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EDITORIAL

Lavrov: West’s ‘Post-Christian Messianism’ Brings Chaos to the World; We Must Restore Human Values

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—With two days remaining of the degenerate, murderous Obama Administration, and with President-elect Donald Trump pledging to end “regime change,” and restore relations with Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin have taken off the gloves on the threat to civilization represented by Obama and his British controllers.

Addressing an annual press conference on Tuesday, Lavrov began with a statement on the failure of the international community to unite against terrorism. It is a “systemic problem,” he said, “compounded by basic differences between the objective trend toward the formation of a polycentric world, on the one hand, and the actions of those trying to hold on to the outdated concept of unipolarity, on the other hand. I am referring to the domination not even so much of one state, as one group of states with their own system of values.”

And what are these values, he asks, which the West constantly demands that Russia and the world must adopt? “These are probably not the values the grandfathers of today’s Europeans espoused,” said Lavrov, “but something new and modernized, a free-for-all, I would say. These are values that can be called post-Christian. They are radically and fundamentally at odds with the values handed down from generation to generation for centuries in our country, which we would like to cherish and hand down to our children and grandchildren. When during foreign policy battles we and many others face a demand to accept these new post-Christian Western values, including permissiveness and the universality of liberal approaches to the life of the individual, I think it is indecent on a human level. But in terms of professional diplomats, it is a colossal mistake and a completely unacceptable overestimation of your own influence on international relations.”

EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche responded to these statements with full agreement. “This is like World War I,” he said. “The values of 19th Century America were destroyed by World War I,” a war created by the British in order to destroy American cooperation with Europe, especially Germany, in nation-building internationally. The optimism that characterized the America of Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, and Abraham Lincoln was drowned in the blood of pessimism and geopolitics.

President Putin, also, warned that the “messianic” hysteria in the West has gone so far that they are now trying to impose a “color revolution” upon the newly-elected President of the United States, who has broken from the controlled environment. “The impression is,” Putin said Tuesday, “that after a practice run in Kiev, they are now ready to organize a Maidan in Washington to prevent Trump from taking office.”

To this, LaRouche noted that it was the threat of assassination which forced the elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, to flee in the face of U.S.-backed neo-Nazi thugs on the Maidan. Today, the threat of assassination to stop Trump is a very real danger. Throughout American history, it is only those presidents who stood up against the British and Wall Street who were subject to assassination. Today, London’s role in orchestrating a “color revolution” against Trump is out in the open. Trump himself, in an interview with The Times of London published Jan. 15, ridiculed the MI6 agent Christopher Steele for his wild fabrications about Trump being controlled by Moscow, which were picked up and peddled by the corrupt U.S. press. Trump concluded by telling the Times reporter: “So if this guy is a British guy, you got a lot of problems.”

Lavrov, in his press conference, said that, “Our relations with China are at their best level ever in our two countries’ history,” pointing to Putin’s visit to China in June 2016. This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose Silk Road programs are transforming the world, is in Switzerland, where his keynote speech to the Davos World Economic Forum said that the financial crisis was caused by “financial capital taking out excessive profits and by the failure of financial regulation to deal with it.” This is precisely the LaRouche PAC message to Congress—hold Donald Trump to his campaign pledge to pass Glass-Steagall, immediately, to put the bankrupt financial system through orderly bankruptcy proceedings before it crashes, dragging the Western world into depression and war.

The New Paradigm is within reach, if the suffering people of the United States and Europe can reach for the stars, and, like Wilhelm Tell in Schiller’s drama, say to the world: “No, there is a limit to a tyrant’s power.” The revolutionary ferment which produced Brexit, the Trump election, and several votes in Europe against the EU dictatorship and the insane anti-Russia policies, provides the proper momentum for a true international Renaissance, unleashing the creative power of mankind to create a future worthy of human dignity.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Russia Invites Trump Officials to Syria Talks in Astana

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has reported that representatives of the incoming Trump administration have been invited to participate in the Syria talks in Astana, Kazakhstan expected to begin on Jan. 23.

Speaking at a news conference on Jan. 17, posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website, Lavrov said it was “right to invite representatives of the UN and the new U.S. administration” to the Astana talks, but did not say whether the incoming Trump administration had confirmed its attendance.

“We’re counting on the new [U.S.] administration accepting this invitation and being represented by experts on any level they consider possible. It will be the first official contact during which we could begin discussing stepping up the efficiency of fighting terrorism in Syria,” Lavrov said. “One of the objectives of the meeting in Astana is first of all to consolidate the ceasefire.”

Lavrov’s remarks came one day after he talked to the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran, and Kazakhstan, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Javad Zarif and Kairat Abdrakhmanov, respectively, regarding the peace talks in Astana.

According to a report in Syria’s Al-Watan daily, Syria’s UN ambassador would head the government delegation to the talks, while chief rebel negotiator Mohammad Alloush, a leading figure in the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) faction, would represent the opposition, according to National Coalition member Ahmad Ramadan, AFP reported.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Jan. 18 in an interview with the Lebanese broadcaster al-Mayadeen, that Damascus had no objections to the presence of U.S. representatives at the Astana talks. However, Mekdad stressed that Washington “will have to prove its sincerity about settling the Syrian crisis.”

Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamhani said his country opposed U.S. participation saying there were “absolutely no grounds” for the U.S. participation in the talks. He admitted, however, that “there is a possibility that the host country (Kazakhstan) will invite the U.S. to Astana as an observer.”

Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Jan. 16 that the EU wanted to host a conference on the reconstruction of Syria in tandem with the United Nations. She told Associated Press that the conference would come after the planned restart of the Geneva peace talks and “could be a moment for the international community to turn the page and start the reconstruction of Syria.”

Neocon Psycho John Bolton Calls for U.S. Troops in Taiwan

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—John Bolton, who has fewer remaining marbles than John McCain, wrote, provocatively, in the Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal that the Trump Administration should deploy troops to Taiwan, to “give U.S. forces greater flexibility for rapid deployment throughout the region should the need arise.” Deploying U.S. troops to part of China, as the U.S. officially acknowledges under the “One China” doctrine, is an act of war.

Bolton has been peddled by the neocons as a “top advisor” to Trump, who is reportedly close to getting a top appointment. Trump, however, has kept the neocons at arm’s length.

U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL

In London Times Interview, President-Elect Trump Warns of British Intelligence Lies

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in the Jan. 15 interview with British politician Michael Gove for The Times and former Bild Zeitung editor Kai Diekmann, was asked about his relations with the intelligence community.

Trump replied that one “has to have the right people” in intelligence, and cited “a lot of leaks, a lot of fake news coming out” of intelligence.

The Times followed up, “Do you think that we in Britain need to look at our intelligence services?”

Trump replied, referring to British “ex”-MI6 intelligence agent Christopher Steele, “Well, that guy, because whatever he made up about me, it was all false—he was supposedly hired by the Republicans and Democrats working together—even that I don’t believe because they don’t work together; they work separately—and they don’t hire the same guy—what, they got together? See, the whole thing is fake news because it said the, whoever it was, intelligence, the so-called intelligence, said he’s an operative of Republicans and Democrats—they don’t work together. They don’t work together.”

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Makes Secret Visit to Syria

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) made a secret visit to Syria, AFP reported today, after speaking to Gabbard’s spokesman Emily Lattimer.

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, made a fact-finding mission to Damascus, Syria’s capital, despite continued fighting in violation of the fragile ceasefire. Lattimer said, “She felt it was important to meet with a number of individuals and groups, including religious leaders, humanitarian workers, refugees and government and community leaders.”

Representative Gabbard met with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York in November, two weeks after his election, to discuss Syria policy. Gabbard said at that meeting she expressed “my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called ‘no fly/safe zone’ would be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country, and the world.” Gabbard has long opposed a U.S. policy of regime change in Syria, because it would result in Syria’s further descent into chaos if President Bashar al-Assad were ousted.

Lattimer declined to say whether Gabbard had met with President Bashar al Assad on her trip, which also included a stop in Lebanon.

On Jan. 13, Gabbard introduced the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, which bars U.S. taxpayer money from supporting organizations allied with or backing “terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda in their war to overthrow the Syrian government.” The bill would block U.S. government funding or provision of weapons to groups seeking to overthrow the Assad regime, including the Levant Front and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra).

“Our limited resources should go toward rebuilding our communities here at home, not fueling more counterproductive regime-change wars abroad,” she said on the House floor. She urged her colleagues to “stop this madness.”

NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER

Russian and Moldovan Presidents Move Toward Rapprochement

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—A joint press conference held by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Moldova’s newly-elected President Igor Dodon yesterday in Moscow showed a new path for Moldova (and perhaps others) since it declared its independence from the then-Soviet Union in 1991 and signed an association agreement with the European Union in 2014. The visit of the Moldovan President to Russia was the first in nine years.

President Putin reported that their talks focused on the development of mutual trade; the countries’ bilateral trade has dropped by more than 50% in the past few years. Putin said, “We must say that Moldova’s mutually-beneficial ties with Russia deteriorated due to [Moldova’s] attempts to boost the republic’s rapprochement with the EU … [but] Russia is not opposed to Moldova developing relations with partners anywhere, including the EU.”

Stating that “today is a historic day for Moldovan-Russian relations,” President Dodon added that voters elected him last year based on a desire to maintain Moldova’s statehood and neutrality, for reintegration; for settling the Transnistrian issue, and preserving its traditional Orthodox Christian faith. These three values “cannot be protected or promoted outside strategic partnership with the Russian Federation,” he emphasized.

Putin praised the newly-elected President’s courage in travelling to Transnistria, which is a breakaway part of Moldova. Both Presidents were asked if they thought it possible to move toward restoring economic cooperation between their countries.

While indicating that, “I think we will eventually get there,” Putin cautioned that, “we must proceed from realities, though…. Much will depend on how Moldova will build its relations with the European Union. I mean, the association agreement between Moldova and the EU has been signed and entered into force.” Putin explained that there are certain risks for Russia, similar to the risks it faced after Ukraine signed a similar association agreement with the EU.

Referring to that agreement with the EU, Dodon said that he had repeatedly opposed signing it, adding that it has done Moldova “no good.” The country has lost the Russian market, he noted, and “strangely enough, our exports to the EU have also fallen.” He expressed the hope that in the next parliamentary election, the Socialist Party will get a parliamentary majority “and the agreement will be repealed.”

He also stressed the importance of cooperation with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). After his meeting with the leadership of the Eurasian Economic Commission, he said that he had proposed to sign a framework memorandum on cooperation with the EAEU, and that it was agreed to begin consultations in the next few weeks, “and sign this memorandum in the next few months. It is not at odds with the agreements Moldova has signed with other partners, but it is the first step toward rapprochement…”

Xi Jinping Addresses UN in Geneva, Nothing Is Too Difficult

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping today gave a major address at the United Nations Palace of Nations in Geneva, after earlier in the day meeting with Dr. Margaret Chan, Director of the World Health Organization and with the head of the World Olympic Committee.

Xi’s presentation outlined the highest goals for the world of nations, in a manner rich with metaphor. He ended with stating his five important priorities.

Among the ideas stressed, was the necessity to forgo war, and undertake diplomacy and political dialogue to solve problems. He received spontaneous applause, when he said, “even the thickest ice can be broken.”

When he put down the idea of the naysayers, that some problems are too intractable, and tying to solve them just encounters trouble, he said, the Chinese believe, “You should not give up eating food, because you think you may choke….”

In a beautiful treatment of the various cultures and religions of the world, he again quoted an old Chinese saying, that “the richest soup is made up of the most different kinds of ingredients….”

Before concluding with his five points, Xi expressed his own metaphor, to focus on how to think about the ecosystem, when, of course there are bound to be problems of pollution and other such things, as mankind advances with new technologies. Xi said he recalls when he first got his Swiss army knife, and how he was amazed it could do so many things. He said, “how wonderful it would be if an exquisite Swiss army knife could be made for our world. When there is a problem, we can use one of the tools on the knife to fix it.”

Xi was warmly introduced by UN Secretary General António Guterres, and by General Assembly President Peter Thomson.

SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

European Space Agency Plans To Work with Russia and Trump’s U.S.A.

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—The head of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Moscow Office, René Pischel, told RIA Novosti that at the agency’s December 2016 ministerial conference, ESA ministers agreed in principle to cooperate with Russia on Luna-Glob (Luna 25), to orbit the Moon, and the first planned Luna-Resurs mission and the extension of the Luna-Resurs lander mission, as well as the joint ExoMars project.

ESA furthermore voiced optimism regarding President-elect Donald Trump’s space policy. ESA Director Jan Woerner said yesterday that he is not much worried about the new U.S. President’s space policy because he has already established direct contact with the President-elect’s transition team which deals with NASA issues. Woerner also expressed the hope that Trump will lift Obama’s embargo against China, so that the Chinese can join the international team at the International Space Station, and that Western astronauts can be part of China’s space station from 2024 on.

Japan Approves Restoration of Two More Nuclear Plants

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority approved the restoration of two nuclear reactors in Saga Prefecture, western Japan, today. New safety regulations imposed after the Fukushima accident were met, they ruled. The Nos. 3 and 4 units of the Genkai plant, will be the second Kyushu Electric-operated plant to go back online, following its Sendai plant, Xinhua reported.

This will be only the fifth nuclear plant overall that has met the new safety requirements and is approved to restart its reactors.

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) reports that the more than 50 reactors in Japan had provided some 30% of the country’s electricity before the 2011 Fukushima breakdown, and had been expected to increase to at least 40% by 2017. But now 84% of the country’s power has to be imported.

Currently 42 reactors are operable and potentially able to restart, and 24 of these are in the process of restart approvals, says the WNA.

South Korea Launches Hyperloop Train Development Project

Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI) announced on Jan. 17 that it has signed a deal with seven research institutions to develop the Korean hyperloop train, or Hyper Tube Express, reports Korea JoongAng Daily. The train would go 1,000 km/hr through near-vacuumed tubes.

“This means travel from Seoul to Busan (300 km) would take about 20 minutes. The trip is currently a little less than three hours on the Korea Express Train, more popularly known as the KTX,” KRRI reports.

Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) are among those that signed the agreement.

The plan is to test core technologies of the system, such as electromagnetic technology, in the lab, while developing a blueprint for general infrastructure such as tubes. The KRRI will oversee the system engineering for three years. KRRI had already committed $20 million for nine years as a project endorsed by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, the report says.

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