H. R. 6422

“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.” — Mayer Amschel Rothschild

***

Putin’s “special operation” is an artless, atavistic means to reassemble the former Soviet Union, one “Eastern Bloc” country at a time. The signature of war in the 21st century revolves around the manipulation of Salholz’s “coin of the realm,” information. Economic violence can prove to be as devastating as physical violence, apropos SWIFT revocation, the “Big Tech” media blackout, and the array of other sanctions found in H. R. 6422.

Yet Putin did appear to telegraph his intentions by declaring Bitcoin to be currency prior to the start of combat operations, a hedge against any sanctions that might destabilize the value of the Ruble. The only question regarding this preparatory measure is whether the flagship cryptocurrency, in all its volatility, will shoot upward as any “flight to quality” would, when other asset classes deteriorate in value during unstable times, or hurtle downward, cratering with all the other cryptocurrencies in the market, and all the other assets in all the other markets as a result of the ensuing, spreading chaos, centered in Europe, reminiscent of March 2020, a time when European countries lay at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Except for proposed attempts at aerial supremacy, mutual assured destruction deters most conventional means of curtailing subsequent invasions. The ongoing information operations attributed to known corporate entities, the economic strategies utilized by international bodies, and the direct action of peaceful protesters in Russia and around the globe stand to yield meager results from any diplomatic overtures made at Belarus. If Putin turns a deaf ear to Russian protesters, having no fear of their votes against him in a subsequent election if they can regain their access to the franchise and vote after being arrested for protesting, shrugs off frozen assets and opts for utilization of cryptocurrency when the $600B+ cash reserves are denied him and his country, and ignores the rising prices of barrels of oil and loaves of bread and the collateral damage to his people, their economy and the world economy, what options are there to force him to the negotiation table to broker a viable, legitimate peace?