by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics:
Vladimir Putin’s recent speech is making headlines as people falsely claim Russia is about to launch an all-out nuclear attack. Putin is sticking to his same plan and says it in his opening statement: “The subject of this address is the situation in Donbas and the course of the special military operation to liberate it from the neo-Nazi regime, which seized power in Ukraine in 2014 as the result of an armed state coup.” Russia must now play defense as they are no longer simply battling Ukraine.
The FOMC announcement was a big yawner, the dot plot wasn’t.
Russia’s recent “partial mobilization” will call up 300,000 military reservists who, over the next few months, will be trained and put into service in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. It is now well known — although western nations continue to deny the obvious — that Ukraine’s military offensives are being run by NATO troops, using NATO satellites, training and gear. In essence, Russia is already fighting NATO in a continental war, and Russia realizes that western nations will not be satisfied with anything less than the complete obliteration of Russia as a sovereign nation.
