From the very beginning of the Special Military Operation in February of 2022, European leaders adopted a course of continuing military operations, openly stating they hope to defeat Russia strategically.
Veniamin Popov
In solidarity with the Biden administration, European leaders began to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to support the Kiev regime and provide it with military and financial assistance. At the same time, new packages of sanctions against Russia began to be regularly adopted, currently totaling 19.
In inventing new measures to harm Moscow, European leaders decided to abandon the purchase of Russian energy resources, namely oil and gas. This short-sighted policy eventually became a huge loss for the European states themselves, especially Germany, which built its economic success and high product competitiveness mainly on relatively cheap energy from Russia. Thus, the Europeans actually “shot themselves in the foot”, to use the American expression.
European leaders are looking for a way out of the impasse by militarizing the economy and fomenting Russophobia, but most of the youth dream of peace, not war
The current economic situation, to put it mildly, could be much improved. The average adult’s income in Europe has not kept pace with inflation, and energy bills have increased by about 60%. Overall production growth does not exceed 1.2%, and, as a result, the population’s standard of living is at a four-decade low. The European Union has become noticeably poorer than the United States.
Western European states’ incompetent policies
European leaders underestimated President Trump’s new course; he pushed Europe away during discussions about its own “backyard.” They are generally not very smart, and the American president has thus stopped considering them in matters of the Ukrainian settlement, which has become the number one problem in international relations. It is only now that European leaders are beginning to realize that they are on their own regarding Ukraine. In this regard, Bloomberg’s conclusion that the European Union is not at all capable of becoming a geopolitical actor capable of opposing Russia, China, and its nominal ally, the United States, is understandable.
This was quickly understood in the countries of the Global South. The Saudi newspaper Arab News wrote on December 1 this year: “The EU is not supported by everyone in Europe; Brussels seems a gigantic and irresponsible hegemon that suppresses the aspirations and concerns of nation states.”
European leaders are looking for a way out of the impasse by militarizing the economy and fomenting Russophobia, but most of the youth dream of peace, not war. As a result, public confidence in the ruling elites is rapidly declining. In France, Macron’s rating has dropped to 11%; in the UK, all polls show that if new elections are held, Nigel Farage’s Reform Party will come to power; in Germany, the popularity of the opposition Alternative for Germany party has increased to 27%, and the ruling Christian Democratic Party dropped to 25%.
In a desperate attempt to find new funds to support the unstable Kiev regime, three years after the start of the Special Military Operation, Western European leaders began trying to steal the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets by any means possible. They are turning to all sorts of trickery to give even conditional legitimacy to these robberies.
The Ukrainian establishment has recently been shaken by the corruption scandals in Kiev. Even the local press loyal to the government writes that Zelensky’s days are numbered, as he is also involved in these corruption cases. More and more observers are saying that the European ruling elites were not only aware of how the money they provided for Kiev was being stolen, but also, most likely, were direct participants in the distribution of these so-called kickbacks.
It is noteworthy that the Economist predicted that if fighting in Ukraine ends, an “internal struggle in Europe” will begin. An alarming signal foreshadowing the difficult life of European elites was the arrest of former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in the case of fraud in financing a diplomatic training program. On December 2, searches were conducted at the headquarters of the EU foreign policy service in Brussels, and former secretary general of the EU diplomatic service Stefano Sannino was also detained. Interestingly, almost a quarter of the members of the European Parliament called for an investigation into the activities of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in connection with the purchase of a disproportionate number of COVID-19 vaccines.
In light of increased Russian-American contacts on achieving a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, the corruption and stupidity of European policy are particularly evident. To take even the vague energy policy: Europeans quietly continue to buy Russian energy resources, but spending on sanctioned oil and gas, according to the Russian RIA-Novosti news agency, has exceeded $213 billion since 2022…this is more than Ukraine was given. At the same time, official data is underestimated, and it is convenient for the EU not to consider what goes through third countries as “Russian.”
Currently, European leaders are aiming to undermine Trump’s attempts to organize a peace process in Ukraine. Trump is facing various challenges in this regard. In turn, supporters of the US president believe that Europe has betrayed the West, and numerous Europeans accuse Trump of treating liberal Western countries as opponents.
Of particular concern is the fact that the current leaders of the Western European powers are inciting hatred towards Russia, believing that this will help them stay in power. They openly talk about a war with Russia in 2029 or 2030, although Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that we are not going to fight with Europe.
On December 2, President Vladimir Putin stated that we are conducting military operations in Ukraine carefully, surgically, trying to spare the civilian population where possible. “If Europe suddenly wants to start a war with us and starts it, then we might suddenly have nobody to negotiate with”, he said.
Veniamin Popov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, PhD in History
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