On the Cusp of Major Change

by Stephen Lendman

On September 27, the 5th and final day of referendum voting to join Russia is taking place in Donbass and Kherson/Zaporozhye Regions.

After 4 days of voting, Russia declared ongoing referendums valid after turnout cleared the 50% level across the board.

Through Monday, turnout was as follows:

In Donetsk, it's 86.89%.

In Lugansk: 83.61%.

In the Kherson Region: 63.58%.

In the Zaporozhye Region: 66.43%.

During his September 21 address to the nation, Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia will respect referendum results.

Over the weekend, Sergey Lavrov said what's indisputable.

Residents where referendums are being held have the UN Charter right of self-determination.

Russia will respect their will.

Continuing what began in April 2014 — after the Obama/Biden regime's Kiev coup — US-supported Ukrainian Nazis have been terrorizing Donbass residents while referendum voting is ongoing.

According to Donetsk City Mayor, Alexey Kulemzin, on Monday:

"There were 115 attacks on the city of Donetsk over the past three days" by Ukrainian Nazis — their Pentagon and CIA handlers choosing targets to strike.

Over 100 foreign observers from about 40 nations are witnessing democracy in action referendum voting and efforts by Kiev to disrupt it by intimidation, threats and terror-strikes on residential areas.

Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) observers are witnessing the same thing. They include Russian lawmakers.

Voting is scrupulously open, free and fair. 

Brazilian observer, journalist Enrique Dominguez, spoke for other foreign monitors, saying the following:

"We saw how well the referendum was organized."

"People working on this referendum are very well prepared and take this job very seriously."

On September 19, days before voting began, an Institute of Social Marketing telephone survey of 4,000 respondents showed the following results:

91% of Donetsk residents support accession to Russia.

In Lugansk, it's a 90% majority, and in Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, it's 80%.

When voting is completed and results announced, Russian lawmakers and Kremlin authorities will officially approve accession of the above regions into the Russian Federation.

It'll likely happen on or about September 30, and make no mistake.

What's coming is already a major game-changing event.

When occurs, Russia's liberating SMO will be all about defending its new sovereign territory.

Any attacks on them will be strikes on the Motherland.

Most likely they'll continue so Russia will respond defensively — most likely without restraint it's displayed so far.

Whatever threatens Russian security will be fair game to strike, including infrastructure facilitating Kiev's aggression, as well as key command and control centers in which Pentagon and CIA operatives are directing the regime's cross-border state terror.

The Kremlin may formally shift from a limited SMO to a declaration of war on the scourge of Nazified Ukraine.

Noted analyst, Larry Johnson, made the following observation, saying:

The US-dominated West "no longer has the industrial base to match Russia's" ability to produce as much weaponry, munitions and equipment  as needed for its campaign as long as it continues.

"(S)hort of nuclear war, (US-dominated NATO) has no viable options (to defeat) Russia in Ukraine," Johnson stressed.

He posted the following assessment of reality by Britain's Royal United Services Institute, "the UK's leading defense and security think tank," saying the following:

"(I)ndustrial warfare (requires) massive consumption of (weapons), equipment, vehicles…ammunition," and means of resupplying as much more as needed.

Arming, feeding and supplying Russian and Ukrainian forces "is a monumental task."

Kiev faces the reality of Russia's ability to conduct precision strikes on targets anywhere on its territory — a huge advantage it enjoys.

"This reality should be a concrete warning to Western" regimes.

They "scaled down (their) military industrial capacity and sacrificed scale and effectiveness for efficiency."

"This strategy relies on flawed assumptions about the future of war, and has been influenced by both the bureaucratic culture in (the US-dominated West) and legacy of low-intensity conflicts." 

"Currently, the West may not have the industrial capacity to fight a large-scale war."

Since the US 2014 Kiev coup — especially since Russia's SMO began — US/Western regimes have been "decreasing (their) artillery (and other) ammunition stockpiles" to feed Kiev's war-making machine for perpetual proxy war on Russia and Donbass civilians.

And by subordinating their sovereign rights to a higher power in Washington, Britain, France, Germany and other European regimes are facilitating their own economic collapse.

As fall heads toward winter, hard times will likely get significantly harder if their ruling authorities stick to their self-destructive course.

Mainly because of high energy and other commodity costs, producer prices in Germany have been rising at a rate of nearly 100% annually.

A number of German industrial companies shifted facilities to the US as a cost-savings measure.

Others risk insolvency. According to Germany's Bundesbank, its central bank:

The nation is heading toward a "broad-based and prolonged decline in economic output" this fall and winter.

Other European economies face a similar bleak outlook.

So does the US ahead as Paul Craig Roberts explained, saying:

Fed policy is doing more to fuel inflation than fight it.

It's "causing prices to rise by further reducing supply" — beyond damage from destructive lockdowns and unparalleled sanctions war on Russia.

If deepening hard times fuel greater public anger in Europe than already, will their ruling regimes stay allied with US war on Russia or break away to avoid greater economic decline and more widespread outrage?

The longer Europe bends to the will of its US master, the sooner their member-states will become thirdworldized economic backwaters.

So far, their policies have been self-destructive.

Will they keep self-inflicting harm or break from the US on Russia to save their economies from collapsing ahead?