The Lead
Putin Reiterates Import of Oreshnik Missile, as West, in Political-Economic Breakdown, Continues Belligerence
by Marcia Merry Baker (EIRNS) — Dec. 16, 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin today reiterated the significance of Russia’s Oreshnik missile, demonstrated in Ukraine Nov. 21, in response to Ukraine firing the U.S. ATACMS and U.K. Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia. He addressed an extended meeting of the Board of the Ministry of Defense, reviewing work of the military over 2024, and for the upcoming period. His presentation was quickly made available on the Presidential website in translation for the international community.
President Putin stated, toward the end of the meeting, “And finally, the Oreshnik system, which has already proven itself well, is very powerful. I would like to repeat once again—specialists know this, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces Sergey Karakayev is here, he thinks so and told me about it—when used in a complex manner, when several systems are used in a group at the same time, it is comparable in power to the use of nuclear weapons. But it is not nuclear, since there is no nuclear fuel, no nuclear component, no contamination. And this is a very important element when deciding what means of armed struggle we can use.”
The reality represented by the Oreshnik would indicate to anyone sane that we are now in a domain of kill-technology, in which initiatives for cooperation among nations, not conflict, must be pursued. But the warhawks of the Collective West continue to perpetrate conflict, economically, politically and militarily. This is so, even to the point where high-ranking figures and programs are actively working on how to “win” a nuclear confrontation.This was dramatically evident on Nov. 20 at the meeting held by the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues, whose thematic was how to think the unthinkable about nuclear war. “We’re working on it,” was the message conveyed by Rear Adm. Thomas Buchanan, Director of Plans and Policy, J5, U.S. Strategic Command. Buchanan’s public remarks have been all but blacked out in the world media, but a new video has just been released, to bust through the blackout, and add to the efforts of those sounding the alarm.
In Brussels today, the European Union Foreign Ministers of member nations met, along with the Foreign Minister of Ukraine as the invited guest, and declared a new round of sanctions against Russia.
In Washington last week, the Biden Administration announced a new, classified national security memorandum, outlining commitment to disrupt collaboration among the four nations of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The fact of the memo was announced on Dec. 11. Officials said the goal was to counter the “axis of upheaval,” or otherwise called, the “quartet of chaos.”
In Southwest Asia, the situation is devolving in ways terrible and deadly for millions of people in Gaza, Syria, Yemen, and neighboring areas, while at the same time those nations promoting this criminal subversion—the U.K.-U.S./Global NATO—are doing it to surround Russia, and defeat the development drive across Eurasia, involving the Belt and Road (BRI) and the BRICS.
In Syria, the foreign occupation by forces of the U.S., Türkiye, and Israel is dramatic. On Dec. 15, Israel’s Netanyahu government issued a statement on its intent to bring settlers into and beyond the Golan Heights, to double the population there, and cause Israeli “demographic growth” of the lands.
Today, The LaRouche Organization in the U.S. posted an interview with Syria experts Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), U.S. Marine combat veteran and U.S. Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, and U.K. investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley, a longtime resident of Syria, until she had to flee from the HTS coup. TLO President Diane Sare spoke with them in the 50-minute discussion.
The latest on this situation will be discussed at the next meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) this Friday, Dec. 20, the 81st weekly consecutive meeting. Colonel Black and Beeley will be on the agenda, along with other experts. The LaRouche Organization is circulating the leaflet “Stratcom’s Rear Adm. Thomas Buchanan Spills the Beans: U.S. Preparing for Nuclear War! Use HR 10218 To Pull U.S. ATACMS Back from Ukraine Now!” referring to the bill before the House of Representatives, which is still in session this week.
Internationally, the Spanish-language version has just been released of the Schiller Institute study issued Nov. 24, World Development Drive Means Billions of New Jobs, No Refugees, No War.
In the so-called “advanced economies” of the leading Global NATO members, losses of jobs and production are worsening across all basic sectors, from steel, to vehicle manufacturing, chemicals, farming and food. This week the CEO of the German steelmaker GMH Systems announced publicly that 6,000 jobs are at stake, as the company can no longer continue to function in Germany, and is not going to move abroad. In the U.S. over the weekend, steelworkers took to the streets in and around Pittsburgh, home of U.S. Steel, demanding that Washington allow Nippon Steel to buy out U.S. Steel, in desperate hopes that will preserve their factories and jobs, because they have no trust in the promises of Biden, Trump and the head of the United Steelworkers Union, to do anything. Local mayors of mill towns in the Mon Valley (Monongahela River), home to several remaining steelworks, joined the demonstrators. Meantime, Washington’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CIFIUS), made up of nine federal agencies, deadlocked Dec. 14, unable to agree on whether to allow Nippon to take over U.S. Steel or not.
The programmatic stalemate in North America reflects the institutional and cultural breakdown at all levels of major Western “powers.” In Germany today, Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost the no-confidence vote in the Bundestag, as expected. New elections are to take place in February, which itself does not guarantee the formation of a government in any timely way. Today in Canada, the Trudeau government was rocked by the peremptory resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Whatever the particulars, the instability across Western nations is the norm, under the war mania, and the economic and cultural breakdown.
Join in with the momentum of the International Peace Coalition. Take heart and courage from the beautiful concert yesterday performed by the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus in New York City, on its 10th anniversary, to hail “Blessed Are the Peacemakers.”
Contents
LaRouche movement
- In New TLO Interview on Syria, Diane Sare Speaks with Col. Richard Black (ret.) and U.K. Journalist Vanessa Beeley (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
- Financial Times Runs ‘How the Mother of All Bubbles Will Pop,’ But You Read It First in EIR (↓)
- Scholz Loses Confidence Vote (↓)
- 6,000 German Steel Jobs Threatened at GMH (↓)
- U.S. Sanctions on Gazprombank Boomerang, Hit Uzbekistan, Erstwhile U.S. Friends (↓)
Strategic War Danger
- Putin Addresses Defense Ministry Board, Reviews Upgrades, Stresses Oreshnik (↓)
- New EU Sanctions Target Russia Defense, Shipping and Third Parties (↓)
- Official Gaza Death Toll Passes 45,000 (↓)
- Israel To Expand Illegal Settlements in the Golan Heights (↓)
U.S. and Canada
- Judge Orders No Fines, No Jail for Uhuru Movement—Victory over the FBI (↓)
- Chrystia Freeland Resigned This Morning as Canadian Finance Minister (↓)
- Trump Responds to Reporters' Questions on ATACMS, Xi Jinping (↓)
New World Paradigm
Harley Schlanger Update
Watch The Daily Update with Harley Schlanger, a short video update available every weekday morning from The LaRouche Organization.
