Elites Have Destroyed the Chance to Contain China

They Picked the Wrong Enemy Were you forwarded this email? [Sign-up to The Daily Reckoning here.]( [Unsubscribe]( [Daily Reckoning] Elites Have Destroyed the Chance to Contain China - The “NATO Crescent” is a dagger pointed at the heart of Russia… - “When future historians look back on the 2010s, they will be baffled by the lost opportunity for the U.S. to mend fences with Russia”… - “Russia is the nation that the U.S. should have tried to court and should still be courting”… Recommended Link [Attention! Before You Read Any Further…]( Before you read any further in today’s issue, an urgent situation needs your immediate attention. If you don’t plan on claiming this new upgrade to your Strategic Intelligence subscription, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. Right now is your chance to grab one of the biggest (and most valuable) upgrades our company has ever made to a newsletter. I’m taking Strategic Intelligence to an entirely new level and I’d hate to see you left behind. [Click Here To Get In While You Still Can]( Annapolis, Maryland December 27, 2021 [Brian Maher]Dear Reader, China represents the greatest threat to the United States argues Jim Rickards, not Russia. To counter China’s growing power, Jim argues that the U.S. should engage Russia, which itself has concerns about China’s geopolitical ambitions. Unfortunately, elites have demonized Russia for political reasons, squandering the chance to forge a U.S.-Russian alliance to contain China. Ukraine is presently a flashpoint. If some of these elites have their way, the U.S. could even be drawn into armed conflict with Russia if it takes military action against Ukraine. Today, Jim breaks it all down for you below. Regards, [Brian Maher] Brian Maher Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning Recommended Link [Are You Coming? (RSVP Requested)]( [Read more here...]( Multimillionaire Crypto Investor James Altucher is graciously extending an invitation for you to “virtually join” him at his private residence… So he can show you his #1 secret for making a fortune in today’s cryptocurrency market. Keep in mind: James recently grew a $25,000 investment into $3,125,000 over a 4-year period using almost the exact same investing strategy you’ll see in [this free event.]( [Click Here To RSVP]( Elites Have Destroyed a Possible U.S.-Russia Alliance to Contain China By Jim Rickards [Jim Rickards]There’s no need to rehash the sordid politics of the U.S.-Russia relationship since 2014. That relationship became collateral damage to gross corruption in Ukraine. The U.S. and its allies, especially the U.K. under globalists like David Cameron, wanted to peel off Ukraine from the Russian orbit and make it part of the EU and eventually NATO. From Russia’s perspective, this was unacceptable. It may be true that most Americans cannot find Ukraine on a map, but a simple glance at a map reveals that much of Ukraine lies east of Moscow. Putting Ukraine in a Western alliance such as NATO would create a crescent stretching from Luhansk in the south through Poland in the west and back around to Estonia in the north. There are almost no natural obstacles between that arc and Moscow; it’s mostly open steppe. Completion of this “NATO Crescent” would leave Moscow open to invasion in ways that Napoleon and Hitler could only dream. Of course, this situation was and is unacceptable to Moscow. Ukraine itself is culturally divided along geographic lines. The eastern and southern provinces (Luhansk, Donetsk, Crimea and Dnipro) are ethnically Russian, follow the Orthodox Church and the Patriarch of Moscow and welcome commercial relations with Russia. The western provinces (Kiev, Lviv) are Slavic, adhere to the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope and look to the EU and U.S. for investment and aid. Prior to 2014, an uneasy truce existed between Washington and Moscow that allowed a pro-Russian president while at the same time permitting increasing contact with the EU. Then the U.S. and U.K. overreached by allowing the CIA and MI6 to foment a “color revolution” in Kiev called the “Euromaidan Revolution.” Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych resigned and fled to Moscow. Pro-EU protesters took over the government and signed an EU Association Agreement. In response, Putin annexed Crimea and declared it part of Russia. He also infiltrated Donetsk and Luhansk and helped establish de facto pro-Russian regional governments. The U.S. and EU responded with harsh economic sanctions on Russia. Ukraine has been in turmoil (with increasing corruption) ever since. U.S.-Russia relations have been ice-cold, exactly as the globalists intended. The U.S.-induced fiasco in Ukraine not only upset U.S.-Russia relations, but it derailed a cozy money-laundering operation involving Ukrainian oligarchs and Democratic politicians. The Obama administration flooded Ukraine with non-lethal financial assistance. This aid was amplified by a four-year, $17.5 billion loan program to Ukraine from the IMF, approved in March 2015. Interestingly, this loan program was pushed by Obama at a time when Ukraine did not meet the IMF’s usual borrowing criteria. Some of this money was used for intended purposes, some was skimmed by the oligarchs and the rest was recycled to Democratic politicians in the form of consulting contracts, advisory fees, director’s fees, contributions to foundations and NGOs and other channels. Hunter Biden and the Clinton Foundation were major recipients of this corrupt recycling. Other beneficiaries included George Soros-backed “Open Society” organizations, which further directed the money to progressive left-wing groups in the U.S. This cozy wheel of fortune was threatened when Donald Trump became president. Trump genuinely desired improved relations with Russia and was not on the receiving end of laundered aid to Ukraine. Hillary Clinton was supposed to continue the Obama policies, but she failed in the general election. Trump was a threat to everything the globalists, Democrats and pro-NATO elites had constructed in the 2010s. Recommended Link [[URGENT] If You Missed Bitcoin’s 103,533% Explosion, Claim This New Book Right Away]( [Read more here...]( If you’ve missed Bitcoin’s historic run-up to over $60,000… [Then you need to check out page 54 of crypto millionaire James Altucher’s new book.]( In it, he details a cryptocurrency he believes could one day surpass Bitcoin. Now, James famously said Bitcoin was the future all the way back in 2013 – when it traded at just $61… Anyone who followed him had the chance at gains as high as 103,533%. But he says this new opportunity could be even bigger. [Click Here To Learn More]( The globalists wanted China and the U.S. to team up against Russia. Trump understood correctly that China was the main enemy and therefore a closer union between the U.S. and Russia was essential. The elites’ efforts to derail Trump gave rise to the “Russia collusion” hoax. While no one disputes that Russia sought to sow confusion in the U.S. election in 2016, that’s something the Russians and their Soviet predecessors had been doing since 1917. By itself, little harm was done. Yet the elites seized on this to concoct a story of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The real collusion was among Democrats, Ukrainians and Russians to discredit Trump. It took the Robert Mueller investigation two years finally to conclude there was no collusion between Trump and the Russians. By then, the damage was done. It was politically toxic for Trump to reach out to the Russians. That would be spun by the media as more evidence of “collusion.” It represents an enormous lost opportunity. When future historians look back on the 2010s, they will be baffled by the lost opportunity for the U.S. to mend fences with Russia, develop economic relations and create a win-win relationship between the world’s greatest technology innovator and the world’s greatest natural resources provider. It will seem a great loss for the world. Here’s the reality: Russia, China and the U.S. are the only true superpowers and the only three countries that ultimately matter in geopolitics. That’s not a slight against any other power. But all others are secondary powers (the U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Israel, etc.) or tertiary powers (Iran, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc.). This means that the ideal posture for the U.S. is to ally with Russia (to marginalize China) or ally with China (to marginalize Russia), depending on overall geopolitical conditions. The U.S. conducted this kind of triangulation successfully from the 1970s until the early 2000s. One of the keys to U.S. foreign policy in the last 50 or 60 years has been to make sure that Russia and China never form an alliance. Keeping them separated was key. In 1972, Nixon pivoted to China to put pressure on Russia. In 1991, the U.S. pivoted to Russia to put pressure on China after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Unfortunately, the U.S. has lost sight of this basic rule of international relations. It is now Russia and China that have formed a strong alliance, to the disadvantage of the United States. Ultimately, this two-against-one strategic alignment of China and Russia against the U.S. is a strategic blunder by the U.S. Russia is the nation that the U.S. should have tried to court and should still be courting. That’s because China is the greatest geopolitical threat to the U.S. because of its economic and technological advances and its ambition to push the U.S. out of the Western Pacific sphere of influence. Russia may be a threat to some of its neighbors, but it is far less of a threat to U.S. strategic interests. Therefore, a logical balance of power in the world would be for the U.S. and Russia to find common ground in the containment of China and to jointly pursue the reduction of Chinese power. But thanks to the elites’ political games, it hasn’t happened. Let’s just hope their malfeasance doesn’t drag us into an unnecessary war. Regards, Jim Rickards for The Daily Reckoning P.S. I’m concerned that [things are about to get very, very ugly]( and you should start preparing now. What do I mean? There’s a very real chance that geopolitical chaos will unfold in the coming months, starting with the situation in Ukraine. I believe there’s a 90% chance that Russia invades Ukraine in the coming months. This has serious implications for your portfolio, your investments and your way of life. There will be winners and losers. And I want to make sure you and your wealth are on the winning side. [I give you all the details right here in an urgent Zoom call I just hosted the other day.]( But the situation we face is about much more than just a Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the call, I reveal the real reason for the headlines about the pandemic and inflation (and what they are designed to cover up). I also give you details about the silent war that’s been raging in the U.S. for the last 20 years (and why I was asked to join the Pentagon at a top-secret weapons laboratory to help them learn how to fight it). This is serious stuff, but very few people are prepared for what the next few months could bring. Don’t be among them. [Click here now.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading The Daily Reckoning! We greatly value your questions and comments. Please send all feedback to [feedback@dailyreckoning.com.](mailto:dr@dailyreckoning.com) [James Rickards][James G. Rickards]( is the editor of Strategic Intelligence. He is an American lawyer, economist, and investment banker with 35 years of experience working in capital markets on Wall Street. He is the author of The New York Times bestsellers Currency Wars and The Death of Money. 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