ukraine’s people desperately need a future based on welfare and peace, but in reality Ukraine is being driven towards the kind of huge indebtedness that leads to subservience and dominance.” (Bharat Dogra, Global Research, June 28, 2023)

The outcome is mass poverty and social devastation of an entire country, under the guise of “reconstruction”.