In this article he not only provides information about the new Arctic Silk Road project, but provides a sort of progress report on the other aspects of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the reasons why China and Russia are pushing it. The BRI is a global network transportation system using high speed rails and sea lanes.
Saudi Arabia Begins System Reform by Petr Lvov from New Eastern Outlook.
Speculations are heating up everywhere as to the significance of this happening and the eventual outcomes. Pepe Escobar recently reported:
The Saudi “anti-corruption” crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), which initially netted 11 princes and a few dozen ministers and former ministers, has caught up with hundreds of businessmen, who are being detained in the luxurious Ritz Carlton and other hotels in Riyadh. The Wall Street Journal reports the Crown Prince is targeting an astonishing $800 BILLION in assets believed to be held in 1,700 frozen bank accounts.In this report by Lvov he goes into considerable detail in some places. For example, about the inter-clan politics and feuds, which boggled my mind and I skipped over most of it to find what interested me. There certainly is little coverage provided by Western media.
There is no escape for the Saudis in any case – in the regional rivalry with Iran, they will almost certainly lose in the current situation precisely because of their obsolescence, inflexibility and deadlock in development. With today’s developments, it will be increasingly difficult for Saudi Arabia to compete with Iran, and the internal problems caused by the artificial inhibition of the development of society are already excessive. In a sense, Wahhabism is re-experiencing the fate of Soviet ideology. Wahhabism also inhibits development. However, the main thing is that it does not respond to contemporary challenges at all, and the niche is beginning to fill with ideas that are far divorced from the Saudi interests. Here, the Islamic state for the lower classes, and the shine of Western liberalism for the upper strata, the contradictions are mounting, and will inevitably tear apart the Saudi society if it does not offer a different alternative that suits the majority. The question is, can this young and ambitious Mohammad [Defense Minister and heir to the throne, Mohammad Bin Salman] pull all these strings into place?
