as i read this several items come to mind; one is that the russians ain't as stupid as 'our free press' would like to have you believe, and i also wonder if the empire is intentionally destroying itself in the pursuit of klaus schwab's goals or its just an ignorant bully flailing about in its death throes;

By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and cross-posted with The Cradle

The battlefield is drawn.

The official Russian blacklist of hostile sanctioning nations includes the US, the EU, Canada and, in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore (the only one from Southeast Asia). The Global South should be aware there are no nations from West Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Moscow has not even announced a package of what could be defined as “counter-sanctions from hell”. Yet a decree on “foreign exchange obligations to foreign creditors” which allows Russian companies to settle their debts in rubles is already an eye-opener.

Economist Yevgeny Yushchuk defined it as a “nuclear retaliatory landmine”.

It all revolves around a new presidential decree, signed last Saturday: “On Temporary Order of Obligations to Certain Foreign Creditors”.

It works like this: to pay for loans obtained from a sanctioning country exceeding 10 million rubles a month, a Russian company does not have to make a transfer. They ask for a Russian bank to open a correspondent account in rubles under the creditor’s name. Then the company transfers rubles to this account at the current exchange rate, and it’s all perfectly legal.......read more.........