The Strategic Shift Inherent in Putin's 'Sputnik Shock'

In a statement issued at the end of last week, Helga Zepp

LaRouche addressed what she called a "new Sputnik shock,"

delivered by Russia's President Putin. Zepp LaRouche wrote, "In

a trans-Atlantic atmosphere of hysteria against Russia and China

that can only be understood as pre-war propaganda, President

Putin dropped a bombshell in his annual State of the Union

address which has redefined the strategic balance. He announced

that Russian forces had acquired weapons based on new physical

principles, including a new intercontinental missile capable of

moving at 20 times the speed of sound, with excellent

maneuverability.... These new systems, which include

nuclear-propulsion cruise missiles, fast submarine drones and

laser weapons, were Russia's answer to the unilateral termination

of the ABM Treaty by the U.S. in 2002, and the launch of the

global U.S. missile defense system. Since then, all negotiations

have fallen on deaf ears...." Putin emphasized in his speech:

"Nobody wanted to listen to us. So listen now."

She continued: "The response from the Western media and

politicians ranged from attempts to ridicule Putin's new arsenals

as technologically impossible, mere pre-election bluster -- to

concerns about a new arms race, as if one were not already long

in progress, thanks to NATO's eastward expansion.

"These responses once again reflect the fact that adherents

to neo-liberal dogma can only see the world through their

geopolitical concave glasses, and they obviously underestimate

Russia's military science capabilities, just as they

underestimated the dynamics of China's New Silk Road for years."

As Mrs. LaRouche indicates, the strategic situation is

moving very rapidly, with real prospects for mutually beneficial

relations, if the efforts to define relations in terms of British

geopolitical dogma can be cast aside, and replaced by the

"win-win" approach of China's President Xi. One striking example

of this potential was the announcement Tuesday by South Korean

officials, following talks with their North Korean counterparts,

that the North is offering to freeze its nuclear missile

programs, and open talks with the United States -- a development

which, if followed through, demonstrates how the dynamic of the

New Paradigm is replacing the confrontational approach of the

Western unilateralists.

Join Mrs. LaRouche this Thursday for the full implications

of the changing global strategic geometry.