Day: September 15, 2023

Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said the country is in talks with Russia about a second nuclear plant, and with China for a third one – and has also held out the ambition of adding 5 GW of small modular reactor (SMR) capacity to the country’s energy system by 2050.

In an update on the state of talks about Turkey’s plans for more new nuclear energy, to follow the Akkuyu nuclear power plant currently under construction, Bayraktar said: “We have reached a very important point in the nuclear power plant negotiations with China, we need to finalise this within the next few months.”

He added: “Our negotiations with the Russians for the second nuclear power plant planned, in Sinop, are continuing. We are also in contact with South Korea. Turkey’s priority in this regard is more technology transfer and localisation.”

In the statement, which was posted on X, formerly Twitter, the minister said that discussions about SMRs continued, with the aim of adding 5 GW of capacity by 2050 – which would mean a total of at least 16 individual  SMRs.

According to Russia’s Tass news agency, Bayraktar also told a news briefing that Rosatom “has huge experience acquired at Akkuyu NPP … its partners in this project, its contractors have an advantage as they know how to construct a nuclear power station in Turkey”.

“We are at the stage when we are in negotiations with all interested sides. Of course, we would like to get a higher bid in terms of higher localisation as we reached certain localisation in the Akkuyu project. We want to get higher localisation in the second and third projects,” Tass reported him as adding.

Meanwhile at the existing nuclear power plant project at Akkuyu, concreting of the foundation has been completed in the turbine hall building of the second power unit. Rosatom said that “a modern vibration isolation system was used, an important part of which are spring blocks … designed to separate the foundation slabs of the turbine hall building and the turbine unit, increase the level of seismic resistance, and also to minimise vibrations during the operation of the turbine unit”.

The Akkuyu plant, in the southern Mersin province, is Turkey’s first nuclear power plant. Rosatom is building four VVER-1200 reactors, under a so-called BOO (build-own-operate) model. Construction of the first unit began in 2018. The 4800 MWe plant is expected to meet about 10% of Turkey’s electricity needs, with the aim that all four units will be operational by the end of 2028.

Earlier this year Bayraktar said the country wanted to speed up efforts on the planned second nuclear power plant, in Sinop, and a third plant in the Thrace region, in the country’s northwest, and that he wanted the country to have installed nuclear capacity of 20 GW by the 2050s.

India being the host country, the triumphalist tom-toming that G20 summit on September 9-10 was a “success” is both understandable and probably justifiable. Certainly, Indian diplomacy was in full cry. The negotiation of the G20 Declaration is no mean achievement in a highly polarised environment.

That said, in a forward-looking perspective, the geopolitical factors that were at work in the Delhi summit will continue to remain the critical determinants for the G20’s future as a format to forge new directions in economic strategies. In a world torn apart, many imponderables remain. 

The geopolitical factors can be attributed largely to the fact that the G20 summit took place at an inflection point in the Ukraine war, an event that is, like the tip of an iceberg, a manifestation of the tensions building up between the Western powers and Russia in the post-cold war era.

The heart of the matter is that the Cold War ended through negotiations but the new era was not anchored in any peace treaty. The void created drift and anomalies — and security being indivisible, tensions began appearing as the NATO embarked on an expansion eastward into the former Warsaw Pact territories in the late 1990s. 

With great prescience, George Kennan, the choreographer of Cold War strategies, forewarned that the Bill Clinton administration, seized of the “unipolar moment,” was making a grave mistake, as Russia would feel threatened by NATO expansion, which would inexorably complicate the West’s relations with Russia for a long, long time to come. 

But NATO kept expanding and slouching toward Russia’s western borders in an arc of encirclement. It was an unspoken secret that Ukraine was set to become ultimately the battleground where the titanic forces would clash. 

Predictably, following the regime change in Ukraine backed by the West in 2014, an anti-Russian regime was installed in Kiev and the NATO embarked on a military build-up in that country alongside a concerted plan to induct it into the western alliance system. 

Suffice to say, the “consensus” evolved at the G20 summit last week regarding Ukraine war is, in reality, a passing moment in the geopolitical struggle between the US and Russia, as embedded within it is the  existential crisis Russia faces. 

There is no shred of evidence that the US is willing to concede the legitimacy of Russia’s defence and security interests or to give up its notions of exceptionalism and world hegemony. If anything, a very turbulent period lies ahead. Therefore, do not exaggerate the happy tidings out of the Delhi summit, much as one may savour the moment. 

Washington’s climbdown at the summit regarding Ukraine has been both a creative response to the mediatory efforts by the three BRICS countries — South Africa, India and Brazil — as much as, if not more, in its self-interest to avert isolation from the Global South. 

Evidently, while Moscow is profusely complimenting India and Modi, the opposite is the case in the western opinion where the compromise on Ukraine has not gone down well at all. The British newspaper Financial Times, which is wired into government thinking, has written that Delhi Declaration refers only to the “war in Ukraine,” a formulation that supporters of Kiev such as the US and NATO allies have previously rejected, as it implies both sides are equally complicit, and “called for a ‘just and durable peace in Ukraine’ but did not explicitly link that demand to the importance of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.” 

Indeed, feelings are running high and, no doubt, as the Ukraine war enters the next brutal phase, they will boil over at the prospect of a Russian victory.  

Again, there is no question that the West feels challenged by the dramatic surge of BRICS — more to the point, the group’s seductive appeal among the developing countries, the so-called Global South, unnerves the West.

The West can never hope to gain entry into the BRICS tent, either. Meanwhile, the BRICS is moving with determination in the direction of replacing the international trading system which provided underpinning for western hegemony. The US’ weaponisation of sanctions — and the seizure of Russian reserves arbitrarily — has created misgivings in the minds of many nations.

Plainly put, the US has forgotten its solemn promise when dollar replaced gold as the reserves in the early 1970s that its currency will be freely accessible for all countries. Today, the US turned that promise upside down and exploits dollar’s primacy to print the currency as much as it wants and live beyond its means.

The growing trend is toward trading in local currencies, bypassing dollar. The BRICS is expected to accelerate these shifts. Make no mistake, sooner or later, BRICS may work on an alternative currency to replace dollar.

Conceivably, therefore, there will be western conspiracies to create dissonance within BRICS, and Washington is sure to continue to play on India’s disquiet over China’s towering presence in the Global South. While exploiting Indian phobias regarding China, the Biden administration also looks toward Modi government to act as a bridge between the West and the Global South. Are such expectations realistic? 

The current developments in Africa with a pronounced anti-colonial, anti-western overtone, directly threaten to disrupt the continued transfer of wealth out of that resource-rich continent to the West. How can India, which has known the cruelty of colonial subjugation, collaborate with the West in such a paradigm?

Fundamentally, all these geopolitical factors taken into account, G20’s future lies in its capacity for internal reform. Conceived during the financial crisis in 2007 when globalisation was still in vogue, G20 is today barely surviving in a vastly different global environment. Added to that, the “politicisation” (“Ukrainisation”) of G20 by the Western powers undermines the format’s raison d’être. 

The world order itself is in transition and the G20 needs to move with the times to avoid obsolescence. For a start, the G20 format is packed with rich countries, most of whom are pretenders with little to contribute, at a juncture when the G7 no longer calls the shots. In GDP terms or population, BRICS has overtaken G7. 

Greater representation of the Global South is needed by replacing the pretenders from the industrial world. Second, the IMF needs urgent reform, which is of course easier said than done, as it involves the US agreeing to give up its undue privileges of vetoing decisions it disfavours for political or geopolitical reasons — or, plainly, to punish certain countries. 

With IMF reform, the G20 can hope to play a meaningful role focused on creating a new trading system. But the West is playing for time by politicising the G20, paranoid that its 5-centuries old dominance of the world economic order is ending. Unfortunately, visionary leadership is conspicuous by its absence in the Western world at such a historic moment of transition. 

As far as India is concerned, the main challenge is two-fold: commitment to the uplift of the Global South by making it a central plank in its foreign-policy priorities and secondly, perseverance in follow-up of what it espoused during the G20 summit deliberations. 

Herein lies the danger. In all probability, with the G20 Leaders gone from Indian soil, Delhi may revert to its China-centric foreign policies. India’s commitment to the cause of the Global South should not be episodic. Delhi is wrong to assume it is a Pied Piper. 

Such a mindset may work in Indian politics — for sometime at least — but the Global South will see through our mindset and conclude that India is only helping itself in its frenzy to carve out a place for itself at the high table of world politics. 

Put differently, Modi government must ask itself not what the Global South can do for boosting India’s international standing but, genuinely, what it can do for the Global South.

This article was published at Indian Punchline

The fundamental political and ideological confrontation in Russia remains the same as it was in the late 1980s, a confrontation between a new nationalism represented by Mikhail Gorbachev and an old-style nationalism embodied by Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Pastukhov says.

“You can hate Putin and Yeltsin as much as you like but still find yourself in the same ideological boat with them,” the London-based Russian analyst says. And consequently, it must be recognized that “exiting this crisis will inevitably means a return to Gorbachev’s position, cleansed of the hesitations and errors of his period” (echofm.online/opinions/neskolko-tezisov-o-gorbachyove).

According to Pastukhov, Gorbachev can be understood only in conjunction with Yeltsin. In fact, “contrary to popular belief, Gorbachev became a real revolutionary while remaining a conservative to the end of his days, while Yeltsin played a counter-revolutionary role, although he gained fame as the destroyer of the old and creator of the new.”

Most people think the real revolution took place in 1991, but that is wrong, the London analyst says. “The real revolution took place in Russia in 1989.” Gorbachev launched it but couldn’t control it. “In 1991 and 1993, two successive counter-revolutionary coups took place, the result of which was the establishment of a mixed (hybrid we would not say) regime.”

That regime, Pastukhov continues, “combined state authoritarianism with a free and fairly liberal economy. Unlike Gorbachev, Yeltsin not only rose to the top of the counter-revolutionary wave but succeeded in passing on his place by inheritance” to Vladimir Putin who has continued that approach.

In many respects, “Gorbachev and Yeltsin embodied two versions of Russian nationalism. Gorbachev moved towards ‘a new nationalism,’ that is, a nationalism of the New Age which is based on civic identities and everything that is historically associated with it,” including human rights, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.

Yeltsin, in contrast, Pastukhov argues, “embodied “’traditional nationalism,’ that is a nationalism built on language, religion, traditional values and blood. His nationalism was latent wrapped as it was in a beautiful ‘modernization’ agenda.” But under Yeltsin’s successor, it assumed “a completely open form.”

Corporate law firms have taught their wayward corporate clients how to use accretions of privileges and immunities to ward off or wait out the most devastating books, documentaries and media exposés.

Corporate P.R. firms know that the media doesn’t follow the efforts of civic advocacy groups as a regular beat. Feature exposés are prime candidates for big journalistic awards like the Pulitzer Prizes.

Reporters usually do not get awards for covering ongoing reform efforts, which require consistent media coverage to put heat on hesitant lawmakers or prosecutors – say on the push to make Congress increase corporate accountability.

Here are some current examples of exposé-proof corporate crimes and outrages.

1. Massive billing fraud, especially in the healthcare industry, has become a major contributor to the GDP. It probably exceeds one trillion dollars annually with healthcare over-billing amounting to at least $360 billion this year alone. The New York Times and other papers have written numerous page-one articles exposing raw gouging by hospitals. Nonetheless, the industry continues to expand its computerized, fraudulent overcharging year after year.
2. Health insurers (such as Cigna) have been exposed for denying claims without even looking at the patient’s medical records. Hospitals are still charging uninsured patients higher prices than insured patients.
3. Wage theft amounts to about $60 billion a year according to reports by the Economic Policy Institute. Despite exposés, corporations regularly rip-off low-wage workers.
4. Huge fines are assessed against the reckless promotion of drugs by Big Pharma and chain pharmacies, while opioid-caused deaths in the U.S. are hitting record levels. No top corporate executive has been prosecuted to date.
5. Years of documentation that over-prescription of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistance, which causes about 100,000 deaths annually in the U.S. No matter, the toll continues to grow.
6. Congressional hearings and reports document the giveaways allowed by the 1872 Mining Law, shielded from change ever since by the mining industry. The 1872 Act allows corporations, domestic or foreign, to discover hard rock minerals (e.g., gold, silver) on federal lands, and to mine and sell them without paying royalties to Uncle Sam. These corporate companies get the rights for this bonanza at a mere $5 an acre. Canadian Barrick Resources Corporation paid $5,190 for 1038 acres in Nevada and got the rights to $10 billion worth of our gold.Legalized theft by corporate plunder continues.
7. Corporations contaminating drinking water with new deadly toxins regularly get headlines warning that PFAS are forever chemicals. However, companies continue to unleash silent violence that contaminates water and endangers people’s health.
8. Congress’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) keeps publishing reports on boondoggle, wasteful weapons contracts by the Pentagon. Uh-huh, replies the Defense Department. But these contracts like the one for the dubious F-35 fighter aircraft keep humming along. The estimated cost for the F-35 program is $1.7 trillion!
9. Boeing executives cut corners to produce a dangerous 737 MAX passenger plane that killed 356 people in two crashes in Indonesia (2018) and Ethiopia (2019). Very extensive, repeated reporting by mainstream media and Congressional hearings occurred. But Boeing is getting away with this crime, paying relatively small fines and tort claims that are insurable and deductible.
   Boeing’s top executives either got promoted or were given huge severance packages. Boeing also got a deferred prosecution deal with the U.S. Justice Department. So far, there has been very limited tort claim discovery and not one trial. Boeing’s defense law firms are making out like Croesus, the king of Lydia.
10. The absence of big truck rear and side guards causes dozens of deaths a year. Over fifty years of disclosures coming from some members of Congress, the media and the families of the victims, also citing Western European requirements for these safety guards, have resulted in only flimsy rear guards and no side guards.

If you wish to have more illustrations of the exposé-proof corporate state, I refer you to the joint project between Duke University School of Law and the University of Virginia Arthur J. Morris Law Library’s database (https://corporate-prosecution-registry.com/). In addition, see the weekly Corporate Crime Reporter and my weekly columns at nader.org.

The challenge is to stop these and other corporate abuses. The following Congressional oversight and action are needed.

1. Both federal and state corporate criminal laws are too weak, and the budgets for the cops on the corporate crime beat are too minimal. Evasion of the law is routine. Just look at the vast sums of tax payments evaded by global corporations.
2. Consumer protection laws are also weak and about 50 years out of date. Consumer advocates Harvey Rosenfield and Laura Antonini prepared an exhaustive model consumer protection bill last year, with 100 pages of backup justifications (Reboot Required: The Civil Justice System Has Crashed). Not a single state legislator has even introduced it in the U.S.
3. Corporate campaign money and other insidious forces have either bought, rented or daunted our elected lawmakers, which produces dead zones in our local, state and national legislatures.
4. Progressive candidates for public office fail to make corporate crime and corporate power campaign issues. Polls register over 70% of the American people believe corporations have too much control over their lives and a higher percentage want to crack down on corporate crooks. That’s a lot of liberal and conservative voters to mobilize. Unfortunately, candidates rarely talk about crime in the suites.
5. These polls similarly do not prompt state and federal lawmakers to hold public investigatory hearings to inform the media and prod the public to demand action. In the 1960s and 1970s, hearings paved the way for consumer, environmental, and worker protection and freedom of information laws.
6. Major public health groups and federal/state health departments are not making a national cause out of the 250,000 or more Americans dying in hospitals each year due to what a peer-reviewed Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Report termed “preventable problems in hospitals” (not counting clinics or physicians’ offices). Action here is long overdue.
7. Finally, citizen groups and public health groups do not set their sights high enough. They should be pressing for structural corporate changes – such as the federal chartering of large corporations and upgrading law enforcement tools to combat corporate crime.

Thomas Jefferson and other Founders believed our First Amendment would provide vehicles for a just society. Instead, an array of corporate power has taken away its wheels.

Looking for your suggestions and civic energies, people. Send them to info@csrl.org.

Kyrgyz Government Signs Agreement With Controversial Chinese Investor  Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Ukraine-Russia war – live: British man found dead in water with …  msnNOW

Watch UAW Strike: Equity Investors Beware  Bloomberg

Azerbaijan praises G77 Summit’s work for peace, development  Prensa Latina

Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed future leaders from Eastern …  MZV