Russian Foreign Ministry on the risks of nuclear war
Colonel Cassad, Mar 22 2023 17:07
The probability of nuclear conflict is now higher than it has been in the last few decades. The US should come to its senses, not continue playing with fire on the topic of the restoration of START. A condition for the discussion of START is a change in the hostile course of the US towards the Russian Federation. Now there can be no question of any secret or open negotiations with the US on the restoration of something related to START. The US course of recklessly escalating the conflict in Ukraine fundamentally changed the entire security situation for the Russian Federation. The US should have agreed earlier to address Russian concerns about START. Now it is no longer possible. When determining the fate of START, Moscow will take into account the ability of the US, France and Britain together. As before, I believe that we cannot avoid a remake of the Caribbean crisis and an approach to the brink of terminal scenarios using nuclear weapons. The course of the West makes other options for resolving the crisis impossible.
A brief history of the collapse of Credit Suisse
Colonel Cassad, Mar 22 2023 14:12
Everything has a beginning and an end. Yesterday, the history of the bank founded in 1856 ended. Credit Suisse Bank was created to finance the development of the Swiss and European railway system, as well as to lend to companies that were engaged in electrification in Switzerland. In the second half of the 20th century, the bank was developing rapidly and launching new business lines: private banking, investment banking, asset management and insurance. The bank participated in the construction of the tunnel under the English Channel, the merger of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz and the purchase of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. In the 1900s, the bank switched to the retail banking business in response to the growth of the middle class and competition from other Swiss banks UBS and Julius Baer. CS expanded its activities outside Switzerland and became one of the first international banks.
In the 1990s there was the first collaboration between Credit Suisse and the investment bank First Boston and largely because of this cooperation, the bank’s problems began. The united company Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) was engaged in investment banking, capital markets and financial services. CSFB has participated in many major deals and projects, such as the IPOs of Google, AOL and Time Warner. The CSFB project was successful, but faced a number of problems in the early 2000s. It turned out that behind the success of CSFB lay the manipulation of prices of shares of internet companies (dot-com crash), violation of antitrust laws and inefficient risk management. But before the CSFB had time to move away from the crisis at the beginning of the 2000s, a new crisis began to test its strength. The investment unit lost a lot of money due to the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The bank lost billions of dollars due to poor investments in subprime mortgage securities and was forced to attract new capital from private investors from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The bank was also accused of tax evasion by clients in the US and Germany. The fine was about $3b. After the crisis, the bank carried out a number of reforms to improve efficiency, security and profitability. CS reduced its investment portfolio, strengthened risk control, increased capitalization requirements and focused on its main area, private banking. They also updated the logo and slogan, which made it clear who the main customer base was: “The bank for entrepreneurs.”
The final stage of the collapse of Credit Suisse began in 2021. In March, the bank announced the loss of $10b in investment funds provided to another financial company, Greensill Capital. Greensill declared bankruptcy in Mar 2021. Then in the same month, the bank suffered heavy losses due to the scandal with the American hedge fund Archegos Capital Management, which did not fulfill its obligations to creditors and collapsed. Credit Suisse was one of Archegos’ main creditors and lost about $5b due to its default. These events undermined the bank’s credibility and led to a fall in its shares and bonds. CS also spied on its own top managers, falsified the reports of the Chinese company Luckin Coffee and often got into legal disputes with customers and regulators. One of the symptoms of big problems was the frequent change of leadership, including due to surveillance. The banking crisis in the US is the last nail in the lid of the Credit Suisse coffin. Customers have withdrawn their deposits, their shares have lost more than 70% of their value, and no one wants to buy the bank’s bonds. Finally, after intense negotiations over the weekend, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse as part of a share exchange deal worth about $3.25b, which is less than the market value of the bank. Now UBS plans to reduce the investment division of Credit Suisse and integrate its assets and customer base into its own structure. (Source: economikal)
Attack of naval drones on Sevastopol
Colonel Cassad, Mar 22 2023 10:32
In Sevastopol, an attack by three surface drones was repulsed at night. All three drones were hit with small arms and destroyed. The ships were not injured. As a result of one of the explosions the glass in several windows in the House of Moscow (on Nakhimov Square) was blown out. Along the way, a few radio stations were hacked, through which they tried to spread Ukrop propaganda and disperse panic.
Creating an information background
Colonel Cassad, Mar 21 2023 21:45
Relatively relevant picture:
List of US actions aimed at discrediting and blurring Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia:
- Information campaign that Xi Jinping won’t come.
- Threats against China if Xi arrives.
- Demands that China condemn Russia.
- Requirements for China not to supply weapons to Russia. Only the West has the right to supply weapons to Ukraine.
- Statements that any Russian-Chinese agreements will not matter.
- Hasty organization of the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to Ukraine on the day of Xi’s visit.
- The death of Chinese workers in the CAR, for which they tried to blame Russia.
- Announcement of hasty supplies of new weapons to Ukraine, including depleted uranium shells.
- Declassified intelligence documents aimed at accusing China of the origin of the coronavirus.
- They began to equip a new military base in the Philippines.
That’s about the background they tried to sculpt for Xi Jinping’s visit. It didn’t turn out very well. It all looked like tactical grinding against the background of tectonic processes. A member of the Chinese delegation to Moscow said that Russia and China represent the Forces of Good.
The collapse of attempts at economic and political isolation of Russia
Colonel Cassad, Mar 21 2023 19:43
In general, according to the signed documents and the joint statement: The interaction between the two countries is seriously deepening, although this is not a classic military-political bloc. Military cooperation was also discussed, but expected to remain behind the scenes. China and the Russian Federation completely reject the outgoing world order and its main methodological doctrines. No-one will return to 2021. The level of economic, infrastructure and logistics interaction will be such that it, after the completion of diversification of trade flows and export restructuring, guarantees Russia for the next decade the absence of a serious threat of economic isolation. China will not force Russia on Ukraine. Moreover, Russia will support the Chinese course in the Pacific in relation to Taiwan, AUKUS, etc. The Chinese peace plan does not fully suit the West. China will not bend before American pressure. A visit to Moscow is a signal that China counts on Russia in a long-term confrontation with the US. A multipolar world in the vision of Russia and China is a world of equal centers of power, not a world of unilateral dictatorship. It is obvious that the US will accept the challenge and the war against Russia and China will continue to intensify. This is a battle for the world order of the future. In general, the visit is very favorable for the Russian Federation. It actually buried myths about the economic and political isolation of Russia. Hence the hysteria in the West: everyone understands that “Akela has missed” (a reference to the events of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book – RB).
Niqnaq 