In discussing President Putin’s June 17 remarks to the St, Petersburg International Economic Forum, we will focus on the aspects of his remarks which other writers have missed. I believe that it is precisely the aspects they ignore, which will remain vividly alive in the memory of our great-grandchildren in the XXII Century and their descendants. Alive, that is, if--and only if--we and our contemporaries who heard President Putin last week, boldly seize the opportunities offered to us now–including those opened up by President Putin.

As against the controlling “narrative” through which the modern British Empire seeks to destroy both Russia and the United States, Putin’s remarks were a strong endorsement of the sovereignty of the nation state and against globalization, together with a remarkable paean to individual discovery and capitalist entrepreneurship in Russia.

The economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche demonstrated that the strongest power in the world, especially since 1963-71, is the British financial empire which many patriotic Americans now call “globalization” or “the oligarchy.” For almost three decades, from the early 1990s until his death in 2019, LaRouche campaigned tirelessly for an alliance of the four strongest nation-states–the U.S., Russia, China, and India--as perfectly sovereign states. To put a permanent end to that Empire, the Biblical “whore of Babylon,” nothing less than the combined power of those four nations will suffice. 

The way to do that, is to replace the present world imperialist monetary system, centered in the City of London and its branch offices such as Wall Street and Brussels, with a fixed-exchange rate, gold-reserve world credit system based on the U.S. dollar. (Most other nations will quickly, happily come onboard.) This was effectively Franklin Roosevelt’s original intention for the post-World War II Bretton Woods system, before it was perverted by British influence on his successor Truman, and then finally shattered by Richard Nixon in 1971--again under British influence mediated through George Schultz and others.

Each nation will have its own national credit system--like the Third Bank of the United States which must now supersede the bankrupt Federal Reserve here. The necessary leading role of the United States in this new world arrangement is due to the fact that only our Constitution, alone in all the world, specifies such a sovereign national credit system. 

The Fable of the “Sole Superpower”

The ideological fiction that the U.S. is the world’s “sole superpower,” and the refusal to see the controlling role of the British financial empire over the U.S., is called “neoconservatism,” or equally “neoliberalism.” It fails to grasp the obvious–that the neoconservatives and neoliberals alike are only brain-dead carnival-barkers for an international empire of money. The neocons and neolibs themselves have absolutely no idea where their ideas come from (i.e. London), or where they might lead.  Their level of intellectual curiosity is so dead that it never occurs to them to ask such questions.

From the other side  (for instance, from Russia), from the side of those the Empire has designated as the lawful “prey” of the neocons/neolibs, the same misconception that the U.S. is a world “hegemon” or dictator, is called “the unipolar world.” Neoconservatism/neoliberalism is related to the “unipolar world” misconception in just the same way that a photographic negative is related to its corresponding positive. They are only two opposed sides of the same, identical false picture.

Both the neocons/neolibs and the “unipolar world” theorists can make out the gladiators slugging it out in the dust and blood of the arena. But they avoid raising their sights to see the Emperor seated high up in the bleachers, dictating who is to fight whom, and giving “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” for who is to live and who to die.

Russia’s War of Independence

While President Putin began his June 17 remarks by paying homage to this “unipolar world” cant, he immediately shifted his focus elsewhere–to savage, but fully-justified attacks against the European Union bureaucracy in Brussels. He said that Europe had lost its sovereignty to that bureaucracy and adopted insane policies, such as its failed energy policies--to the point that the European political elites will have to be replaced by their own people.

But just what is this European Union with its crazy, unaccountable bureaucracy? In reality, they are nothing but the same British financial empire! Just as when, years ago, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair answered British critics of Brussels’ arbitrary policies by noting that many of those policies really originated in London.  And NATO is only another such British imperial tool, in this case masquerading as an American puppet.

The entire drift of President Putin’s remarks was directed to creating the conditions for perfect national sovereignty, and defeating what he called “globalization,” just like President Trump’s address to the United Nations in 2017. Thus, Putin states:

“We are strong people and can deal with any challenge. Like our predecessors, we can resolve any task. The entire thousand-year history of our country bears this out.....

“Changes in the global economy, finances and international relations are unfolding at an ever-growing pace and scale. There is an increasingly pronounced trend in favor of a multipolar growth model in lieu of globalization. Of course, building and shaping a new world order is no easy task. We will have to confront many challenges, risks, and factors that we can hardly predict or anticipate today. [emphasis added]

“Still, it is obvious that it is up to the strong sovereign states, those that do not follow a trajectory imposed by others, to set the rules governing the new world order. Only powerful and sovereign states can have their say in this emerging world order. Otherwise, they are doomed to become or remain colonies devoid of any rights.”

What is Sovereignty?

Even if the first actual sovereign nation-state republics were only able to appear in the aftermath of the Golden Renaissance of the 1400s--nevertheless, the sovereign nation-state has always been a necessary part of Western Christian civilization, where it is the required complement to our concept of the inviolable sovereignty of each individual man or woman before God.

Space does not allow us to pursue this history here, but we will make the same point through the words of President Putin (a committed Christian, by the way), both on June 17 at his birthplace of St. Petersburg, and in a preparatory, June 9 talk to young entrepreneurs.

The bulk of both presentations developed the prerequisites for sovereignty, of which he said, “In order to claim some kind of leadership – I am not even talking about global leadership, I mean leadership in any area – any country, any people, any ethnic group should ensure their sovereignty. Because there is no in-between, no intermediate state: either a country is sovereign, or it is a colony, no matter what the colonies are called.”

Touching the theme of technological-scientific sovereignty, one of the young entrepreneurs asked President Putin about the requirements for success, to which he answered, in part: “ I know that, perhaps, many will not like hearing it but, for example, in science, there was a well-known married couple, Marie and Pierre Curie, who sacrificed their health, life, absolutely everything, to achieve something they devoted their lives to.” 

Another example, deeply moving for anyone who knows the story--as all Russians do--was that of the leadership in space won by a Russia which had so recently been savagely wounded in World War II.  This example was emphasized by Putin in his St. Petersburg address.

“But I should stress that there is a lot of discussion in our society about import substitution. And it is not a cure-all nor a comprehensive solution. If we only imitate others when trying to replace foreign goods with copies, even if very high-quality ones, we may end up constantly playing catch-up, while we should be one step ahead and create our own competitive technologies, goods and services that can become new global standards.

“If you remember, Sergei Korolyov did not just copy or locally upgrade captured rocket technology. He focused on the future and proposed a unique plan to develop the R-7 rocket. He paved the path to space for humankind and in fact set a standard for the entire world, for decades ahead.”

We know that the United States first brought mankind to the Moon in 1969 in a program initiated by President Kennedy–but did you know that that would never have happened but for the launching of mankind’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, by the Soviets in 1957?  Indeed, the leader of that Soviet program, the great scientist S.P. Korolyov, began his rocketry career while serving almost six years in the Gulag (Soviet concentration camp).

At the end of World War II, the leaders of the German rocket program under Wernher von Braun were brought both to the United States, and to the Soviet Union.  Here, we spent years “copying and locally upgrading” the German V-2 missile.  The Soviets, under Korolyov, instead set it aside and worked on their own original design, whose latest iteration is the Soyuz rocket which is still bringing astronauts to the International Space Station today.

Entrepreneurial Freedom and Initiative

In the culmination, thus far, of his decades of effort to foster entrepreneurial freedom in Russia, President Putin went so far in St. Petersburg as to herald and praise, name by name, many of the great capitalist dynasties which have been central to the development of Russia over as much as the last three centuries.       

“Our country has huge potential, and there are more than enough tasks that need your contribution. Invest here, in the creation of new enterprises and jobs, in the development of the tourism infrastructure, support schools, universities, healthcare and the social sphere, culture and sport. I know that many of you are doing this. I know this, but I wanted to say it again.

“This is how the Bakhrushin, Morozov, Shchukin, Ryabushinsky, Akchurin, Galeyev, Apanayev, Matsiyev, Mamontov, Tretyakov, Arsanov, Dadashev and Gadzhiyev families understood their noble mission. Many Russian, Tatar, Buryat, Chechen, Daghestani, Yakutian, Ossetian, Jewish, Armenian and other merchant and entrepreneurial families did not deprive their heirs of their due share, and at the same time they etched their names in the history of our country.

“Incidentally, I would like to note once again that it remains to be seen what is more important for potential heirs: money and property or their forefathers’ good name and service to the country. The latter is something that cannot be squandered or, pardon my language, wasted on drink.

“A good name is something that will always belong to your descendants, to future generations. It will always be part of their lives, going from one generation to another, helping them and making them stronger than the money or property they might inherit can make them.”

Russia and America

Russia and America have been historic allies. We have been on the same side of every significant war from before America’s War of Independence, until the Cold War of roughly 1947-90. 

Thus it should be no surprise that all of Putin’s remarks about the American people were positive and even warm, notwithstanding his justified contempt for the pathetic Biden administration and the like.

On American agriculture: “This is what I would like to add. For a long time, the United States was a big food supplier in the world market. It was proud, and with good reason, of its achievements, its agriculture and farming traditions. By the way, this is an example for many of us, too. But today, America’s role has changed drastically. It has turned from a net exporter of food into a net importer. Loosely speaking, it is printing money and pulling commodity flows its way, buying food products all over the world.”

More generally: “The political elite in the United States looks down on everyone and often treats them[selves] with high self-esteem internally, as I have already said. But this does not exclude the fact that the United States is a great power. This is a country that has become a world leader in a little over 300 years, it deserves respect. This is, without any doubt, a country with a great future, I have no doubt about it. But the internal problems and mistakes of the ruling elites, of course, make themselves felt precisely because internal problems are growing. They are growing in the economy, we see this in inflation, as I said, they are growing in other areas in the economic sphere.”

Today’s developments in Russia are as unprecedented as the full awakening of the American people which commenced on November 3, 2020.  If we fight now to create the future which our great grandchildren deserve, today could be among the most hopeful days in the entire, long history of our species.