Thursday, June 18, 2015

GREECE SAYS "I WILL NOT PAY"

Submitted by: Donald Hank
 
It seems the Greek Parliament has decided that the Greek debt to the Troika (ie, IMF, or International Monetary Fund, ECB, or European Central Bank, and EU, which you know if you don't live in a cave) is illegal. That is big news because it could easily culminate in the dissolution of the EU (which would also affect the US economy deeply -- but would also help restore sovereignty to European nations groaning under the Brussels dictatorship). Here is the story
Why was I only a little surprised?
As I had said in the preface to a ZH article that I forwarded just today (last link below), the Greeks are owed several billion by the Germans due to an old war debt, although no one wants to talk about it. It seems a US controlled court declared this debt null and void just after WW II. No one can convince the Greeks that they owe the Germans one thin dime, and in a moral and ethical world, they don't. But even back then, the US government was arbitrarily deciding the fates of the world, and leaning a bit toward the fascists, as they are today in Ukraine.
So the Greeks are looking for a way out, any way at all.
Now, I just happen to be reading a Greek-language news report about a related item -- mostly just to practice my Greek. This report says that the Russian Minister of the Economy, Sergei Stortsak, has declared that unfortunately, Russia cannot help Greece financially out of its crisis because Greece is part of the EU and only the EU can be the primary lender. That in fact is the EU rule if I understand correctly.
But Stortsak did NOT say that only because it is true. He had an ulterior motive. In fact, Russia wants to apply pressure on Greece to exit the EU (so-called Grexit), and this is his way of applying pressure on Greece to default on its debt. In other words, Stortsak wants Greece to know that Russia is waiting in the wings to help but as long as Greece is part of the EU, that will be impossible. The help, incidentally, would most likely be an advance payment on construction of the Greek segment of the Turkish Stream. (The US is screaming to the Greeks not to allow this and wants to substitute a pipeline project of its own. The Greeks pretty much told the US to such eggs. Remember that Obama screamed at his "allies" not to join the AIIB, just before they almost all joined).
THEREFORE, what is the only option left for Greece at this point?
Why of course, default on the debt and exit the EU. It is an absolutely brilliant move on the part of the Kremlin and of Greek president Tsipras, who has just returned from a trip to the Kremlin.
Thus I think we can safely say that today's decision to declare the Troika debt "illegal" is a result of Greece's acceptance of the Russian offer, which as shown above, was phrased as a non-offer. But diplomats and readers of geopolitical clues know how to interpret the words of diplomats, don't we?
There is no "done deal" at this point, but the above is my analysis of events so far.

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