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Prigozhin ‘Exiled’ To Belarus In Exchange For Peace, Criminal Charges Dropped: What Was This All About?

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Prigozhin ‘Exiled’ To Belarus In Exchange For Peace, Criminal Charges Dropped: What Was This All About?

Update(1735ET): This entirely bizarre slightly less than 24-hour short-lived coup attempt has just gotten even stranger, given the terms of the truce which evidently caused Evgeny Prigozhin to announce his Wagner fighter columns would turn around and go back to their bases.

The Wall Street Journal has confirmed based on Kremlin statements that “As part of the agreement, Prigozhin will leave Russia for Belarus, and criminal charges against him will be dropped, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. His fighters will be allowed to sign contracts with the Russian military.”

And Russia’s RT provides some further details as follows based on Peskov’s statement:

“He added that Wagner’s fighters will not be persecuted, taking into account their efforts on the frontlines of the Ukraine conflict. Peskov explained that President Vladimir Putin’s team “have always respected their exploits.”

Those PMC contractors, who refused to take part in the mutiny – and whole units did not – will be allowed to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, Peskov stated.

Can this even be called “exile”?… given that Kremlin statements at this point aren’t even so much as using the word which has a clear punitive implication. The irony remains that one can get a much harsher punishment for mere Cannabis vape pens in the country. In summary:

  • charges dropped against Prigozhin, who will leave Russia for Belarus
  • Wagner fighters who didn’t take part in the uprising will sign contracts with the MOD
  • Wagner fighters who did take part not charged 
  • No word on potential MOD leadership changes

What’s clear is that it does indeed look to be over, with no further immediate danger of civil conflict:

Sputnik is further confirming Wagner has handed HQ/bases in Rostov-on-Don back to the regular military:

Despite the slap on the wrist (if even), the Kremlin is still talking “tough”:

“The plotters’ adventurist aspirations are essentially aimed at destabilizing the situation in Russia, destroying our unity and undermining Russia’s efforts to reliably ensure international security,” the Foreign Ministry said. “The mutiny plays into the hands of Russia’s external enemies.”

“The attempted armed mutiny in our country has aroused strong disapproval in Russian society, which firmly supports President Vladimir Putin,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Regardless the speculation has begun, and is likely to continue for the coming days and weeks, over what precisely the world just witnessed here…

One theory seems as good as any other at this point, again given the ultra-bizarre spectacle of the whole “march for justice” on Moscow… by convoys of heavily armed mercenaries.

And then there was the heavy defense ministry pressure to essentially disband Wagner amid the long-running simmering tensions and war of words:

There’s always the potential foreign ‘hidden hand’ theory behind any major insurrection like this, especially when it comes to a US-NATO enemy…

And finally, maybe Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has it right: old fashioned greed and glory (which Machiavelli warned about all the way back in the 16th century). Here’s Kadyrov on Prigozin’s actions:

“I thought that some people can be trusted. That they sincerely love their Motherland as real patriots to the marrow of their bones. But it turned out that for the sake of personal ambitions, profit and because of arrogance, people can not give a damn about affection and love for the Fatherland.”

Perhaps the truth will eventually emerge of the events over the last 24 hours, but what’s clear is that Moscow wants to make this whole episode go away as rapidly as the crisis began, and is not even moving to arrest Prigozhin to make that happen. He will now just quietly “go away”… maybe a little vacation of sorts, into neighboring Belarus.

* * *

Update(1325ET): An emerging Russian state media headline: Prigozhin Agrees to Stop PMC Wagner March, Start De-Escalation After Lukashenko’s Mediation…

Belarusian president held talks with Prigozhin today. Lukashenko says that Prigozhin has agreed to “stop the movement of armed persons on the territory of Russia and to take further steps to deescalate.“

Prigozhin has reportedly accepted Lukashenka’s proposal to stop the movement of PMC Wagner, according to Russian state media TASS. Reuters is also reporting the Kremlin-backed statements. Did we just witness a 22-hour coup? All over now?

Lavrov: Russia retains control over tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus — TASS

According to RT’s reporting:

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced on Saturday that he had arranged a deal whereby Wagner Group leader Evgeny Prigozhin will abandon his mutiny in exchange for “security guarantees” for his fighters.

“Evgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of President Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of armed men of Wagner in Russia and take further steps to de-escalate tension,” read a statement from Lukashenko’s office.

Will Prigozhin be given safe harbor after the treason charge?

As for the Belarus-related ceasefire deal, there’s been no initial confirmation from Wagner Telegram or media channels on a “done deal”. There are conflicting reports that peace negotiations might be unsuccessful. 

But Reuters is reporting, Prigozhin in audio message: To avoid bloodshed we are returning our convoys to bases.

* * *

Update(1120ET): Wagner Group is making a move on the Russian capital, with multiple reports and videos now confirming Wagner convoys are headed toward Moscow, going north from Rostov region. At the same time, Chechen groups loyal to Putin are now sending their own armed convoys toward Rostov-on-Don, which has several key installations under the control of Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused of ‘treason’ by the Kremlin.

Reuters is reporting, “Mutinous Russian mercenary fighters barreled towards Moscow on Saturday after seizing a southern city overnight, with Russia’s military firing on them from the air but seemingly incapable of slowing their lightning advance.” Little to no significant resistance is being observed while Wagner convoys blow through makeshift roadblocks. Some observers say Wagner fighters have been spotted within a mere few hours outside the capital.

“Reuters saw troop carriers and a flatbed truck carrying a tank careening past the city of Voronezh more than half way to Moscow, where a helicopter fired on them,” the outlet noted. “But there were no reports of the rebels meeting any substantial resistance on the highway.”

The Lipetsk governor has also confirmed armed Wagner forces are rapidly moving across the region, advancing in the direction of Moscow. While the Russian government erects barriers, it’s unclear which military units have been mustered as Prigozhin threatens the capital.

Along with roadblocks of construction trucks and 18-wheelers, there are reports suggesting roads are being destroyed to block the insurrectionists’ progress:

Per regional reports:

NEXTA, an independent media outlet founded in Belarus that covers news in eastern Europe and Russia, reported that authorities were destroying the main roads in the Lipetsk region to keep Wagner Group tanks and vehicles from approaching Moscow. Other sources have published similar videos of excavators tearing up roadways.

Notes on recent updates, and a word of caution, over the last two hours via Mario Nawfal:

  • Worries of the Russian Nuclear Warheads moved to Belarus weeks ago 
  • Wagner forces continue their advance to Moscow with limited strikes by the Russian Air Force 
  • Reports of Putin and other officials leaving Moscow and heading to Saint Petersburg based on the movement of Military VIP aircrafts. TASS, which is Gov controlled media outlet, reported that Putin is heading to Saint Petersburg, but Putin’s Press Secretary refuted those reports. It is very unusual and rare to see such a disconnect between TASS and the Kremlin.

MY THOUGHTS: 

  • This is a military coup, we can no longer dispute this, and things are moving VERY rapidly and are not looking good for Putin. 
  • We are seeing limited military clashes, showing likely defections among Russian forces 
  • Almost EVERYTHING right now can’t be verified and should be taken with a grain of salt

Meanwhile, clashes could be imminent between Chechens loyal to Putin and Wagner mercenaries, which will be a nightmare scenario for surrounding civilians in the Rostov region…

Unverified reports that Wagner has begun arrests of Chechen and other military forces…

The below map purports to show Wagner’s progress north on Saturday:

* * *

In his first speech addressing the crisis of Wagner’s armed rebellion on Saturday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush what he called Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “betrayal”. Southern governors, for example Alexander Gusev who oversees the city of Voronezh, have since confirmed armed clashes between regular military forces and Wagner fighters within Russian territory. He described necessary “combat measures” as part of counter-terror operations in the southern region.

What was unclear by Friday night is now becoming very clear as of Saturday: all hell is breaking loose in this first significant moment in over two decades of Putin’s iron grip on power being threatened by armed mutiny. “Any internal turmoil is a deadly threat to our statehood and to us as a nation. This is a blow to Russia and to our people,” Putin said in the televised speech. “This battle, when the fate of our people is being decided, requires the unification of all forces.”

In Rostov-on-Don military command HQ. Via Wagner Telegram/Reuters

“What we have been faced with is exactly betrayal. Extravagant ambitions and personal interests led to treason,” Putin said, referring to Prigozhin, head of the most powerful private military firm in Russia. “All those who consciously stood on the path of betrayal, who prepared an armed rebellion, stood on the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will suffer inevitable punishment, before the law and before our people,” Putin vowed.

He further in fiery language denounced the “stab in the back of our country and our people,” after Prigozhin the day prior declared war against the defense ministry, urging all Russians to join his 25,000 fighters as they seek to “stop” and overthrow Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other top commanders.

In response to Putin’s blistering speech, Prigozhin released a Telegram statement calling the president “deeply mistaken” regarding his assessment of betrayal of the motherland, refusing to surrender. The audio message released by his press service said as follows: 

“Regarding the ‘betrayal of the motherland,’ the president is deeply mistaken. We are patriots of our Motherland, we fought and are fighting, all the fighters of the PMC Wagner.”

“And no one is going to turn themselves in at the request of the president, the FSB or anyone else,” he added.

This marks the first time he’s directed criticism precisely in response to Putin, as before he appeared to carefully avoid direct references to the Russian leader in his denunciations of military planning and Kremlin decision-making.

Below summarizes fast-moving events of the last few hours:

  • Putin 5 min speech: accuses Prigozhin of betrayal, vows decisive action 
  • Wagner controls facilities in Rostov & Voronezh, M4 highway disrupted. Rebellion continues 
  • Chechen Kadyrov mobilizes to help Putin. Russia FM warns of ‘civil strife’

Civilians have reportedly been ordered away from all military command centers in the now Wagner-held city center of Rostov-on-Don.

The Wagner chief in his response harped on the familiar theme of the defense ministry’s “corruption, deceit, and bureaucracy” and emphasized that his own fighters are patriotic and doing their duty.

“When we were told that we were at war with Ukraine, we went and fought. But it turned out that ammunition, weapons, all the money that was allocated is also being stolen, and the bureaucrats are sitting [idly], saving it for themselves, just for the occasion that happened today, when someone [is] marching to Moscow,” he said.

It is the second time since Russian authorities (the FSB) declared Prigozhin was engaging in ‘armed munity’ that the Wagner chief declared a “march of justice” on Moscow. As for the capital (and other major cities), the military and security services have been ordered by the Kremlin to secure the streets and beef up their presence.

Crucially, Wagner has declared control of the military command center and bases in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, a claim which some emerging videos appear to give some degree of authentication to…

“Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a close Putin ally, said his troops had taken control of the military command centre and bases in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the nerve centre of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, and vowed to topple Moscow’s top military leaders,” AFP is noting.

The fight is on, and could spread further north, engaging political centers of the country:

Further north, on Wagner’s possible route towards Moscow, the governor of Russia’s Voronezh region said the armed forces had launched a “counter-terrorist operation” to suppress the revolt. A fuel depot on Voronezh city was on fire, he said.

The FSB security service accused Prigozhin of attempting to launch a “civil conflict” and urged Wagner fighters to detain him.

Russian police have moved against Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, where things have been largely without incident thus far:

Active fighting, even including with air power, has erupted as Wagner convoys seek to make their way north, deeper into Russia…

Meanwhile, this will without doubt be a huge blow to the morale of both Russian troops and Wagner fighters alike along the frontlines inside Ukraine. It’s as yet unclear the degree to which Wagner has withdrawn from the Eastern Ukraine theatre, though it’s now been confirmed that Wagner forces had marched into Rostov overnight.

Kiev will smell a grand ‘opportunity’. It along with its Western backers are closely monitoring, with Ukraine officials saying this “rebellion” is a “sign of the collapse of the Putin regime.”

“The internal Russian confrontation between the leader of the so-called Wagner PMC Prigozhin and the military and political leadership of the aggressor state is a sign of the collapse of the Putin regime,” a statement by the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said.

“First of all, we must understand that this is an internal Russian conflict and confrontation which are a direct consequence of the Putin regime’s criminal military aggression against Ukraine,” the statement cited in CNN added.

It must be remembered that these shocking events which threaten to unleash chaos within Russia come at a moment that by many accounts Ukraine’s counteroffensive appeared to be failing. President Zelensky himself at the start of the week had conceded a “slower than desired” start to the offensive. But now this could breath new life into it amid reports Ukraine is taking the opportunity to assault front lines. 

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Zelensky, told a Saturday press conference: “The launch of the Ukrainian counteroffensive has finally destabilized the Russian elites, exacerbating the internal split that emerged after the defeat in Ukraine.” Time will tell if Russian commanders can keep their frontlines unified even as things crumble with the Wagner situation.

* * *

Below are key excerpts from Putin’s Saturday speech vowing to crush the Wagner rebellion, as translated and compiled by state-run RT:

Importance of unity

President Putin argued that “Russia is today waging a grueling fight for its future,” facing off with the “neo-Nazis and their masters.” He went on to stress that “essentially the entire might of the West’s military, economic and information machine” is being directed against the country.

“This battle, when the fate of our people is being decided,” calls for national unity and consolidation, Putin said in his address. According to the president, all internal conflicts and bickering must be put aside at present as “our external enemies can and use them to undermine us internally.”

The Russian head of state emphasized that any actions driving a wedge between Russians are nothing short of “backstabbing of our country and our people.”

Bitter history lessons

Putin reminded Russians that a similar scenario played out in the country in 1917, when it was in the middle of World War I. He recounted how “intrigues, bickering, politicking behind the army’s and the people’s back” led to the “collapse of the state,” and the “tragedy of the Civil War.”

“Russians were killing Russians, brothers were killing brothers, while various political adventurers and foreign powers were capitalizing on it,” the president said.

Putin vowed to prevent this from happening as well as to defend Russia and its people, “including from internal mutiny.”

Nature of the threat

In his address, Putin clearly labelled the PMC coup attempt as a “betrayal.” He cited “enormous ambitions and personal interests” of certain individuals as the reasons behind this “betrayal of their country and its people.” He went on to accuse those responsible, without naming Prigozhin in particular, of turning their back on the joint military cause in Ukraine and the memory of the fallen fighters.

If successful, the coup would lead to “anarchy and fratricide,” resulting, in the long run, in Russia’s “defeat” and “capitulation,” according to Putin.

The president characterized “any internal mutiny” as a death threat to the Russian state and nation. The president pledged to take “tough measures” against the mutineers, who have “willingly entered the path of betrayal” and prepared “armed insurrection.”

Those responsible will be brought to account before the Russian people, the president assured the public.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 17:35

Taxation Without Representation Meets The 21st Century

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Taxation Without Representation Meets The 21st Century

Authored by Robert Alt via RealClear Wire,

Who is authorized to tax the income of a commuter who doesn’t commute? This question—born of the pandemic and currently pending before the Supreme Court of Ohio—could be coming to a tax bill near you, and soon.

Following the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, government orders forced millions of employees to work from home instead of at their usual offices. These orders accelerated a trend which had already begun toward remote and hybrid work and—three years later—is all but entrenched.

While some companies have begun requiring employees to return to the office, the outdated ways of packing folks into tight cubicles in downtown high rises will never be the same.

Benjamin Franklin famously observed that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” so it should come as little surprise that along with the changes in assigned duty stations came a corresponding attempt by government authorities to prove old Uncle Ben right.

Most Americans pay state and local income taxes based upon where they reside. Accordingly, the shift to remote work made no difference to their tax liability. But some employees are subject to commuter taxes, which are assessed based upon where the work itself is performed.

Commuter taxes raise their own public policy concerns—after all, commuters have no say in how those tax dollars are used because they cannot vote in those jurisdictions. The antiquated justification for commuter taxes is that employees receive some tangible benefits while they are physically in the city, i.e., if an employee has a medical emergency while at work, it would be the city’s emergency services that would respond.

But what happens when commuters are no longer commuting to those cities?

In addition to the city no longer providing tangible services to the now non-commuting employee, if that same employee has a heart attack while working from home, it is the safety services in the residential jurisdiction that would respond and should therefore receive the revenue.

Taxing authorities for the office locations have quickly run into a legal problem: Governments may tax only people or property over which they have jurisdiction. Cities or states can tax their own residents for any income earned and nonresident commuters only for work performed within their jurisdictions.

This limitation makes sense. Otherwise a cash-hungry government could find tenuous pretextual grounds to tax nonresident income, violating basic notions of due process, and creating the risk that the same income would be taxed multiple times by different governments.

When Massachusetts issued a rule requiring employees who had previously worked in Massachusetts but were now working elsewhere due to Covid-19 to pay Massachusetts income taxes anyway, its neighboring New Hampshire sensibly filed a case in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of its citizens who were neither living nor working in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, taxpayers got no clarification because the Supreme Court declined to hear New Hampshire’s complaint, leaving Massachusetts’ unconstitutional money grab in place for the time being.

As Justices Thomas and Alito lamented, the court should have taken the case. The decision not to take it does not set a legal precedent, and—accordingly—we do not know how the Supreme Court would rule in such a case. All we can say for sure is that Massachusetts has done a full 180 since the Revolution and now quite ironically favors taxation without representation.

Massachusetts was not alone in seeking to tax beyond its jurisdictional borders either.

Ohio, for example, allowed municipalities to tax the income of workers who do not live in—and in fact were legally prohibited from working in—those same municipalities under Ohio’s stay-at-home order. The bill absurdly “deemed” all work performed elsewhere during the emergency order to have been performed at the employee’s principal place of work for the purposes of levying income taxes on it. If you stepped foot in your office, you were subject to being arrested and charged with a crime, but they were still going to pretend that you were in your office so as to tax you all the same. George Orwell, call your editor.

The Buckeye Institute challenged a half dozen cities across Ohio in court for these actions—most recently Cincinnati in Schaad v. Alder, which had its oral arguments before the Ohio Supreme Court on March 1.

Since 1950, the Ohio Supreme Court has consistently held that the Constitution’s Due Process Clause allows municipalities to tax only two types of income: income earned by the municipality’s own residents and income earned by nonresidents for work physically performed within the municipality’s geographical borders.

These avaricious cities’ brazen efforts to collect income taxes from nonresidents who did not work in their jurisdictions are unconstitutional, deprive smaller municipalities of revenue owed to them, and violate the easy-to-follow real estate maxim—location, location, location. Cincinnati may tax work performed by nonresidents within its own city limits, but not work performed by nonresidents in Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, or even where Mr. Schaad did his job—in his hometown of Blue Ash.

Considering that some 41 out of 50 states levy income taxes combined with the dramatic rise in remote work arrangements, which make it easier and more common for employees living in one city or state to work for an employer based in another city or state, all eyes should be on the Ohio Supreme Court as we await its decision in this case. How it rules in Schaad v. Alder will very likely set a precedent for how the income of remote workers nationwide is taxed going forward.

Robert Alt is the President and CEO of The Buckeye Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and the attorney who argued the Schaad v. Alder case before the Ohio Supreme Court.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 16:30

Fauci’s Flip-Flopping Lab-Leak Denier Subpoenaed After Stonewalling Congress On ‘Proximal Origin’

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Fauci’s Flip-Flopping Lab-Leak Denier Subpoenaed After Stonewalling Congress On ‘Proximal Origin’

A scientist who originally told Dr. Anthony Fauci that Covid-19 looks “potentially” engineered, only to flip-flop days later and co-author a report prompted by Fauci “disproving” the lab-leak hypothesis, has been subpoenaed by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Dr. Kristian Anderson was slapped with the Congressional subpoena last week, according to Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), who announced on Friday that “Andersen played a pivotal role in potentially suppressing the lab leak hypothesis, and Americans deserve to know why this happened, who was involved, and how we can prevent the intentional suppression of scientific discourse during a future pandemic.”

Anderson notably emailed Fauci on Jan. 31, 2020 – where he said that Covid-19 had “unusual features” that “(potentially) look engineered,” and that other scientists “all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.”

The next day, Fauci and his former boss, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, and at least eleven other scientists participated in a conference call during which several of them warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China – may have been intentionally genetically manipulated.

Three days after the call, four participants from the call (Andersen, University of Sydney virologist Edward Holmes, Tulane School of Medicine virologist Robert Garry, University of Edinburgh virologist Andrew Rambaut and Columbia University virologist Ian Lipkin) seemingly discarded their concerns over a lab-leak, and drafted “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which they sent to Fauci and Collins.

Also heavily involved (yet not credited) was Dr. Jeremy Farrar, the current Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization.

On June 16, Anderson testified before the House subcommittee, where he told them that he and the co-authors had communicated primarily via Slack while drafting the paper. He also admitted that he had not provided all messages relevant to the subcommittee’s inquiry because not all participants of the Slack discussions approved of their release.

According to Wenstrup, the subpoena was issued to compel the production of said Slack messages

“We are following the breadcrumbs of a COVID-19 cover-up straight to the source,” he said.

More via the Epoch Times:

Wenstrup said the authors “may have possessed conflicts of interest for supporting a zoonotic origin of COVID-19.”

A copy of the subpoena seen by The Epoch Times states that Andersen will be required to provide all Slack documents and communications dated from Jan. 1, 2020, to June 23, 2023, regarding the origins of COVID-19, which referenced former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins, among others.

Fauci’s Alleged Role in Drafting Study

The subcommittee issued a memo (pdf) on March 5 saying that it uncovered new email evidence suggesting that Fauci “prompted” the drafting of the study.

The memo detailed a conference call between Collins, Fauci, and at least 11 other scientists in early February 2020, about a week after the first Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus—commonly known as the novel coronavirus—case was confirmed in the United States.

Collins, Fauci, and others were warned in the Feb. 1, 2020, call about the possibility that the virus may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, according to the memo.

Citing internal emails, the committee asserted that Fauci “prompted” Andersen to write the paper and that it was designed “to ‘disprove’ any lab leak theory.”

The Proximal Origin paper’s abstract suggested that the virus may have emerged via Malaysia pangolins because they “contain coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV.”

“The presence in pangolins of [a virus’ receptor-binding domain] very similar to that of SARS-CoV-2 means that we can infer this was also probably in the virus that jumped to humans,” the paper reads.

But the March 5 memo, citing internal emails, stipulated that Anderson “did not find the pangolin data compelling” and only wrote the paper after being “prompted” by Fauci, Collins, and the others.

“Privately, Dr. Andersen did not believe the pangolin data disproved a lab leak theory despite saying so publicly. It is still unclear what intervening event changed the minds of the authors of Proximal Origin in such a short period of time,” the House committee stated.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.

Further reading:

ZeroPointNow
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 16:00

Washington’s Bias For Continuous Inflationism

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Washington’s Bias For Continuous Inflationism

Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

This week Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivered his semiannual testimony to Congress.  A main feature of the discussion was the status of rate hikes and the fight against inflation.

In short, Powell’s inflation fight isn’t over.

Core CPI, which excludes food and fuel prices, is increasing at an annual rate of 5.3 percent.  Similarly, core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) prices are up 4.7 percent from a year ago.

Thus, a federal funds rate of 5.25 percent isn’t enough to contain rising prices.  Ideally, a rate on the order of 7 to 7.25 percent is needed to do the trick.

After its recent FOMC meeting, the Fed signaled two additional rate hikes this year.  As part of this week’s testimony, Powell validated this… remarking it was a “pretty good guess”.

So, why pause in the first place?

The Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank fiascos in March are a very small part of a much larger issue.  Rapid interest rate hikes have left poorly prepared banks unable to adequately compensate depositors.

The 6-Month Treasury Bill is yielding 5.4 percent.  Many savings accounts are paying a dividend of less than 0.05 percent.

At this point, banks cannot compete with short-term Treasuries.  This is because the bonds many short-sighted banks purchased several years ago, when interest rates were near zero, are entirely underwater.

Remember, bond prices move inverse to interest rates.  So, banks find themselves in a situation where they are unable to sell bonds to payout depositor withdrawals without suffering massive losses.

And because the banks cannot compete with short-term Treasury yields, depositors are incentivized to pull their savings and park it in Treasuries.  This puts the solvency of banks in question.

As the failure of SVB showed, it doesn’t take much these days to trigger a digital bank run.

Inflationary Bias

The Fed’s hawkish rate pause is a temporary gift to banks.  It buys them a little time to get a handle on their capital positions.  Though it’s really nothing more than a token nod.

What can a bank really do to rebalance its bond holdings in a month’s time?

The rate pause, in reality, only serves to delay the inevitable banking crisis.  But that’s not all…

The rate pause also comes at the risk of greater price inflation.  Interest rates, while much higher than in early 2022, are still accommodative.  Commercial banks can still use the Fed’s discount window to obtain credit at a price that’s less than the core CPI rate.

This is partly why the major stock market indexes are making a concerted run at their record highs.  So, too, this is partly why residential real estate prices in many cities are still largely unaffordable.  Rate hikes have done little to contain asset price inflation.

By pausing, the Fed’s taking a risky gamble.  Should consumer price inflation push higher, the supposed hawkish rate pause will go down as another great big Fed policy mistake.

Moreover, to correct this mistake, the Fed will have to jack up interest rates even higher than if it hadn’t paused in the first place.

Should we expect anything different?

The Fed’s latest actions are consistent with its historical inflationary bias.  Remember, the Fed has an inflation target of 2 percent.  By this, it deliberately promotes the continuous increase in prices.

This inflationary bias is based on the belief that deflation is more disruptive to economic stability than inflation.  So, out of utmost caution, and to keep the government coffers full, central bankers error on the side of inflation.

BOGO Offers

Deflation, by definition, means a general reduction of prices.  As opposed to inflation, deflation allows consumers to buy more goods or services tomorrow with the same money they have today.

When deflation takes hold, savvy consumers will delay purchases in anticipation they can buy more for less in the future.  This leads to supply overhangs, which puts further downward pressure on prices.  BOGO (buy one get one free) offers become necessary to move product.

With respect to the cycle of deflation, lower spending leads to less income for businesses and producers.  This, in turn, leads to less production, worker layoffs, higher unemployment, and GDP contraction.  This all, again, leads to less spending as the cycle of deflation progresses.

Rising unemployment and contracting GDP are also a great big fear for populist politicians who want to get reelected.  For example, at this week’s Fed testimony, Maxine Waters, the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, gave Powell the following advice:

“I caution against any approach in monetary policy that ignores the Fed’s maximum employment mandate and results in a recession with millions of people losing their homes and jobs.”

Of course, the real impacts of the cycle of deflation are on leveraged businesses and individuals, and credit markets.  As asset prices deflate, along with profits and incomes, the ability to service existing debt becomes harder and harder.  This leads to mass bankruptcies.

Deflation is problematic for lenders and bankers and can push them to insolvency.  It can also lead to a financial crisis, breakdown in the credit market, and an economic recession or depression.

Washington’s Bias for Continuous Inflationism

Nonetheless, deflation isn’t something to be feared.  In fact, it is a certain aspect of the business cycle.  And a moral feature of the economy.

For individuals and businesses who have been prudent with their finances, deflation is a boon.  They can live better at a lower cost.

To the contrary, those who make reckless decisions during the inflationary boom suffer the greatest consequences during the bust.  They find themselves unable to pay their debts.  They get wiped out.

Yet when central bankers attempt to forestall deflation with persistent inflation, they merely magnify the risks, price distortions, and the eventual depressions.  And when Washington steps in with bailouts galore, it harms innocent and responsible people by socializing the losses.

This is all consistent with the inflationary bias of central bankers and politicians.

Moderate inflation may be perceived as being pleasant.  Over time, debt obligations are lessened.  Annual wage increases, for instance, greatly reduce the burden of a monthly mortgage payment over the life of a 30-year fixed-rate home loan.

The problem, however, is that for inflation to continue its stimulative effect, it must continue at a faster and faster rate.  And, ultimately, a bias for continuous inflationism leads to much greater harm.

While an individual’s debt burdens may be lessened over time.  The debt burdens throughout the economy, as asset prices inflate faster than wage increases, become greater.

As things progress, the only means of preventing a collapse is by supplying more and more inflation, in the form of artificially cheap credit, greater and greater amounts of debt, and outright money printing.

Most people have no clue what’s going on…or what’s coming.

Enjoy the relative stability while it lasts.

*  *  *

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Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 15:30

MSM Betrays Biden Regime, Savages Spox’s Over Corruption Bombshells

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MSM Betrays Biden Regime, Savages Spox’s Over Corruption Bombshells

With revelations that Joe Biden’s DOJ buried evidence of son Hunter tax crimes, and that Hunter demanded a CCP-linked associate wire funds while he was “sitting here with my father,” things have started looking very bad for the Bidens, very quickly.

With the exception of the NY Times‘ Nicholas Kristof, who unhinged his jaw to pen a full-throated defense of ‘poor drug-addict Hunter’ (who’s totally not an international FARA-violating bag-man for his family’s influence-peddling operation, allegedly), mainstream journalists went to town on both White House spox Karine Jean-Pierre and Pentagon spox John Kirby during Friday’s press briefing.

First, Kirby refused to answer questions before storming away from the podium.

“I’m not going to comment further on this,” said Kirby, after he was asked if a WhatsApp message from Hunter which appears to demand payment from a Chinese businessman contradicted Joe Biden’s earlier claims that he and Hunter never discussed Hunter’s business dealings.

After Kirby ducked out, Jean-Pierre attempted damage control, only to be bombarded with repeat questions.

“I’m just not going to get into family discussion,” she said, when asked why Hunter attended a White House state dinner with Indian officials and AG Merrick Garland on Thursday night.

The press doubled down, with one reporter asking; “Kirby wouldn’t answer James’ question. Are you going to answer the question? It’s not an unreasonable question to ask if the president was involved, as this message seems to suggest, in some sort of coercive conversation for a business dealing by his son. If he wasn’t, maybe you should tell us?”

To which KJP repeatedly deflected, getting defensive at one point.

“It’s not up to you how I answer the question,” she snarked at one dissatisfied journalist.

Et tu NBC and CNN?

More via the Daily Wire;

Chairman Smith released whistleblower testimonies on Thursday from IRS agents who allege that the Justice Department has interfered in the investigation into Hunter and is suppressing evidence of the first son’s misdeeds. In part of the testimony from IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, the IRS agent claimed that investigators uncovered a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message that Hunter sent to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management.

“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter wrote to Zhao, according to Shapley’s testimony.

Hunter’s attorney did not deny the authenticity of the WhatsApp message in a statement to Fox News, though he did suggest that it was misleading or could be fake.

“Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,” said Hunter’s attorney, Chris Clark. “The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.”

“Any verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family,” Clark added.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 15:00

Almost A Third Of America’s Homeless Population Lives In California, Study Finds

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Almost A Third Of America’s Homeless Population Lives In California, Study Finds

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

California has the largest number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States, accounting for nearly a third of the country’s homeless population, according to a recent study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

A person stands in front of a homeless encampment under I-880 in Oakland, Calif., on May 26, 2022. (Cynthia Cai/NTD Television)

“More than 171,000 people experience homelessness daily in California, two times more than the next highest state,” the UCSF’s California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH) study report (pdf) said. “While 12 percent of the overall United States population lives in California, 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population and half the nation’s unsheltered population (those living outside, in vehicles, or in places not meant for human habitation) reside here.”

The report, released on June 20, shatters a common myth about homelessness in California—that many of these people come from outside the state. It points out that “people experiencing homelessness in California are Californians.” Nine out of ten respondents had lost their last housing in the state. Meanwhile, 75 percent of participants lived in the same county where their last home was located.

High costs and homelessness were found to have left the participants “vulnerable to homelessness.” In the six months prior to becoming homeless, the median monthly household income of the respondents was found to be just $960.

“Twenty-one percent of leaseholders cited a loss of income as the main reason that they lost their last housing. Among non-leaseholders, 13 percent noted a conflict within the household, and 11 percent noted not wanting to impose.”

The survey respondents said that financial support could have prevented their homelessness, with 70 percent saying that a monthly rental subsidy of $300 to $500 would have ensured they had a roof over their heads.

Eighty-two percent believed a one-time payment of $5,000 to $10,000 could have ensured they did not become homeless. Eighty-nine percent cited housing costs as a barrier to re-enter permanent housing.

The study was conducted among nearly 3,200 homeless people between October 2021 and November 2022, with 365 people recruited for in-depth interviews.

Poor Government Policies and Funding Oversight

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 2, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

The CASPEH report comes as California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently admitted in an interview that his efforts to curb homelessness in the state had not yielded results.

“This state has not made progress in the last two decades as it relates to homelessness because housing costs are too high, our regulatory thickets are too problematic, localism has been too impactful—meaning people locally are pushing back against new housing starts and construction,” Newsom said.

In February this year, California’s Interagency Council on Homelessness released a report detailing the massive amounts of money the state spent between 2018 and 2021 on the matter.

The report points out that the state spent close to $10 billion during this three-year period and provided services to over 571,000 people, with each year servicing more homeless people than the previous. But despite this spending, most of these people remained homeless.

In 2022, Los Angeles in California was the city with the largest homeless population in America, according to USA Facts. From 2011 to 2022, the city’s homeless population rose from 39,000 to 70,000.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Alex Villanueva, former Los Angeles County Sheriff, blamed the crisis on homelessness being a profitable industry for various individuals and organizations. “They’re not doing anything about it because the homeless industrial complex is alive and well,” he said.

According to Villanueva, many nonprofits receive funding from counties to resolve the homelessness issue. However, there are no clear guidelines on how such funding ought to be utilized.

“There’s no governance, there’s no oversight, there’s no accountability on the results. [The county] just keeps shoveling money at them, and the problem keeps getting worse and worse,” he said.

Aging Homeless Population, Physical and Mental Crisis

The CASPEH report found that the homeless population in California is “aging,” with the median age of study participants being 47 years.

Thirty-nine percent of participants were found to be in their first episode of homelessness. Over a third met the federal criteria for chronic homelessness. The median length of an individual’s homelessness was found to be 22 months.

“Physical and sexual victimization throughout the life course was common,” the study noted. “Nearly three quarters (72 percent) experienced physical violence in their lifetime; 24 percent experienced sexual violence … The majority (82 percent) reported a period in their life where they experienced a serious mental health condition.”

To cope with homelessness, many participants have resorted to drugs and alcohol, the study found. “Almost one-third (31 percent) reported regular use of methamphetamines, 3 percent cocaine, and 11 percent non-prescribed opioids. Sixteen percent reported heavy episodic drinking.”

According to the survey, most of the participants belonged to three racial groups—whites making up 27 percent, followed by blacks and Latinos with 26 percent each.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 14:30

Rising Number Of Russian, Chinese Nationals At US Southern Border Raises Security Concerns

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Rising Number Of Russian, Chinese Nationals At US Southern Border Raises Security Concerns

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

House Republicans stated that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have intercepted an increasing number of foreign nationals from countries not in South or Central America, including Russia, and several high-value targets from China.

A Kinney County sheriff’s deputy arrests an illegal alien being smuggled from the U.S.–Mexico border, through Kinney County, Texas, on Sept. 10, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

In a June 21 Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Threats Posed to the Homeland by Nation-State Actors in Latin America, held by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, concerns were raised by several lawmakers regarding the potential dangers posed to the United States by an unsecured border.

During the hearing, Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) voiced his alarm and shared significant information regarding encounters with foreign nationals from various countries of concern.

“I am concerned that the chaos of the Southwest border could be taken advantage of by anti-U.S. regimes—not just can, but has been,” Pfluger said.

“Meanwhile, the PRC and our foreign adversaries are expanding their spheres of influence in Latin America, right in our backyard. … There are clear implications for U.S. Homeland Security.”

Pfluger highlighted the growing migration crisis resulting from the administration’s policy decisions, leading to significant increases in encounters at the Southwest border. Of particular concern were the encounters involving individuals from what he referenced as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia.

He pointed out that several sheriff’s offices had reported apprehending multiple high-value targets from China, who were subsequently taken into custody by the FBI and cited data from the CBP showing increase in fiscal year 2023 encounters with nationals from various continents by border patrol along the Southwest border.

“In the first seven months of fiscal year 2023, over 9,711 PRC nationals were encountered by U.S. border patrol along our Southwest border exponentially more than the previous three years,” Pfluger said, warning that the “chaos of the Southwest border could be taken advantage of by anti-U.S. regimes.”

The lawmaker went on to emphasize that the expanding influence of China and other foreign adversaries in Latin America posed clear implications for U.S. homeland security. The chairman further stressed the urgent need to address the security challenges associated with nation-state actors in the region.

In his opening statement, Pfluger underscored China’s economic and security ties with Latin American countries like Brazil and Venezuela. He highlighted the substantial financial support provided by China, with loans amounting to approximately $137 billion offered to the region.

Venezuela emerged as the primary beneficiary, receiving roughly $60 billion in loans, which could be seen as problematic, considering China’s military and security partnerships, including the sale of $615 million worth of weapons to Venezuela between 2009 and 2019.

Concerns About Russian Nationals

The encounters with Russian citizens also experienced a sharp rise with the trend continuing for first seven months of fiscal year 2023.

According to information cited by the lawmakers, in 2021 CBP reported just 4,103 encounters of Russian citizens along our Southwest border. However, that number jumped to 21,763 in fiscal year 2022 and it’s over 33,000 for the first seven months of fiscal year 2023.

Read more here…

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 13:30

Medvedev Urges Population To Rally Around Putin As Moscow Mayor Tells Residents ‘Stay Inside’

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Medvedev Urges Population To Rally Around Putin As Moscow Mayor Tells Residents ‘Stay Inside’

Former Russian president and Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev is urging the population to rally around Vladimir Putin at this difficult moment the country is facing armed rebellion and an apparent coup attempt by Wagner Group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

He wrote on Telegram that during this crisis it’s of paramount importance to prevent a division in the nation and among its leadership. Given his high level position in the national security apparatus, this is among the clearest signs yet that Moscow sees this crisis as a very serious threat to Russia’s stability and Putin’s rule. 

“Rallying around our president and the supreme commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces is crucial for defeating the external and internal enemy, which seeks to tear our Homeland apart, and for saving our state,” Medvedev said.

“National split and betrayal would lead to the greatest tragedy ever and a universal catastrophe,” he emphasized. “We will not let it happen. The enemy will be crushed. Victory will be ours.”

This marks an incredibly rare moment that Medvedev, normally the most outspoken and hawkish voice within the Kremlin, temporarily paused his threats against Ukraine and the West, in order to focus denunciations on hostile forces within Russia itself.

At this point, Western media outlets are labelling what’s going on as an attempted coup, also given the ongoing Wagner advance toward government centers of power and the capital:

Moscow’s mayor has urged residents to stay inside as Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary force storm to within just 250 miles of the capital.

“The situation is difficult,” said Sergei Sobyanin.

“I ask you to refrain from travelling around the city as much as possible,” he said, warning that roads may also be closed.

By around 5pm local time, Prigozhin’s forces were said to be “moving across” the Lipetsk region, some 250 miles south of Moscow, the local governor said.

Barricades have been erected around Moscow…

Wagner’s fight for loyalty of the population begins…

Wagner convoys have meanwhile been spotted within hours of the capital. There have also been unconfirmed reports that President Putin took a plane to St. Petersburg, which the Kremlin disputed.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 13:00

Rickards: Yes, It Can Happen Here!

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Rickards: Yes, It Can Happen Here!

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

I’ve warned repeatedly about the dangers that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) pose to personal liberties.

I’ve warned how they would allow governments to monitor every transaction you make, which basically means a surveillance state.

This facilitates the creation of a social credit system that allows governments to punish those who engage in unapproved activity such as buying guns, donating money to the wrong political party, buying unapproved literature, etc.

The government will even know your physical whereabouts at the point of purchase.

People could be denied employment opportunities, educational opportunities, access to banking systems, even the ability to travel.

I’ve also said that China is well along the way to establishing a social credit system. Well, if you have any doubt that China’s social credit score is real, consider this:

Millions of Chinese have been denied the ability to travel by plane or train because their social credit scores are too low.

It CAN Happen Here

If you think nothing like that could ever happen here, you might want to reconsider.

Think of all the draconian policies that were imposed on Americans during COVID. Think of the lockdowns, the censorship, vaccine mandates, etc.

Before the pandemic, you probably wouldn’t have thought that any of this was possible. But it all happened. When you think of it in that light, you begin to understand that some type of social credit system in the U.S. really isn’t that far-fetched.

It might not be as extreme as China’s system. It’ll all be made to sound very benign, even necessary, to support “our democracy” against MAGA types, white supremacists, climate deniers and domestic terrorists.

As Ronald Reagan said, “If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.”

But this system would operate on the same principles as the Chinese system. Consider this hypothetical case…

Welcome to the 15-Minute City

Greenies want to mandate “15-minute cities” where you can walk everywhere in town within 15 minutes, which means you won’t need your car to visit a doctor, dry cleaner, grocery store, pharmacy or any of the other locations we routinely visit for errands and necessities.

That may sound attractive if you chose it voluntarily. But that’s not what the greenies have in mind. They want 15-minute cities as a Trojan horse to eliminate automobiles entirely and force you to ride bicycles or use public transportation. In the end, you’ll need a permit to fly to another city.

The permits will be rationed and you’ll have to put yourself on a waiting list until your turn. You can pay for your ticket with the new central bank digital currency, assuming your social credit score is high enough and you didn’t vote for the wrong candidate in the last election.

In this vision, citizens will be confined to small towns or cities for extended periods. Travel will be tightly restricted. Appliances will be downsized with no consumer choice allowed. Taxes will be imposed on targeted activities to discourage use.

Education will be turned to indoctrination to raise a generation who believe in the climate lies needed to gain support for these measures (that kind of indoctrination has been underway for some years).

It’s coercive, restrictive and arrogant. It’s a world where the elites control everything and you do as you’re told. It’s a world based on lies and fear.

Again, if you think that’s just being paranoid, I refer you once more to what happened during the pandemic.

The Censorship-Industrial Complex

We know that the government has engaged in censorship designed to shut down unapproved viewpoints.

Thanks to Elon Musk opening up the Twitter Files to the public, we now know just how rotten and corrupt the White House, FBI and Twitter under Jack Dorsey were in terms of influencing the 2020 election, crushing voices that said the vaccines weren’t really safe and effective (they aren’t) and saying that Russia is winning in Ukraine (they are).

Twitter created a separate portal for FBI goons to target individual Americans and to deplatform them from using Twitter. (Facebook and Google were even worse but they are still under the same control. So we don’t have the internal files we do for Twitter.)

It’s an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment for the U.S. government to engage in any censorship of this kind.

Instead, the FBI and White House used Twitter as a kind of private-sector hatchet man to cut off anyone who dissented from the government agenda.

Even that may be unconstitutional because Twitter is acting as a proxy for the government in this instance. The courts will ultimately decide that issue, but for now, we know that both the government and Twitter were engaged in rank censorship of everyday American voices.

It can’t get any worse, right? Guess again. We’re now learning that the Twitter-FBI censorship activities went far beyond silencing critics of government policy.

Combine a Social Credit System With a Police State

The FBI also took orders from Ukraine. It turns out the Ukrainian secret security service sent lists of reporters and other U.S. citizens who were not supporting the Zelenskyy regime running the Ukrainian war effort.

The FBI was told to forward the list to Twitter, deactivate the anti-Ukraine accounts and hand over user data to the Ukrainian secret police. I’m active on Twitter and I’m opposed to the war, so for all I know my name was on the list. I don’t care. I’ve always written what I want, and I’m not intimidated by the FBI or the Ukrainian secret police.

Still, many accounts were censored on this basis. No one is surprised to learn Ukraine is a police state. Americans are still learning just how much of a police state the U.S. has become.

Now throw a social credit system into the mix. Just think of the ways the government can punish dissenters.

This is the Brave New World that we’re facing. And it’s all facilitated by central bank digital currencies, which enable the type of surveillance state that’s always been the dream of tyrants.

They’ll just say it’s being done in the name of democracy. Don’t fall for it.

Is this future inevitable? No, it isn’t. But it’s coming sooner than you expect unless citizens join hands, reassert the truth and push the elites back into a corner where they belong.

You might not be able to fight back easily in the world of CBDCs, but as I always say, there is one nondigital, nonhackable, nontraceable form of money you can still get your hands on.

It’s called gold. Get some while you still can.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 12:30

Putin Reassures Allies In Phone Calls, Erdogan Expresses ‘Full Support’ Against Coup

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Putin Reassures Allies In Phone Calls, Erdogan Expresses ‘Full Support’ Against Coup

Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to reassure regional allies that he will crush the Wagner uprising now threatening the military and government, and will maintain a stable Russia.

In what’s being described as his first international phone call since the Wagner mutiny began, which is grabbing the attention of Western governments, Putin spoke to his Belarus ally, President Alexander Lukashenko. “The president of Russia called the president of Belarus this morning, there was a phone conversation,” Belarusian state media confirmed. “Vladimir Putin informed his Belarusian colleague about the situation in Russia.”

Wagner fighter standing guard at seized installation in Rostov-on-Don

Putin also spoke to the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, as well as the president of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev. “The president informed them about the situation [in Russia],” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Kazakh media related that President Tokayev agreed with Putin that events in Russia are a “domestic affair.” Putin reportedly thanked him for his “understanding” of the crisis.

According to the Kremlin, Putin also held a phone call with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A Kremlin readout said Erdogan expressed “full support” for Putin in the call.

According to Turkish media:

Erdoğan said he backed the Russian government’s handling of a mutiny by the Wagner mercenary army, the Kremlin said in a statement.

President Erdoğan urged his counterpart to act with common sense and stated that Türkiye was ready to do its part to solve the situation in Russia peacefully as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Wagner convoys are said to be headed toward the Russian capital, also amid unconfirmed reports that the Russian presidential plane has flown to St. Petersburg. Erdogan has offered assistance in finding a political solution:

  • ERDOGAN TELLS PUTIN TURKEY READY TO HELP FIND SWIFT SOLUTION:AA
  • PRIGOZHIN FORCES ADVANCE INTO LIPETSK REGION: GOVERNOR

But the Kremlin has sought to affirm that Putin is still working from the Kremlin.

The Washington Examiner wrote early Saturday based on unconfirmed reports, “The plane belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin departed from Moscow to St. Petersburg early Saturday as the Kremlin attempts to quiet an “armed rebellion” from Wagner mercenaries threatening to weaken the country’s offensive in the Ukrainian war.”

Currently, roadblocks are being erected around Moscow, also as roadblocks have been spotted further south, often utilizing large construction vehicles and 18-wheelers.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 06/24/2023 – 12:00

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