I’ve got two new stories on the subtle partnerships behind the scenes of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia.
The visible maneuvering over Crimea and the Cold War nostalgia expressed by belligerent U.S. politicians doesn’t quite match the corporate takeover we saw in Iraq. Rather, it feels more like Guatemala & the United Fruit Co. in 1953, or Iran & the CIA in 1953.
The moves are happening on two fronts: energy and agribusiness.
To read my story on Condi Rice and Chevron’s new 50-year lease to develop shale gas in Ukraine go to BuzzFlash: The Business of America Is Giving Countries Like Ukraine the Business
Excerpt: Like most American Exceptionalists, Condi Rice’s bluster and posturing can be reverse-engineered to find the banal truth about U.S. foreign policy. For example, her steadfast belief that Ukraine “should not be a pawn in a great-power conflict but rather an independent nation” might have something to do with Chevron’s 50-year lease to develop Ukraine’s shale gas reserves.
When that lease was signed on November 5, 2013, it stoked Russian fears about losing its influence on, and a major gas market in, a former satellite. It also came on the eve of the much-disputed trade deal with the European Union that, once abandoned due to Russian pressure, led to the toppling of Ukraine’s government. Reuters characterized Ukraine’s “$10 billion shale gas production-sharing agreement with U.S. Chevron” as “another step in a drive for more energy independence from Russia.”
To read my story on growing investments by Cargill, Monsanto and Big Ag in the Soviet Union’s former breadbasket go to Consortiumnews: Corporate Interests Behind Ukraine Putsch
Excerpt: Despite the turmoil within Ukrainian politics after Yanukovych rejected a major trade deal with the European Union just seven weeks earlier, Cargill was confident enough about the future to fork over $200 million to buy a stake in Ukraine’s UkrLandFarming. According to Financial Times, UkrLandFarming is the world’s eighth-largest land cultivator and second biggest egg producer. And those aren’t the only eggs in Cargill’s increasingly-ample basket.
On Dec. 13, Cargill announced the purchase of a stake in a Black Sea port. Cargill’s port at Novorossiysk — to the east of Russia’s strategically significant and historically important Crimean naval base — gives them a major entry-point to Russian markets and adds them to the list of Big Ag companies investing in ports around the Black Sea, both in Russia and Ukraine.
Both stories touch on the “Deep State” of interlocking interests, political fixers and policymakers steering U.S. policy into a long-desired collision with Russia. Ultimately, it’s about opening the door to Ukraine’s resources for well-connected corporations.
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'The Corporate-Foreign Policy ‘Deep State’ at work in Ukraine' have 11 comments
March 22, 2014 @ 5:06 pm Bruce
That’d be Victoria Lebensraum.
March 25, 2014 @ 6:14 am Non Commercial
The West’s corporate media have done a masterful job distracting the citizenry from the true identity of the imperialism at work in the Ukraine. The consistent demonization of Vladimir Putin ensures that few will hear his legitimate repudiation of American overreach.
The likely EU/IMF “deal” for the Ukraine will help open up further opportunities for western corporate interests to expand their neo-feudalism eastward. And for those of us who have perceived the identity of the raiders, it is equally clear who the ultimate victims will be. The extraction of wealth from the Ukraine will be, as always, at the expense of other living things and the environment. (For “second-largest egg-producer” read second-largest abuser of chickens.)
America’s vision for the world is truly dystopian. Thank you for helping to expose it.
April 3, 2014 @ 9:20 am Luc Hellebuyck
Or defending Belgian neo-colonial values by MEP Guy Verhofstadt
http://www.spinelligroup.eu/article/guy-verhofstadt-defending-european-values-kiev
Charles Adriaenssen, married tot Diane de Spoelberch, major stake holder of AB InBev
President of the board of Mhp, Ukraine, owner of 360.000 farm land and different slaughterhouses
http://www.mhp.com.ua/en/about/structure
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=11911759
Guy Verhofstadt gets a pay of €130,500 as director of Sofina
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140402_01051886
CEO Tilmant of Sofina is adviser of the Spoelbergh family through Verlinvest of the AB InBev-families de Spoelberch en De Mevius.
http://trends.knack.be/economie/nieuws/mensen/michel-tilmant-wordt-bestuurder-bij-sofina/article-1194704577222.htm
April 19, 2014 @ 3:16 pm ProWorks
I second “Non-Commercial” in the summary assessment of US and EU interest in Ukraine. Yes, Putin is being “demonized”, but let us remember that he can play two roles here – one as the “opposition” to western invasion of what is left of the world and its real freedom, but the second as “loyal opposition” by one who is merely interested in his “cut”. Any deal made between the big-power interests will include such deals under the table, where we must search for the evidence AFTER they shred most of it. Oligarchy is not defeated by such leaders as present in this world of capitalist thievery.
July 28, 2014 @ 5:58 am Foolish Obama Dragging U.S. Towards WW III - Downtrend
[…] are fine the work of JP Sottile aka The News Vandal. The following excerpt comes from his piece “The Corporate-Foreign Policy ‘Deep State’ at Work in Ukraine” which links to his pieces at Consortium News and Buzzflash as well as provides links to all […]
August 21, 2014 @ 4:04 am The 4th Media » The Neocons’ Grim ‘Victory’ in Iraq
[…] on Saddam’s uncooperative regime, they were, in effect, taking out a “bridge loan” for their corporate sponsors until another wave of neocon-men and con-women could breathe life into the long-since dead Cold […]
May 23, 2015 @ 10:27 am Why Wolfowitz Declared Victory in Iraq | PoliticsandFleas
[…] on Saddam’s uncooperative regime, they were, in effect, taking out a “bridge loan” for their corporate sponsors until another wave of neocon-men and con-women could breathe life into the long-since dead Cold […]
May 25, 2015 @ 10:58 am Why Wolfowitz Declared Victory in Iraq |
[…] on Saddam’s uncooperative regime, they were, in effect, taking out a “bridge loan” for their corporate sponsors until another wave of neocon-men and con-women could breathe life into the long-since dead Cold […]
October 11, 2015 @ 11:15 am Foolish Obama Dragging U.S. Towards World War III | Titanic Brass
[…] are fine the work of JP Sottile aka The News Vandal. The following excerpt comes from his piece “The Corporate-Foreign Policy ‘Deep State’ at Work in Ukraine” which links to his pieces at Consortium News and Buzzflash as well as provides links to all […]
December 6, 2015 @ 2:00 pm VP Biden’s Son Hired by Ukraine Gas Company | Titanic Brass
[…] there is no secret that the imperial assimilation of Ukraine has been largely enabled by the presence of US corporations drooling at having a new land of exploitation thrown open to their greed by the US-EU-NATO axis of […]
February 24, 2016 @ 11:39 am Making Post Coup d’Etat Ukraine Safe for US Corporate Vultures – Titanic Brass
[…] are fine the work of JP Sottile aka The News Vandal. The following excerpt comes from his piece “The Corporate-Foreign Policy ‘Deep State’ at Work in Ukraine” which links to his pieces at Consortium News and Buzzflash as well as provides links to all […]