pcr asks some good questions and i wonder if we'll ever hear an answer;

Does the Kremlin Know What It Is Doing?

Paul Craig Roberts

Earlier today I posted my take on the economic and military developments on the Russian front.  Based on news reports, I envisioned a gold ruble dethroning the US dollar and collapsing the Bretton Woods system which has enabled the US and its financial sector to exploit the world.  I wrote at the time that the Western news blackout on reporting from Russia in order for Washington to control the narrative left actual facts hard to ascertain.  https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/03/29/the-western-world-has-had-its-run/ 

During today a little more information has reached me. The information has caused me to develop concerns that the Russians are not sophisticated enough to see that they can bring down the Bretton Woods system and dethrone the US dollar by creating a gold ruble, and in conjunction with China’s gold Yuan, create a bloc that rules financially.  I think all the Russians are doing is fixing the price of gold inside Russia so Russians fearing the sanctions don’t desert the ruble and flee into gold.  Possibly the internal gold/ruble price fix can develop into a broad system, but why give the enemy warning and time to prepare roadblocks?  Is the conclusion that the Russians don’t have a clue?

Russian economists were brainwashed during the Yeltsin years by American economists who trained them to be servants of Washington’s empire, and now they hold senior positions.  Consequently, Russian national assets were looted, and Russia was left exposed to Western sanctions and other punitive measures.  Here we have a case of a superior military power disarmed by its own intellectuals.......read more.....