🔹Is the EU's 🇪🇺 plan to confiscate Russian assets an indication of the EU undermining key concepts of western civilization? These include private property rights, free markets & the right to exchange property by mutual agreement.

🔹While the EU claims Russia 🇷🇺 wants to re-create the USSR, is the EU becoming it's own version of the USSR? Is the EU pursuing policies in a direction that coincides with some of the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto, 1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx?

💠 Plank I - Abolition of private property.

💠 Plank II - A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

💠 Plank IV - Confiscation of the property of all emigrants & rebels.

💠 Plank V - Centralization of credit in the hands of the state. (The ECB determining EU member states monetary policy).

Video: Vladimir Bukovsky in 2005 - USSR defector in the 1970's to the West.

🔹People burned several banks in Lebanon 🇱🇧, as the Lebanese pound fell to a historic record low of 80,000 against the US dollar. Protestors are against informal restrictions on cash withdrawals in place for years & rapidly deteriorating economic conditions. Protesters also gathered outside the house of Salim Sfeir, head of the Association of Banks 🏦 in Lebanon, and started a fire.

🔹Lebanon has been facing its worst economic crisis since October 2019 & Beirut's port blast in 2020. Banks in Lebanon were on strike, over haphazard judicial decisions against the sector.Late in 2022, the Lebanese 🇱🇧 parliament approved an amended banking secrecy law, a key demand of a $3 billion bailout out from the IMF.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 denied that it was considering imposing sanctions on Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh, for his involvement in “covering Hezbollah's financial activities". Hezbollah claims that it has succeeded in establishing its own banking & monetary system away from the Lebanese banking system, geared towards dodging existing US sanctions.

🔹Hezbollah leader S. H. Nasrallah said “if the Americans or some inside are planning chaos & the collapse of the country, I tell them that you will lose everything in Lebanon.” He stressed the need to revive the industrial & agricultural sectors, & look for other markets, such as Russia 🇷🇺 & China 🇨🇳.

🔹India’s 🇮🇳 FM S. Jaishankar has labelled US 🇺🇸 billionaire investor George Soros as “old, rich, opinionated & dangerous” for his comments on India & said that Soro's comments were typical of a "Euro Atlantic view." Soros criticized India’s PM Narendra Modi saying India was a democracy but Modi was not a democrat.

🔹FM Jaishankar continued by saying such people (Soros) with such views & such organizations (Open Society Foundation) actually invest resources in shaping narratives. "It worries us. We are a country that went through colonialism, we know the dangers of what happens when there’s outside interference,".

🔹A report shows, many fronts that target India's image with fake data & fabricated stories, exploiting India's fault-lines, are found to be linked with George Soros.

🔹The Adani Conglomerate run by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani (until recently the richest man in Asia) has been a target for short selling 📉 and co-ordinated timed allegations of fraud by Western instigators including Soros.

🔹K P Singh, who helmed India's 🇮🇳 biggest listed private real estate company DLF Ltd said Soros is a "crazy nut" and an aged "barking dog.

Notice from the video in the above post, George Soros has a problem with India buying discounted Russian crude.

Below is a previous post on the India-Russia oil market developments for context.

🔹India 🇮🇳 appears to be pulling off a diplomatic high-wire act between Washington & Moscow as imports from Russia have surged nearly 400% so far this fiscal year (Apr '22 - Mar '23), fueled by purchases of discounted crude oil. The total value of Russian 🇷🇺 imports came to $37.31 billion, up from $7.71 billion in the same period of the previous year.

🔹Russia became India's top crude supplier in Nov. 2022, receiving around 1 million bpd 🛢 & in the first two weeks of Jan. '23, nearly 1.3 million bpd.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Around 70% of Jan. 2023 loading cargoes of Russian Urals was destined to India 🇮🇳.

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production in March by 500,000 bpd.

💠 India’s ambassador to Russia, considers jointly building oil-carrying ships & establishing energy insurance companies.

💠 India now buying thirty-three (33) times more 📈 Russian oil than a year earlier.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Russia’s crude grades re-routed from Europe to China 🇨🇳 & India.

Compilation video of India's External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar.

🔹Protests continue in Moldova 🇲🇩 on Feb. 19, as protesters demand that the gov't pay gas, heating and electricity bills for the three winter months. Protestors also called for the resignation of president Maya Sandu.

🔹Police detained six people who behaved suspiciously. Police also prevented buses of protestors from entering the city because the transport did not comply with "technical standards".

🔹Last September, state-backed gas distributor Moldovagaz failed to fulfil wholesale payments to its sole gas supplier, Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom. Moldova's gov't has been taking actions to cut ties with Russia to grow closer to the EU under the guise of neutrality.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Moldovan 🇲🇩 PM N. Gavrilita resigned & was replaced with an even more pro-EU PM. Moldova forced several Russian-language media outlets to shut down after not renewing their broadcasting licenses.

Previous 2022 Moldova posts on this channel:

💠 Nov 28th, Protesters call for the resignation of the president & the gov't

💠 Nov 13th, 60,000 protestors marched, escorted by retired military.

💠 Oct. 30th, Stand-offs between Moldovans & police 🚓 grow violent amid protests.

💠 Oct. 23rd, police brutalities continued amid a breakout of protests.

💠 Oct. 16th, 50,000 protestors marched🇲🇩 Weekend before 60,000 protested.

💠 Thousands protest high energy prices during Sep.

Video courtesy NewsMaker

🔹Mexican 🇲🇽 President A. M. L. Obrador signed a decree handing over responsibility for lithium reserves to the energy ministry. A review will be done on foreign companies that have active mining concessions. Plans are for the state to have a majority stake in any future joint venture.

🔹General Motors 🇺🇸 plans to invest $650 million into Lithium Americas to secure access to lithium. CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence believes this is the first of a growing land grab for acreage which is required for the processing of mined lithium. It takes two years or more to build a giga factory and 10 years-plus to finance & build a lithium mine.

🔹Sigma Lithium's new Grota do Cirilo Project lithium mining operation in Brazil 🇧🇷 is being considered for a takeover by Tesla.

Previous lithium posts on this channel:

💠 Canada 🇨🇦 ordered three Chinese companies divest their investments in Canadian lithium & critical minerals.

💠Report on the vast resources needed to be mined for an EV 🚙 vehicle which is clearly unsustainable.

💠 Lithium carbonate, hit a new record high in China 🇨🇳 during September.

💠 Lithium mining pollution and the growing scarcity.

💠 Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 lithium reserves & China investment.

🔹Russian 🇷🇺 exports of discounted crude and fuel oil to China 🇨🇳 have jumped to record levels. Overall flows last month surpassed a record set in April 2020, & exports of fuel oil surged to an all-time high. China is toe-to-toe with India 🇮🇳 as the biggest buyer of Russian crude.

🔹Russia’s overall crude & fuel oil exports to China reached 1.66 million barrels a day last month. Offers for Russian Urals & ESPO 🛢 crude were pegged at a discount of $13 and $8 a barrel, respectively, to Brent. Russian exports of straight-run fuel oil & high-sulfur fuel oil to China hit a record of about 142,000 barrels a day in January.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production in March by 500,000 bpd.

💠 Oman 🇴🇲 & the UAE 🇦🇪, imported more Russian oil in the first 10 months of 2022 than in the previous 3 years combined. Russia oil is blended & re-sold to Europe.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Russia’s 🇷🇺crude grades re-routed from Europe to China & India.

💠 Chinese 🇨🇳 refiners see refining profit margins jump, due to discounts for Russian crude.

💠 US 🇺🇸 bans sale of SPR oil to China.

🔹With China’s 🇨🇳 imports from and exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 (KSA) now exceeding the major oil-producing country’s combined trade with the U.S. & the EU, China has become the KSA’s dominant trading partner.

🔹Gulf monarchies are concerned that the West may impose sanctions on China – as it did on Russia 🇷🇺. This is pushing Gulf countries & China into projects to shield China-Gulf relations from potential economic coercion, especially in strategic domains such as energy.

🔹The KSA’s oil 🛢 revenues hit $326 billion in 2022, the highest level since Crown Prince MBS’s reign began & led to the booking of its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The KSA 🇸🇦 is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the USD, such as the Chinese yuan.

💠 China 🇨🇳 urges the KSA to help speed up efforts for a Gulf free-trade zone.

💠 The Shanghai Gold Exchange will be used by the KSA for its yuan to gold transactions.

💠 President Xi Jingping boosts cooperation in energy supply chains with the KSA during his state visit.

Photo courtesy Visual Capitalist

🔹Kazakhstan’s 🇰🇿 state-run pipeline operator, Kaztransoil applied to it's Russian 🇷🇺 counterpart Transneft to transport Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipeline to Germany. Russia’s section of the Druzhba pipeline is controlled by Transneft. Russia granted Kazakhstan permission to transport oil 🛢 through the Druzhba pipeline.

🔹The EU has exempted pipeline imports of Russian oil from sanctions but Germany seeks to replace some Russian crude with Kazakh crude. Poland, which is still buying Russian crude, said there are no guarantees the shipments to Germany will originate in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, rather than Russia. Germany said some mixing of Kazakh and Russian crude is unavoidable.

🔹Transneft spokesman Igor Demin noted that Kazakhstan is only able to supply a quarter at maximum of what Russia previously supplied to Germany 🇩🇪 & Poland. The northern branch of the giant Druzhba pipeline system feeds two refineries in eastern Germany as well as plants in Poland.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Poland 🇵🇱 to supply re-sold sea borne Kazakh oil to Germany so as to cut Russian supply.

💠 Oil leak on the Druzhba pipeline in Poland temporarily cuts oil to Germany 🇩🇪.

💠The German gov't confiscates Russia's state-owned Rosneft's German assets in order to keep the PCK Schwedt refinery 🏭 (which receives crude from the Druzhba pipeline).

🔹Moscow 🇷🇺 & Beijing 🇨🇳 are seeking to strengthen ties and remain committed to building a “multipolar” world, Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi said as China’s top diplomat met with Russia's FM S. Lavrov in Moscow. He also met with Nikolay Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Security Council & Russian President V. Putin.

🔹Wang confirmed that Beijing would continue to conduct an independent foreign policy based on “the spirit of mutual benefit.” China is seeking to “open new horizons in terms of further cooperation not just with Russia, but other countries as well.”

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Russian exports of discounted crude 🛢& fuel oil to China have jumped to record levels.

💠 Chinese refiners see refining profit margins jump 📈, due to discounts for Russian crude, re-routed from Europe to China.

💠 The share of trade between Russia & China in national currencies has reached roughly half of turnover (yuan- ruble).

💠 Chinese-owned supertankers 🚢 are shipping Russian Urals crude to China.

💠 Russian electricity 💡 supplies to China up 16% in 2022.

💠 The yuan's share of the Russian currency market has risen to as much as 45%, up from less than 1% at the start of 2022.

Video courtesy AZgeopolitics

🔹Ex-Moldovan 🇲🇩 President Igor Dodon has voiced concerns over a possible provocation against Transnistria by Ukraine 🇺🇦. Russia reported that the Kiev regime was plotting a provocation against Transnistria. Transnistria, a largely Russian 🇷🇺-speaking region, broke away from Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

🔹The pro-EU 🇪🇺 Moldovan gov't uses elements of transport & economic blockade of Transnistria. Moldovan officials ignored Tiraspol's repeated requests for negotiations. Transnistria says it is ready for a dialogue with Moldova at any level.

🔹Moldova’s gov't has begun to scrap several agreements signed within the Commonwealth of Independent States countries (Russia & other former soviet states). About 1,100 Russian troops are currently deployed to Transnistria as peacekeepers, keeping an eye on the ceasefire reached in 1992, & warehouses of weapons left over from the USSR.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Feb 19th Moldovan protestors call for resignation of president Maya Sandu.

💠 Moldovan 🇲🇩 PM N. Gavrilita resigned & was replaced with an even more pro-EU PM. Moldova forced several Russian-language media outlets to shut down after not renewing their broadcasting licenses.

💠 Nov 28th, Protesters call for the resignation of the president & the gov't

💠 Nov 13th, 60,000 protestors marched, escorted by retired military.

💠 Oct. 30th, Stand-offs between Moldovans & police 🚓 grow violent amid protests.

💠 Oct. 23rd, police brutalities continued amid a breakout of protests.

💠 Oct. 16th, 50,000 protestors marched Weekend before 60,000 protested.

💠 Thousands protest high 📈 energy prices during Sep.

Video courtesy The Duran

🔹Molybdenum — which boosts the performance of alloys in pipelines, jet engines & power-generation turbines ⚙️ — surged 122% in the past year 📈 to 5,510 yuan ($799) a ton driven by a series of supply disruptions & growing demand from the renewables & military sectors.

🔹The silver-gray metal is typically extracted as a by-product of copper mining ⛏. Molybdenum has extremely high hardness, corrosion resistance, & the third-highest melting point (2,623°C) of all metals.

🔹For Freeport, a copper producer, a $5 change in molybdenum prices translates to $375 million in cash 💵 flow. This is is also a way for mining companies to fight inflation given byproduct revenues are deducted prior to calculating cash costs for the primary metal. Molybdenum price surge has also meant that some stainless-steel producers have already been forced to cut output.

🔹China 🇨🇳, one of the major molybdenum-rich countries, is the world’s biggest consumer & producer of the metal, contributing to 38% of the global supply in 2021. The metal has hit a 17 year high on the LME.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 special inspector general who has overseen aid to Afghanistan 🇦🇫 since 2012, & some House Republicans, warn of the need for closer oversight of the military & humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

🔹With more than $100 billion in U.S. weaponry & financial aid flowing to Ukraine in less than a year & more on the way, concerns about arms falling into terrorists' hands & dollars into corrupt officials' pockets are mounting.

🔹The Pentagon, for example, was "unable to provide end-use monitoring in accordance with DoD policy" in Ukraine. Ukraine 🇺🇦 has a history of corruption & ranks 116 out of 180 nations on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Nigerian 🇳🇬President urges heads of neighbouring states to confront the issue of Western arms smuggling from Ukraine into Africa. Finland 🇫🇮 warns of weapons sent to Ukraine making their way to different countries criminal gangs.

💠 Weapons from NATO countries to Ukraine being sold on the dark web.

💠 Caesar self-propelled howitzers ($7 million each) sold by Ukrainians to Russia 🇷🇺 for $120,000 though an intermediary.

*Note: Infographic shows, U.S. financial support (not including vehicles or weapons) for Ukraine.

🔹Three separate fires 🔥 broke out on Feb. 23rd at different facilities operated by state-owned Mexican oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Fires were at the Tuzandépetl Strategic Storage Plant, in Ixhuatlán del Sureste & the Lázaro Cárdenas Refinery, Minatitlan, both in the Mexican 🇲🇽 state of Veracruz & Pemex's crude distillation unit at its Deer Park refinery in Texas, USA 🇺🇸.

🔹The fires come at a bad moment for Pemex, ahead of its earnings report on Feb. 27th. Pemex is currently the most indebted of all major oil 🛢 companies, with a total debt of $105 billion at the end of September, around $8 billion of which is due this year.

🔹The Mexican gov't already provided Pemex with about $45 billion in tax breaks, capitalizations & other financing since 2019. Two days before the fires, Pemex was negotiating with Goldman Sachs & JPMorgan Chase for at least $1 billion in financing. A month ago,

🔹Last week Pemex planned to pay its debt due for 1Q23 on its own, with no 🇲🇽 gov't help and without resorting to the emission of more debt in the market. Earlier in the month Pemex completed a $2bn bond sale, with investors demanding a double-digit yield to lend to the heavily indebted co. Pemex's bonds were taking a hit on the market in January.

🔹Tens of thousands of Germans 🇩🇪 braved the elements today (Feb. 25th) to attend the Uprising for Peace, a massive rally organized by Die Linke politician S. Wagenknecht & author Alice Schwarzer. The demonstrators massed at the Brandenburg Gate, calling for peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine 🇺🇦 & demanding Berlin cease supplying Kiev with weapons.

🔹She also criticized defense industry lobbyists in the gov't & FM A. Baerbock, whom she accused of "trampling on the international arena like a bull in a china shop" and having "so little control over what she says publicly that she has mistakenly declared a war on Russia."

🔹Police mobilised 1,400 officials to keep 'order' & to enforce bans on military uniforms, Russian & Soviet flags 🇷🇺 & Russian military songs. Protesters carried banners reading: ‘Helmets today, tanks tomorrow, the day after tomorrow your sons”, Diplomats instead of grenades”, “Stop the Killing” & “Not My War, Not My Government”.

🔹Russia 🇷🇺 has halted supplies of oil to Poland 🇵🇱 via the Druzhba pipeline, Poland’s state-controlled oil refiner PKN Orlen claimed. Poland intended to halve Russian oil imports via the Druzhba pipeline this month after PKN Orlen decided not to renew a contract with Russia's Rosneft, that ended last month.

🔹Orlen's contract with Tatneft, which was concluded for 200,000 tons of oil 🛢per month, expires in December 2024. Oil via the Druzhba has been exempted from EU sanctions imposed on Russia. The halt in supply comes one day after the EU 🇪🇺 agreed on a 10th package of sanctions on Russia.

🔹Orlen claims 90% of the crude oil it refines at its refineries now come from suppliers other than Russia. Orlen said it could fully supply its refineries via sea 🚢. The other contract with Russia's Tatneft accounted for the rest of Russian oil imports via the Druzbha.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Kazakhstan’s 🇰🇿 Kaztransoil applied to Russia's 🇷🇺 Transneft to transport Kazakh oil through Russia's section of the Druzhba pipeline to Germany.

💠 Poland 🇵🇱 to supply re-sold sea borne Kazakh oil to Germany so as to cut Russian supply.

💠 Oil leak on the Druzhba pipeline in Poland temporarily cuts oil to Germany 🇩🇪.

💠The German gov't confiscates Russia's state-owned Rosneft's German assets in order to keep the PCK Schwedt refinery 🏭 (which receives crude from the Druzhba pipeline).

🔹The German 🇩🇪 gov't is negotiating with the Nord Stream 2 AG consortium based in Switzerland🇨🇭(Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom being a 51% shareholder) about the use of 3000 unused pipes that was remaining from the construction of NS 2. Germany wants the pipes to connect a new import terminal for LNG off the island of Rügen.

🔹During a U.N. 🇺🇳 Security Council meeting Denmark 🇩🇰, Germany & Sweden 🇸🇪 said Investigations into explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines have not yet concluded. Russia, has asked the council for an independent inquiry & for Sweden to share it's findings thus far.

🔹Hungary's 🇭🇺Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó (video) says the UN should give the framework for the investigation into the sabotage of the pipelines.

🔹Famed journalist & Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh's, bombshell article revealing the US 🇺🇸 blew up the pipelines as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise has been labeled a 'conspiracy theory' by western media.

Video courtesy AZgeopolitics

🔹More Asian countries, such as Indonesia 🇮🇩 & the UAE 🇦🇪, are showing interest in using the 🇮🇳 Indian Rupee as a trading unit, potentially reducing dependence on US dollars 💵.

🔹The Reserve Bank of India 🇮🇳 (RBI) last July introduced Rupee payments for global trade, especially with Russia. India and Singapore launched the cross-border linkage that used respective payment systems - Unified Payments Interface (UPI) & PayNow - for transaction settlement.

🔹On Feb. 27th, the RBI was likely selling dollars via public sector banks to prevent the rupee from falling below 83 to the dollar. Dollar purchases by Indian importers for delivery beyond the spot date dropped this month.

🔹The RBI's intervention has helped the rupee sidestep a large part of the selloff in Asian currencies fuelled by the higher repricing of the U.S. 🇺🇸 Federal Reserve's terminal rate.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Indian refiners have begun paying for most of their Russian 🇷🇺 oil purchased via Dubai-based traders in UAE dirhams instead of USD.

💠 India & UAE 🇦🇪 discuss non-oil trade in rupees.

💠 India & Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 discuss the feasibility of institutionalising Rupee-Riyal trade, & introduction UPI & Rupay cards in the kingdom. India's Yes Bank & Russia’s Petersburg Social Commercial Bank have taken the lead in facilitating bilateral trade between both the countries.

Video - Dr. Ankit Shah

🔹A report from the Institute of International Finance & others shows shortcomings of the G7 price cap on Russian 🇷🇺 oil. The cap has not stopped Moscow from shipping its crude at near-record volumes & at prices well above the $60 cap set by Western leaders in December '22.

🔹Around half of Russian crude is now estimated to be sold via its growing "shadow fleet" 🚢 of off-book tankers. Export volumes increased in the four-week period following the price cap's implementation on Dec. 5, averaging around 3.27 million bpd.

🔹Tunisia 🇹🇳 & Morocco 🇲🇦accused of blending Russian oil & refined products which are sold to the EU. First shipment of Russian oil to (oil-exporter) Ghana 🇬🇭 in 5 years. 7.32 million bpd of crude oil was exported from Russia in Feb., on par with that exported in Dec. after the imposed price cap.

🔹Indian 🇮🇳 buyers of Russian oil may be deterred as a result of excessive sanctions-related paperwork to prove they are complying with the price cap. The checks are slowing down transactions for importers.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production in March by 500,000 bpd.

💠 Russian exports of discounted crude 🛢& fuel oil to China have jumped to record levels.

💠 Oman 🇴🇲 & the UAE 🇦🇪, imported more Russian oil in the first 10 months of 2022 than in the previous 3 years combined.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Chinese refiners see refining profit margins jump, due to discounts for Russian crude, re-routed from Europe.

💠 India now buying thirty-three (33) times more 📈 Russian oil than a year earlier.

💠 Chinese 🇨🇳-owned supertankers are shipping Russian Urals crude to China.

🔹Belarus 🇧🇾 invites China 🇨🇳 to set up joint ventures & develop closer cooperation, Belarusian President A. Lukashenko said as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. The joint ventures include machine tool engineering, electric transport, & production of agricultural machinery parts both in Belarus & in China.

🔹He also reaffirmed his support for China's initiatives in international security & development. President Lukashenko referred to Belarus's 🇧🇾 Great Stone Industrial Park (GSIP) as the pearl of the 🇨🇳 Silk Road as he met with Premier of the State Council of the PRC Li Keqiang. (The GSIP is a free economic zone coupled with unique tax & legislative advantages.)

🔹Both countries adopted a joint statement on the main principles of developing exemplary relations of all-weather & comprehensive strategic partnership. MoU's were signed around diplomatic & scientific cooperation, construction, tourism, medical, economic & trade development between both countries.

🔹President Lukashenko confirmed continued support to Beijing on issues related to Xinjiang, the South China Sea, Hong Kong 🇭🇰v& Taiwan 🇹🇼 as he met with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Li Zhanshu. He said both countries are on the same page regarding the multipolar world order.

Video courtesy CGTN