Trump-Putin are political reactionaries in criminal mode with a psychology to match, that of mafia chiefs with extensive systems of private patronage. Neither serves his nation; neither are lawful souls; both regard power as absolute and have emotional needs for being so. https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/07/10/malignant-narcissistic-process-distilled/. The two have been covering (shame), lying (method), and presenting themselves as undamaged, unassailable, courageous, and heroic all their lives — but they know the truth and appear delusional and paranoid in concert with their malign narcissism. (more)
The end of the Cold War displaced somewhat the former Soviet spheres of control and influence in the world. The dogma that characterized “Communism” gave way to “”perestroika” only briefly–out of work KGB cab drivers wanted back in, and the got. The “Russian Mafia State” was born with an FSB in part resembling the old criminal secret political police enterprise–and those were aware of Trump in the 1970s. The same were also the sponsors anti-Semitism and terror and kleptocratic relationships with dictators throughout their earlier tenure. Under Putin, much survived. (more)
DJT’s a developer . . . “deal maker” before and beyond anything else. For the purposes of defending himself in power, Trump has neutralized forces within the government, especially the FBI who had investigated him. He’s taken over the country in the way he knows: mafia-style. On X: #StateCapture / #StatePiracy.
So the Soviet’s gone and the west — the Atlantic Alliance and Israel — may have at hand a large distributed system of political criminality bearing down on the civilizational liberalism that has left an opening for leaders disturbed, myopic, and rapacious . . . emperors in their own heads boosted by those they favor and those who fear them.
I’m 70 and merely feel old.
I’ve been FB friends with Avi Melamed for years.
Most of the helpful minds in conflict studies please their already educated and informed–and critically thinking–audiences, but there’s a real problem in updating adverse cultures dependent on agitprop and political cant without an orientation beyond the authoritarianism and political repression that has channeled their attitudes and beliefs about the world.
“Cultural updating” and “cognitive warfare” are still arcane terms in relation to getting barbaric and medieval societies to change a little bit in the interests of their constituencies. Hamas, of course, doesn’t get it–and kingdoms fear chaos in the presence of weakened authority.
For any new to BackChannels or curious about reacquaintance, “FTAC” generally refers to Facebook and the prompting conversations I have had on that platform. Basically, FB arguments and questions have prompted quite a bit of thought on my part. Over time, ideas and insights have become firm and stable (and I won’t back down, so goes the song).
Regarding Avi Melamed, we have had a Facebook acquaintance dating back to 2012 with a faltering correspondence — my fault too — petering out around the middle of October 2015. So much for “social media”. For all the humans, lol, there really is just one of each of us, and with Time having become the new Space, many with lives online — Entertainment! News! Shopping! Zoom! — have fully booked the Dimension.
Prompt: In relation to hostilities involving regional American assets associated with the Strait of Hormuz, please brief me on Iranian attacks–up to a dozen (if there have been that many_–in declining order of significance.
AI: The fragile truce established under the June 17, 2026 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has fractured into a highly volatile cycle of kinetic escalation. Tehran is aggressively attempting to leverage its geographic position to assert total hegemonic control over the Strait of Hormuz—de facto shifting from a sovereign coastal gatekeeper to an armed protection racket by demanding transit fees and dictating mandatory shipping lanes.
The following is a structured evaluation of the recent core Iranian actions against regional American assets and commercial infrastructure in the Strait of Hormuz, ranked in declining order of tactical, strategic, and regional significance.
1. Mass Retaliatory Ballistic Missile Salvo Against U.S. Forward Bases (July 11–12, 2026)
Target Infrastructure: U.S. Military Installations across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region—specifically Prince Hassan Air Base (Jordan), and assets in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman.
Tactical Execution: Massive multi-axis strike utilizing precision-guided ballistic missiles and long-range attack drones launched directly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and conventional armed forces.
Operational & Cultural Impact: This represents the highest escalation rung. The strike on Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base directly destroyed the facility’s command-and-control center and MQ-9 Reaper drone hangars. By striking Qatar (which has acted as a primary diplomatic mediator) and Oman, Iran is linguistically and kinetically signaling that “neutrality” is no longer recognized. It forces regional host nations into the crossfire of the broader U.S.-Iran conflict.
2. Kinetic Strike and Destruction of the M/V GFS Galaxy (July 11, 2026)
Tactical Execution: Anti-ship projectile strike executed 9 nautical miles east of Oman, targeted deliberately at the vessel’s stern.
Operational & Cultural Impact: The attack caused devastating fires and extensive engine room destruction, forcing the civilian crew to abandon ship. This is the most destructive single commercial asset hit since the February-to-May war window. It triggered a massive U.S. counter-response (the third and fourth waves of intense CENTCOM airstrikes, hitting roughly 140 Iranian military targets). It demonstrated Tehran’s absolute willingness to enforce its self-declared “indefinite closure” of the Strait through total ship destruction.
3. Drone Attack on the Qatari LNG Carrier Al Rekayyat (July 6, 2026)
Target Infrastructure: Qatari-flagged Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carrier Al Rekayyat (IMO: 9397339).
Tactical Execution: Loitering munition (suicide drone) precision strike hitting the top port side near the engine room as the ship traveled south near Limah, Oman.
Operational & Cultural Impact: This attack holds profound geopolitical weight because it marks the first time a Qatari asset has been directly targeted. Qatar’s role as the indispensable diplomatic backchannel between Washington and Tehran was structurally violated by this strike. The attack signaled that Tehran values immediate tactical dominion over the waterway above the preservation of its primary diplomatic conduit, sparking severe diplomatic protests from Doha.
4. Coordinated Strike on the Saudi Crude Tanker Wedyan (July 6, 2026)
Target Infrastructure: Saudi Arabia-flagged crude tanker Wedyan (IMO: 9524970).
Tactical Execution: Coordinated drone/projectile strike executed within hours of the Al Rekayyat hit.
Operational & Cultural Impact: Directly striking a high-value Saudi energy asset tests the limits of regional security and threatens global energy supply continuity. This action forced Riyadh to hold Tehran fully liable for regional navigation disruptions, undermining regional detente and freezing normalization discussions.
5. Interception and Kinetic Targeting of the Cyprus Prosperity (July 7, 2026)
Tactical Execution: Multi-boat harassment swarm followed by a projectile strike to halt the vessel.
Operational & Cultural Impact: Part of the initial “triple-play” wave on July 6–7 that shattered the post-war calm. It proved that Iran was running an organized campaign to systematically target any vessel deviating from its unauthorized, unilaterally imposed shipping lanes.
6. The Forced Halting and Seizure of Multi-National Merchant Ships (July 11, 2026)
Target Infrastructure: Two unnamed commercial vessels transiting the international corridor.
Tactical Execution: IRGC Navy small-boat swarms fired direct “warning shots,” boarded, and forcefully brought the ships to a halt under the guise of the newly formed Persian Gulf Strait Authority.
Operational & Cultural Impact: Semantically, Iran framed this as routine maritime law enforcement against “offending vessels that switched off onboard systems.” In reality, it acts as a enforcement mechanism for their protection racket—using kinetic coercion to compel global shipping companies to submit transit requests to Tehran and pay transit tariffs.
7. IRGC Naval Swarming and Electronic Warfare Harassment of U.S. Surface Vessels (Ongoing, July 2026)
Target Infrastructure: U.S. Central Command / U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet surface assets patrolling the southern shipping highway.
Tactical Execution: Aggressive maneuvers by IRGC fast-attack craft (FAC) backed by localized GPS jamming and electronic spoofing along the Omani coast.
Operational & Cultural Impact: While lower on the scale of direct structural destruction, these asymmetric provocations are designed to test U.S. rules of engagement (ROE). Iran uses these encounters for internal propaganda, attempting to project local maritime supremacy and signal to domestic audiences that the “era of one-sided deals is over,” as stated by Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
Analysis
From a cultural and deep intelligence standpoint, the current Iranian offensive demonstrates a highly calculated linguistic and operational pivot. Tehran is redefining the concept of “sovereignty” over international waters. By standing up the Persian Gulf Strait Authority in May and attempting to enforce mandatory tolls, the regime is trying to normalize its dominion over a global chokepoint.
The attacks are intentionally designed to exploit the physical geography of the Omani coastline. While Oman attempts to offer a expanded “southern highway” corridor to keep traffic safe from Iranian shores, Iran is actively using kinetic strikes within Oman’s maritime vicinity to show that no alternative route exists without their explicit, paid permission. This effectively traps regional commerce in a paradigm where they must either risk catastrophic hull loss or succumb to Iranian extortion.
AI Accessed Reference
This may be partial to the above AI-generated military and political analysis. For breadth, depth, and speed, this human — J. S. Oppenheim, editor of this BackChannels blog — is no match for the AI, which appears to me an independent intelligence however disembodied and “directed” by mathematical programming.
I had asked AI to elaborate on the tension between medieval politics and modern–>
The tension between “medieval” and “modern” politics is a highly accurate framework for analyzing contemporary democratic friction. This conceptual clash does not mean a literal return to the Middle Ages, but rather a structural battle between two fundamentally incompatible philosophies of governance and power.
One side treats the state as a rule-based machine, while the other treats it as a private fiefdom.
The Core Friction: Personal Fiefdom vs. Institutional Rule
The “#MedievalVModern” dichotomy can be broken down into specific operational clashes that define current political instability:
Dimension
“Medieval” Politics
“Modern” Politics
Source of Authority
Personal loyalty, fealty oaths, and blood/chosen dynastic ties.
Institutional roles, constitutional text, and bureaucratic merit.
Nature of Public Funds
Treasury is a personal slush fund to reward allies and punish rivals.
Public revenue strictly separated from private wealth via oversight.
The Legal System
Sovereign immunity; the ruler is the law and hands out selective pardons.
The rule of law; laws apply equally to the ruler and the citizenry.
Communication
Direct, tribal appeals based on identity, protection, and absolute decree.
Policy debates filtered through open press and statutory processes.
1. The Medieval Side: The Rise of Neo-Feudalism
When political commentators identify “medieval” tendencies in modern leaders, they are looking at the deliberate dismantling of modern, rules-based institutions in favor of personal networks.
Patronage and Fealty: In a neo-feudal system, career expertise is replaced by absolute loyalty. Government officials are treated like vassals. Protection, promotions, and pardons are granted not based on law, but on how fiercely a subordinate defends the “lord” of the system.
The Sovereign is Above the Law: Absolute immunity and the sweeping use of executive pardons mirror the medieval concept of Rex Lex (The King is Law). When courts rule that a leader’s official acts cannot be prosecuted, the system shifts backward toward an era where the ruler’s personhood dictates what is legal.
Weaponized Dependency: Just as medieval peasants relied on a local lord for protection against outside threats, a modern patronage system manufactures tribal fear—casting the leader as the sole defender against perceived cultural or political enemies.
2. The Modern Side: Constitutional Meritocracy
Modern politics, born out of the Enlightenment and codified in the U.S. Constitution, was explicitly designed to kill medieval feudalism.
Separation of Powers: Modernity assumes that human beings are fundamentally flawed and power-hungry. Instead of trusting a single ruler, it distributes power across competing branches (the Senate, the Courts, the Executive) to create friction.
Institutional Memory: A modern state relies on objective, non-partisan civil servants, military officers, and judges who owe their allegiance to an abstract document (the Constitution), not to the shifting fortunes of an individual politician.
Transparency and Accountability: Modern governance requires open records, independent inspectors general, and a free press to prevent the state’s wealth from being funneled into private pockets.
Why This Tension Matters Today
The current crisis in American politics exists because both systems are currently operating simultaneously within the same government.
When a Senator attempts to use committee oversight or a military officer relies on the “lawful order” standard, they are operating in the modern framework. When an executive bypasses Congress, appoints family members to financial posts, and cleanses criminal dockets via sweeping pardons, they are operating in the medieval framework.
The primary danger of this tension is that the medieval model is inherently more agile; it requires only one willful ruler to function. The modern model is fragile; it requires thousands of independent actors to continuously choose their constitutional oaths over partisan self-interest.
Ours is an age in which everyone (online) may look up everything (OSINT) for any purpose evil or good at any time. For years now and living a “life online”, I have asked myself with so much “content” available through a fancy television screen, where to dwell? Add an earnest “why?” In the coverage of conflict–or curiosity about it–from the web’s second row seat to history there are of course the dots between events and places, the inflection points newly minted in a year–or a week or day–and the things a generation may–or must–never forget, e.g., the Rubicon, Auschwitz, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11 of their youth, but what is the choosing, clicking, scrolling point for the mind at the monitor?
For a small portion of the world beyond basic needs–cash flow is good, discretionary time is what we have, abundance in some measure small or great–the point becomes interesting. A modern Muslim woman, Qanta Ahmed asked me on Facebook decades ago (so it feels) after having registered her account, “What now?” My answer had been “Good influence.” I believe she has done her part–and I mine.
What now?
The answer for me has been one person’s diplomacy. The opportunity to read foreign newspapers in English, to make friends nine thousand miles away who would become better known than the neighbor in the apartment on the other side of the office wall–but for whom one could do nothing in a pinch–would build out one’s social media community. That was back in the Facebook uptake era. Then along came everything else and, well, X marked the spot!
And X has been the spot for responding to power and the tensions between the ambitions and attitudes of some wealthy, the arrangements made by power medieval–as well as brutal and unconscionable–and the aspirations and values of a nation blessed with valuing its own humanity and related dignity, freedom, and security. And then along came Donald–and DOGE–and the emergence of fuzzy philosophers dreaming of Tech Bro empires and new relationships between a plutocracy of programmers and the needs and wants of comparatively hapless consumers of “content” and other stuff.
The heady early days seem to me no longer new and novel–not even the “Tube” sites of the flesh trade–and all of the governments in attendance (I’m sure) watching decision patterns and trees for even that.
Ain’t it grand?
It turns out the “second row”–mediated–seat to history may be as well a space cordoned (almost) from life, but then even souls living through their screens have to step away and step out for fresh air and a good restaurant now and then.
Softshell Crab Sandwich, The Grille at Runways, HGR, Hagerstown, Maryland, May 2, 2026
And now what?
X has become a daily battle with bots, trolls, and indefinite fake names weighing in from their VPN locations (no doubt), and potentially for purposes as insidious as their being unknown and possibly unidentifiable. Then too, especially for me, there’s been the hash slung repeatedly toward every pair of eyeballs who didn’t get it — or believe it — on the first round: #AmericaForSale; #AmericaUnderAssault (good entry: welcome to my world!) all the way to where we really are (so I believe): #StateCapture / #StatePiracy. The epiphanies no longer leave me breathless but rather yawning it all back for having been repeated too often for too long.
Shall there be here a “Dining for Diplomats” section for the Washingtonians (who really may be diplomats)? And what happened to the sound track? America . . . Born in the USA . . . The Secret of Life . . . . Everyone of us — Americans — has his own. That’s our freedom . . . our individualism . . . our choice to choose how we grow our persons inside and out. Upstairs? Tabulation. Tell the universe what you want — Amazon will have it slipped into your shopping experience right soon.
With the #PhantomOfTheSoviet playing a fading devil and #IllTrumpolini providing an object lesson in #MalignantNarcissism — and this blog becoming weirdly hybrid with hashtags — Qanta’s “What now” has transitioned fully into two major questions, one public and an echo from history: “What is to be done!?” (Query AI on the famous Russian question). And the other personal: “What am I doing here? What’s my hunt, my role, my mission, my purpose? So I jump (virtually) in the air shaking my fists over my head before a distant, virtual, absent–from my space but not cyberspace– Michael McFaul who has posted a note on X expressing hope that the next President will be different without fully comprehending the challenges posed by having a piratical feudal-medieval mafia chief in the wheelhouse of the American Ship O’ State promising his portion of the Christian base relief from elections forever after: ““It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore my beautiful Christians . . . in four years you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
Putin is an enemy of freedom and a supporter of dictatorship. That's why he invaded Ukraine and is aiding Iran.
The U.S. should be a friend of freedom and a supporter of democracy.
Trump doesn't understand this basic mission for our great country. I hope future leaders will.
While true, “Trump doesn’t understand this basic mission for our great country,” he understands being a chief with his own system of private patronage (#PPS on X) and all the methods attending criminally ruthless power from blackmail, bribery, and intimidation to the promising of generous rewards in exchange for loyalty, obedience, and silence.
What Donald Trump does — and what he has done to take America down — has been as obvious as it has been ugly. Check the list for his large targets or mishaps with tariffs: American agriculture, counterintelligence, election security, health, humanitarian aid, justice, natural resources, etc.
Whine it out on X, fashion the barbs that make the snark, send hints to those who know them, perhaps, but come forward from the curtains keeping the darker realities out of sight, the reckless, unresponsive, upside-down, and surreal Trump and his Trumpian Theater will just get right on to the next dumb move, the sort now paving the way toward national financial arrest, debilitating desperation, probably related crime (we shall see), and the unholy trinity leftover from Soviet post-Soviet Russian barbarity and stupidity: enserfment, gulag, and Soviet-style totalitarian surveillance. ICE will need work; the private prison system may appreciate a little expansion money; and the technology for observing or tracking everyone at all times might well exist —
Creating detailed portraits of Americans based on government data is not just a pipe dream. The Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status.
Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labor rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access, questioning whether the government could weaponize people’s personal information.
Archaic, Criminal, Irrelevant, Medieval
My X-ing has been for some time a routine . . . another program involving a repetitious rollout of arguments, memes, and related talking points. Let’s leave this most egregious of observations here: the above faces defend and reflect in their game-faced hardness an outlook better fit with the worst barbarities of medieval power and related treachery than with anything like modern compassionate, responsible, responsive, and trustworthy governance. Whatever the wreckage each has left or will leave behind, they are together representatives of all that belongs behind us and none of what any should want waiting in the near future.
TrumpPutin have never been about the interests of their respective states but rather #TheMoney and the development of their own power to alter, erase, and shape public reality for their own emotional defense. The two have been life-long cowards and criminals and have made their marks political criminals–as thieving dictators–beyond the reach of their own societies.
For #Americans, #AmericanPoliticians, and #AmericanMilitaryAndPolice, most to all in each class have sworn on oath to defend our #AmericanConstitution and related principles and values. It would seem the same have now to rise to the challenges presented by a rogue #AmericanPresident.
Below: the archaic; the criminal; the hated; and the standard bearers of a discarded feudal past wholly without virtue, for they are neither of them noble or even good.
And then the images shown on the X post.
Here: Putin over Trump as each criminal and political criminal will be portrayed in Russian and American eternal memory; a tile popular when Trump’s Georgia election fixing case was hot news; an illustration detailing the locations at Mar A Lago of boxes loaded with classified, secret, and top secret Federal government documents to which Trump had not been entitled; and the last a popular meme illustrating Trump’s rape of America. The truth about Mafia Don: he has been all his life a privateer associated with organized crime. Most notable for his apprenticeship at the git-go: mob lawyer Roy Cohn; mafioso Fat Tony Salerno.
The mirroring couple #TrumpPutin appear to be between states as the criminals, malignant narcissists, and political criminals each has become. Trump, at this point, might wish to be free of the boss of the #RussianMafiaState (one may imagine the reasons for that) and both in the… pic.twitter.com/0RtFXNnF27
The tweeted text follows (with a few hash marks replaced by standard typed English and adjustments for sense) so as to give expression its more persistent showcase in online publishing (a tweet may be noticed and read but briefly as X compiles rapidly and destroys focus as efficiently as it confronts its audience with virtually limitless attention-seeking stimulus).
***
The mirroring couple Trump and Putin appear to be between states in their relationship. Trump, at this point, might wish to be free of the boss of the Russian Mafia State (being blackmailed by kompromat might account for that), and he’s been presented with an opportunity involving the post-Cold War clean-up of the former Soviet/post-Soviet spheres of alliance, control, and influence and the severing of the link that has been for a long time Moscow-Havana-Caracas.
While Donald may expect accolades for his conquest of a former Soviet communist satellite, I think he’s proceeding from a different compact with Putin involving the feudal-medieval mafia mentality each has come to represent and he would just as soon make a “gangster’s paradise” out of his invasion of Venezuela. That would help make sense of his low-to-high pattern in pardons of criminals who have injured the United States (e.g., the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists; the recent pardon of drug kingpin Juan Orlando Hernandez) and his penchant for locating and targeting mineral wealth from Greenland to Ukraine and working “deals” in which he involves business associates and family in a process that may be referred to as the development of his own personal empire.
Is he betraying his “handler” Putin?
While it looks that way at a glance, Trump in fact may be turning East-West Rivalry on its head and setting up to rule and plunder the wealth of the western hemisphere while leaving Europe and its interests to his rival.
How Americans view the Trump-Putin relationship (mirroring) may be tempered by both political bias (partisan drift) and the American constituency’s general detachment from foreign affairs and international relations. Up to this point, America’s professional business and political managers have understood their having a uniquely American mission from the 20th Century perspective at least. As an American People, the same have negated the power of kings, fought fascism and imperialism worldwide, and tempered totalitarianism as understood from witness of leaders pledged each to the support of his ruling Communist Party.
In fact, the winning of the Cold War had been framed as having beaten Communism, not a practical and ruthless KGB driven and managed police state that could be turned toward serving a dictatorship– a private patronage system–devoted solely to its own aggrandizement, ambition, greed, and security.
So this round is different.
Trump and Putin represent an archaic criminal mentality associated with the malign narcissism and related emotional needs of each, i.e., the equivalent in outlook of what would be today criminal medieval powers engaged in continuous competition for territory and tribute, and then–with the concept of modern feudal-medieval mafia established–related unbridled and unhinged methods in power and enterprise.
***
About the Art
The bookends tell in part the Trump-Putin story as one dates to 2016 and has since become an iconic as well as ironic statement about the two statesmen. The other has been captured in relation to Trump’s second-term meeting of the two in Alaska. In the way of a fast-paced meme-spilling web, the composites between reflect, of course, my conclusions about the two and their archaic views of dominion and sovereignty–and both lawless men have reserved for themselves as principle a deeply archaic, deranged, and mentally and morally sick “right” to destroy with their power persons and property alike with impunity. One has ordered the piloting of missiles into apartment buildings and malls; the other threatens to take over the western hemisphere while fueling his own corrupt system of private patronage. Neither should represent anyone’s future governance–not for Russians and never (again) for Americans.
Related to Archaic Leadership and Malignant Narcissism
I’ve whittled related political science and political psychology (#PoliSciPoliPsy) down to this module for X-ting (X-ing . . . whatever)–>
Signal: delusional, grandiose, messianic ideation absent of normal boundaries and limits, i.e., the parameters of normal conscience.
Russia’s Central Bank has recently started selling physical gold from its reserves for the first time as part of Finance Ministry operations to cover the national budget deficit, which has widened due to the ongoing war with Ukraine and Western sanctions.
Key Details on Russia’s Gold Sales
Purpose: The primary reason for the gold sales is to generate rubles and cover the state budget deficit, particularly as oil and gas tax revenues have dropped.
Mechanism: Due to increased liquidity in the domestic gold market, the Bank of Russia is now able to conduct market operations involving the sale of physical gold in a manner equivalent to selling Chinese yuan to balance the National Wealth Fund (NWF).
Volume: The exact date sales began and the current volume have not been specified by the Central Bank. However, data indicates that the Finance Ministry has sold over 232.6 tonnes of gold from the NWF since the beginning of the war, reducing the fund’s gold holdings to 173.1 tonnes as of November 1, 2025.
Context: This marks a significant shift for Russia, which had been a major buyer of gold for years to diversify its assets and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar, especially following the 2014 annexation of Crimea. The U.S. decision to freeze Russia’s foreign exchange reserves after the 2022 invasion has motivated a broader trend among central banks (including BRICS nations) to acquire more gold and move away from the dollar.
Russia’s Overall Gold Reserves
Despite the recent sales from the National Wealth Fund, Russia maintains significant total gold holdings.
Total Reserves: Russia holds over 2,300 tonnes of gold in its total national reserves, making it the world’s fifth-largest holder.
Strategic Shift: The country had aggressively built up these reserves to act as a buffer against sanctions, a strategy that has partially insulated its economy.
Domestic Market Focus: Sanctions prevent Russia’s Central Bank from buying gold on international markets, so domestic purchases from local miners have been a key part of its strategy.
Related Trends
Public Demand: Russian citizens have also been buying record amounts of physical gold to protect their savings from inflation and sanctions, with the government encouraging this trend by scrapping the Value Added Tax (VAT) on gold bar sales to individuals.
Sanctions Evasion: There have been international calls, notably from U.S. senators, for the State and Treasury departments to crack down on Russian gold sales to prevent the funding of its military operation
As the Phantom of the Soviet, Putin and his “New Nobility” project appear to be fading. Most clearly, he cannot today defend Russia, her field operations, her people, and not even select cities from Ukrainian payback. Many within Russia will find themselves surviving this winter in the cold and dark as services fail and the machinery and repairs wanted may not be available as required.
Rarely have so few, seemingly inconsequential words generated so many consequential ones.
In a mere 109-word paragraph tucked away in an autobiographical collection of interviews published in 2000, just as he ascended to power in Russia, Vladimir Putin tells a nightmarish tale: Once, when he and his friends were chasing rats with sticks in the dilapidated apartment building in St. Petersburg where he grew up, a “huge rat” he’d cornered suddenly “lashed around and threw itself at” him, chasing the “surprised and frightened” Putin to his door before he slammed it shut in the rodent’s face. For Putin, it’s a parable: “I got a quick and lasting lesson in the meaning of the word cornered.”
Might Putin try to erase the memory of the world by setting off a nuclear Armageddon?
Given Putin’s association with Malignant Narcissism and related ramifications, it appears he may need to be stopped by the mutiny of his remaining admirals and generals in unison. By Russian own nuclear doctrine, he cannot launch a nuclear warhead without military cooperation. According to AI today:
In Russia, the President makes the final decision to use nuclear weapons, but military commanders have control over the launch. The Cheget briefcase connects the President to the strategic command-and-control network, transmitting launch orders to the General Staff. The General Staff then gives authorization codes to the commanders who execute the actual launch.
The process for nuclear launch
Presidential decision: The President, as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, makes the final decision to use nuclear weapons based on Russia’s doctrine.
Command and control: The President uses a device called the Cheget to send the launch order through the Kazbek command and control network.
Military authority: The Cheget transmits the orders to the General Staff, not to the individual weapons commanders.
Execution of the launch: The General Staff then issues the necessary authorization codes to the individual military commanders who have the authority to execute the launch procedures.
For Russians, the present state-of-affairs must seem both puzzling, at least (given the Soviet Era hangover having to do with propaganda and totalitarian control), as well as foreboding in light of Ukraine’s demonstrated ability to attack any vital state asset in the Russian land mass contributing to the state’s defense, economy, and industry. With the initiation of the selling of gold reserves, Putin has more or less signaled the beginning of the end of not only an intolerable venture into and toward Europe but his inability to resist the war being brought home to none other than himself–and it may be his own people who do it.
BackChannels 