Donations
Veridica.md
Trading with the USA can harm national economies, whereas standing agreements with Russia bring prosperity, says blogger Dan Diaconu, a known promoter of conspiracy theories.
Although it doesn’t grow bananas, Russia has expertise in manufacturing related farming equipment.
NEWS: “Ecuador produces bananas. In very large volumes. For that, it needs a variety of farming equipment. Until recently, its entire production line consisted of Russian-made equipment. This is to help you better understand why that is the case. This equipment is now obsolete, being extremely old and worn out. Regardless, it did its job. To optimize its production, Ecuador decided to purchase new equipment. The Russians promptly came with an offer in that respect and, along with it, with an interesting financing scheme. It's just that Ecuador said no. They said they got tired of “Russian scrap metal”, so they purchased the equipment from ... the Americans. Beautiful, capitalistic, no corruption whatsoever!
But that was not the end of it. Since the Russians felt their pride had been rebuffed by the Ecuadorian fools, they made the logical move: they looked to international markets and are now importing bananas from India. It also makes sense, because India has a huge debt it needs to pay Russia, so it needs to find some way to clear it. Bananas therefore represent an interesting opportunity for both the Russians and the Indians. But here’s the catch: the Russians purchased a huge amount of bananas from Ecuador, more precisely over 20% of the country's production. Now, with the advanced equipment from the US, the Ecuadorians are pretty much left high and dry, with no buyers and desperately looking for markets to sell their huge supply of bananas.
The moral of that story is simple, one I've seen at work lately: stupidity exacts a dear price!”
NARRATIVE: Economic partnerships with the USA strongly impact the economies in question, in contrast with trade arrangements with Russia, which guarantee prosperity.
BACKGROUND: Dan Diaconu describes himself as an economic analyst. He first distinguished himself in 2018, when he stated that the 2015 fire at the Colectiv nightclub was the work of the “global cabal” and that the president of the country was no stranger to this fact. Its purpose would have been to overthrow the government and to install a puppet regime charged with placing Romania at the disposal of the global cabal. Currently, Dan Diaconu's personal blog is a conglomeration of conspiracy theories, fake-news and disinformation related to hot topics (the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, the anti-COVID vaccine, climate change, the Israel-Hamas conflict, etc.), as well as articles that describe Russia and China as model states, and quote, praise and commend Vladimir Putin and people close to the Kremlin, as well as the authoritarian leader of China, Xi Jinping. Recently, Dan Diaconu has released a series of outlandish disinformation narratives, such as the one in which he explains the Chinese economic success by means of a fabricated story, or the one in which he warned the population about of a potential “Israeli invasion” in Romania, based on information whose source he could not identify
Dan Diaconu's blog abounds in laudatory articles about Russia and its foreign policy, in direct opposition to the imperialist West that is draining world states of their resources and enslaving their people. In these articles, Diaconu tries to induce the idea that prosperity can also be obtained if a country chooses its own economic model, based on a policy that is completely independent of that of various international bodies, especially those where the USA and Western European states exert considerable influence. For example, speaking a few months ago about the political crisis in Niger, triggered by the coup that overthrew the country's democratically elected regime, and in which the supporters of the new regime waved Russian flags on the streets, Dan Diaconu praised Moscow's policy in Africa, adding that Russia “doesn’t want to plunder those economies, but rather to make them part of an alliance of resource owners that set fair prices for raw materials”.
PURPOSE: To provide arguments in favor of the theory according to which the Western social and economic model is ineffective. To demonize the EU, NATO, the UN, the WHO, etc. To fuel anti-Western sentiment.
In fact, Russia was angered by Ecuador’s decision to hand over its Soviet weapons to the USA in exchange for military equipment
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The government-coordinated Ecuadorian purchase of American farm equipment is a lie, because Quito never officially raised the issue. At the same time, like everywhere else in the civilized world, farmers decide for themselves what equipment to buy and from who. In fact, in December 2023, Ecuador concluded an agreement with the United States whereby the American side pledged to provide security equipment and weapons worth 200 million USD, to support the authorities' fight against growing street and prison violence, attributed to drug trafficking gangs. In exchange for American aid, Ecuador offered to provide military equipment of Soviet origin, which Quito termed “scrap metal waste produced in Ukraine and Russia”. Later, Washington announced that the weapons received from Ecuador would be dispatched to the Ukrainian armed forces to be used against Russia, but did not specify how this would be done in concrete terms.
At the start of the month, Moscow responded by suspending banana imports from Ecuador, claiming that Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian agricultural regulatory authority, had identified several pests in shipments from this country. At the same time, the Russian federal service condemned Ecuador's decision, stating that, according to the arms supply contract, the Ecuadorian side does not have the right to resell or give the weaponry to third parties, a fact Quito has denied.
What Dan Diaconu fails to mention, however, is that Ecuador’s banana exports to Russia experienced a strong throwback since the first months of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, due to the impossibility of transporting the goods, a consequence of the economic sanctions imposed by the international community. At the same time, Russia's decision to import bananas from India was made prior to the scandal about the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, a first such shipment having been delivered in early January this year, while a second shipment is expected to come through at the end this month. Rather, the decision is a consequence of India’s economic policies, whereby the government in New Delhi wants the country to become an important player on the world fruit market, instead of some debt India needs to pay to Russia. Moreover, for almost a year, Moscow has been seeking an extension of trade agreements with India, owing to the high demand for industrial manufacturing equipment and products related to the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors, which Russia can no longer purchase on the free market.
In fact, the entire story presented in this article, albeit false, does nothing but highlight once again the way Russia chooses to treat its economic partners, seeking to achieve its goals through blackmail and negotiations from a position of strength.
Check sources:
---copie-image.webp)
