Until Joe Biden took office I thought that George W Bush had dibs on the “stupidest foreign policy blunder in history” award. His decision to invade Iraq rather than eliminate Al Qaeda hurt the United States and fueled international terrorism. But leave it to Joe Biden to one-up W by imposing sanctions on Russia that are inflicting an economic holocaust on the United States and Europe. Heck of a job, Joe.
The ostensible reason for “punishing” Russia with sanctions that actually pummel the west was Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Now we all know that Ukraine was/is the poorest nation in Europe. Right?
Ukraine is one of the worst off countries after the collapse of the USSR. It is the poorest country in Europe despite having a huge aerospace industry, natural resources and some of the most fertile land for agriculture. During the communist era, Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union. Despite all this, Ukrainians have experienced terrible famines such as the Stalinist Holodomor.
Today, the situation is not much better. Apart from enduring a war with Russia, its political system is particularly corrupt. Almost the entire economy is in the hands of big oligarchs: millionaires who amass fortunes thanks to their connections with political power.
Let me share with you some critical facts about Ukraine and its economic potential. When you consider these facts you will likely wonder why Ukraine is not one of the richest nations in Europe.
UKRAINE IS:
🌐 1st in Europe in proven recoverable uranium ore reserves;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in titanium ore reserves;
2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of world reserves);
The 2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);
2nd place in Europe in mercury ore reserves;
🌐 3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in terms of shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)
🌐 4th place in the world in terms of the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)
Ukraine is an important agricultural country:
🌐 1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
🌐 3rd place in the world by the area of chernozem (25% of the world volume);
🌐 1st place in the world in the export of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley export;
🌐 3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
🌐 The 4th largest potato producer in the world;
The 5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world for honey production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
🌐 16th place in the world in cheese exports.
Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.
Ukraine was an important industrially developed country:
🌐 1st in Europe in ammonia production;
The 2nd and 4th largest natural gas pipeline systems in the world;
🌐 3rd largest in Europe and 8th in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of the length of the railway network (21,700 km);
🌐 3rd place in the world (after the USA and France) in the production of locators and navigation equipment;
🌐 3rd largest iron exporter in the world;
🌐 The 4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
🌐 The world’s 4th largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
🌐 4th place in the world in clay exports;
🌐 4th place in the world in titanium exports;
8th place in the world in the export of ores and concentrates;
9th place in the world in the export of defense industry products;
🌐 The 10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).
I found this list stunning. A country with these natural riches should be on top of the world economically. But Ukraine lags the rest of Europe. The explanation is simple–western politicians and businessmen, such as Mitt Romney, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain and a legion of others, have their hooks in Ukraine and are expropriating Ukrainian wealth for their own enrichment.
Consider the fact that Ukraine is the 4th largest exporter of titanium. What are the major products that rely on titanium?
Aerospace industry–In western countries, such as the United States, 60% of titanium materials are used in the aerospace field. However, with the rapid development of Asian aerospace in recent years, the consumption of titanium in the aerospace field will increase accordingly.
Automobile industry–The preferred way to reduce the weight of automobiles is to replace traditional automotive materials such as steel with high-strength lightweight materials such as aluminum, magnesium, and titanium.
Medical industry—Titanium has a wide range of applications in the medical field. Titanium is close to human bones, has good biocompatibility to human tissues, and has no toxic side effects. Human implants are special functional materials that are closely related to human life and health. Compared with other metal materials, the advantages of using titanium and titanium alloys are mainly the following: lightweight, low elastic modulus, non-magnetic, non-toxic, corrosion resistance, high strength, and good toughness.
Chemical industry–Titanium has become one of the main anti-corrosive materials in chemical equipment and has established his corrosion resistance status in chemical equipment. As an ideal material in chemical equipment, titanium has also attracted more and more attention from engineering technicians.
Marine engineering—Titanium has excellent corrosion resistance to seawater and is widely used in seawater desalination, ships, marine thermal energy development, and subsea resource extraction.
Sports industry–Titanium is used in sporting goods because of its lightweight and high strength. The use of titanium has gradually expanded from the earliest tennis rackets and badminton rackets to golf heads, clubs, and racing cars.
With this bounty of natural resources Ukraine, in theory, should have been in the catbird’s seat and surpassed Germany as an economic powerhouse. But corruption and insider dealing took precedence and the Ukrainian people suffered while the Biden, Clinton, Kerry and Romney families enriched themselves.
I have not yet done the deep dive on the portions of Ukraine that produce these various minerals and chemicals, but I suspect much of the territory Russia is occupying in Ukraine is where many of these riches are located. Given what Putin has accomplished in Russia during the last 20 years in wresting monopoly control from the hands of insatiable oligarchs and well-connected western politicians and corporations, I am betting that those portions of Ukraine that are now positioned to become part of Russia will have a brighter, richer future.
This will only make Russia stronger economically. Matt Bowen and Paul Babbar, writing in The Hill, identify a potentially dire challenge the west faces on the nuclear power front:
Western leaders need to immediately consider their exposure to Russian nuclear exports and take steps to reduce it or face another energy shock at the hands of Putin.
There are several segments of the commercial nuclear value chain where a Russian supplier could impact the availability of a reactor in the West to provide power. For nuclear fuel, these include uranium mining and milling, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication. For existing Russian-designed reactors, they include providing unique original equipment manufacturer spare parts and services.
Russia has a significant market share in many of those pieces of the nuclear supply chain through its state-owned nuclear company Rosatom. For that reason, various countries around the world are caught in a challenging situation, including the U.S. They may want to extricate themselves from buying nuclear energy supplies from Rosatom to reduce supply chain risk and to stop sending money to Russia, but at the same time, they currently rely on Russian services and materials to run their reactors.
If you have labored under the false narrative that Russia is an economic midget trying to play with the so-called “first world big boys”, these facts show that you have been fed a massive, false narrative. Russia’s natural resources exceed those of Ukraine. A united Russia and Ukraine represents a true economic powerhouse. Those two countries actually make things and have the internal resources necessary to produce them. The United States and Europe do not. And there are no stashes of alternative supplies in other countries capable of replacing what Russia and Ukraine mine and harvest. This is why the United States and Europe are desperate to weaken Russia. The writing is on the wall for all to read.
The collapse of ukraine , even if it’s only the eastern part , would definitely hurt europe. But i do hope russia willing to go futher and finish the rest of ukraine by any means necessary. regime change might be cheaper than a direct war into western ukraine.
EU already a lost cause since their leaders totally unconcerned with european economy and european people. These are US dogs whose job is to do what US told them to. And civil insurrenction seem pointless and useless in europe , witness the yellow jacket crackdown in france , not a single major MSM coverage on the issue.
Let’s see if people in US still content with their govt , the disaster that’s biden’s administration and the same disaster from the republicans if they replace biden’s admin. Just how many americans still naively think the democrats and republicans are not the same coin ?
You seem to imagine that as this SMO progresses, the politics in the EU will remain static. The entire west, US/UK/EU, has bought or been bribed into Schwab’s WEF. This totalitarian, pyschotic attempt at world domination and the ensuing slavery has been stopped in its tracks so the pending European collapse will certainly result in a very angry and vengeful population. I guarantee you that within a year the politics in the west will have changed beyond recognition and the present clique of satanic cretins, masquerading as politicans, will be a remote lamppost memory.
Speaking as an American citizen totally disgusted with our corrupt, inept and immoral government, I certainly hope you are right. As yet however, I see no one leading the charge. Trump had the opportunity but squandered it and he is still pushing the “safe and effective” Covid “vaccine” that is killing people by the tens of thousands, so he is NOT the person to change things.
EU population rise up ? one need spine and sacrifice to rise up against vassal govts in EU and by the looks of it they dont have any. Look at the couragous yellow jacket protests , they are not covered by media therefore there’s no protest in france.
so naive to think western european population can rise up in protest economic problems..
“These [European leaders] are US dogs whose job is to do what US told them to.”
Europeans have been, and I am sure still are,
quite capable of opposing the U.S. when they so choose.
As a notable example, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pershing_II#Protests
Fantastic post. I knew Ukraine was a breadbasket and rich in commodities but not the full scope of its riches. That makes the corruption there doubly tragic.
One nit, Bush invading Iraq wasn’t a blunder. It was the plan from the beginning. 911 just served the purpose of setting the mood of the electorate so they world care when he lied about WMD.
The Ukraine is almost as corrupt as the U.S.
And how corrupt is Russia?
Not as corrupt as the United States. Joe Biden, case in point. Why do you worry about corruption in Russia? You live in the United States. Worry about your own glass house before throwing rocks at others. Hypocrite.
Impressive article. Thank you Larry.
Spot on LJ.
It’s always, at the end of the day, about wealth, and power, and natural resources (control of which can aid in the accumulation and preservation of the first two). Two time Medal of Honour winner, “Old Gimlet Eye” knew what he was talking about.
One thing folks don’t focus enough on, I don’t think, is how demographics plays into all of this.
So with a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 1.23 – and that’s pre-Covid – Ukraine was going only one way. Various day toons of 0.1%ers (or even more exclusive cohorts) were likely salivating at the prospect of purchasing and controlling all those natural resources, and having you polloi literally work the farm for them.
*hoi polloi
Regarding George W Bush, Martin Armstrong often tells that he was routinely asked to interview presidential candidates but was told that Bush was different. When he asked why, he was told that Bush was really stupid. So why would they want someone stupid to be President? Because he had the name! So just like Biden is just a puppet that will sign whatever is put in front of him, under Bush was it not neocon Dick Cheney who ran the show?
Regarging sanctions, the insane violations of international law regarding robbing private assets of individual Russians has very serious implications for the public going forward. In this blog post, Armstrong gives historical context to this kind of behavior.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/robbing-russians-you-are-next/
In the modern day, Mel Brooks beat reality to the punch, foresaw the likes of Bush and Biden with his portrayal of Governor Le Petomane in his incomparable film, Blazing Saddles. With out a doubt the most uproarious film I have ever seen, and the only one in which I literally slid out of my theatre seat from laughing so long and hard.
“I found this list stunning”
Sorry – I find this list pretty ordinary for such a massive country.
The food potential is important – though the 600 million figure sounds exaggerated – I certainly doubt it could supply 600 million westerners with the grain needed to supply our current meat expectations.
This is the first half of the 21st century where quality employees are far more important than land and western populations are falling. The fight between EU and Russia is over all the young (white) emigrants.
Demographics are indeed an important factor, but I don’t think the armed conflict is due to disagreements or fights over (white) emigrants.
There is the military component – potential for arms/missiles in Ukraine that could be targeted at Moscow and other cities (esp. hypersonics).
And then there is the economic component – western companies coveting ownership/control of the natural resources of Ukraine, including very fertile agricultural land.
Remember, grain also feeds cattle, chickens, etc.
I thought we’re gonna eat bugs, and free range cattle and chickens shouldn’t get fed grains… /sk
“The fight between EU and Russia is over all the young (white) emigrants.“
Fiction. A key reason for brexit was the flood of Eastern European immigrants into the U.K.
Europeans remain extremely nationalistic, they would rather have little England be English with half its population than have a bunch of Eastern Europeans driving down plumbing prices and speaking those funny languages.
And it’s not just European populations falling. Population is falling globally, in Africa massively decreasing rate of growth as women get more educated. But don’t worry. The US has successfully implanted female uterus in male monkey and is waiting for right time to implant uterus is human male. Technology is there. Just need social conditioning. Soon men will be popping baby’s till Timbuktu. First up will be white Western male to top up the 1bn white population by transitioning and getting wombs. So don’t worry. Whites are safe.
Also the term “white” is misleading. Slavs are European-Mongolian mixes and looked at as second class by a significant number of Western European.
In a video message Zelensku said they will take back Crimea by force. This what you get for voting a tv comedian. Obvious it can only end 1 way. Ukraine is protected by many rivers, it will be a challenge.
Ukraine is rich in resources and a in an unique positing being trading partner with EU, Russia and also China. If you ask me the EU with the US tried to steal Ukraine. They do what they always do, make it go bakrupt, give a bag og money for reforms. Wgich is turning into a pro-western country. After some time Ukraine would integrate with the EU and NATO. Do you really think if that happened there would be no economical war against Russia and China? This economical war was already planned and would happen anyway. With Ukraine the west would become more self-sufficient. And a huge loss for Russia and China. This theft was never going to happen.
The London Economist paints a sobering picture of Ukraine debt :
It will be hard for Ukraine’s economy to sustain a long war
https://archive.ph/efrxE
“The World Bank has predicted that Ukraine’s GDP will shrink by perhaps 45% in 2022.”
It all adds up to a financing gap of around $5bn every month. That is roughly 5% of Ukraine’s depleted GDP for every month that the war goes on.
So Ukraine is living day-to-day on US, EU debt, which it never can pay back. The US is funding Kiev’s expenditures, not income tax, with US loans.
Before the war Ukraine had a government deficit of less than 3% of GDP last year. Its debt on the eve of the war stood at just under 50% of GDP, a number that most finance ministers can only dream of.
And even more sobering :
https://mind.ua/en/publications/20242344-serhiy-marchenko-the-military-budget-makes-up-three-quarters-of-the-entire-budget-of-ukraine
Even more sobering, the mother of all hangovers :
Five U.S. Megabanks Have Lost $300 Billion in Market Cap in One Year; Crypto Is in Meltdown this Morning; and the Fed Will Hike Rates Further on Wednesday
https://wallstreetonparade.com/2022/06/five-u-s-megabanks-have-lost-300-billion-in-market-cap-in-one-year-crypto-is-in-meltdown-this-morning-and-the-fed-will-hike-rates-further-on-wednesday/
The red numbers there make Ukraine’s look like monopoly money!
These economic crashes are fake Ish.
Covid meant over 2 trillion dollars moved from middle class to the rich.
The middle class is the greatest intellectual, numerical and financial threat to the super rich. The poor are not really much threat.
These crashes so called are going to move another 2 or 3 trillion from middle class to the rich.
Crypto is and has always been correlated to equities, no surprise it’s going down with them.
What we are seeing, watch it happen globally, is the decimation, financially, intellectually and in terms of voice, of the middle class. All that is moving higher up the chain.
Exactly where in the Ukraine are the important, valuable mineral supplies/mines? Could it be in the Eastern Ukraine, the Donbass, LNR, DNR? I found these
Total Prospects Occurrences Plants Producers
Dnipropetrovsk 5 – – 1 4
Kiev 1 – – – 1
Kiev City 1 – – – 1
Luhansk 1 – – – 1
Odessa 1 – – 1 –
Transcarpathia 1 – – – 1
Zaporizhzhya 2 – – – 2
Zhytomyr 1 – – – 1
Veeeery interesting. Thank you, Larry.
Plus its a clearing house for gift and money laundering. Also the main hub for child sex trafficking.
The crazies would rather go WW3 than have their secrets exposed to the world
When we wreck a country, we always find someone else to blame. We will blame it all on the few years Viktor Yanukovych was in office.
Ukraine has over 70bn in Western debt in less than a decade, it produces raw material and food like Africa and does not have the economies of scale to end product.
Eg. just like, Cocoa from Africa bought cheaply by western owned plantation using child labor, sold in dollars then as expensive Swiss chocolate. Kenyan coffee rebranded in Italy though there is in reality no such thing as Italian coffee.
The countries that produce raw materials are not rich. They just have the capacity to be self sufficient in those materials.
The money lies in the production process and intellectual property.
Aspirin is stolen. It uses a plant discovered by native Americans to reduce pain. But turning a free plant into a concentrated tablet was a good trick.
Other than steel mills, ukr never developed capacity to end product nor created the economic conditions to do so.
Difference with Russia is that Russia has more raw to final product chains and its discarding of IP and patent protection means it can create more internally.
Open question to anyone…
The only descriptive statistics I’m interested in, is how much does Russia wind up controlling (in natural resources and industry) after they take everything from Kharkiv, Donbass, the whole south of the Ukraine finishing with a land bridge to Transnistria?
Cause given the blood and treasure the Russians have already spent, they will not stop until that has been completed, imo.
Eastern Ukraine has 60% or so of Ukraine’s total (energy , raw material and agriculture product.)
So Russia has the bulk of Ukrainian assets in territory under its control.
As China remarked on RT, Ukraine will be one of the richest countries in the word, joining up with East-West and North-South economic platforms, OR there will be no humans left on the planet. It is obvious to even a D.C. knuckledragger, that Mariupol is key!
Mistake, Kantian can’t do it parroting, is to look at Ukraine – as the thing IN ITSELF.
So instead of the CAN’T DO IT (from Edgar Poe’s Melanta Tauta, the greatest American Poet) cut it out!
This ukraine debacle reminds me of the fate of Athens who foolishly send expeditionary forces into sicily and lost everything including their own nation in the end. The so called Democratic Athens was only “democratic” in local issues and acted like empire in their foreign dealings.. With their naval supremacy diminished due to defeat at sicily athens lost their hegemonic influence in the region.
another Naval superpower and trading empire with strong military forces in mediterrania is the Carthaginian Empire. Their supremacy in naval power are second to none and their expeditionary armies supplemented with numerous foreign mercenaries wreak havoc in the region. Alas a confrontation (also in sicily) with an upstart roman republic (land force with no naval power) resulted in defeat and the mercenaries rebelled when carthage refused to pay their salaries further weakening tne empire. Alas , the upstart romans in time build naval force of their own and surpass the declining carthagenian navy , and the subsequent conflict with rome reduce carthage to dust.
US is the modern carthage , overextended , once powerful nation , weakened by internal problem and irresponsible economic decisions. China and Russia , already stronger economically and militarily , will be the hammer that will be used to punish decadent sodom and gomorrah of the United States.
LJ’s excellen description of the richness of ukraine and the backwardness of the nation only shows one thing , the problem is the govt and the people. It is like an irresponsible person who was gifted a richly furnished house and lots of money .. And yet the only thing in his mind is to sell everything in the house to strangers for quick profit. Because he didnt earn the house , because he is greedy , because he is irresponsible.
“In the 1990s, Ukraine was positioned to become one of the most prosperous European countries and the leading bridge between East and West. The nation was endowed with a strong and talented people, a powerful economy, strategic geographic location and abundant resources. The only thing needed for prosperity was to maintain her neutral status, but instead corrupted local politicians and powerful outside forces in Washington and Brussels had other ideas and chose to drag Ukraine into NATO almost immediately after gaining its independence.
The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians were against joining NATO but US, Canada, many European countries, and George Soros directed huge amounts of money to reforming their minds, including orchestrating Orange and Maidan revolutions, and to the point of February 2014 coup to overthrow a legitimate president who tried to keep the balanced East – West policy. ”
Read the whole thing.
https://newkontinent.org/a-russian-in-search-of-western-values/#
A clever commenter aptly dubbed Ukraine an “ATM” for corrupt pols.