Dear Reader,

Vladimir Putin...
We think of him as an ex-KGB bully who crushes opponents by
force in an attempt at ultimate control of Russia and beyond.
And while I have no doubts about Putin’s ruthlessness or lust
for power...
You have to consider that this "thug" has pulled Russia’s
economy back from the brink and created one of the world’s
biggest energy superpowers.
Russia’s GDP has grown faster than China’s over the past
decade... and it now exports more oil than Saudi Arabia.
Don’t get me wrong here — I’m not a Putin advocate. I think
he’s a jackass.
But I also look at the facts...
Ex-KGB or not, any single one of his accomplishments shows
him to be smarter than your average hammer-fisted dictator.
And while his continued foray into Eastern Ukraine appears to
be nothing more than a thuggish power grab... it’s also a
shrewd business move.
Thing is, this was just the first of Putin’s plays... and he’s slowly
been revealing his hand ever since.
The main question is: What’s he up to next?
If you’re thinking World War III, then I have to be the one to
correct you...
You’re Missing the Real Story
Putin might be war-like, but he’d have to be suicidal to actually
goad the West into war.
Large-scale war simply isn’t coming.
Why do I believe this?
Simply put, I’m armed with the facts about Russia’s real status
— and Putin’s real needs, fears, and goals.
For instance:
While Russia is still an energy powerhouse, its proven and
profitable oil and gas reserves (the real, in-the-ground stuff)
have been falling steadily for several years.
According to the Ukrainian government, one area of Crimea that
Russia just annexed could be home to over 8 trillion cubic feet
of natural gas.
The area called "Skifska" was to be developed by Western
energy companies ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell by 2015.
It could have heavily displaced Russian imports to Ukraine —
but not now.
Russia also needs access to so-called "warm-water" ports —
for obvious reasons.
But while these facts are easily verifiable — even head-
smackingly obvious after just a little research and digging — I’m
finding that most investors have no idea. They believe Putin is
nothing more than a dangerous Soviet-era warmonger or an
easily ignored upstart.
What investors fail to realize is that Putin’s moves aren’t just
saber-rattling for old-time’s sake — they’re a huge geopolitical
power grab for entirely economic motives.
However you feel about Putin "the man" or Putin "the USSR
thug," you have to recognize that Putin is making huge waves in
the international markets.
And whatever you do, listening to the American media
propaganda is worse than useless.
According to the geniuses at The New York Times: "The
Obama administration has drawn up plans to escalate
sanctions against Russia by targeting its financial, energy,
and defense industries..."
At USA Today, they write: "The Obama administration is
slapping new sanctions on Russian separatists fighting in
Ukraine, and sending $75 million in new {...} defensive security
assistance to the Ukrainian government."
There are two huge problems with this:
1. Economic sanctions in response to Putin’s military
maneuvers don’t change the fact that Russia now controls
major strategic economic resources in Crimea.
2. Economic sanctions are going to hurt Europeans a lot
more than Americans, and the Germans and French will
find any excuse to end them.
Moreover, Obama stands to gain nothing by going to war with
Russia. It would be an escalation of a minor regional conflict.
Putin knows this.
It’s clear Putin is playing an economic chess game while
Obama dabbles in politics.
But what if I’m wrong?
Well, that brings me to my second major shocker about the
whole "Putin Crisis."
Obama Won't Talk About This
The reality is it doesn’t matter what Obama does. Short of a full-
scale military attack, Obama lost the real battle and the war
before they even started.
That’s because of one huge economic reality that NO ONE in
the mainstream media is talking about — that is, unless you
consider "The Voice of Russia" radio station or Al Jazeera
America as part of the mainstream...
Russia gets most of its revenue from oil sales. But something
truly revolutionary happened to that revenue in April of this year
— shortly after Russia annexed Crimea.
Russia’s highest officials in the banking, economic, and energy
cabinets held what the Russian press calls a "de-dollarization
meeting."
The result? According to Al Jazeera America, "The head of
state-owned Gazprom, which supplies Europe with 30 percent
of its natural gas supply, announced the oil company would shift
'nine out of 10' payment contracts from dollars to euros."
It’s a shame we have to get our news on this story from Al
Jazeera, but facts are facts.
And all of this follows a 2010 agreement between Russia and
China to stop trading in dollars — but instead to trade rubles for
yuan. They even set up their own SWIFT banking system to
clear trades with the likes of India, China, and Central Asia —
completely circumventing Europe.
While Obama focuses on military distractions and "threatens"
sanctions, Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, sold $1.4 billion
worth of bonds — except they were issued in euros.
And on the heels of a recent Russian announcement that it
would double energy sales to China over the next 25 years,
Putin said, "The unipolar model of the world is over. The global
picture has completely changed."
There’s no longer a debate: Russia is selling more oil than
anyone, it’s selling more of it in rubles, and it’s using Crimea as
an entrée to sell more oil and gas to Europe and Asia.
And while the U.S. dollar still accounts for over 80% of all trade,
that number was over 85% just a few short years ago — and
over 90% for decades...
But this is great news for investors. It’s not the end of American
dominance...
But it is a ground-floor opportunity to triple your money or more
in one little-known stock.
What Obama won’t tell you is that Russia has something
America needs very badly...
I’ll tell you more in a moment. But first, a little background...
Russia is far from isolated. It has willing trading partners
throughout Asia, including China, as well as in the Middle East
and throughout Latin America. There are even major political
forces in Germany who favor trade over sanctions.
In short, Russia has no shortage of trading partners with deep
pockets.
So what should you do now?
First, you need to understand that we’re in the middle of an
incredibly powerful bull market in stocks — an obvious
statement that obscures the real opportunity.
While stocks have been scraping the heavens with new highs
every other week, one sector has lagged the broad market for
years...
I’m talking, of course, about Russia.
While investors saw huge gains over the past few years in the
U.S. — to the point that the market is trading at all-time highs
and well above the historic norm in terms of value...
Russia has a price-to-earnings ratio of six. That’s right, six — a
quarter of the value of U.S. stocks. Some major Russian oil
companies now trade with a price-to-earnings ratio of two!
That’s absurd.
Russian companies would have to go up by over 1,000% to
reach the value of their U.S.- and European-based peers.
Russian stocks went up over 25,666% the last time this
happened...
Because it has happened before.
In 1998, the Moscow Index (RTS) was fighting off a banking
crisis and was trading at all-time lows below 75. It then went on
a seven-year run, gaining almost 25,000% — destroying the
returns on the Dow or S&P 500.
The massive moneymaking boom is starting to happen again.
In fact, we’ve seen the very beginning of a recovery. The RSX
was up 45% last year... the second-best performing market on
earth!
The Putin factor is setting off the next and final stage of the new
Russian bull market.
And if past is prelude, it will crush the gains of just about
anything we’ve seen lately... including stocks like Apple,
Chipotle, or Netflix...
I don't know what to tell you
Most people think the news coming out of the East is
undeniably bad.
Between a crashed Malaysian airliner and a variety of
sanctions, restrictions, and podium thumping from President
Obama AND Secretary of State John Kerry — it could scarcely
get worse.
This bad news has beaten down the prices of all Russian
stocks. Even after the recent run, they are practically giving the
companies away.
And there is a lot to give. Russia is the world’s largest producer
of industrial metals such as chromium and palladium, and it’s
the number two producer of platinum and aluminum.
It’s also home to the world’s largest iron ore reserves.
What do you think the threat of war is doing to the prices of
these assets?
Take iron ore...

Spot prices are at two-year lows. The threat of war has scared
commodity traders away from not just iron but a handful of vital
resources.
This Element is Not on the Sanctions List
But there is one company whose main product escaped the
sanctions list — because it is essential to every major economy
on earth.
Obama and his cronies at GM and in Silicon Valley need this
mineral desperately... As does German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and her friends at Daimler AG.
As do the Chinese — and they are running out.
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote, "China’s stockpile is
running short: Stocks in five of the country’s main ports
have halved within one year."
Cutting-edge scientists at Google, Space X, and Boeing need it
for super alloys for airplanes, rockets, and satellites.
In fact, this element is one of the few that is bucking the
commodity downdraft and is expecting demand growth of up to
40%.
And Russia has the most and is the lowest-cost producer.
But time is running out to buy this company for pennies on the
dollar.
When the blood is mopped up from the streets of Ukraine and
peace breaks out, it will be too late. If that seems distasteful, so
be it...
Don’t get me wrong — this type of investing isn’t for everyone.
You have to enjoy making money.
But if you don’t have what it takes to invest during a crisis, I
don’t know what to tell you. Stop reading now.
The truth is that crisis investing is the best and possibly ONLY
opportunity for you to buy assets at supreme discounts.
And unless you’re a well-connected billionaire, like George
Soros or Warren Buffett, your time to get out in front of a bull
market is fleeting...
The opportunity to buy at the bottom comes around only once
every decade or so.
And it never happens that you are in a position to sell at the top
(the U.S.) and buy at the bottom somewhere else (Russia).
For instance, the best time of the last two decades to buy oil
drillers was in the weeks following the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The Oil
Services ETF (OIH) went from $30 a share to over $55 in less
than nine months following the Gulf disaster.
We saw similar moves in Exxon following the Valdez spill of
1989. America’s biggest oil company jumped in the months
after that disaster.
And if you bought shares of then-beleaguered car manufacturer
Toyota during its endless rounds of recalls in 2009 and 2010,
you would have doubled your money.
So what exactly is the opportunity I’m telling you about today?
Russia's Mountain of Wealth
You're sitting on the edge of one of the greatest opportunities of
your investing lifetime...
War in the Middle East is one thing — but a prolonged military
action between major military powers in Eastern Europe? That’s
a rare phenomenon.
It’s creating a crisis you shouldn’t ignore as an investor.
I should know...
I’m Chris DeHaemer. For the past 19 years, I’ve specialized in
showing people when and how to invest in crisis situations.
After putting boots on the ground, I bought oil stocks in
Mongolia that returned 759% and took positions in energy
companies in Kenya that returned 105%, 117%, 411%, and
318%, respectively.
I had the guts to buy oil wildcatters when the price per barrel
was plummeting into the $30 range in 2009 — and took
massive profits a few months later when oil was pushing $80.
Buying Mongolian oil stocks sounds crazy, I know. And I’m sure
buying into this Russian crisis seems a little "out there," too.
But I’m convinced that as an individual investor, you have a
great advantage when you can buy hated assets in war-torn,
backwater regions. The worse the headlines, the better the
profits down the road.
But being too early in a crisis is as bad as being too late.
That’s why I’ve highlighted one unique investment to make
during this Russian crisis.putinpay-report
And I’ve just written a report on exactly how you can buy into
this company that produces a "must-have" mineral.
I call the report, "Make Putin Pay: Retire-Now Riches from
the Russian Crisis."
In it, I discuss the importance of striking while the iron is hot in
Russia — and why buying these investments now is like buying
the U.S. market back in 2009 when some stocks sold for less
than the cash they had in the bank.
Remember when Warren Buffett bought GE for a song and a
promise in 2009? GE went from $5 to $25.
That’s how it is done.
You don’t get many second chances in this world, but this is
one of the few.
That’s why I want to send you this report immediately. I believe
any prolonged ceasefire or detente coming out of the East will
launch Russian stocks to the moon.
And I want you take advantage — before the German
Chancellor strikes a deal on the side or China starts its wave of
buyouts.
So I'm going to make you an offer:
I want you test-drive my world-class advisory service, Crisis and
Opportunity.
In exchange for taking this test drive, I'll send you my special
report, "Make Putin Pay: Retire-Now Riches from the
Russian Crisis."
This report is just the tip of the iceberg, though.
Because I've just uncovered another massive opportunity in the
making — and when you join me today, you'll also get...
Putin's Legion of Boom
Right now, dozens of emerging market countries are not-so-
secretly trading with Russia.
Reuters recently reported: "[Russian firm] Rosneft the world's
top listed oil producer by output, may join forces with Indian
state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp to supply oil to India over
the long term."
In the vacuum created by economic sanctions, a new Russia-
China-India trade alliance is being forged and tempered.
But dozens of smaller countries, like Brazil, Argentina, South
Korea, Vietnam, and others, are still happily engaged in trade
with Russia.
New and long-lasting trade relationships are being created.
Despite the hostilities in Ukraine, these markets will
prosper.putinpartners-report
Russian exports still have plenty of outlets.
That’s why I’m excited to tell you about another special report
I’ve just put together about this opportunity. I call it, "Putin's
Forgotten Trading Partners."
In it, I talk about how global war and crisis, specifically in
Ukraine, is scaring investors away from the world’s fastest-
growing economies. But it shouldn’t.
I’d like to send you a risk-free copy of this report as well with a
trial subscription to Crisis and Opportunity.
But before I tell you how, there’s one more investment
opportunity I have to tell you about...
A Bonus Ten-Bagger
Playing the Overabundance of Oil
America is swimming in oil
You may not know this, but the United States has more oil in
storage than at any point since the 1930s. There is so much oil
being pumped out of North Dakota and Texas due to fracking
that they don’t know where to put it anymore.
Not only that, but the oil market is in contango. This is a fancy
word that means you can sell oil on the futures market a year
from now for more than it costs right now!
So big traders like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are renting
old, unused oil tankers, filling them up, and parking them in
harbors around the world.
According to Bloomberg, about 12 to 15 million barrels of
floating storage have been booked so far. This compares to
2009, when 100 million barrels of oil ended up being stored at
sea.contango-report
If this trend continues — and it will — rental rates for oil tankers
will go through the roof!
Let me just say that the last time we had contango, this stock
went up 960%.
When you join Crisis and Opportunity, I'll also send you the free
bonus report called: "Floating Riches: How One Funny Word,
'Contango,' Can Make You 900% Gains."
It's just one more example of how I'm looking at every
conceivable angle where you can make mammoth profits from
this bull market in the fracking revolution.
Christian DeHaemer
Investment Director, Crisis and Opportunity
Will China Win?
Thursday, June 18th, 2015
A relative the other day asked how long it took to get to
Washington, D.C. from my house. I quipped that it was four
hours and 25 miles.
Fellow travelers in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe will know
that getting from here to there involves a kidney-shattering drive
through a demolition derby of Zen-mastered chaos where
death, dismemberment, or a dented fender wait patiently like
fetid water in an open-pit pothole. There are rules of the road,
but they are guided by physics, bravado, and fear.
Whenever I get to Germany, Japan, or America, I am always
grateful for a clean airport. Gandhi said that the greatness of a
civilization can be judged by how it treats its animals. I disagree.
Advanced civilizations can be judged on their public bathrooms
and their roads.
Marco...
In the late 1200s, Marco Polo embarked on a 24-year journey
along caravan trading routes from Venice across central Asia
and to the heart of China — a trip made possible by the
expansion of the Mongol Empire.
He met the Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, and
returned a wealthy merchant. Along with noodles, the world
atlas he brought back laid the foundation for the European age
of exploration.
New Silk Road
Today, China is seeking to resurrect the great trading routes of
the last millennium... and in so doing will build the largest
infrastructure project ever undertaken. Chinese President Xi
Jinping has called this the New Silk Road.
The vision is to change the economic map of the globe and
cement China — the Middle Kingdom — as the dominant
economic force.
According to Business Insider:
The ambitious vision is to resurrect the ancient Silk Road as a
modern transit, trade, and economic corridor that runs from
Shanghai to Berlin. The 'Road' will traverse China, Mongolia,
Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Germany, extending more than
8,000 miles, creating an economic zone that extends over one
third the circumference of the earth.
The plan envisions building high-speed railroads, roads and
highways, energy transmission and distributions networks, and
fiber optic networks. Cities and ports along the route will be
targeted for economic development.
Fair Winds and Following Seas
There will also be a maritime silk road (MSR). Ports and sea
routes will be built up and established from the Far East to the
Mediterranean.
This is all tied in with the new Infrastructure Investment Bank
and the plan to end the U.S. dollar dominance of global trade.
So far, 58 countries have signed on for the plan. Russia is an
enthusiastic backer.
The full project will likely take decades and cost trillions of
dollars. China has already put up over $100 billion in various
banks to get the project started.
This is a game changer for the world economy. Already
Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are launching international
Infrastructure Investment funds.
Worked for Ike
Scholars tell us that the Interstate Highway system in the USA
built by President Eisenhower returned $6 for every $1 spent —
a 500% return. Easy movement of people, goods, and services
lowers end costs, increases the speed of business, transfers
knowledge, and spreads culture.
Here is the New Silk Road map released in May by the Chinese
State:
 China is hot out of the
gate. Don't think about this as the next “Big Dig” or the
rebuilding of the World Trade Center. Asia can move at speeds
that America has forgotten...
Last month, President Xi met with the leader of Kazakhstan to
sign deals on high-speed rail lines between Kazakhstan,
Russia, and China. The Chinese line is already built.
The next day, President Xi met with Russian President Vladimir
Putin and signed a number of hundred-billion-dollar deals,
including the high-speed train from Moscow to Beijing and oil
and gas pipelines.
The week after that, China Railway Group won a $390 million
contract to build the railroad, along with two Russian railway
companies. Then Xi went to Belarus and got a deal for a high-
speed rail extension. China also picked up billion-dollar deals in
Africa, Hungary, and Pakistan. And that is just the beginning...
The New Silk Road is a big deal. Modern roads, rails, pipelines,
fiber optics, ports... these are tools that increase trade, move
money, and change culture. The New Silk Road will create
fortunes and cast asunder outdated business models.
If President Xi pulls this off, he will have joined three continents
in a way we haven’t seen since the assassination of Berdi Beg
in 1359.
All the best,
Christian DeHaemer
Putin Wins Again
The Russian President, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, has
never been more popular.

The Washington Post reported today:

President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings... hit all-time highs of
89 percent Wednesday.
Putin has been riding sky-high ever since the March 2014
annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russians
embraced as a restoration of their place at the table of
superpowers. Neither Western sanctions nor an economy in the
doldrums nor NATO’s bolstering its presence along the borders
have been able to dislodge Putin’s support ever since.
Putin has stirred up nationalism in order to consolidate political
power as well as achieve his territorial goals in Crimea and
Ukraine. It has worked.
Over the last year, oil prices have fallen by 50%. This should be
troubling for Russia, as it gets more than half of its government
revenue from oil. But Putin gained during that period. In fact,
over the last year, he has increased international trade
agreements — not with Europe, but with Asia and the Middle
East.
It is no wonder Russia is pivoting to the East... That's where the
money is.
Death of the Petrodollar — Long Live the Petroyuan
Vladimir Putin just gave Obama a firm middle finger.
Two years ago, first in low whispers and then pounding the
table with outrage, the United States financial world began
discussing the possibility of a world-changing phenomenon. It
was the end of the system that has vastly favored the U.S.
dollar as the world's reserve currency.
For over 40 years, oil was traded in U.S. dollars, which forced
almost every country to buy U.S. debt. On June 9th, 2015,
Russia, China, and Iran stopped. Goldman Sachs says this will
impact everything from geopolitics to global capital flows to
safe-haven status.
But Obama's pain can be your gain. Read this special report.
Asia Now Richer Than Europe
According to a report released by BCG and reprinted in the
Economist:
Last year, global private wealth grew by 12%, or $17.5 trillion, to
reach $164 trillion (in stocks, bonds, savings and cash)
according to a report released this week by BCG, a
consultancy. Good news for many, but particularly for Asia,
where private wealth grew by a whopping 29% compared to
5.6% in North America and 6.6% in Europe.
For the first time in modern history, Asia is now richer than
Europe. And it is catching up with North America too; by 2019
the region’s wealth is expected to reach $75 trillion compared to
$63 trillion in North America.
Over the past year, China and Russia have signed a number of
loans for oil deals. In May, China loaned Sberbank 6 billion
yuan — just shy of a billion dollars.
This is just one of many deals, which include pipelines, jumbo
jets, high-speed rail, and joint energy projects. I wrote about this
last week in a piece about China's New Silk Road.

What is new this week is a report that for the first time, Russia
now supplies China with more oil than Saudi Arabia.
The Financial Times reports:
Russia was China’s largest supplier of crude oil for the first time
on record in May, as Moscow looks beyond Europe for
customers and grows its ties in the east.
The country leapfrogged Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil
exporter, sending almost 930,000 barrels a day to China, up 21
per cent since April, according to customs data published on
Tuesday.
Sino-Russian ties have warmed as sanctions over the conflict in
Ukraine have strained Moscow’s relations with the west.
Analysts said the data were the result of a string of oil-for-loan
deals that China, which is in the process of overtaking the US
as the world’s biggest importer of crude, has signed with
Russian oil companies including state-backed Rosneft.
It should be noted that all of these Russia/China deals are
conducted in Chinese yuan, not the dollar, which has fueled
speculation on the death of the petro-dollar and thus America's
unique standing as the currency of last resort.
I'll talk more about this next week. Today, I'd like to point out
another interesting tidbit on Putin's international deal-making...
The Revenge of Saudi Arabia
U.S. President Barack Obama has changed alliances in the
Middle East for the first time in 50 years. He has pivoted away
from Israel and Saudi Arabia, while making a mess of Libya,
Egypt, and Syria.
In turn, he has sought favors from America's traditional enemy:
Iran.
While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is MIA with a bicycle
injury, Israel and Saudi Arabia have held five secret meetings
over the last year. The Saudis have said they will allow Israel to
use their airspace to attack Iran. There is also talk of the Saudis
recognizing Israel's right to exist.
Vlad the Collaborator
 Never one to miss an opportunity in
alliance seeking, Putin has just met with Saudi Prince
Mohammad in St. Petersburg on June 18.
Together these two nations account for a quarter of the world's
oil output, and they just decided to form partnerships for energy
projects.
Russia’s Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said his country was
not looking to replace its existing oil and gas partners but
wanted to create newer ones.
Russia needs money and long-term deals. Saudi Arabia burns a
great deal of its oil to produce electricity and wants to build 20
nuclear reactors for domestic electricity use. Russia has the
nuclear technology.
In return, the Saudis would invest in Russian shale and offshore
drilling. Putin picked up a massive amount of potential oil and
gas in the Black Sea after he annexed Crimea.
The EU has forbid any investment in this area. Saudi money
would help. There is also the possibility of oil price co-ordination
between the two big oil powerhouses.
Time will tell. But for now, it would appear that Putin is winning.
All the best,
Christian DeHaemer