10 Comments
founding

“The good news is on its way though. Trump will become president again and, as he promised, stop the Ukraine war in 24 hours.” He may be right. Trump will probably purchase Ukraine from the international corporations that "own" it using funds from campaign donations. He and his buddy Putin will make a deal on how to split the spoils. And things will go downhill from there for Europe.

Expand full comment

I won’t lie, I had to google, “where is Malaga?”

Expand full comment
author

That's not a bad thing!

Expand full comment
May 27Liked by Nikita Petrov

I always appreciate your posts man. Hope you are well. Maybe we will speak sometime if I find the time.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks!

Expand full comment
May 28Liked by Nikita Petrov

The newspaper-clad man sounds like someone out of a Kobo Abe book.

Expand full comment

Always good to read you, Nikita. Hoping all is well with you and yours. xo ❤️

Expand full comment

What does the newspaper man mean when he says Ukraine is owned by international corporations? I’m afraid I’m probably a bit ignorant.

I was drawn to your page because you write about Spain and live in Malaga. I lived in Spain for over a year, a long time ago. Most of my time was spent in Malaga. I still miss it and really enjoyed reading about your interactions in the city

Expand full comment
author
Nov 16·edited Nov 16Author

>> What does the newspaper man mean when he says Ukraine is owned by international corporations?

As far as I understand, this is a narrative about growing investments from corporations like BlackRock, JP Morgan, McKinsey, Monsanto + loans from IMF, World Bank, etc. that come with certain conditions — the state is supposed to carry out reforms aimed at deregulating economy, expanding privatization, fighting corruption, etc. The newspaper man's version of this narrative — "Ukraine is owned by corporations" — is not very mainstream, I think; a softer formulation would sound like "Ukraine is replacing its dependance on Russia with a dependance on Western governments, institutions, and corporations".

Here's a list of these investment initiatives from 2022: https://successfulsocieties.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf5601/files/BlackRock.pdf

I don't know much about this side of things, and my sense is getting a good understanding of it would require much more than reading a couple of articles...

Málaga is a trip!

Expand full comment
Nov 16Liked by Nikita Petrov

Thank you for explaining! I’ve learnt something today 🙂

My friend says Malaga has changed a lot since I lived there (2004-5). I can’t travel anymore due to health issues, but always enjoy reading about Spain, especially Andalucia. (I’ve heard all about the new cannabis clubs. I only wish they’d existed when I lived there)!

Expand full comment