I have recently had the pleasure of reading the latest book by Yuri Dia konov entitled Russia’s Diamonds and I can immediately tell you that it is a fun read. The weird thing is that the Amazon blurb about this books says this about the book:
Some agents are bigger than life. Kllip Lugre works for Russia. You might say that Lugre is the antithesis of James Bond. But not because he’s the quintessential bad guy from the east. Lugre is Russian. And in his eyes the west is the enemy. So, different strokes for different folks! It all depends who’s propaganda you’ve been slurping since the last time you’ve wet your diapers. Get ready for an adventure that will introduce a different slice of reality.
When I read the book I had the exactly opposite thought: the hero, Kliip Lugre (what a weird name!) is exactly a Russian version of the British 007: they both like sexy women, big cars, amazing stunts and fancy wealthy settings. They both have a special status (077 a license to kill; Lugre reports directly to Putin) and they both like gadgets and guns. This comparison of mine should immediately tell you that Russian’s Diamonds is not a realistic spy novel at all, but a very entertaining but light read.
The book’s plot centers around a sudden discovery of diamonds in Russia (I won’t tell you how to avoid spoilers) and the struggle by Western powers to prevent Russia from creating a diamond backed “hard” Ruble. Setting aside the diamond aspect of the book, the author – who clearly knows a lot about economics – presents a concentrated version of what is in reality already going on today even if the real-world struggle is not about a big chache of diamonds, but about all the wealth still available in Siberia. From that point of view the book is rather very realistic and offers a very interesting discussion of fiat money versus real “hard” money.
What also makes this book unique is that the author is clearly in love with Russian weapons and technologies and reading this book will teach you a lot about Russian high-teach and fancy weapons. The other unique feature of this books is that Putin (or “VVP”) is actually a character in the book. You even have him flying over Siberia in the supersonic Tu-160 strategic bomber. If you like weapons and gadgets this book is a “must have” as it is the only book, at least as far as I know, who lovingly dwells on the many fancy special weapons Russians have in their arsenal.
You get the idea: great fun in a easy to read and well written book. I personally did not like the character of the main female protagonist of the book and I could have done without the really not needed sex episodes, but these are minor gripes. All in all the book is fun to read.
I definitely recommend this book to any fans of the British James Bond or to those who favor fun over realism. The book is available for download in electronic format from Amazon’s Kindle store for $9.99 here: http://www.amazon.com/Russias-Diamond-Ruble-Yuri-konov-ebook/dp/B00DT53YH4/
The Saker
Regarding the idea of “hard money” vs. “fiat,” I would argue that this is a misleading false dichotomy. There is a very desirable third path besides just a “hard money” system and a “fiat” system dominated by private banking cartels for their own benefit. Some excellent commentary here from the UFAA:
“Contrary to the obsessions of “hard money” proponents, a dollar is not simply a medium of exchange, nor is there a fixed amount of wealth in the Universe that is simply to be traded back and forth in “the market”. Consider the following: is an apple seed worth anything to you? But how about an apple? Today’s humble seed has no value until it is transformed by human creativity, labor, and “divine providence” into tomorrow’s apple. The same can be said of the mind devising a machine, of sand transformed into glass, of raw minerals turned into power, and so forth.
A dollar is rightly a certificate of credit: a claim on future value: an IOU. In the case of infrastructure, we are giving credit to potential value that will not be realized for years in the future. Even a “bridge to nowhere” has value, since it alone allows “somewhere” to be created. We as a nation can not afford to mortgage this potential to private financiers who demand public guarantees of unreasonable profits.”
http://againstausterity.org/article/rebuild-americas-infrastructure-stop-spending-and-start-lending
The Guardian: new article on actual war news, no comments allowed. New article featuring the CIA rock bands of the glorious democratic Maidan. Editorial by George Soros proposing UK taxpayer subsidized ‘political business risk insurance’ to spur Western investment in Ukraine. NATO trolls fighting a rearguard action on the comment boards.
On monetary reform I recommend Ellen Brown’s books Web of Debt and Public Banking.
A LOT could be done at the level of the states simply by setting up a publicly owned state bank along the lines of the Bank of North Dakota.
This is also worth looking at
http://www.themoneymasters.com/monetary-reform-act/
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Russian writer Boris Akunin came up with a series of novels creating a Russian equivalent of the English Sherlock Holmes in Victorian Mosocow – Fandorin. Well worth reading.
Interesting author. Thanks for the recommendation.
Meanwhile, Italy and UK are desperately cooking their books, and recalculating their GDPs upward by including prostitution and heroin trade in their economic data.
People trafficking must be next.
The end cannot be too far.
Dear Saker: If too off topic, please delete this. (Consider me an eccentric off on his own tangent.) You may have some personal insights on the matter.
In the speculation as to why Russia (i.e. Mr. Putin) hasn’t intervened more forcibly in the Ukraine, I wonder if an additional reason might be religious: We know from his memoirs Mr. Putin was baptized as an infant, carried a small icon medallion with him when is was dangerous to do so, and became a believer after rescuing his wife and daughters from a burning dacha. In Steven Runciman’s histories about the the fall of Constantinople, and the Crusades, he observed that the Eastern Church and Empire always waged war with a bad conscience, war being sadly necessitated by external threats, but fundamentally in opposition to Christianity, to the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. Consequently, the Empire tried to be strong defensively, often allying with the enemy of its current enemy, but rarely wage offensive warfare. (Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer might seem an exception, but the Bulgarians started it.) I wonder if Mr. Putin’s continual attempts to negotiate, to find a compromise that could be lived with by all concerned, reflects this same Orthodox outlook.
It’s an outlook completely opposite the that of the self-righteous “cosmopolitans” that direct our foreign policy, and also that of the American sycophants that strive to emulate them. (Whom Lincoln ironically termed: “God’s almost chosen people.”) Their history is one of ethnic cleansing whatever land they desire (as they did twice), where all opponents are deemed Amalekites to be exterminated. Their self-identified American followers emulated them for 300 years, ethnically cleansing the whole continent. (Lo the poor Indians !)
(I wonder if Stalin, bad as he was, could be seen as an example of the same Orthodox outlook, imbued at his mother’s knee, also as an Orthodox seminarian, and never really lost. “Socialism in One Country” could be seen as an example of this outlook, as could the five-year plans and and collectivization to pay for them with all their horrors. Also, the non-aggression pact, plus the willful attempt to ignore impending Barbarossa – stupid as it was. There’s a well-known legend that in the worst days 1941, Stalin visited the Orthodox prophetess, Mother Matryona of Moscow (now a Saint), who assured him the Nazis would be defeated. There’s another well-known legend that about the same time Stalin had the famous icon “Theotokos of Vladimir” flown over the front, invoking Her protection. Reflecting his superstition, no doubt, if they really happened, but also a residual Orthodox outlook. Also how he is viewed in popular imagination, bad as he was.)
@Mikhail II: I am sorry to have to disappoint you but I do not share your views about Putin or Stalin. In my opinion Stalin was a ruthless thug, a very intelligent one and one who was certainly no worse then his predecessors and who was murdered at the end of his life, but his idea of morality was probably only what is called “понятия” in Russia: a mobster’s honor code. As for Putin, he is a very different person in my opinion. I have a huge admiration for him as a statesman, but I have no illusions about his spirituality. At best, he probably believes that there maybe is some God out there, but he does not really care. He sees Orthodoxy not as the Church of Chris, but as a cultural product of the Russian civilization which is precious and which should be preserved. He also clearly sees it as a good substitute for the Marxist ideology of the USSR. Putin views Orthodoxy first and foremost as an instrument of power, but does he have any type of personal piety? I doubt it very much.
I am aware of the sick movement in the Moscow Patriarchate to glorify Stalin, Ivan the Terrible, Rasputin, and God knows who else in an orgy of nationalist self-worship and I do not approve of it at all. Even if it could be politically expedient to whitewash Stalin and present him as some kind of crypto-Orthodox, I would never accept that kind of falsification of history. Utter nonsense as far as I am concerned. The last true Orthodox Christian in power in Russia was the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II.
Sorry.
Kind regards,
The Saker
@Mikhail II
I would say that use of force is actually a weakness because country looks stupid if it can’t resolve problem in safer ways. It’s bad for business.
@Robert, re: Boris Akunin…he is an anti-Putin activist:
“When it was announced last fall that Putin would resume the Presidency, Akunin thought it was finally time for him to emigrate from Russia: the country now truly belonged to Putin, and there was no place for the intelligentsia. But with the street protests that followed the December 4th parliamentary elections, his feelings changed. From his house in Brittany, he drove to Paris and bought a ticket for the next flight to Moscow. At the airport, he wrote on his blog that he was on his way home, and his political career began. The next day, he was one of the first—and some say, best—speakers at the December 10th rally on Bolotnaya Square, possessed of a soft-spoken moral authority. “He is not a professional politician,” said Yuri Saprykin, a journalist and member of the winter protests’ organizing committee. “He’s a person who didn’t look for power, or a place in the political system. He is moved by his moral values, and everybody sees that.”
A question:
When the unrest flared up in Ukraine Oct/Nov, 2013 and escalated in Feb/Mar 2014, did you foresee that Russia would quietly annex Crimea and succeed without firing a shot [and without the Western cavalry coming to the rescue]?
I, for one, did absolutely not. Given Russia’s pussyfooting with the delivery of S-300 batteries and the delays at Iran’s nuclear plant and stabbing the country in the back, I’d come to the conclusion that Russia was… well… Russia.
Perhaps after the watershed moment in the Syrian conflict, when Obomber was beating the drums of war so loud, that it still rings in my ears and then suddenly engulfed me in a sea of silence, perhaps I should’ve known better, but alas, I didn’t.
Just a show of hands will suffice.
“1941, Stalin visited the Orthodox prophetess, Mother Matryona of Moscow (now a Saint), who assured him the Nazis would be defeated.” The part of the story where Stalin visited Matrona is completely false, but Mother Matrona did predict that the enemy would be defeated and that the State would have to cease persecuting the Church for a while if I understood correctly. And it is a historic fact Stalin allowed the Churches to reopen and even permitted a replica of the Kursk Mother of God icon which was taken to America for safekeeping after the Revolution to be carried around the Kursk battlefield ahead of the German assault. Supposedly a Kursk icon replica also overflew the Black Sea ahead of the Sochi Olympics.
American Kulak
I would like to know why Russia hasn’t shared the S-300 system with Syria, Iran, and China.
In one of the other threads Israel and the Jewish community were discussed. Perhaps ‘Washington Post’ reports that funders have excommunicated Jews who don’t believe in Zionism might be of interest.
@Saker and Mikhail
The article below is in line with Saker’s view of Putin’s spirituality.
Putin’s Muslim family values
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/russia-putin-values-based-diplomacy-muslim-world.html
A later post about Ivan IV would be appreciated. I thought that he was a popular figure in the Russian folk memory.
Although the collective west is sure the chopper {Mi-8] was downed by an ‘Outside/Russian’ provided SAM [Surface to Air Missile], but how about Ukrainian weapons?
Here’s more about them; STATE COMPANY “UKROBORONSERVICE” – A subsidiary of a state company “Ukrspecexport”.
And, of course, when Syrian Army helicopters are downed with ‘Outside weapons’ the Voodoo death priests in DC collectively go blind and mum.
The stench of hypocrisy is unbearable at times.
If anyone in the armed forces has more knowledge about what possible systems might be used, please do weigh in.
Daniel Rich
Wow. That is truly incredible — not the thought-policing, of course, but actually exposing it. (Too bad BDS took so long to get to “critical mass” — the idea had been floating around since forever — but what a perfect way to make a point with these folks!) And Hiatt was dumb enough (well, ok, he’s not exactly the brightest bulb) to run it, probably thinking it’d serve as a threat when what it’s really doing is exposing some extremely dirty underwear. Know hope!
Can this possibly be true? RIA Is reporting that 1,200 Ukie soldiers were killed in a SINGLE operation. Could they be referring to the total number of Ukies killed in the war thus far? Something doesn’t make sense here, can anyone elborate and/or confirm?
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140529/190221116/1200-Ukrainian-Soldiers-Dead-in-Slaviansk-Special-Op–Peoples.html
Old Ez,
It’s my understanding that 1200 is an alleged total losses for Ukrainian forces, as of yesterday.
I’d take even that number with a great deal of skepticism.
Such losses for a country with extremely low birth rate would be cataclismic and Ukrainians would probably retreat, had they lost 1200 combat troops.
davidius
Saker said
“In my opinion Stalin was a ruthless thug”
He may have been but I’m utterly grateful to him and the Russian people who saved me from the Nazis
This quote is from David M. Glantz:
“On the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion of 1944, a U.S. news magazine featured a cover photo of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was labeled the man who defeated Hitler. If any one man deserved that label, it was not Eisenhower but Zhukov, Vasilevsky, or possibly Stalin himself. More generally, the Red Army and the Soviet citizenry of many nationalities bore the lion’s share of the struggle against Germany from 1941 to 1945. Only China, which suffered almost continuous Japanese attack from 1931 onward, matched the level of Soviet suffering and effort. In military terms, moreover, the Chinese participation in the war was almost insignificant in comparison with that of the Soviets, who were constantly engaged and absorbed more than half of all German forces.”
Since we are approaching the 70th anniversary of Normandy. Let me guess. A lot of memorial and talks about Normandy. And not a word about operation Bagration that started at 22 of June and totally smashed the German Army Grope Centre, and by that stopped the Germans from sending reinforcement from East to West
Operation Bagration was the largest operation during the whole war.
davidius
I would like to recommend the books by Julian Semyonov. Especially Seventeen Moments of Spring. That spy was no James Bond. More real life, kind of.
@ Nora,
My mom told me that if I talked ‘funny’ [use lingo/jargon] the audience I’d reach would be very limited.
We’re all different. IMHO, we should appreciate that ‘simple’ fact and understand it, even celebrate it.
Onward we go, to breach, one last time…
Daniel Rich,
I’m sure it’s me just being very dense, Daniel, but I’m really not sure what you’re referring to. Was it because I didn’t actually refer to that WaPo article, or was it something else I said? Nora’s confuzzled again.