Vlad?

FROM K. GAJENDRA SINGH

Romania’s Capitalist Dream Turns into Nightmare

Another Victim of Neo-liberal Capitalism

 

Romanian President Traian Basescu accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Emil Boc, heading a centre –right coalition on Monday, 6 February following massive street protests for weeks, first such ones after the fall of Communist leader Nikolai Ceausescu 22 years ago .Boc joins a list of European leaders felled by public fury at massive spending cuts introduced at IMF ‘s behest , as part of neo-liberal reforms medicine. The IMF had rescued Romania's state finances in 2009 with a 20 billion-euro ($26-billion) loan on condition of deep cuts in government spending,

Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu, former foreign minister and foreign intelligence service chief will form the new government. Ungureanu‘s statement that he will continue the unpopular economic reforms will do little to calm popular anger and unrest. The people are distrustful of intelligence chiefs as it reminds them of Ceausescu’s dreaded Securitate (secret police). But as elsewhere in Communist countries say Vladimir Putin in Russia , the security services attracted the best brains and after the collapse of the communism , being well placed in the corridors of powers , most former spooks have done well and even flourished, except a few at the very top who were toppled .

 In spite of enough petroleum, gas, water and land and other resources, the loot under the Washington led policy of neoliberal capitalism has transformed Romania into the second poorest country in Europe Union (EU)

Finally the truth is coming out , the suffering masses have risen against neo-liberal capitalism enforced under US domination in Romania as they have elsewhere , across north Africa , the Middle East , except perhaps in Gulf Cooperation Council led by Saudi Arabia and egged on by Qatar two feudal kingdoms like others in GCC promoting democracy in Syria after having bloodily implanted it in Libya , with western energy and other interests taking over the resources .How about some freedoms and democracy in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The author who was ambassador at Bucharest in 1981 -84 , then entering a most difficult phase , spent nearly 10 years ( 1997 -2007) as an independent freelance journalist in Romania under the spreading wings of neoliberal capitalism , a Wall Street and the City, London gift to humanity. Soon after reaching Bucharest , an old grizzled Romanian engineer told the author that financiers were taking over the country and soon everyone will be indebted and spend the rest of lives in repaying the loans , which really benefitted the corrupt ruling class.

The Legend of Dracula

For centuries, Romania was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, and Romanian Prince Vlad Tepes, the Impaler, on whom the Dracula myth is based learnt some of his blood-curdling tactics when he was held as a hostage in the Ottoman capital Istanbul in the late 1400s. Tepes is a greta national hero . The Romanians in general dislike the Russians, and have little love for other Slavs too. Lying in the path of marauding hordes and armies from the Eurasian steppes and elsewhere throughout its history, it possesses an ethnic mix of a richness and beauty that few other countries can match.

Romanians claim that they are a Latin island in a Slav lake, with their cultural moorings in France . Two millennia ago, for two centuries, Roman legions were garrisoned here; some were from Catalonia in Spain and even Palestine . Their mixing with the local Dacian people gave the Romanian language its Latin character - in fact it is quite close to Italian, and even the Catalan dialect.

If Romania is described as a part of the Balkans, Romanians demur: "We are north of the Danube River, and entirely European," as Traian Basescu, a former mayor of Bucharest, then said. And they were reluctant communists. The system was forced on them by the invading Soviet army after World War II. Many Romanians confided to the author in the early 1980s that they wished that they had been liberated from the Nazis by the Americans, and not by the Soviet Russians.

Romania is fortunately self-sufficient in oil and gas, unlike its neighbors. It has rich agriculture land and was known as the "bread basket" of the Balkans. But now only 60 percent of the land is cultivated and land ownership laws are not clear or fully implemented; nor has land been distributed, with collective farm mangers from the past still making hay. Except for the summer months when vegetables and fruits sprout from the rich fertile soil, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and other simple fruits and vegetables are imported from Holland, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Italy. If state farms could be leased to agriculture and horticulture entrepreneurs from Turkey , Israel or India , Romania could not only feed itself, it could flood Europe with its fruit, vegetables and flowers.

The massive tourist infrastructure built by Ceausescu has been eroded, dismantled and destroyed over the past decade. In the absence of maintenance, hotels parceled among cronies have fallen apart, but room rates are on a par with West Europe . This discourages businessmen and keeps tourists away from Romania 's legendary fresco-painted churches and monasteries, scenic sights, Black Sea beaches and winter holiday resorts. Before being admitted in 2007 in to EU conditionally (along with Bulgaria), mafias from neighboring countries like Greece, Italy, Turkey had infiltrated the country’s economic and political life.

Despite making some progress in fighting corruption and organized crime, both Romania and Bulgaria have been severely criticized in by EU over a catalog of failings, which could delay the two nations from joining Europe’s passport-free Schengen travel zone. The objections are only to semiskilled and unskilled labor, not to their doctors and engineers.

After the collapse of Communism in end 1990, the hapless masses were required to transform themselves into free marketers, entrepreneurs and agriculturists, a herculean task for those where the state controlled everything. Before the masses could learn even the ABC , they were thrown at the mercies of Mafias and corporate .Then big cooperates like Metro , Carrefour etc were allowed in 2006 , the small shop keepers and retailers were stopped in their tracks and had to close shop .

Neo-Liberal Attempts in India for SDI in Retail must be Resisted and Stopped.

The western retailer’s chains were not interested in promoting agriculture in Romania and had earlier closed its fine textiles manufacturing and readymade export business, creating misery and unemployment all around. The consumer is happy to begin with, buying vegetables imported in winter from Holland, Spain, Turkey, Syria and even Jordan .After monopoly control, the consumers feel the pain too ,like the local producers .But it too late

Ceausescu; the most influential leader in Romanian history; Soros Poll 2007

A Soros Public Opinion Barometer made public in end 2007 showed that Romanians put Nicolai Ceausescu as the most influential leader in Romanian history ahead of post Ceausescu era leaders like presidents Basescu and Ion Iliescu, as well as Kings Carol I and Mihai I and others .Although after capture of Ceausescus and their Kangaroo Court trial and murder , the authorities did not disclose the place ( in Bucharest where he is buried ) but poor and misery laden people have traced it and regularly place flowers and candles at the supposed tombs of the Ceausescu couple .

After a year’s stay in Bucharest in end 1998, I had written the article below on Romania under capitalism and globalization, the buzz words then.

ROMANIANS’ AMERICAN DREAM COMES UNSTUCK

TRANSITION IN POST- CEAUSESCU ROMANIA

Like Count Dracula, if Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceausescu could rise from the dead, he would not complain about his comrades executing him after a sham trial. He would understand that, but letting US and Capitalist symbols pollute Romania , known as Dacia in ancient days, for even under communism, recourse to its national past and a Foreign policy diverging from Communist block provided acceptance and the underpinning for his regime .The symbols of victorious power, glittering neon lights of Coca Cola. KGC, MacDonald’s, and even Sony and Daewoo would have hastened his return to the nether world.

Western media led by Radio Liberty and Free Europe during the Cold War had convinced most Romanians that they were the lost Christian brothers whom West wanted to liberate from the tyrannical and atheist communist regime .Those who could go to the West returned with glowing stories of freedom and of shops full of undreamt goodies. To counteract this, when his regime televised a Hollywood soap opera to highlight Western decadence, Romanians instead took it that once they had democracy and capitalism everyone would live in luxury with only board-room and bedroom battles to take care off and life would be a round of night clubs, casino bars, soda fountains and bowling alleys. But the reality has turned out to be very bitter, harsh and brutal leaving them confused and disoriented, selfish and even unfriendly.

It was preached and fervently hoped that market driven economy will usher in unlimited prosperity. Yes, for 5/6 % of the population, (who live as in European Union and think Euro-currency); wheeler dealers and unscrupulous smart Alecs, most entrenched in power since Communist era, exploiting old party networks and newly elected ones. But for the majority, victims of a free fall of 40/% in GDP since 1990, life is a dreary unmitigated misery with falling employment, rising inflation .Pensions of retired professors military officers, engineers have been reduced to $50 per month while prices are at par with West Europe .Yes, the shops are full of imported goods but, only to watch for the majority. And the country is now aglitter with symbols of victorious superpower and its ideology instead of huge wall sized posters of a youthful looking Nicolai Ceausescu staring at you. Romanians can have passports for the asking but get no visas. They are unwanted in West and if they do reach there are promptly deported back. An industrialized Romania is fast getting Africanized into an exporter of semi-finished goods .Social engineering in reverse has reduced  a socialist middle class and intellectual elite to penury and starvation. Yes, there is a democratic constitution, multiparty system, liberal and global economy.

Being the most Stalinist regime with an omnipresent Securitate force (most still in place .A health Minister, an ex- Securitate informer, was made to resign) no dissent or alternate leadership emerged as in Poland, Czechoslovakia or Hungary. So the same old nomenklatura controls the levers of power .State enterprises are run as personal fiefs as in the past. Barring transfer of flats to tenants (more than 80% of population lives in flats built during Ceausescu era) for nominal sums to win the elections, until end 1996, under President Iliescu there was not even a pretense of reforms. So there is little change in old economic structures. There is a ‘dog in the manger’ policy. Incapable of handling complex business and industrial activity they would not let others in. Foreigners want to buy it cheap, perhaps sometimes true, but the cash gobbling inefficiently run enterprises with massive current account deficits are corroding the entrails of national economy while apparatchiks are eating into national wealth and undermining future prosperity.

Except for those from foreign trade ministry and state export enterprises the rest had no idea at all of how to trade, run a business or industry. So they are learning by doing -the hard way. Many set up rows after rows of snack shops, Casino bars and kiosks selling the same soft drinks, beer and hard liquors with fancy names like Sheriffs, Texas , Hollywood , Bingo Pall-mall or Chez Gabi. But unlike Hollywood serials there are few customers. Many which had opened with great fanfare and glittering facades have downed shutters. Now deserted and abandoned along with silent and rusting industries they have become symbols of the vanquished in the Cold War. And living examples of Romanians’ American dream come unstuck.

Since last two years the so called reform coalitions are perpetually squabbling in and out of Parliament, fighting for jobs for their cronies (govt servants can be party members) Barring few, professors like President Constantinescu and others who are hapless and ineffective, others have joined in the privatization of public assets into their own names or their friends and relatives with everyone looking for a fast buck. There is little transparency in privatization or elsewhere leading to unfair practices. With insider trading the stock exchange has become moribund. Even in acute economic austerity, a minister wanted to order Bell Helicopters for $ 2 Billion, even embarrassing USA .When accused of kickbacks he fished out the draft contract on TV showing that it did not include any commission clause. President’s own Security chief was involved in large scale systematic smuggling of aircrafts full of contra-band cigarettes through a military airport. A well meaning President and Prime Minister, another professor, unable to comprehend, lacking the will or resolution prefers travelling abroad to avoid facing problems at home...

There is little regulation and rule of law. The swindling of life savings of millions in get rich quick pyramid scheme in Club up North with the regime’s connivance if not participation are living examples. But lotteries still do a thriving business. Mafias attracted from Italy , Greece , and Turkey and elsewhere have linked up with officials and are spreading its tentacles. Little has been done to establish property laws, banking regulations or stock market, a necessity for the Milton and system of laissez faire. The banks are being used to enrich the politicians and their cronies. Visas are difficult even for businessmen because some Romanian diplomats trade in them. The first interface for visitors and tourists are the taxi drivers of Bucharest , always ready to make a killing, Reasonable cabbies charge only four times, many extorting $100 from the airport for a $10 trip. And there is no recourse or law the establishment seems to imply OK you wanted freedom, democracy and capitalism. You have it. 

Romania started with many natural and built in advantages to soften the pains of transition to market economy. It has a strategic location on Black Sea for NATO and as cross roads for trade between energy rich Caspian countries and Europe . Almost self sufficient in oil and gas unlike its neighbors, Romania has rich agriculture land and was known as the “bread basket’ of the Balkans. But now only 60% of the land is cultivated. Land ownership laws have not been passed nor land distributed with collective farm mangers from the past making hay. Romanian wheat is more expansive than from neighboring Hungary. Except for a few summer months when some vegetables and fruits sprout from rich fertile soil, year round even beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and other simple fruits and vegetables are imported from Holland , Greece , Turkey , Spain , or Italy .

The massive tourist infrastructure built by Ceausescu is being eroded, dismantled and destroyed fast. In the absence of maintenance, hotels parceled among cronies, are falling apart but rents are at par with West Europe which discourages businessmen and keeps tourists away from Romania ’s legendary fresco painted churches and monasteries, scenic sights, Black Sea beaches and winter holiday resorts. And now with economies collapsing in ASEAN, Russia and elsewhere, investors are wary of investing any where, more so in Romania. Still inspite of many problems, because of big market of 23 million and hopes to join NATO and EU, it offers good opportunities for investors. Imports from the Gulf, are on the increase with many Iranians and Arabs doing retail business. There are over two hundred thousand Muslims mostly of Tatar and Turkish origin, whose freedoms were more or less suppressed during the Communist era. But they are now much freer to worship and getting organized .So are the Gypsies, who were persecuted earlier. With their inborn flair for trade they are doing exceedingly well in marketing of flowers, vegetables and fruits. But there is a growing emergence of racism against Arabs and Asians and anti-Semitism, for the latter Romania was known even in the past but it had been kept in check under communism

Unfortunately the most devastating development with long term consequences is the precipiticious fall in educational standards. Romania was rightly proud of its exacting high standards in technical and medical education and tens of thousands mostly from Arab countries but even from the West and USA used to study in its polytechnics and universities. But shrinking budgets for education leave little money for labs or books with Professor’s salaries declining to $100 per month. Life is a struggle and there is little teaching .Instead teachers try to earn money otherwise and elsewhere neglecting their duties .So the new engineering and medical graduates might be literate but will be uneducated. Similarly health and culture, with a very high reputation in music, ballet and theater, have also suffered. With no role models and no discipline or regulation, the young have taken to enjoying themselves. More than 60% failed their high school examinations. Tall, slim and beautiful , some stunningly so, a result of multiethnic mixture ,the new generation presents a pleasing sight ; the effervescence of sheer youth, joie de vivre bubbling up after decades of communist  uniformity and drabness .If any one wanted , like in Venezuela , one beauty Queen after another could be chiseled out year after year.

Indo Romanian Relations

                              

Traditionally Romanians have been fascinated by India ,its history, culture, religion and spirituality .Over centuries thousands of Indian classics or books on India have been translated .Rabindra Nath Tagore, who visited Romania in 1926 is a household name. Sanskrit has been taught at Universities since last century. Poets and intellectuals like M.Eminescu, M.Eliade and S.Al-George have brought Indian philosophy, religion, art, history and poetry to Romania and acted as interpreters to the West. The Indian Embassy has done a splendid job in keeping the flame of Indian culture alive by holding seminars, exhibitions, publication of books with a bust of Tagore having been recently unveiled at the prestigious National Theater.

But the new generation is Western consumer oriented. The story of Dr Amita Bose, who had taught Sanskrit, Bengali and Indian culture in Bucharest for twenty years is a tragic example. In the new era she was confident and enthusiastic to do even more, but the authorities under the spoils system dismissed her without much ado and appointed instead one of her own but inadequate pupils. Heartbroken, Dr Bose died soon after, unwanted in her country of adoption and unsung in India, whose cultural ambassador she had become. But she has left behind thousands of students, many still pursuing Sanskrit studies and Indian philosophy.  But one wonders if some who after a few years of Sanskrit and philosophy translate Gaeta and other India classics into Romanian do it for love or to earn publishers royalties.

India always had a strong economic relationship with Romania, which helped her in oil and refining industry in 1950s. Romania was a major buyer of iron ore and supplier of urea, chemicals and steel products. Inspire of many problems , because of its location ,a big market of 23 million and a candidate for NATO and EU, it offers good opportunities to Indians to invest in pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, furniture ,textiles, steel, petrochemicals and fertilizers (with 30 million tons of refining capacity). Currently India is a major buyer of Romanian products which at US$ 177 million in 1996 ($239 million in 95), were more than its combined exports to China , Japan and Korea or total exports to Latin America . But there are unnecessary hurdles in grant of visas to Indian businessmen, simply because some Romanian diplomats were trading in visas in its missions in Amman and Bonn etc. During Ceausescu era Romania always supported India on Kashmir but now it takes an equivocal stand, not on merits but perhaps to please USA , while it badly treats its own Hungarian minority in Transylvania, even objecting to setting up a Hungarian language university.

While it took communism 50 years to discredit itself (and 80 years in Russia) unbridled capitalism let loose on hapless and unprepared populace has done so here in 8 years only, which could make capitalism the most tortuous and hardest path from Communism to authoritarianism or worse. Romanians continue to suffer as they have done throughout history, ever obedient to the powerful. The youth who had sparked the 1989 December spontaneous revolution, stolen by the older nomenclature, have lost faith and become disheartened. Not that people want communism back, but there is nostalgia for Ceausescu among the elderly who miss the social equality and security system; almost free medical aid, subsidised food and housing   Regrettably the Capitalist world glorying in the defeat of Communism has proved to be very short sighted and has been hypnotized by its own propaganda of the victory and efficacy of Capitalism Of course unlike after the WWII there was no alternative political and economic system to frighten the USA and thus there was no Marshal Plan. (And the money? considering the cost in East Germany alone!)  Also it is doubtful if it would have succeeded everywhere in the absence of a receptive economic soil. (How money seeped out from Russia) It takes a generation and more to establish respect and obedience for laws on property, commerce, banking, stock exchange and to have the requisite economic institutions and infrastructure in place. With the very concept of capitalism as panacea for all being questioned now, even in the West, because of its collapse even after its prescriptions were followed under IMF tutelage in South East Asia for decades and its being in trouble even in Korea, Japan, Brazil, it could only further strengthen the suffocating control of the old guard in Romania and elsewhere taking a cue from Prime Ministers Mahathir, Primakov and others. While Bill Clinton and Parrot quibble about a few thousands jobs in election debates , West expects reformers or former Communists turned ‘democrats and free marketers ‘ to let millions down the poverty line-only a dip in the prosperity curve drawn by Business school  shock therapists - and get re-elected democratically. It is not an easy dilemma for most former communist’s states. The least the West ought to have done and can still do is to organize and implement a massive’ Marshal Plan ‘for training and retraining of managerial cadres.  

K.Gajendra Singh; Bucharest, Romania. 18 December   , 1998

Vlad the Putinator ; NATO’s Bugbear

Not that prime minister Vladimir Putin had gone away ,but in the powerful post of the President , which he had switched with his progeny Medvedev ( whom US led West and other assorted allies would have loved to continue) is back with greater vigour and bluntness .He has been re-elected again with a thumping majority with over 62% votes ( which US or UK leaders ,mostly proxies of financiers and corporate mafias in New York and the City ,London rarely reach ).But lying western media and even leaders cannot stomach the reality. So the cacophony from the West.

Indian journalists ,mostly ill-informed ,including former Indian diplomats , specially those who have served in US , brainwashed and beholden for little favours , talk of being on the right side of history ,ie be with the US led West , mostly bankrupt nations along with paragons of democracy like Saudi Arabia and Qatar of GCC , who are striving by violent interference to bring  democracy in Syria as they did in Libya .A country looted ,divided, its infrastructure destroyed now under Al Qaeda and other regressive Muslim groups , with old feudal King Al Senussi’s descendents .But the rag tag collected by the West and GCC are now fighting with each other in Libya.

India should not have voted on the last Resolution on Syria with Washington along with the so called ‘international community’ for democracy noted above and should have abstained .But then India has been in the clutches of US pensioners .Fullbright Scholars and such assorted neo-liberals and their followers . At home these gentlemen ie ruling establishment have tried to defame and weaken constitutional institutions like Comptroller and Auditor General , The Supreme Court ,the Election Commission etc. Those with income of Rs 32 are above poverty line , proclaimed one US pensioner .There was no loss in crony like giving away of massive public wealth of Wireless spectrum ,said another . Police atrocities were ordered on sleeping Indians at Ram Lila ground and a Gandhian activist Anna Hazare crusading against rampant and brazen corruption was imprisoned. The two largest national parties ,the Congress and BJP , equally corrupt ,have been taught a lesson for being out of touch and decimated by the illiterate and poor people of Uttar Pradesh ,India’s largest state.

So unless either the current decision makers are changed ( or they would be brought down sooner than later ) wrong decisions in foreign policy will also continue to be taken.

Coming back to the international developments ,below is an excellent article on the return of a combative Vladimir Putin in full vigour by a seasoned , perceptive and incisive friend Pepe Escobar , one of my favorite journalists , from my days with Asia Times ;

In 2007 , after watching the Cold War like actions and maneuverings ,Putin had for the first time growled at the US Led West at the Munich Security Conference .My take below

Russian Bear Growls at US Hypocrisy and Hegemony- 14 Feb 2007

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17058.htm

This has been mentioned in Pepe’s piece below. Good reading for a better perspective .

 THE ROVING EYE

 

Why Putin is driving Washington nuts

By Pepe Escobar Asia Times, 9 March, 2012

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/NC09Ag01.html

Forget the past (Saddam, Osama, Gaddafi) and the present (Assad, Ahmadinejad). A bet can be made over a bottle of Petrus 1989 (the problem is waiting the next six years to collect); for the foreseeable future, Washington's top bogeyman - and also for its rogue North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners and assorted media shills - will be none other than back-to-the-future Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And make no mistake; Vlad the Putinator will relish it. He's back exactly where he wants to be; as Russia's commander-in-chief, in charge of the military, foreign policy and all national security matters.

Anglo-American elites still squirm at the mention of his now

legendary Munich 2007 speech, when he blasted the then George W Bush administration for its obsessively unipolar imperial agenda "through a system which has nothing to do with democracy" and non-stop overstepping of its "national borders in almost all spheres"."

So Washington and its minions have been warned. Before last Sunday's election, Putin even advertised his road map The essentials; no war on Syria; no war on Iran; no "humanitarian bombing" or fomenting "color revolutions" - all bundled into a new concept, "illegal instruments of soft power". For Putin, a Washington-engineered New World Order is a no-go. What rules is "the time-honored principle of state sovereignty".

No wonder. When Putin looks at Libya, he sees the graphic, regressive consequences of NATO's "liberation" through "humanitarian bombing"; a fragmented country controlled by al-Qaeda-linked militias; backward Cyrenaica splitting from more developed Tripolitania; and a relative of the last king brought in to rule the new "emirate" - to the delight of those model democrats of the House of Saud.

More key essentials; no US bases encircling Russia; no US missile defense without strict admission, in writing, that the system will never target Russia; and increasingly close cooperation among the BRICS group of emerging powers.

Most of this was already implied in Putin's previous road map - his paper A new integration project for Eurasia: The future in the making. That was Putin's ippon - he loves judo - against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Monetary Fund and hardcore neo-liberalism. He sees a Eurasian Union as a "modern economic and currency union" stretching all across Central Asia.

For Putin, Syria is an important detail (not least because of Russia's naval base in the Mediterranean port of Tartus, which NATO would love to abolish). But the meat of the matter is Eurasia integration. Atlanticists will freak out en masse as he puts all his efforts into coordinating "a powerful supranational union that can become one of the poles of today's world while being an efficient connecting link between Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific Region".

The opposite roadmap will be Obama and Hillary's Pacific doctrine. Now how exciting is that?

Putin plays Pipelineistan

It was Putin who almost single-handedly spearheaded the resurgence of Russia as a mega energy superpower (oil and gas accounts for two-thirds of Russia's exports, half of the federal budget and 20% of gross domestic product). So expect Pipelineistan to remain key.

And it will be mostly centered on gas; although Russia holds no less than 30% of global gas supplies, its liquid natural gas (LNG) production is less than 5% of the global market share. It's not even among the top ten producers.

Putin knows that Russia will need buckets of foreign investment in the Arctic - from the West and especially Asia - to keep its oil production above 10 million barrels a day. And it needs to strike a complex, comprehensive, trillion-dollar deal with China centered on Eastern Siberia gas fields; the oil angle has been already taken care of via the East Siberian Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. Putin knows that for China - in terms of securing energy - this deal is a vital counterpunch against Washington's shady "pivoting" towards Asia.

Putin will also do everything to consolidate the South Stream pipeline - which may end up costing a staggering $22 billion (the shareholder agreement is already signed between Russia, Germany, France and Italy. South Stream is Russian gas delivered under the Black Sea to the southern part of the EU, through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia). If South Stream is a go, rival pipeline Nabucco is checkmated; a major Russian victory against Washington pressure and Brussels bureaucrats.

Everything is still up for grabs at the crucial intersection of hardcore geopolitics and Pipelineistan. Once again Putin will be facing yet another Washington road map - the not exactly successful New Silk Road (See US's post-2014 Afghan agenda falters, Asia Times Online, Nov 4, 2011.)

Ant then there's the joker in the pack - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Putin will want Pakistan to become a full member as much as China is interested in incorporating Iran. The repercussions would be ground-breaking - as in Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran coordinating not only their economic integration but their mutual security inside a strengthened SCO, whose motto is "non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-interference in the affairs of other countries".

Putin sees that with Russia, Central Asia and Iran controlling no less than 50% of world's gas reserves, and with Iran and Pakistan as virtual SCO members, the name of the game becomes Asia integration - if not Eurasia's. The SCO develops as an economic/security powerhouse, while, in parallel, Pipelineistan accelerates the full integration of the SCO as a counterpunch to NATO. The regional players themselves will decide what makes more sense - this or a New Silk Road invented in Washington.

Make no mistake. Behind the relentless demonization of Putin and the myriad attempts to delegitimize Russia's presidential elections, lie some very angry and powerful sections of Washington and Anglo-American elites.

They know Putin will be an ultra tough negotiator on all fronts. They know Moscow will apply increasingly closer coordination with China; on thwarting permanent NATO bases in Afghanistan; on facilitating Pakistan's strategic autonomy; on opposing missile defense; on ensuring Iran is not attacked.

He will be the devil of choice because there could not be a more formidable opponent in the world stage to Washington's plans - be they coded as Greater Middle East, New Silk Road, Full Spectrum Dominance or America's Pacific Century. Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His most recent book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com

And make no mistake; Vlad the Putinator will relish it. He's back exactly where he wants to be; as Russia's commander-in-chief, in charge of the military, foreign policy and all national security matters.

Anglo-American elites still squirm at the mention of his now legendary Munich 2007 speech, when he blasted the then George W Bush administration for its obsessively unipolar imperial agenda "through a system which has nothing to do with democracy" and non-stop overstepping of its "national borders in almost all spheres".