The new ‘silk road’, a rail link from China’s factories to heart of Europe
_{30 mrt 2014}

It is one of the world’s longest railways – an approximately 11,000-kilometre “modern-day silk road” that traverses Russia and Kazakhstan to link a megacity in the heart of China with a key commercial hub in western Germany. On Saturday, as part of his landmark visit to Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit the last stop on the “Yuxinou” rail line, an industrial feat that promises to revolutionise transport between Europe and Asia. (...)

• lagere transportkosten
• kortere reistijd

Jurgen Elsasser, German journalist and political analyst, Editor-in-Chief of the monthly Compact (highlights):

"... The locomotive of the EU economic growth - Germany - is weakened by the discussions about sanctions against Russia. Our exports to Russia and our trade were growing over the past several years, and now Americans are putting a break on this development that weakens Germany, and if Germany is becoming unstable, then weaker states, like Greece, Italy and Spain, will feel the negative impact, too. (...) The Americans are pushing very hard for these sanctions, Germany is trying not to give in too fast, but Britons are helping them and also some other states, for example, the Baltic states, even though those little states are dependent much more than Germany on Russian energy imports. So, in the core of the union you have the same split as in 2003 during the Iraqi war – Washington and so-called new Europe were united in waging war and the so-called old Europe around Germany and France were against it. And this kind of constellation comes back now in the discussion about the sanctions against Russia. (...) It has a double impact. The push of the Americans in the discussion about sanctions is on the surface directed against Russia. But in the distance, this policy will also weaken the Europeans and Europeans are regarded in the American view as the competitor, and you remember perhaps that strategic outline of Mr. Brzezinski who always advocated for splitting up Europe in different interest groups and states and that the first aim of the Americans is to prevent a united Europe, especially united Eurasia ...

BRON

Le véritable agenda d’Obama
_{par Manlio Dinucci, Tommaso di Francesc
27 mrt 2014}

La stratégie de Washington dans le cadre de la crise ukrainienne n’a rien �* voir avec ses objectifs affichés : il ne s’agit pas de repousser la Russie, mais d’utiliser celle-ci pour faire peur aux Européens et leur imposer �* la fois de s’impliquer plus dans l’Otan et de se fournir plus en hydrocarbures états-uniens. (...)