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The second edition of “The Plot to Seize Russia – The Untold History” is now available for purchase in paperback and hardcover on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The ebook will be available shortly.
Book description:
“Take care of Russia,” Boris Yeltsin said as he departed his presidency in August 1999. These words were directed at current Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin specifically picked Putin as his predecessor to prevent the takeover of Russia.
So, who was Yeltsin warning against? Newly declassified documents from the Clinton Administration prove that there was a plot to rig the Russian election of 2000. These never-before-seen documents confirm numerous attempts to implement pro-Western policies using the Russian oligarchy headed by Boris Berezovsky.
On the other side were the communists who desired a return to the glory days of the Soviet Union. As one of the largest international hedge fund managers, author Martin Armstrong found himself in the middle of perhaps the greatest espionage, or attempt at a regime change for Russia, in modern history.
The Plot to Seize Russia pulls back the curtain to expose the most extraordinary attempt to seize power in modern history, but with the pen rather than armies. These declassified documents reveal a plot that has altered our thinking about the relations between the United States and Russia. The thirst for power comes seething through every line of these papers that alter our perception of reality, change the course of history, and now threaten us with World War III.
I was invited to a briefing this morning on Term Limits and Congressional Insider Trading. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna presented the agenda. I mentioned at the WEC in November that these two actions would be forthcoming. Anna Paulina Luna is behind the prohibition of Congressional Insider Trading with bypartisan support. In addition to throwing his support behind Luna’s bill to end Congressional Insider Trading, Governor DeSantis also said he is leading the effort across the country to have states certify a Constitutional Amendment for term limits for members of Congress.
I was invited to this briefing this morning. I certainly endorse these efforts. I don’t believe the press is fairly reporting what is going on. So far, I believe 28 states have agreed to propose a Constitutional Amendment for Term Limits. To PROPOSE an amendment via state application: 34 states (two-thirds). To RATIFY an amendment and add it to the Constitution: 38 states (three-fourths). This is the effort and with 2026 being the 250th year anniversary and political change lies on the horizon, we have have a shot at at getting to the formal proposal stage.
If this were solely up to Congress, it would be a real uphill battle. The only way to do that would be to say those who are there now are grandfathered in, but any replacement would then be confined to one term and out.
Congress passes a law saying “the FDA must make rules to ensure safe food” (the statute). The FDA (like the SEC) then creates a specific rule that “eggs must be refrigerated at 40°F” (the rule). The insider trading ban works the same way. Congress NEVER created an insider trading statute. This is all done under the rules of the SEC. The real problem is that the bureaucracy has become so outrageous and vast that we are NOT represented by Congress and this is, in my opinion, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, because we the people have no right to vote for anyone on the bureaucracy.
In 1986, I had written the Greatest Bill Market in History where I did the full account of the formation of the SEC. Insider Trading was that a Director of a Company knew they were going to file bankruptcy so he sold all his stock the day before. When they charged Michael Milken with Insider Trading, I was contacted by the lawyers and explained that the interpretation they were using was exactly opposite of the 1930s. Here they claimed you and I are going to takeover Facebook. The Facebook shareholders do not know. The fraud is supposed to be that they LOST the opportunity to make money. They did not lose money as in the 1930s. One guy went to trial and he won against the SEC.
The SEC will NEVER prosecute a politicians for what they have completely distorted. They can argue that the information is coming from lawyers, not directors. But essentially, the entire “Inside Trading” is completely vague at best and is selectively applied if they want your ass. Most assume there is a LAW and Congress exempted themselves. This is an abomination created by the SEC. Because other countries did not understand the reality of the SEC “rule” in the slightest, various countries passed laws that were not really about privileged “insider” info, but it was just ant-rich Marxism.
Because I had offices around the world, trying to comply as an advisor and an investor became impossible. In some jurisdictions, if you asked me about IBM, and I owned one share of IBM, I had to disclosed my entire investment portfolio. With a team of law firms from every financial center, the conclusion was I could not have a stock account anywhere. It has morphed into me advising of a share I happened to have with no inside information can be a crime. When they tried to investigate me, the US Attorney Richard Owens could find anything and just said “You are one smart SOB.”
Even Ron DeSantis said clearly that when he was in Congress decades ago, they knew about the fraud in Minnesota. They would even talk about it back then but do nothing.
I have informed them that the best way to disguise a bribe is to set up two futures accounts. They enter a buy and sell trade on whatever and at the end of the day, they they allocate the win to the politician and the loss to the payee. This will NEVER show up as “insider trading” just that they were a fantastic trader one time in some commodity.
Like my dogs who will patiently wait for my return, we will have to be very patient on these two actions. They are step in the right direction. Let’s see!
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DJIA advanced by 484.90 points (0.99%) to 49,462.08
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Canada Market Closings:
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Brazil Market Closing:
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Thousands of Venezuelans go out in La Vega, a popular area of Caracas to celebrate the fall of Nicolás Maduro and the victory of Edmundo González.
The eyes of the world are on Venezuela. ?? pic.twitter.com/3uMAND74TT
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) July 29, 2024
The people of Venezuela are celebrating Maduro’s departure. Those who have lived under socialism understand the depths of its destruction. Hugo Chávez is celebrated as a social justice warrior for eliminating capitalism in the 2000s. Socialism does not work because the system eventually runs out of other people’s money, as Margaret Thatcher once proclaimed. We only need to look at recent history to see the severe consequences of switching to this system. Venezuela first reported that it had a “nutritional emergency” in February 2016. President Nicolás Maduro also declared an “economic emergency” in January of the same year, providing him the power to rule by decree. Inflation was running at 141.5%, according to Venezuelan authorities, but the IMF believed the figure reached 270% in 2015 and had the potential to reach 500% by the end of 2016.
There were rumors going around that people under socialism faced such severe food shortages that they were forced to break into zoos and eat the animals. Unfortunately, this is a fact. Reports were circulating in Venezuela of people consuming zoo animals around 2016 and 2017. The animals that remained in these zoos starved to death or ate one another. The people were in such dire conditions that they were forced to consume dogs, cats, decaying meat, and anything else they could find.
The socialists claimed that acknowledging the food shortages could lead to American intervention, and Maduro consistently blamed US sanctions for his nation’s failure. As reported by a Spanish newspaper, this is how the average person waiting for their food rations: “Five hours in line to buy a chicken; kicks, pushes, and blows of all kinds to be one of the fortunate ones to enter the supermarket and get away with a bag of flour or rice, basic goods that Venezuela does not have available to everyone, unfortunately.”
Maduro told the people to grow their own food and gloated that he, too, was producing his own eggs and produce. The government owned the grocers and food production companies and intervened numerous times to prevent private-sector intervention. Politicians take no responsibility for the suffering caused by their policies, and this is precisely what a portion of the West is seeking to implement today.
Over 7.7 million people have fled Venezuela due to one of the worst economic collapses in modern history not attributed to war. GDP contracted 80% from 2013, according to the IMF. Inflation reached an astounding 130,060% by 2018, the bolivar collapsed, prices doubled daily, and people were forced to carry carts of worthless cash for basic purchases. Around 30% of the population lived in poverty in 2013. Fast forward to 2025, roughly 87% to 90% of the population lives in extreme poverty and despair.
People wonder why Venezuelans are cheering Maduro’s downfall from the safety of their first-world suburbs. Older generations remember a time when Venezuela was a thriving economic powerhouse before it rapidly fell under socialism. Oil was insufficient to sustain a system that rendered innovation and productivity worthless.
Now, Venezuela’s problems did not begin with Maduro. Maduro inherited a flawed socialist system and continued its mismanagement. Under Chávez, Venezuela was already in decline, but Maduro assumed power precisely as the country entered a major ECM down wave. Instead of reforming, he doubled down on the same policies that were already destroying confidence and refused to take ownership in typical bureaucratic fashion. The destruction was locked in long before sanctions became meaningful because the government destroyed confidence, property rights, and capital formation. Socialism wages war on capital, and capital is a pacifist that will willingly flee. Once you nationalize industry, confiscate private property, impose price controls, and criminalize profit, capital will flee and not return. Every war waged against capital results in a lost battle for the aggressor as it cannot be captured and the business cycle cannot be defeated.
![Minimum Wage Rate by State in the U.S. [2026]](https://www.paycor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/MinimumWage_StateMap_740x560-768x582.png "MinimumWage_StateMap_740x560 768x582")
The minimum wage increased significantly in 19 U.S. states on New Year’s Day. Minimum wages are often portrayed in the mainstream press as a straightforward way to raise incomes for the lowest-paid workers, but this portrayal ignores the underlying economic mechanisms.
When the cost of labor exceeds the value the labor actually produces, companies begin to reduce labor costs. This has led to a massive shift to automation and outsourcing. Employers are often forced to reduce their workforce, and those who remain face reduced hours or increased responsibilities without commensurate pay increases.
Wages rise with productivity in a healthy economy. Currently, employers’ costs are growing faster than the value added by workers in numerous instances. Yes, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 per hour for nearly a decade, and nowhere in the US is that salary sustainable. Washington state now mandates roughly $17.13 per hour; California’s state minimum is nearly $17; New York’s major cities approach $17; and other states set their minimums above $15. The market or demand does not determine these set wages.
California routinely selects groups of minimum-wage workers and determines that their skill set is now worth 10 times as much. The state in general increased the minimum wage to $16.50 per hour on January 1, 2026, while certain cities have raised the minimum to $19 per hour. Yet, hotel and airline workers in Los Angeles are to receive a minimum wage of $38 per hour within the next two years. Hotels are already struggling, with only 79% of the traffic they once experienced prior to the pandemic. The city shed 11,000 hotel jobs last year, and this proposal nearly ensures more jobs will be cut. The state saw the same phenomenon when minimum wage was raised for fast food workers—employers reduced staff and raised prices for consumers.
Should a hotel maid earn more than a teacher in Los Angeles? Do the people constructing the hotel deserve less than those paid to book rooms? Does replacing towels and bed sheets, or checking a boarding pass, warrant an $80K salary? Pay grades are no longer based on skill and experience but on industry pandering. Yet another reason for companies to relocate when possible, as we saw throughout 2025 and will continue to see in 2026.
Rest assured that the government will continue to raise taxes on the lowest-paid workers. Wages rise naturally in a real economic expansion when businesses compete for workers. That is how a free market functions. But when governments artificially raise wages, businesses respond logically—by cutting jobs, reducing hours, or passing the costs onto consumers through inflation. The very people politicians claim to be helping end up worse off, as their cost of living rises and entry-level jobs disappear.
Minnesota has to come first – always.
Today, I’m proud of the work we’ve done to make Minnesota the best place to live and raise kids.
I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work. pic.twitter.com/AYbvcOzyPI
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 5, 2026
Disgraced Governor Tim Walz announced that he will not seek re-election after the Somali socialism scandal imploded.
“As I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz said in the statement. “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences,” he said.
The truth of the matter is that Tim Walz will soon be facing a litany of legal investigations into his role in the Somali scandal that is perhaps the largest drain on America’s social system in recent history. Investigators still cannot determine how much taxpayers sent to Somali fraudsters from Minnesota, but they have begun to uncover a direct link to these criminal organizations and the Democrats whose campaigns they’ve repeatedly supported with stolen funds. Walz personally received $10,000 in campaign donations from Somali-operated day care centers, which is likely only one drop in the bucket.
@nickshirleyy This daycare in Minnesota receives the most amount of money from the government at a staggering $3,670,000 in CCAP funding (tax exempt), in one day my crew and I found an estimated $110,000,000 is fraud. One top of the daycare fraud you also have an autism center fraud, these “centers” have EXPONENTIALLY increased in over the years in 2024 $228,092,998 was allocated for autism Medicaid. Tim Walz is yet to say anything… What do you expect to see happen in Minnesota? JOEY JUST WANTED SOME DAYCARE ??
The top journalist uncovering this story does not work for a major news outlet. There have been countless reports of fraud surpassing $1 billion, but no one has dared to show the public how unconcealed and blatant these sham practices have been permitted to run in broad daylight.
@nickshirleyy
Nick Shirley is an independent journalist who took to the streets of Minnesota to see for himself how these government-funded programs are operating. Shirley showed up at the doors of numerous day care centers to take his questions directly to the sources. The people operating the centers refuse to let him in the doors, nor could they answer basic questions about the day care. Strangely, there were no signs of children at any of these childcare facilities. In a few videos, Shirley asks the people on site if they can enroll a child in these day care centers. After all, these childcare facilities run by Somalian migrants have been receiving millions in funding for YEARS. Every center turned him away. Shirley is now receiving death threats as the nation has become so divided that the left would prefer to see their taxpayers robbed than to admit the Democrats passively permitted open-air fraud markets in Minnesota.
Tim Walz, Ilhan Omar, and everyone else connected to this crime ring must face their day in court. These far-left socialist diehards masquerading as modern American politicians always use social programs as their personal piggy banks. There is no feasible way that these crime rings could have operated openly without support from the inside.
QUESTION: You said this invasion of Venezuela set s precedent. Would you please elaborate.
Mikki
ANSWER: Russia could then kidnap Zelensky and point to Venezuela. China is already demanding Manduro be returned to Venezuela immediately. The computer is showing that this is by no means over. The computer has been showing this would begin the first week of January and this goes into the 1st week of Feb and then look out for April. We are entering geopolitical chaos in 2026.
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DJIA advanced by 594.79 points (1.23%) to 48,977.18
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NASDAQ advanced by 160.19 points (0.69%) to 23,395.822
Russell 2000 advanced by 39.70 points (1.58%) to 2,547.920
Canada Market Closings:
TSX Composite advanced by 336.58 points (1.06%) to 32,219.95
TSX 60 advanced by 17.25 points (0.92%) to 1,887.77
Brazil Market Closing:
Bovespa advanced by 1,501.40 points (0.94%) to 162,040.09
COMMENT: Marty, thank you for your revelation on Venezuela. While everyone is talking about oil and some China, your contacts are always head and shoulders above everyone else.
Thank you again for bringing clarity to the propaganda.
Eli
ANSWER: Here is a clip from 2019 when the Neocons, Trump haters, and of course CNN the Marxist Channel of propaganda, was calling Trump Putin’s Puppet for NOT going into Venezuela back then. These people know NOTHING about foreign policy. There have been hints of Russia putting missiles in Cuba or Venezuela. Trump really acted like this was a 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Of course, the press will not explain this in such a way for it would elevate Trump to Kennedy status. OMG! They can’t let that happen even though much of that was propaganda as well.
From Putin’s perspective, the EU wants to admit Ukraine as a NATO member and they would then put nukes there. That is the truth, but you will never read that in mainstream press because Putin is evil and the West wears the white hat. He realistically sees this as a chess game. Putin puts nukes in Venezuela and/or Cuba, and that is checkmate via Ukraine. Cyclically, this was on target – 2x the Pi Cycle.
The official story goes like this: Khrushchev blinked. Kennedy stood firm. The Soviets backed down and removed their missiles from Cuba. American resolve triumphed. The Russians were humiliated. End of story. This narrative served multiple purposes: It made Kennedy look strong. It justified his hardline stance. It humiliated the Soviets publicly, which satisfied American pride. And it concealed the actual bargain that ended the crisis.
It Was a Calculated Trade
Kennedy absolutely agreed to remove American Jupiter missiles from Turkey as part of the deal to end the crisis. This wasn’t a minor concession—it was the core of the settlement. The Soviets got exactly what they wanted strategically, while accepting public humiliation to avoid nuclear war. Trump’s action was to prevent the same type of confrontation.
Immediately AFTER the Venezuela operation, Trump turned his attention to Cuba. When asked about potential military action against Cuba, Trump said an American military intervention in Cuba was unnecessary because the island appears ready to fall on its own. What I can say is that Trump did directly war Cuba and this is all about accepting missiles from Russia. This was NOT about oil alone. That is the side-bet. It also displaces the Middle East in a crisis.
Yes, Russian officials have made multiple threats about deploying missiles to Cuba and Venezuela, particularly in recent months. Most notably, in late October 2025, Alexei Zhuravlyov, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, stated that Moscow could deliver nuclear-capable missiles to Venezuela or Cuba, calling the United States Russia’s “main geopolitical adversary” and declaring it an “enemy.”
This wasn’t the first time. In January 2022, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated Russia could “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of deploying missiles to Cuba and Venezuela, saying it depended on US actions regarding Ukraine and NATO expansion.
More recently, in November 2025, Zhuravlyov told Russian media there were “no obstacles” to providing Venezuela with the Oreshnik or Kalibr missiles, noting that Russia supplies Venezuela with weapons ranging from small arms to aviation.
The threats specifically invoke the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The concern is particularly acute with the Oreshnik missile, which travels at Mach 10 and could potentially strike US targets in under five minutes if launched from Venezuela, compared to the 15-minute warning time during the original Cuban crisis.
My sources confirm Zelensky is clueless. He jokes that Trump should do the same and kidnap Putin. This guy is not only dangerous, he is understands nothing of foreign policy. He dares to call Putin a dictator who stands for elections which he suspends all election in Ukraine because he knows he will lose and there are now brawls in his Parliament demanding elections in what is the most corrupt country in the world. He is being pay billions to start WWIII.
US officials have generally dismissed these statements as bluster. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called it “bluster” and said if Russia moved in that direction, the US would “deal with it decisively.” This was the the public BS. Despite the hatred of Trump by the media, Trump is playing chess with Putin. If you cannot connect the dots, put your mask on and go for a drive, make sure you keep the windows up, COVID may be lurking in the bushes. This move is to prevent Putin from dragging in the US to help stop the insanity of the EU and NATO. If Trump does NOT exit NATO, then missiles in Cuba and or Venezuela would be checkmate.
People frequently ask how to convert an Economic Confidence Model turning point into a specific calendar date. The ECM is based on time, not opinion, and time must be measured consistently.
The model’s foundation is the year expressed as a decimal. One full calendar year equals 1.000. The primary cycle is 8.6 years, but within that cycle are fractional turning points such as .25, .50, and .75. These represent shifts in confidence, not fiscal or monetary policy decisions, and they unfold regardless of what governments or central banks attempt to do.
To convert a decimal year into a calendar date, you must translate the fraction of the year into days. A calendar year has 365 days. Therefore, you multiply 365 by the decimal portion of the year you are converting.
If the turning point is .75, then the calculation is straightforward.
365 × 0.75 = 273.75
We drop the fraction because markets do not turn on the hour. What matters is the day. That leaves Day 273 of the year.
Now comes the part where most people make a mistake. Day 273 does not mean September 27. It means the 273rd day counting forward from January 1. When you count through the calendar, Day 273 falls on September 30 in a non-leap year.
This is why major ECM turning points repeatedly align with late September and early October. That period has marked financial panics, sovereign stress, currency reversals, and geopolitical escalations throughout history. This is not a coincidence. Confidence shifts into the fourth quarter as capital repositions globally ahead of year-end settlement cycles.
The ECM does not forecast events. It forecasts the timing of change. Wars, debt crises, market crashes, and political upheavals all erupt when confidence breaks. The model tells you when the window opens, not what excuse history will later assign to it. This is also why trying to “manage” the economy fails. Politicians and central bankers respond to events, but the cycle creates them. You cannot vote confidence into existence, nor can you print it.
Once you understand how to convert the dates properly, you will see the same timing repeat over centuries. Rome, the French Revolution, 1929, 1987, 2008, and what lies ahead all follow the same clock.
QUESTION:
Dear Mr.Armstrong,
Do you think of cycles and time as the same thing and interchangeable? Is it time that defines the architecture of a cycle or a cycle that characterises what we know as time?
A
ANSWER: This is an interesting and profound question. A few years ago, a group of scientists announced that they had recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away, thereby fulfilling the final prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This is the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, which are the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago.
I have approached this also from a physics perspective. However, I assumed that time functions like everything else in the universe and thus moves in a cyclical manner. Sound moves in waves, as does light. Light (electric) is bound by magnetism, so the fact that magnetism provides the outer boundary limits that create the structural form to a light wave. Given this evidence, it was logical to assume that gravity also must have a wave structure. Consequently, what I have discovered is that absolutely everything moves in a cyclical manner without exception, from brain waves, the beat of your heart, a woman’s menstrual cycle, your mood cycle (good/bad days), to the world outside our bodies. There has been a significant disagreement with that statement in the field of political economics because people WANT to believe they can rule the world and force society to do what they want. Such people have postulated this theory, begun by Karl Marx, that the government is capable of managing the economy when in fact they are incompetent and always come back for more taxes. How many times has the ECB had to increase QE and lower rates because it was not working as expected?
I have shown that Larry Summers, the father of negative interest rates and one of the architects of the killing of Glass-Steagall, freely admits that he is not capable of forecasting the business cycle and claims that it is like weather and too complex. This has profound implications because it means the promises to vote for “change” are illusory, as government cannot forecast the business cycle. Politics has been based upon voting to rob someone else to make your life easier. This general result has emerged from the fact that people do not comprehend the business cycle and, rather than moving with it, fight it over time.
So cycles are the way ENERGY moves through everything, just as your brain functions in wave formations. ENERGY can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only change form. There are Phase Transitions that are bursts of ENERGY changing form like a boiling pot of water being converted to gas, which does not take place in a nice, straight, linear progression. There is always a nonlinear cycle. Comprehending how ENERGY within a system moves is the key to everything, including cyclical knowledge. Perhaps one day we will embark upon a new understanding of the world we live in and go with the flow rather than fighting against the winds of time, chance, and circumstance.
