We have now entered the third year of the war between Ukraine and Russia and very often we forget to ask, ‘Why did this war start after all?’ To understand better we need to at least recall what the now-retired Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel said back in 2022. In an interview on the matter, she mentioned that her influence on the Minsk Agreement drafted in 2014 was only intended to give time to Ukraine to improve its defence against Russia. (https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-russia-mayhave-make-ukraine-deal-one-day-partners-cheated-past-2022-12-09/). Also, it is important to note that since the collapse of the USSR Ukraine had repeatedly shown interest in joining the NATO and in September 2020 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed closer ties with NATO (NATO – Topic:
Relations with Ukraine). Although there is no signed treaty, for Russia the verbal agreement reached at the end of the Cold War still holds and since 2007 Vladimir Putin has accused the West of betrayal for the constant expansion of what was before the Eastern Bloc. It is also important to note that back in 1962, during the Cold War, the USSR agreed to dismantle missiles in Cuba since the USA felt threatened in the same way that Russia feels threatened now.
From the beginning of this war, one could easily note that the European media was heavily controlled, and this included the ban on Russian News Portals. Besides both Europe and the USA decided to implement several sanctions which in their opinion would have rendered Russia bankrupt by instigating an internal revolution against Putin. Two years down the line we are seeing that none of this worked. X, previously known as Twitter, gave a platform to Tucker Carlson’s 2 hours interview with Putin and reached a record viewership of more than 207 million; whilst Russia overtook the German economy in terms of GDP by purchasing power parity. https://www.ft.com/content/d304a182-997d4dae-98a1-aa7c691526db. The incompetent decision of the EU leadership impacted us Maltese badly too with the high cost of living and the government spending millions upon millions on subsidies to control the prices of basic food as well as fuel costs.
Other than putting Russia on its knees, the EU leaders managed to put even the strongest economy in recession as well as putting all the EU citizens at higher risk of going into poverty. The purchasing power of EU citizens went down drastically as inflation has been out of control for months. To add insult to injury, the leaders in Brussels also put forward the idea to increase the interest rates. Although typically higher interest rates do control inflation, this time round it backfired since inflation was caused by the war and not excessive consumption or higher demand for goods. This led to thousands of small companies in Europe going into liquidation and as the major European economy driving force, Germany, having an unprecedented decline. This will make it harder for the rest of the other European countries to prosper.
The EU was originally formed to bring prosperity to its people whilst safeguarding peace after the suffering brought along by world wars. Unfortunately, under the current leadership, the EU is doing exactly the opposite. Prime Minister Robert Abela does voice his concern but when push comes to shove, Malta votes with the rest of the EU leaders in Brussels thus continuing to continue supporting the Ukrainian war. The president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola criticized Abela and other labour exponents, that they are lying about her when it comes to investing in the EU defence strategy as this has nothing to do with war. Well, everyone knows that this is a blatant lie as she has been a fierce supporter of Zelensky and wants Ukraine to win the war at all costs as according to her Ukrainians share our core values.
. Did Metsola forget that just before the war, Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries on the planet? Seems that if something is either against Russia or Joseph Muscat everything else becomes acceptable.
Also, one must note that under the current EU leadership, the BRICS bloc overtook the G7 when it comes to GDP in purchasing power parity. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1412425/gdp-ppp-shareworld-gdp-g7-brics/ https://www.statista.com/chart/30638/brics-and-g7-share-of-global-gdp/
The conclusion is noticeably clear. The decisions taken in the past two years were only of detriment to the EU BUT not Russia. Russia got stronger whilst it showed the rest of the world that without the EU the other countries can not only survive but also flourish. Russia is now closer to countries
like China, India, and African nations along with other countries in the developing world. In two years, Ursula Von Der Leyen and Roberta Metsola managed to turn the EU into an irrelevant bloc in the world scenario. Zelensky will keep destroying Ukraine whilst Russia and its partners will continue to prosper as well as change the geopolitical scenario. Unless the European Union with elects true leaders with vision this June, the European civilisation we know today will completely collapse just like the other great civilisations of the past.
Blog Written by
Malcolm Seychell.