So what will be Moscow’s next steps, which everyone is guessing about?

So, it is no exaggeration to say that the whole world froze, watching with amazement the Russian diplomatic blitzkrieg. In some parts of the world, this astonishment is tinged with admiration; in others, it is filled with shock, confusion, and even fear. In the vast expanses of our Motherland, this amazement shows Hope with a capital letter, seasoned with comments in the spirit of "it's high time".

Indeed, our Institute, in an extensive report more than two months ago, confidently predicted a breakthrough in Russian statehood in the current two years, which, as we stated, "will radically reformat the geopolitical planetary alignment of forces”. Everything described there is still coming true as if by notes.

A declared intensity of the offensive struggle is observed, in diplomatic terms - with the intercepted agenda on all tracks. The transition of the country to the major league in the mass planetary consciousness is being carried out, and in the dedicated political circles, consciousness is gradually confronting the fact of a new international leader. The described factor of Belarus worked, and many other things that happened right before our eyes, and will continue to happen.

Behind all this amazement, everyone and at all levels has a pressing question: "What's next? What does the Russian political leadership intend to do? What are their next steps?" For the "partner" party involved, this is a matter of headaches, torment, doubts, and a sense of foreboding.

In the Russian open spaces, except for a narrow circle of initiates, this is an unforgettable feeling of the viewer in the first rows in front of the stage with the unfolding epochal world blockbuster, "a thing stronger than Goethe's Faust". For our perception, everything that happens is far from the first play that came from the pen of this venerable director, and the viewer is confident in the talent given to him by God, in his ability to delight and surprise.

But somewhere there is a carefully worked-out scenario for all event branches, and dedicated actors in the person of diplomatic and military departments play according to what is written. You can be sure that there are forces in the world that are ready to lay out mountains of gold or pile up mountains of corpses just to get a glimpse of it.

If we, without claiming to be the ultimate truth, try to look into these "sacred" pages with a creative insight that stands on a solid foundation of certain knowledge – will not the "Letter, and even more so the Spirit of Power" disappear from them? Would our "unlit presence in the halls of the Ark" do any harm? Will we expose our plans to the enemy? And now let's be serious, even though the pathos and significance of the current historical moment is off the scale.

Regarding all that is happening, one analogy from recent history cannot but come up. It looks to the east, to China, which by the will of historical fate and the current distribution of geopolitical forces shows us many similar things, Taiwan alone is worth a lot.

So, before Hong Kong returned to its mother's bosom, and China gained New Territories by 1997, this was preceded by long diplomatic negotiation rounds with Britain, which ended in no one knows what. In the memoirs of a prominent British diplomat, there is an amazing phrase like this: "Why did we do this! As soon as we sat down with them at the negotiating table, we already lost!"

Main recent central events in the light of the main geopolitical rule of our days

Yes, in our case, the "partners" were forcibly seated at the negotiating table by "military-technical" methods (by the way, a stunning term that received a new meaning thanks to our diplomats.) And then, of all the methods of coercion used then, this is the one on the surface, their spectrum was much wider. After all, by and large, globally, the United States did not want to talk to us, although stable contact continued at various military and, especially, intelligence levels.

And as soon as they did it, when they joined us in the negotiation rounds – they already lost, even though they didn't know it. Here, as always, the main geopolitical rule of our days, which RUSSTRAT repeatedly stated in its materials, worked. It has been strictly in effect since the year 15-16, since the removal of the planetary "anointing" for the implementation of the Globalisation Project from the United States.

Let us repeat ourselves, describing it, simplifying everything to clear images: the current geopolitical situation is such a moment in the struggle when the contending rivals are entwined in a tense ball and frozen in a fragile balance. Occasionally, an old and fat fighter starts twitching, trying to change something. He is spurred on by an angry thought: "Who is this guy anyway? Yesterday only barely alive dystrophy out of intensive care!"

A decrepit giant still lives in the old reality and cannot realise that the young one is already stronger and more resilient. Naturally, all his convulsive movements lead to the fact that it, gasping for breath, immediately finds itself in an undoubtedly worse position and even more squeezed.

This imaginative description of the situation applies to the West as a whole, and separately to the United States, because their weight and significance are rolling to the geopolitical margins. This is the main point of the real geopolitical balance of power – any escalation on the part of our partners turns out to be beneficial for us.

This was well demonstrated by the events in Belarus, and quite recently in Kazakhstan. Moreover, before both fights, there was a certain loosening of the grip on our side. Both with the presumptuous Lukashenko, who lost the coast in his two-vector nature, and some short-term cooling with the Kazakhs. A decoy with a weakened guard began to look like prey and was pecked at. Further fuss left no chance for anyone and only contributed to our strengthening and expansion.

And experts of the RUSSTRAT Institute have already noted this fact in their materials, for example, in the article "Russia has already split the united front of Western countries."

As soon as Russian special-purpose aircraft landed on the territories of Historical Russia under attack, the rhetoric of the top officials immediately changed, and they stopped talking and doing parochial nonsense. Behind them, a powerful, indestructible force rose up – the tentacle of the Russian state essence so darted towards the opponent and  put everything in its place.

And, for a better understanding, now we are not talking about military transport planes that transferred peacekeepers, especially to Belarus – it didn't come to that. He who has ears, let him hear.

Of course, in Kazakhstan the situation was even more multilevel and even paradoxical, but this is only a confirmation of the thesis that nothing in the world can be drawn only in black and white paint and there are dozens of halftones. There, having started a small-town fuss in the west, in the Younger Zhuz, the Americans only wanted to solve their problems locally, to loosen the grip of the powerful clan.

In the context of the global crisis and the shrinking food supply, pressure from the pro-government side was constantly growing on their oil and gas businesses. The same thing happened to everyone, repeated recent rent increases for Baikonur from the same opera.

Under the guise of this, many people decided to take advantage of it, there are a couple of each creature: pan-Turkists, Uyghur nationalists, Islamic radicals nurtured by the authorities (Yanukovich will not let you lie), clan groups with their contradictions. But the main actors who simultaneously lit everything all over the country, hiding behind the Americans, were the British with the Poles singing along. Yes, yes, do not be surprised - the Poles, this has already happened in the historical past on these lands, they sat here as advisers to the sultans.

What a familiar couple from Belarus. Thus, there is already a clear configuration of the main geopolitical rivals following the disappearing Uncle Sam into oblivion. We will help them become "the next to fade into oblivion".

The Americans were really angry with those who, under their cover, wanted to write everything off to them, and even plunge into chaos the territory in which they have an established profitable business. There was a long spanking of the guilty, and the political and financial corpses of bulldogs are still being swept out from under the carpet. Certain American financial and political circles were "in favour" with both hands when we sent the CSTO there. Under their pressure, almost everyone "sat in a big puddle", as if they had water in their mouths, during this unique operation.

Moreover, such actions of this sweet couple could not but affect the course of the current Russian-American negotiation process, and far from in the British-Polish favour, which we will definitely show later. Realpolitik is very different from the visible image.

As might be expected, we have only become stronger as a result of the commotion and direct British-Polish actions against our interests. After all, as life shows, it is impossible to circumvent the main geopolitical rule of modern history.

The underwater part of the iceberg of real politics

So it is in the topic of the US-Russian negotiations that we are discussing. We can only see the upper part of the iceberg, and realpolitik is hidden in the dark, and you need silence to achieve results there. And something is definitely starting to happen there, otherwise there would not have been any multi-day negotiations with senior representatives of the State Department, intelligence and other departments.

There would be no further high-level meetings. This is what the White House said openly through its clear-headed mouthpiece: everything that the Russians can say, what we agreed with them – is a lie. A kind of safety net if parts of the real agreements start to come out.

To hide the positions on which consensus has been reached, the parties organise a smokescreen of media rhetoric, often raising issues that lie far away. For Americans, this happens almost naturally, because almost all ideas about the actual state of affairs in their information bubble are far from reality. In our case, it is enough only to give out a real negotiation agenda in fragments.

Therefore, everything that we give out "on the mountain" in the analysed topic as a result of analysis is our assumptions with a certain degree of probability. Of course, a high probability consists of a number of indirect signs and certain markers. But even in multi-level counterplay to hide real results, you can set false signs and markers.

So, until a certain point, many experts, when assessing the current diplomatic tug of war, slid to a Ukrainian-centric view of everything. After all, the American side in the course of negotiations raised the degree of a mythical accumulation of troops, the concentration of which did not reach the previous level at all. The bar that was really raised to the skies by a concentrated fighting fist, which became one of the weighty arguments for the June Russian-American summit.

It is difficult to say whether the White House and the State Department played a coordinated game of "good and evil cop", inflating the negotiation rates, or whether it was a fuss of "Capitol towers". After all, some said one thing, that the Russians are about to attack such and such a number, others - exactly the opposite.

Given the general American discord with "a house that cannot stand, because it is divided in itself", the latter cannot be discounted. Nor can we discount the fact that this could be part of a smoke screen that has a real function.

It seems obvious that such actions from the other side of the "big puddle" were diligently trying to put a spoke in the wheels. After all, such a rise in degrees contributes to a certain cohesion in the Western ranks, allows to actively involve the same Europe, lowering its pain threshold. Because with the next partial or complete separation of the Russian Federation from the West, the main burden will fall on it.

On the other hand, such rhetoric nullifies any, even meagre, investment trickle for Ukraine and puts its financial ratings below the baseboard. As was stated on January 20 by the Director of the Open Markets Department of the National Bank of Ukraine Aleksey Lupin: "In foreign markets, the profitability of Ukrainian domestic government bonds has reached stressful levels. And, unfortunately, Ukraine has temporarily lost access to foreign capital markets."

And this already fits well into the outline detailed in the above-mentioned RUSSTRAT report on the unprecedented American pressure on the current Ukrainian authorities, which is undoubtedly a non-public part of our agreements. What should they do about them?

Turn on the full Soros artillery and hundreds of other NGOs in the direction of Zelensky, launch the Poroshenko landing force in the rear. This is a fixed fact. Presumably, to undermine the current Ukrainian government, remaining as if nothing to do with it. To help reformat it from post-Maidan to something new, where real pro-Russian forces will also be allowed.

Make every effort to complete the Minsk process, increasing pressure tenfold on all possible levels, including the indisputable "rule of law of the American embassy". This is a fact. Presumably, to worsen all economic indicators in order to lubricate these sledges rushing down the mountain for a guaranteed change of government. Isn't that what the Americans in Ukraine are doing right now? For what purpose?

And how else, without losing the "remnants of face", to fulfil the Russian demands in terms of strategic stability, where Ukraine is one of the red lines? Only such a reformatted Ukraine is capable of this. With the territories of the L/DPR included in it, which have the right of veto.

Moreover, the veto is not only on the mythical entry into NATO, but also on the deployment of any military infrastructure, any foreign command and others like them, including instructors. With the economic and cultural preferences assigned to these unrecognised republics.

What is it like for the rest of Ukraine, if the neighbouring regions of a single country can use cheap Russian resources, a huge market is open to them in the east, they can teach children Russian and Russian in schools, and they can do a lot of other things?

Many people will want to. And to accomplish all this, isn't the sword of Damocles that was hung over Ukraine in the form of a so-far mythical Russian invasion a good kick in this direction? Moreover, with a clear message that no one will fight for you.

It is clear that this is not the whole hidden part. There are also "military-technical" aspects of the underwater part of the iceberg. We'll talk about them separately below. Also, there is a suspicion based on extensive analysis, certain markers and a vision of the situation – there may be such a veiled area that is still generally aloof from everything discussed and analysed in the expert and journalistic environment.

With a certain degree of confidence, we can say that this is not even in the intelligence reports, that they are so vainly trying to "take a glimpse" of the existing scenario, even if the military-technical part of our answer is under lock and key for them.

This "area of light” (for the opposite side – "area of darkness") lies outside the existing negotiation tracks. On the contrary, all the diplomatic games we have started are, in the classic phrase of the Strugatsky brothers, "vanity around the sofa”. All of them are designed not only to distract from the main planned actions, but also to give carte blanche for their implementation. Let's take this step-by-step, while not missing out on the more mundane moves, if our premonition still doesn't come true.

The key point of the current diplomatic game

In the whole unprecedented game that we have started, the key point is that the tools we use are, so to speak, "one-time". You can publish correspondence and draft agreements on all tracks only once, you can't always swing such a “sword kladenets" at any big or small problem.

Or rather, you can, but then the meaning of the battlefield will smoothly flow from the battle arena to the circus arena, and all your armour will turn into clown attributes. Let's repeat – this is a one-time action of real negotiation rounds, in diplomacy it will not be possible to break the diplomatic canons forever. Because of Ukraine alone, no matter how important it is in every sense, no one will build such a garden. Ukraine is just one of the red lines. One. And not the most important one.

Of course, "sitting on the globe of Ukraine", you can reflect on the sharp decline in the importance of the hegemon, about the second Afghanistan for it, which will painfully hit the image in the event of its transition to the Russian sphere of influence. And even ostentatious military-forceful methods. But who can guarantee such consequences? Yes, painful, but not fatal, its vassals won't start running away yet.

On the contrary, in such a scenario, in the current paradigm, we will find a sharp cohesion of the West. There will be a shift to the background of all its contradictions, some of which we consciously nurture, and some of which we look at without even breathing, for fear of scaring or jinxing.

Of course, such a move is spelled out in one of the scenario branches, but "they will move a knight", according to the plans of the General Staff, only in certain, very narrow event frames. Or, as we noted in passing above, when the current paradigm will completely and radically change. This will only be possible if a "region of light" is used, which is safely hidden from everyone, like the luminous centre of our Galaxy, hidden by gas and dust clouds.

Now, on the contrary, all the existing rhetoric that "Russia is about to attack on Christmas, Christmas Eve, Epiphany or Valentine's Day" is designed to comb this abscess, to bind part of our forces so that it does not really bleed. It is not surprising that certain forces can take advantage of this option, especially with vague guesses about our agreements with the Americans.

Here again, the sweet couple of London and Warsaw pops up to the surface, who are fed up with everything that is happening. It is not for nothing that we hear from the Foggy Albion that Ukraine is now the "senior wife on call", the development of the situation around it is a key priority for the British Foreign Office.

It is not surprising that with serious provocations on the contact line, with our comprehensive smoothing of them and not going into a full-scale offensive, they will massively raise the "howl from the Dartmoor swamps" - everyone will shout, especially in the pseudo-patriotic environment.

Those who "not for a little bit, but at the behest of a narrow soul” will pick up the lamentations "Putin fled, betrayed, no longer the same, he’s old, a superstar, he’s scared, he screwed up... " and further along the entire spectrum, will not know that all the current moves are being made for the final repose of the enemy. This is the main conclusion that suggests itself from a comprehensive analysis of the tangle of actions and counteractions that is forming before our eyes - let's take the liberty of suggesting and stating this.

Take the same key point of the current diplomatic game discussed above. For whom are the lists "announced"? Why did the Kremlin take such an unprecedented step now? To show "the city and the world that we are all in white"? "Open peoples' eyes” to who is who? So in the Western information bubble, no one was going to and is not going to allow such a thing to be widely available, so, only in a very highly specialised segment, which everyone already understands.

To show the political classes in both camps: here, we have done everything we could, are we washing our hands of it? Partly so, but for the sake of such a small benefit, to take such a step that destroys diplomatic canons? Who needs it – both for the allies and for the waverers - and so they will convey what is necessary.

It can be argued that for the current ultimatum inflated requirements, presented as a "menu" and assuming refusal, then, after "we wash our hands of it", "I'm coming for you” should follow. So it most likely is. But where and in what area will this happen? Didn't Vladimir Vladimirovich surprise us, as well as the whole world, with his non-standard and asymmetrical answers?

There is a strong impression that the addressee, this mysterious "for whom", must be a third person. An actor who stands above the fight, as well as above most fights in general. An actor whose planetary field of activity we do not enter (yet we do not enter) and who was given certain guarantees. Everyone knows our leader's commitment to this word.

Many people feel that when they came to power, they were given certain guarantees - otherwise it was impossible, otherwise we would not have seen the current Russia. How can there be Russia in general, but there would be Muscovys, Tatars, Dagestans with Chechnyas and other Sibirias on the map. The guarantees given then are vaguely felt in the inviolability of some characters, as well as in the inviolability of the entire liberal economic course, the Central Bank will not allow you to lie. And the point here is not at all in the notorious Family, everything is much bigger.

Yes, there are forces that are above the fight. You can play any political games you want, you can change state borders, create camps and anti-camps. But you don't invade their matrix, which permeates the entire planet. All these games are inside it and don't destroy it. On the contrary, the more such near-political entropy, the more significant the overall output gesheft.

One can play well and earn money on all these squabbles, and this is far from the main thing that they are doing, at their levels there is a completely different perception of the world and assessments. And try it, jump out of this rushing train – you will be crushed and squashed, and the sea and rating agencies are just the tip of the iceberg. All countries and continents are woven into this matrix, just look at China with its pseudo-name of the political system, but complete dissolution in this planetary matrix.

In big real politics, signals are often sent that are veiled for the "media community", but obvious for the "right people". It can also be numerology, with reference to dates or numbers of something. It can be a place, a coincidence of the entourage, and many other things. The disclosure of the whole situation shows for such an actor that everything, the edge - "What should we do?" (V. Putin). This is a force majeure brought to light for ancient agreements, maybe not for these circles, but for us in the logic set out - for sure. This is a clear reason to break this word.

Let's try to explain why there is a good chance that this is the case, adding the arguments to the key point already outlined at the beginning of this chapter, or rather, one of them.

Final debriefing at all levels

At the diplomatic level

Everything that happens has many layers. If we take the usual diplomatic and negotiation cross-section and do not dig deep, we can state the unshakable rhetoric of all parties: we will not give up, we will overcome, we will "win" – real and potential allies in both camps should be confident and calm. At the same time, we see an unconditional increase in our status as one of the negotiators. We can see the interception of subpoenas on all tracks.

We already see certain advantages for the Russian Federation in terms of readiness to talk about those topics that were rejected for a long time and it was impossible to agree on them in principle. Such as: medium-and short-range missiles (IRNFT Treaty, INF Treaty), especially after the exit of Trump. Issues related to the reduction and normalisation of exercises. The reduction of non-nuclear weapons, which the entire NATO Secretary General suddenly started talking about.

Thus, being in this paradigm, it can be stated that all our actions led to the conclusion of the process to a completely different level. We will have a much more tangible result on certain positions than before such diplomatic know-how. That is, in simple terms: ask for more, then you will get something. But this is exactly the position that was ridiculed by Lavrov when a Ukrainian blogger asked him a question on the next approach to the press.

By the way, around the question itself and the identity of the questioner, interesting changes can also be observed here. After all, the minister, having heard that the question would be from a Ukrainian journalist, suggested that it would again be the notorious Mr. Tsymbalyuk. But the time of Russophobes at the animal level has passed, it’s not possible to live here, get real estate, sit on our heads and sling mud.

Moreover, you can't force such a person out of the crumbling, hated and uncivilised Mordor into the bright and developing Ukraine. It clung with hooked paws and even through the ECHR tried to stay in the unwashed and dirty heart of evil. A good marker that every pig will find its own garbage dump.

And the replacement is good for him. Anatoly Shary, one of the future candidates (along with Poklonskaya, as experts noted) for the presidential post of the reformatted Ukraine, asked Lavrov a question. Much is shown by this symbolic substitution. A replacement, albeit with a somewhat tarnished, from the point of view of the intelligent agencies, past, but there are no others there. The main thing is that they were able to foresee in time that it is not equal at all – to betray.

Well, he worked there for someone in this muddy post-Maidan water, comparable to our 90's. We have here in Russia, in our last Turmoil, those who worked for anyone – there was such a time in the absence of statehood. Now Anatoly is quite a promising politician, the founder of the party named after his beloved. Well, we prefer Oksana Marchenko for this post and, most likely, her star will still rise.

So, returning to our titan Lavrov, against the background of their Lilliputians, looking like a lump, blocking the horizon. Such a principle was ridiculed by them, called a primitive one-step, and further in meaning: here, we are there such a multi-level thing that is incomparable to anything at all.

That is precisely why it is impossible to approach our current game so flatly and measure it with the usual diplomatic approach. We have already gone beyond the diplomatic framework, we have already turned the board upside down, so the previous assessments will not work here.

On the military-technical level

"Military-technical means" sounded good from our lips, and our partners immediately began to raise the temperature around Ukraine. Then there was a casual, half-allusion: Cuba, Venezuela and also Nicaragua. In the Western media bubble, howls and lamentations: have they gone completely mad there, in Russia (the literal speech of several top news anchors)?

But keep in mind that most of this is just a smokescreen. If there are certain, not at all public agreements on all secondary signs, then no one will start some kind of missile bases in Cuba, Venezuela or anywhere else.

After all, we agree on something there, but markers pop up here and there. Here, they, for all their rhetoric, decided not to legislatively touch the "Stream" anymore. We here, the largest hacker networks working on American residents, denigrate. Those hackers were already "under the hood of Mueller", there "the case is clear that the case is dark" - but now it's their turn.

And if you look in the direction of the looming new "sweet couple"? Why is it that Gazprom so confidently attacked the Polish gas transmission company, which had previously confidently won all international arbitrations? Did he get some kind of carte blanche as a result of non-public agreements?

Therefore, "sticking such a rocket-powered knife in your partner's side" is not at all in this logic. Given the current state of affairs in the military-technical sphere, the submarine fleet is quite enough for us, our nuclear missile carriers are no longer reflected, a gun is held to the temple. We add hypersonic, Poseidons, and missile bombers, which have quietly approached the southern borders of the United States against the background of all these negotiations – all this is cheaper, it is not intercepted at the existing technical level, and we already have it.

Then in which direction can the response be directed by military-technical means? After all, clearly the actions, if any, will not be in the usual and predictable external directions. We do not take into account possible provocations in Donbass that are unprofitable for us. Let's look in a completely different direction, which is what the unpredictable answer suggests. Maybe someone will fall in the middle, who spited both us and the Americans in Kazakhstan? An interesting possibility is presented here.

Or near satellites such as Denmark, Norway, Iceland? Where is there an archipelago with an incomprehensible and floating status, before our next Turmoil that destroyed the country, which completely belonged to the Russian Empire? And in Britain itself, what? Isn't the "abscess of separatism maturing"? Why is it that the British Minister of Defence hastily went to Moscow, losing his slippers? There are a lot of questions, and we will get an answer to them in the near future.

Of course, we are not talking about a direct attack on these countries, we have a huge variability. Here recently, all the headquarters and intelligence services of the West did not have time to wipe the sweat from their foreheads, at the same time calming the trembling in their knees, tormented by the question - where are the whole 6 (six!) loaded to the brim with large amphibious assault ships of the Northern and Baltic Fleets. It seems to have been cleared up – in the Mediterranean for exercises.

One more of the hundreds of arguments for the post-Maidan Ukrainian elite to rest their hands and feet on not being drawn into provocations in Donbass, which will instantly burn them in the furnace of history – such a simple thing they should understand. But where will they go on the way back, when the attention to them will weaken many times? Maybe home, to places of permanent deployment, or maybe ... - wherever God sends... Anything is possible, and one shouldn't expect straight-forward moves, no matter how fantasy it may seem right now.

At the global level of the dollar matrix

But be that as it may, as we have already discussed above, the main moves can be made in a completely different area. We are talking about an existing matrix, written in dollar code, in the language of system administrators. Look, all the ongoing US-Russian diplomatic rounds are simultaneously being conducted on our part against the background of serious negotiations at the highest level with the largest global players.

Vladimir Putin's visit to India on December 6, 2021 for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two-day visit of President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ebrahim Raisi on January 19-20, and this is the first foreign trip of the newly elected leader. Talks with Chinese Leader Xi Jinping on February 4 in Beijing on the opening day of the Olympic Games and the signing of a wide range of Russian-Chinese agreements.

India, China, and Iran are by no means part of the Western camp and are not beneficiaries of the existing system. On the contrary, against the background of the application of sanctions, where the dollar acts as a weapon, they suffer only losses and inconveniences.

In all this negotiation pattern, one feels a reduction to a common position after our "we wash our hands of it" and a search for allies after saying "I'm coming for you". And this pattern with its weaving, apparently, rests on the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. That's where everyone could finally and irrevocably shake hands and say that "perestroika will be".

Will this result in a kind of proclaimed new union, a publicly announced configuration, supported by "legal thick texts" and an all-encompassing system of contracts? I don't think so, at least not yet. When the page of the old world is finally turned, then our countries will write a completely new legal history of mutual respect, which is not constrained by the old paradigm.

So what can Russia possibly do, with "its measly 2% of global GDP," as the neoliberal milieu likes to say? What leverage does it have? After all, we are not talking about military-technical methods, where we are already ahead of the rest of the planet. To answer this question, let's look back to the very recent past, literally in 2014. This is when the main geopolitical rule of modern history had not yet fully entered into force.

What was then one of the main identified defensive trends for Russia, which was gaining geopolitical weight and had become aggravated with the collective West? Let us recall together what Vladimir Putin said in his keynote speech in Yalta in August 2014. Before the deputies of the State Duma, members of the Federation Council, members of the government, the Prime Minister and heads of federal departments, it was stated that Russia aims to sell oil and gas for rubles, "although this is not an easy story”.

At the same time, as I recall, a similar initiative was made by VTB President and Chairman of the Management Board Andrey Kostin. And Comrade Kostin is “not just anyone", he is often the Kremlin's mouthpiece in the international financial sphere. It was he who was charged in the same year with the mission to mark our red line to the whole world that disconnecting from SWIFT would be tantamount to declaring war. Unlike today, we weren't ready for this at the time.

So, the head of VTB was asked in response to the sanctions of the European Union to transfer all payments for gas and oil in rubles of the Russian Federation, also with members of the Customs Union (CU EAEU) and with China. The main Russian companies that then had to switch to settlements in rubles at Kostin's suggestion were Gazprom, Rosneft and Rosoboronexport.

What is it but a threat? After all, this is exactly what was threatened at this difficult moment. Some, of course, due to misunderstandings or work, try to translate such actions either into the category of "impracticable wishlist, meaning nothing for the West", or to present "imperial attempts to amuse their vanity, who have little understanding of the economy". But this is a real threat. It is not for nothing that just recently we again heard from the president's mouth, literally in the sense: "Do you think it doesn't matter at all for the United States if we start selling oil for rubles? It’s very important indeed!"

Then it subsided imperceptibly in the global context. After the "next arrival of the next Kissinger", they agreed with us, apparently promising a lot in return, which at that difficult time was something very significant. And Comrade Kostin literally immediately started talking exactly the opposite. But the "Games are over" (V. Putin), the Winter Olympics have begun, time has made its next round, Russia has learned all the Crimean lessons.

To do this, our country has a whole pool of allies, where both some of the largest producers and the largest oil consumers are represented. The current global dollar system is going haywire. The energy sector is the area where it is already beginning to "tear off metal rivets from insanely applied pressure", from distributed trillions. This is what can become not even a straw, but a log that broke the spine of an Anglo-Saxon camel.