I don’t want to focus too much on this, because there are multiple angles still at work.  However, against the backdrop of the non-coincidental coincidences that followed the August 2025 Alaska Summit, the Lukoil story looks strategically interesting.

The New York Times is looking at Lukoil from the perspective of President Trump organizing financial gains for people close to his administration, specifically Witkoff and Kusher.  {GO DEEP}

That aspect is nonsense, total nonsense; however, if you pull back and look at the background story without the Trump derangement overlay, there’s a potential here for something very good to come out of it.

As the story is told, Russian President Vladimir Putin has inquired about the potential for the U.S. to remove sanctions against Lukoil, a quasi-private energy company based out of Russia.  Before, getting too weedy about it, remind yourself of the statements that surfaced during the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, August, 2025.

You might remember that both the U.S and Russia spoke of strategic partnerships surrounding the energy sector.  Obviously, this makes sense when we consider the “west” is actually fractured on the topic of energy.  There are two competing interests that overlap in the financial side of the issue, the ‘trillions at stake’ aspect.

On one side you have the “climate change” team, those who are fully invested (literally) in the financial mechanisms of the climate change, green new deal, build back better talking points.  The Green Energy team in the west.  The Paris Climate Treaty and carbon-trading proponents et al.

On the other side you have the pragmatic energy team in the west.  These are the Trump-minded and aligned western perspectives that look at oil, natural gas (LNG), clean coal and nuclear technology.  These are the “all the above” aligned voices in the more pragmatic view of low-cost energy production and development.

In the middle, between both sides of the fracture, are the banking and finance systems.  This is the BIG MONEY play, with the Climate Change team supported by banking ideology inside the city of London, while the Carbon Use team is constantly having to assemble finance and insurance from outside the banking control mechanisms.

The Climate Change team have support based on ideology within the finance system.  However, the Carbon Use team have the advantage of low-price outputs, global dependency and actual profits as leverage.  This is a fight essentially inside the larger energy sector, and we are all very familiar with it because it has been happening for decades.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is currently the main tool deployed by the Climate Change team on behalf of the London finance system.  Carney’s main opponent is U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears for an interview with Axios co-founder Mike Allen. The wide-ranging conversation covered the U.S. economy, the war in Iran and the Trump administration’s approach to AI.

Secretary Bessent responds to Americans’ frustration with the cost of living; explains why he doesn’t think the AI boom is a repeat of the dot-com bubble and argues that AI leaders warning about losing control should slow down. Bessent also discusses possible U.S-China cooperation on AI risks, Treasury’s economic pressure campaign against Iran, the bond market, Trump Accounts and his clashes inside the administration.  WATCH:

Chapters:

0:00 – Cold open
0:24 – Inside Treasury’s Cash Room
1:38 – Unpacking why Americans still feel squeezed
5:21 – Bessent’s economic campaign against Iran
7:35 – Is AI in a bubble?

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Most people will not read the Inspector General Report in full [SEE PDF HERE].  But if you did, you might come to the same conclusion as myself.  The entire FED and IG Michael Horowitz should be fired, arrested and prosecuted for corruption at a level that is simply jaw dropping.

The issue is really simple if you cut through the fog of the report.  The FED Board awarded a no-bid contract to the contractor, without an agreement on the building renovation project and the construction costs associated with it until President Donald Trump began drawing attention to it.  This is gross corruption at a massive scale.

To use the terminology of the report, start with this aspect:

…”the Board selected a different project delivery method, construction manager at risk (CMAR), for the Eccles-1951 renovation project. A well-managed CMAR contract allows a building owner—in this case, the Board—to transfer certain construction risks, including those related to cost and schedule performance, to its construction manager (also known as a construction manager as constructor, or CMc). To effect this risk transfer, a CMAR contract provides for the owner and CMc to agree on a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for the project, usually around the time construction begins or building design is substantially complete. Once the GMP is set, the owner has greater cost certainty and the CMc is incentivized to carefully manage costs. If costs exceed the GMP, the CMc absorbs them with limited exceptions, such as when the GMP may be increased to account for change events like owner directed changes or other adjustments like unforeseen site conditions“… {Source pg, 5}

So, the FED board established, at least with themselves, that they would have an agreement on cost for the project.  However, if you go to page 60 of the report you find this:

…” in connection with a multibillion-dollar contract, the Board did not ask its CMc for a construction cost estimate or a GMP until December 2025—about 3.5 years after construction began and after the Board had already awarded more than $2 billion. Specifically, the Board did not take advantage of several key opportunities to request a cost estimate from the CMc”…. (Source pg, 60}

It wasn’t until President Trump drew attention to the FED having spent over $2 billion, that FED Chair Jerome Powell, and the FED board requested the construction manager and construction company to provide a cost estimate.  This is unreal, especially considering that IG Michael Horowitz finds no unlawful decision-making in the overall fiasco.

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It should be transparently obvious by now. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shifted his tin cup strategy from directly asking for money, to presenting himself as the world’s leading arms manufacturer.  In essence, Zelenskyy has drone pencils in his tin cup.

Keep watching and we will all start to see this grifting business model in play.

Earlier today Zelenskyy said, “President Trump and I had a meeting where we discussed general matters. After that, our negotiating teams held a separate, long meeting. The agreement is as follows: we will brief the European side and discuss these details with them; the Americans will speak with the Russians; and in ten days, we will come back with views and results in some shape or form.

As for a trilateral Ukraine-U.S.-Russia meeting, the American side proposed preparing it and meeting at the technical level. We are waiting for the United States to propose a date. The United States proposed the United Arab Emirates as the venue for such a meeting.

There are concrete agreements regarding Patriot licenses. At our meeting, President Trump stressed that he had made his final decision: Ukraine will receive licenses to produce Patriot missiles. (read more)

Now put the lead-in paragraphs as an overlay against that statement.  Zelenskyy wants to organize his corrupt financial system, specifically the income aspect, around Ukraine as the world’s leading arms dealer.

Obviously, this business model provides numerous benefits for everyone inside the Ukraine govt operation whose lifestyle and affluence are dependent on the inflow of massive amounts of money.

If Zelenskyy can get the Patriot Missile licenses, then he can expand his business operation to build and sell Patriots’ to Germany (have been begging for them) and beyond.  Zelenskyy becomes the EU hub for EU-NATO arms manufacturing and production.  He’s not stupid.  If the USA pulls back from EU-NATO, Zelenskyy steps in to fill the void.  That appears to be his overall plan.

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appears on CNBC to discuss the trade aspect of the U.S-China negotiations against the backdrop of the official state visit by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.

USTR Greer notes the tariffs against China remain in place and extended for several months as the U.S. reviews Beijing compliance with pre-existing agreements.  This builds on what Greer previously said about ultimately the U.S. and China are in a managed situation, where the U.S. doesn’t put any focus on what China says, we are looking at what China does.

Stunningly, at 4:25 of the video CNBC pundit Kelly Evans chimes in with a weird talking point about the U.S-China trade deficit not changing. Ambassador Greer quickly corrects Ms Evans, noting her baseline is entirely false. The trade disparity between the U.S and China has reduced by 40% over the past year, in part because the U.S. is leveraging tariffs as enforcement mechanisms to previous purchase agreements.  WATCH:

In typical leftist fashion, Ms Kelly Evans says “if true” to the United States Trade Representative.  Who else, other than the USTR, would know the specifics of accuracy for the data Ms Evans is mis-citing.  Quite silly.

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Speaking to a forum hosted by the Economist in New York, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright explained that banning the export of diesel fuel will do nothing to impact the price of diesel fuel and would, eventually, raise the price.

The reasoning is simple.

“The blunt tool ​of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work,” Wright said. “If you can’t ⁠export the diesel that comes out of our refineries, you run out of places to store it, and you have to reduce US refining, which would ​put upward pressure on gasoline prices and jet fuel prices,” Wright said.

The part that Wright didn’t say is the component of price that is entirely detached from supply/demand.  The pump price is determined by market speculators, commodity traders and multinational financial interests.  That “market price” has nothing to do with the amount of diesel in the inventory.

Restricting exports, a process that ends with restricting production, only gives the speculators and traders a justification to project higher prices.   The USA ends up swimming in diesel fuel as the pump price climbs to $15/gal.

If you want to end the disconnection of supply to price, you have to do what Russia does. Sell outside the “market price” at the production cost + profit margin.

In the “west” it’s a rigged game; but be careful. The DSA crowd wants to change the game’s outcome by changing the referees who can then ban/control the players.

Trump’s MAGAnomic approach changes the rulebook of the game completely and is more in line with Putin (BRICS).

George Carlin previously explained it.

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Take heart, we only need to wait approximately 60-days until we see a major price decline in diesel and gasoline prices in the USA.  Once the midterm election is over, prices will begin their retreat with the finished collapse mid-January.

The non-pretending reality exists within a generally non-western perspective that current “market prices” are not driven by oil supplies, refining capacity or the other various justifications used by the speculators, traders and various regional spot-market control systems.  The prices are being controlled in order to influence political outcomes.

Once those political influence operations are concluded, the stakeholders in the market price approach will moderate their justifications accordingly, and prices will plummet.  Sound nuts?  Well, let me explain who agrees.

On my side of the argument is Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, who does happen to operate the world’s largest gasoline station – at least, according to the professional republicans. Others on my side include Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salmon, Qatari Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Venezuelan interim President Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez.

Others who accept the reality of this position, albeit with various political limits to their ability to speak openly about such matters, include President Donald J Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Unfortunately for this aligned group they are stuck inside the largest western political system who controls global finance and world economic outcomes.

What all of these aforementioned names understand is that “market prices” are entirely detached from the archaic terminology behind supply and demand; a quaint concept that stopped applying years ago – but pretenses must be maintained or else the masses may find their pitchforks, see: DSA pitchfork suppliers.

A second subset of allies who unintentionally support this perspective, includes those who use the terms “sold at a discount” where “sold at a discount” in reality means sold outside the western market pricing approach.

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There is a general rule that applies to geopolitical contexts surrounding 96 hours or four days.  The timing is the difference between an event happening Day one, the analysis of the event by nation states communicated to leadership, and the policy shift outcome in Day four.  The rule of 96 is consistent and it is worth understanding.

Four days ago, the EU oil disruption from Saudi Arabia’s East/West pipeline event was noticed. In the four days between event day and policy day (#4) the EU have been beating the drumbeat for war against Russia.  However, you will notice the shift in tone and policy now that we have reached day four.  Analysis has reached policy makers. You might say reality sets in.

Europe now recognizes a vulnerability that was not in their policy briefs 96 hours earlier.  Things change {SOURCE}, and the quiet stuff starts to become visible. Russia has been sending France oil/gas energy products, quietly. Macron needed the internal stabilization because he’s been up against a wall.  On top of all his other issues, Macron could not afford an energy crisis.

Simultaneously, despite what we have been told by Western media, the 5,000 strike drones into the Moscow region should again be taken in context.  Russia is an analog system in a digital world. Russia is exceptionally resilient and can repair and recover much faster than western analysts ever fathom.  Again, apply the ‘rule of 96.’

Russia is now overproducing diesel fuel. Wait, what(?) you might ask.  It’s true.  Russian strategic diesel fuel reserves are now full and overproducing 15% beyond storage capacity. {SOURCE} So, where is the excess capacity going?  To the “stans” in Central Asia, from there it ships to forward destinations. Turkey is a dependent beneficiary. Do you remember the strategic agreement between the USA and Kazakhstan? {Source}

Russia increased diesel supplies to Mongolia by 73.4% in August from July to 215,000 metric tons, while shipments to Kyrgyzstan surged 16.4 times to 72,000 tons and deliveries to Tajikistan rose 3.5 times to 56,000 tons. Russia also exported 28,000 tons of diesel to Kazakhstan after making no deliveries there in July. {source}

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins CNBC ‘Squawk Box’ this morning to discuss his 12-hour meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.  Within the interview Bessent details the ‘U.S.-China AI Dialogue’, the calls for a slowdown in AI development and whether regulation is needed.

Secretary Bessent notes President Trump is not going to deliver liability immunity to AI frontier labs and existing legal frameworks within the U.S. will remain as protective pathways as development moves from AI labs into engineering outcomes.

This is the core of the issue. The investors that poured money into the AI labs, now support immunity from legal liability that doesn’t exist in any other sector other than Big Pharma. AI wants the same protection as Big Pharma, and President Trump is not going to allow the shift in responsibility from AI developers to government. WATCH:

Also below is the full debriefing from Secretary Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer that followed the Sunday meeting between the U.S. and Chinese counterparts.

As CTH has noted, the pace of these critical economic developments is going to speed up over the next several days and weeks.  It becomes increasingly important to stay tuned-in to the granular issues as they unfold in order to fully appreciate the landscape that surrounds us.   It can be challenging to absorb information as the pace increases, yet it is critical to remain aware so that each building block in the nationalist policy making remains in context.

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Promethean Action’s Barbara Boyd recaps some of last week’s geopolitical events and activities of both President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.  Good video for those catching up.

President Trump reacts to Mark Carney’s push to align Canada with the EU, calling it “laughable” and warning that if it’s hostile the U.S. could impose heavy tariffs or even halt trade with Europe. The episode argues the administration is securing the southern border through Marco Rubio’s Latin America trip and “Operation Shield of the Americas,” linking Peru’s participation and Keiko Fujimori’s election to an intensified campaign against cartels, drug production and trafficking, and Chinese influence.

Boyd’s recap frames Carney as a longtime opponent of U.S. interests, citing his Bank of England role, “green” credit agenda, and support for Ukraine, and claims Canada-EU plans target Arctic control and the U.S. northern defense line. It ends with Trump announcing a permanent U.S. presence in Greenland and warning Canada to curb fentanyl labs and criminal networks. WATCH:

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