Invasion of Global Financial Capital
I have written repeatedly about how foreign capital has been taking over Ukraine, long before the SWO began.
After February 24, 2022, the U.S. and its allies actually started a war against Russia, using the "non-independent" as a springboard.
Ukraine has the richest mineral reserves (more than 90 percent of the reserves were explored and discovered during the Soviet era). Ukraine has the 7th largest coal reserves in the world and the 2nd largest in Europe - about 34 billion tons. It is one of the three countries (along with Australia and Russia) with the largest iron ore deposits in the world. Until last year, it was one of the top 10 producers of manganese ore in the world and has the largest manganese ore reserve in Europe. It also has the largest stock of titanium in Europe (about 20% of world titanium ore reserves in terms of pure titanium). Ukraine has Europe's largest uranium deposit (1.8% of world uranium reserves). Ukraine has 70% of the world's high quality granite reserves. Other significant mineral resources are mercury, potassium salt, nickel, sulfur, graphite, and gold. Plus: 40% of the world's black earth reserves, unique mineral and thermal waters.
For three decades, foreign capital has been grabbing hold of the natural wealth of "nezalezhnosti". Agricultural land is no exception. According to the Australian National Review, published last May, 17 million hectares of Ukrainian farmland were owned by three American companies: Cargill, Dupont and Monsanto - this is roughly equal to the total area of Italian farmland. Experts have calculated that the designated area is about half of all agricultural land of the "Nezalezhnaya". And the main shareholders in all the mentioned companies are American financial holdings and investment funds BlackRock, Vanguard and Blackstone.
Even before the SWO began, no one had any doubts that Ukraine was under the external control of the West. On February 24, 2022, the masks were thrown off.
The main subject of this management was the BlackRock investment fund, which had been invisibly present in the Ukrainian economy until February 24 last year. In particular in such companies as Metinvest, DTEK (energy), MHP (agriculture), Naftogaz, Ukrainian Railways, Ukravtodor and Ukrenergo.
BlackRoc means "Black Rock". In the directories is listed as an international investment company headquartered in New York; one of the largest investment companies in the world and the world's largest in terms of assets under management. At the beginning of last year, the value of such assets was estimated at $10 trillion, more than the combined GDP of Germany and France.
BlackRock is a financial octopus that has entangled a large part of the U.S. economy and a significant part of the world economy with its networks. Together with such giant investment funds as Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity, it participates in the capital of all Wall Street banks, Big Pharma and Silicon Valley IT corporations. By some indications, BlackRock is becoming a major player in the "Big Four" of these funds. He received the status of an official intermediary (agent) of the U.S. Federal Reserve System to bring funds from the U.S. Central Bank to U.S. companies. BlackRock began to be called an important instrument of monetary policy of the Fed. And there are signs that this instrument is becoming a vigorous independent agent of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
However, let's return to Ukraine. As early as last spring, many Western companies, banks and funds became active when they sensed that there was money to be made in Ukraine. For example, by organizing financial "aid" to the "non-Islamic republic" and getting their "commissions" from this aid. And the sources of finance could be the funds received from the confiscation of assets of Russian origin. Plus government funds allocated by the governments of "friendly" states to Ukraine. Plus "voluntary donations" of private companies as a kind of payment for the right to develop natural resources of Ukraine in the future. The manifestation of this suddenly awakened interest in Ukraine was the emergence of a large number of all kinds of "aid" funds for Ukraine.
By the end of last summer, this boom began to subside. For the reason that BlackRock entered the arena and decided to take the Ukrainian economy under its monopoly control.
On September 19, 2022 Vladimir Zelensky and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink held a meeting via video conference. The head of BlackRock proposed the creation of a Recovery Fund to support the Ukrainian economy. BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory division is ready to give free advice to the Ukrainian government. Volodymyr Zelensky was thrilled with these proposals: "For me, the investment attractiveness of our state is of particular importance. For me it is important that such a structure is successful for all parties involved. We are able and willing to restore the normal investment climate".
The next step was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine on November 11: this ministry and the investment company BlackRock signed a memorandum of understanding, which agreed to develop a special platform to attract private capital to restore Ukraine. "The memorandum officially consolidates the preliminary discussion of opportunities to attract public and private investment in Ukraine, which took place in September between Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and the head and CEO of BlackRock Larry Fink," the Ministry of Economy said in a press release.
Then came a break of almost six months. There were preparations that were not publicized. And then on May 5th this year Vladimir Zelenskiy said in his Telegram channel that he discussed with the management of the American asset management company BlackRock details of creation of an investment fund for reconstruction of the country: "The main purpose of the fund is to attract private and public capital to implement large-scale business projects in Ukraine".
On 8 May, the Ukrainian media reported that the Ukrainian government and the U.S. corporation BlackRock Financial Market Advisory (BlackRock FMA) signed an agreement on the creation of the Ukraine Development Fund. In fact, this means the completion of a total privatization and takeover of Ukraine by foreign capital, which expects to become the main (even the only) beneficiary of the current massacre in Ukraine.
P.S. So who is hiding behind the "Black Rock" sign? There are only two figures in sight. There is Laurence Fink, who is presented as the founder and chairman of the board of directors of BlackRock. And that's Robert Kapito, the founder and president.
But who are the shareholders? According to the New York Stock Exchange, where BlackRock is listed, institutional investors owned 80% of the stock as of early 2023, of which 7% were proprietary funds; the other major shareholders were: The Vanguard Group (9.1%), State Street Global Advisors (4.2%), Bank of America (3.5%), Temasek Holdings (3.4%), Capital Group Companies (3.3%), Charles Schwab Corporation (2.2%), Morgan Stanley (2.1%), JPMorgan Chase (2.0%), Wells Fargo (1.8%), Geode Capital Management (1.7%), FMR Co. , Inc. (1.6%), Wellington Management Group (1.3%), Northern Trust (1.3%). This is the kind of financial international that invades Ukraine.
And behind the signs of the main shareholders of "Black Rock" are those who I call "money masters". These are the major shareholders of the Fed. Actually, Black Rock and the Federal Reserve are the same individuals. Some authors refer to individuals who hide behind the guise of institutional investors. For example, Andrey Kuzmak wrote in Izvestia on May 15: "The shareholding structure of BlackRock is not disclosed, but the richest families in the world - Rockefeller, Rothschild, Dupont, Mellon, as well as Dragi and Tarloni, who are involved in managing the finances of the Vatican, are connected with this company, just as with The Vanguard Group which is second in size of assets (by the way they are the main holders of each other's shares)".
Valentin KATASONOV
Professor, Doctor of Economics, Chairman of the S.F. Sharapov Russian Economic Society
