Why does the Vatican also need Mongolia
G. Tsybikov "Diary of a trip to Mongolia in 1895"
Pope Francis recently decided to include distant Mongolia in his 2023 travel schedule. This will be the second recent visit of the head of the Vatican to Central Asia. Prior to that, his visit almost coincided with the SCO summit. A separate trip to Mongolia, taking into account the fact that the primate of the Roman Catholic Church is experiencing health problems, and in themselves such apostolic visits are not a frequent occurrence for the Vatican, makes one think that the Roman see is looking for something more in the steppes than just a new flock.
The indifference of the Vatican to Mongolia, at first glance, is rather difficult to explain rationally. If in the same Kazakhstan there are 20 thousand believers (0,4% of the population), then only 1,3 thousand Catholics (0,01%) live in the Mongolian steppes. At the same time, neither Astana nor the neighbors have any diocesan institutions, but Mongolia has been hosting an apostolic prefecture for a long time. The structure in the Roman hierarchy is not of the highest rank, but the neighbors have even less - only primary Christian missions.
In August last year, Francis further strengthened the Mongolian representation and elevated Bishop D. Morengo to the rank of cardinal. In the Vatican system, the bishop is a spiritual ordained rank, and the cardinal is a link in the managerial hierarchy, and the link is very high - D. Morengo has less than two hundred colleagues in the whole wide world. After a trip to Astana, where Francis confirmed his agreement with future reforms, it seemed that there would not be a second trip to the region (although negotiations were underway). But, apparently, circumstances are developing in such a way that health problems will have to be postponed.
In Rome, it is customary to refer questions about Mongolia to historical sources and the beginning of the Catholic mission since the time of the Mongol invasion. But over the past hundreds of years, the full-fledged Vatican acted there very unevenly, in fits and starts, and, probably, only since 1992 did the Roman representation become truly permanent. Therefore, in this case, we observe not so much spiritual things as geopolitical combinations. Their peculiarity is that, using the example of Mongolia, one can consider so many different threads, strategies and projects, that the head of the Roman Church will only have to be thanked, that a small example can make out much more.
Pope Francis got ready for the trip quite on time. The fact is that the so-called. The "coal protests" in Mongolia completed the formation of a kind of project "axis" that was built between a number of groups in the United States and China, and this link is such that Francis has been trying since the beginning of last year to attach to it the part of Europe he leads behind him, to reach a consensus and what - some interaction. And it can be understood, since another part of the US elites, the Vatican flock of Europe (and the poor, and the middle class, and the aristocracy) decided to finish eating with giblets.
Mongolia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, found itself in a rather difficult situation. The fact is that about a third of the economy was supported by allied subsidies, and a significant part simply depended on sales markets and commercial supplies. Mongolia was seen as an unconditional ally, for which all doors were open. When Moscow, having gone into the free market, closed its doors, Ulaanbaatar had no choice but to establish cooperation with China, turning into its raw material granary.
This process was objective, since both Russia and Mongolia were suppliers of the same groups of raw materials, and the food market for Russia was too small, simply because of the neighbor's population. Working projects remained (and still are) the development of uranium ores and cooperation in the field of providing electricity, which Mongolia has a shortage.
The long epic of negotiations on uranium ended with the fact that Rosatom gradually managed to squeeze Canadians out of the industry, but another problem arose - Rosatom fundamentally maintains domestic stations on Russian raw materials, and reserves for foreign projects are still excessive. Very close joint work is being carried out with Kazakhstan, which today is the leader in production, and the resources of Mongolia and Tanzania are waiting in the wings. The investor could be China, which has plans to build 150 nuclear power plants, but these are plans, and it makes no sense for Beijing to bother with the extraction and processing of ore if Moscow supplies ready-made fuel under contracts. Yes, and on the best terms. The Chinese can spend resources on designing and training specialists.
From time to time, Mongolia's interaction with Russia was complicated by hydropower projects on the Selenga and its tributaries, which were regulated during negotiations, but even here Mongolia had its hands tied, since only Beijing could provide long-term loans for construction. There are ongoing negotiations on gas transit to China, and they have become even more relevant since last year.
Almost all governments in Ulaanbaatar over the past years have adhered to the line of constructive interaction with Moscow, not forgetting the so-called. "multi-vector". This could have continued for years if, after the election of John Biden in the pandemic 2020, the processes of fragmentation of the global system into separate blocks had not been fully launched. For Mongolia, this resulted in a government crisis, which de facto ended only this year.
At the end of 2020, a pregnant woman dies in Ulaanbaatar due to errors in quarantine measures. An investigation is initiated, and even the WHO reports that the measures in Mongolia are quite adequate, the results are generally good. Nevertheless, a month later, protests arise, in which about 200 people participate. Obviously, the incident is one-time, and the protests are local.
But Prime Minister U. Khurelsukh immediately resigned, accusing President H. Battulga of provocation, and the parliament also unanimously voted for this decision. For H. Battulga, this is a complete surprise. But there is nothing to be done, and he proposes to the parliament to appoint a young (40 years old) party member from the MNP, L. Oyuun-Erdene, as prime minister. The approval goes through without problems. A few months later, new presidential elections are held, in which the former prime minister becomes president with a result of as much as 76% of the vote. The prime minister in August and the bulk of the cabinet are reappointed, and observers are left to guess what it was all about.
The “steppe echo” suggests that such purity and almost perfect castling, which should have been ensured by preliminary and very serious work “with personnel”, is not connected with a tragic incident, but with the friction of the former president and the steel giant Rio Tinto, who sought for its subsidiary, the rights to develop one of the world's largest copper deposits, Oyu Tolgoi.
Who are Rio Tinto? This is a real TOP of the world ranking (first and second places) in the extraction of bauxite, iron ore, alumina, aluminum production, and the holding does not have the last places in other products. As in the saying: “Of course, we are not the first, but we are not the second either.” By and large, if we take into account joint projects with Chinese concerns, Rio is one of the main suppliers of iron, copper and aluminum to the Chinese market. Here, the previous president of Mongolia began to impose various requirements and instructions on the giant's daughter too actively.
One could attribute this to a conflict between a part of the elites of a small state and a powerful corporation that is part of the structure of the assets of the Rothschild house, and all this is correct, but only the upper part of the question, and the question also has a root, conceptual side.
The government of Mongolia is headed by a man with an interesting biography. The fact is that L. Oyuun-Erdene worked in a structure called World Vision International (WVI). This is a very specific transnational organization that is engaged in charitable projects under evangelical flags. But projects are projects, and in fact it is a friendly and, even more, partner structure in relation to the so-called. Christian Fellowship and the Prayer Breakfast movement in the USA.
That's when we are told from TV about some conservative (patriotic, industrial, republican, traditionalist, etc., etc.) forces in the United States, in reality, the threads lead to these same prayer breakfasts - an event for several days, where exchange of views and reports. The frontman of The Fellowship D. Coe is the scarecrow of the current US liberals, but inside they are ultra-conservative evangelists from different states and, importantly, from different political wings - both Democrats and Republicans.
If someone wants to enlist the support of these circles, then he tries to get to the next prayer breakfast (remember our oppositionists or, conversely, state agents). Likewise, politicians of the opposite wing periodically speak at breakfasts in terms of a conciliatory agenda. But ultra-conservatism does not at all mean a rejection of the ideas of US world leadership. The whole question is only in the concept of such leadership. The neocons with a part of the current liberal politicians in the United States have one vision, while the “prayer books” have another.
From the point of view of the already familiar narratives, a strange picture emerges when the Rothschild structures maintain the most serious level of business with China, while contributing to the rise of forces in the region that are associated with the ultra-Protestant, traditionalist agenda, where one of the parts was the famous formula “Make America Great Again", with the promise of direct competition with China. It turns out that the house of Rothschild acts in such a peculiar role of the Old Believer monetarist? Of course not.
If we look further, we will see that the so-called. The "coal protests" that swept through Mongolia last December have their own logic, especially given that it was China that had the initiative in uncovering coal smuggling schemes. The scale of which for Mongolian GDP has become unprecedented. After all, the supply of coal to China is half of the country's income. In recent years, China has built a whole network of 12 so-called. "coal" railways with sorting points, storage warehouses, etc. This, by the way, is a serious difference from our Trans-Siberian Railway - for the Chinese, these flows do not intersect and do not interfere with each other. A blow through a corruption scandal demolished the entire previous top of the main state company of Mongolia Erdenes Tavan-Tolgoi and its subsidiaries responsible for the extraction and supply of coal.
De facto, Beijing receives full transparency and guaranteed supplies of strategic raw materials, and in conjunction with the already described transnational group. In turn, the current cabinet in Mongolia also received full control over the strategic direction, along the way resolving private issues of political competition. China is determined to sell 100% of its raw material reserves at its side, especially since there is no certainty yet in which of the American concepts such an important supplier as Australia will fall within. There has already been a precedent with the suspension of coal supplies.
Judging by such a mouthpiece as The Economist, the conceptualists who work for the interests of the structures of the House of Rothschild want to strike a balance between China, the USA and Europe in the future, distributing the production base, maintaining the European industrial zone, as well as the EU as a major market in political and financial US leadership. At the same time, the UK is assigned its own zone of influence, a separate financial center and a profit center. It turns out - well, no - they will push London back into the European Union.
Judging by the fact that China unambiguously hinted to Russia that even under the conditions of the NMD, it is necessary to somehow resolve the issue of European inflation, which threatened to bring down the economies of Europe, such a construction suits Beijing quite well. For the Rothschild house project, D. Trump is “too much”, but moderate conservatism and distributed growth are just positive. Therefore, the investment in "prayer books" is purposeful, but moderate and moderate.
And here is another group where ultra-liberals and neocon hawks, conditional “transgenders” and the collective V. Nuland sang, where for the latter Europe is the future consumer market and a zone of eternal confrontation with the East, and for the former the remnants of Christian ethics and aristocratic capitals are existential a problem that needs to be solved radically, the owners of Rio Tinto and The Economist are not close. But this position is salutary for the Vatican, which is gradually losing both its flock in the EU and its financial leverage. The Economist is not close to the position when the British government tells the king with whom to negotiate and with whom it is not necessary, and the Vatican is not happy with such neglect.
So it turns out that as soon as a specific group completely took over the levers in distant Mongolia, Pope Francis, despite his sore knee and age-related fatigue, was going to Ulaanbaatar, and before that, understanding the processes in general in Central Asia, he increased the responsibility the person himself travels. The Vatican needs to catch the train of this project, otherwise the “good Samaritans” from another project group of neocons and transgender hawks are waiting for it, the Vatican simply has nothing to rely on.
It turned out that such interesting constructions can be seen when considering seemingly ordinary episodes - distant protests and the visit of the Pope to the foggy steppes. In this regard, the case with Mongolia is perhaps unique; in other areas, such links are much more difficult to see, often simply because of the extreme saturation of events.
For Russia, the events that took place near our eastern neighbor are neither a threat nor an acute problem. There is not and will not be an openly anti-Russian cabinet in Mongolia, just a separate project is unfolding before us, with which Moscow will have to interact in terms of specific facilities and the laying of a gas pipeline. Specific issues in the aluminum industry will also have to be resolved privately, since the industry here is private.
Here the problem lies much deeper - in none of the considered conceptual projects Russia is assigned an independent role. What we, in fact, see when the Rothschild project fits in perfectly with Rome, China, part of the elites in the United States, but does not provide equal rights for Russia. Britain today is one of the main instigators of the Ukrainian crisis, and here all Western conceptualists agree.
The same structures associated with the Rothschilds are quietly funding our crazy “non-systemic” opposition, among other things. It is naive to think that conservative Protestants are set to interact with a strong Russia, no matter how political scientists assure us. Why such unity? Because in a global joint-stock company, all these good ideologists want to distribute shares to us without our vote. Of course, you can count on the Chinese representation here, but we see that China has its own program of docking with those circles, somewhere close to our interests, and somewhere not very much.
On the example of Mongolia, we can see that in the world there is a struggle not so much for resources and money, but for conceptual projects of the future. Either your own project is put forward, or you will be pushed into the framework of someone else's project, and no one will escape this choice, even on the banks of the Onon, the Selenga or on the border with Tibet.
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