By Viktor Medvedchuk*
President Zelensky’s triumph in the West, the multi-billion dollar support of Ukraine with finances and arms, seemingly shows the unbreakable alliance between the US and Europe. The Ukrainian president and his “struggle” are symbols of this process of “civilisation’s victory over barbarism”. Only Zelensky’s real role is quite different. But to understand it, it is worth uncovering not only Zelensky’s role, but the entire theatre of absurdity. After all, there is something else behind it. For example, that the US is deliberately warring not only against Russia’s interests, but also against those of Europe. More to the point, they are fighting much more against European interests than they are against Russia, but let’s talk about it in more detail.
How the EU has been replaced by NATO
Let us begin with the main point. The formation and development of the European Union was not intended to be dominated by the United States. NATO, on the other hand, is clear as to who is the boss, who to bow to, who is always right and who can never be right, by definition. The EU, in theory, was to become a huge economic space, with hitherto unseen potential, with completely new interstate and intra-state relations. All this required a new style of management, creative exploration and experimentation, a clear understanding of short-term tasks and long-term perspectives. This is fundamentally impossible with the current leadership of the EU.
It is not only in the inertia of the European officials, but also in the principle of construction. The EU is practically the USSR in reverse. If the USSR, by developing the outskirts, had failed the centre, the EU developed the centre in the form of Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and had failed the outskirts. In both cases these were not unions of equal states, they consisted of few donors and numerous dependants. In such a situation, the principle works: whoever is invested the most, is the most unhappy, and undermines the system. In the USSR, the Baltics had the highest standard of living and were the most destabilising. In the EU, Poland holds the record for cash inflows, and it holds the record for discontent. This is not about the national peculiarities of people living on the Baltic coast, but about a system which, firstly, encourages dependency and, secondly, fails to manage such large spaces and volumes of economy, punishing the innocent and rewarding the uninvolved.
With the EU, the situation is exactly the same. With the collapse of the USSR, Western Europe gained advantages that the US economy did not have. They got the market and resources “from Lisbon to Vladivostok”, but they were totally unprepared for this turn of events. If in the USSR the development of management system was replaced by the ritual dances around Marxism-Leninism, the EU raised some European values to the cult of religion, which are not properly articulated by anybody and therefore anything can be meant by them.
That is why we have a situation where a high European official goes out to the people and explains to them what are European values today and what are not. And if today European values are zoophilia or war with Russia, then the verdict is final and not subject to appeal. But there can be no democracy and development in such a situation. Such a system only manipulates citizens, but does not lead them anywhere. And then degradation begins which leads to the same old methods of governance. The EU could not but abandon its economic development, and slip into NATO, that is, the past attitudes and methods of governance.
European officials gave their power over the EU to the NATO military, and couldn’t help but give it away. We see Sweden and Finland giving up their neutrality. Why is this happening? Neutrality requires its own agenda, an understanding of its interests, the interests of the participants in the big political game. It requires intellect, firm convictions, political will. And what kind of will can a politician have if he does not know the exact number of genders in a person, if he is disoriented in the most elementary things? Then it is easier to give up one’s power in exchange for personal gains, easier to give up the interests of an entire country, a union of countries, than to take on the responsibility of governing.
Why Zelensky has become a hero to the Western world
Zelensky is now a model for Europe of how one can put one’s country in the strangers’ hands, in exchange for empty triumphs and eulogies. Let’s put two and two together: Ukraine has a huge Russian-speaking population, to which Zelensky himself belongs; it has an extensive border with Russia, which carries not only risks but also enormous opportunities; Ukraine’s military potential is not comparable to Russia’s, so the country’s losses in the event of a conflict will be considerable. Hence the simple and clear logic: get elected at the expense of the Russian-speaking population (which is what Zelensky did), resolve the contradictions with Russia, and enjoy the benefits of peace with it.
Zelensky follows a completely different logic – he takes an uncompromising position in the negotiations, in fact withdraws from all the peace treaties and starts to threaten Russia. The country is naturally getting poorer, because there is a confrontation with the neighbour, and this is reflected in the economy. The Russian-speaking electorate realises that Zelensky has betrayed it, and begins to sympathise with an opposition oriented towards normalising relations with Russia. Zelensky declares the opposition criminals, bans their media and parties, and persecutes the Orthodox Church, which is organising processions in the name of peace and reconciliation of peoples.
Here the leaders of the European Union should be reminded if not of European values, then of common sense, but there was no command to be indignant from across the ocean. There came a direct opposite command – not to consider Zelensky a violator of western values, namely democracy and parliamentarianism, freedom of speech and religion, multiculturalism and legality, but to regard him as a hero and protector of western values. European politicians have already been taught that these very same Western values can easily contradict common sense, and in Europe they are giving Zelensky a triumph.
Many European politicians now dream of being Zelensky, or if not, his obliging likeness. For example, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking at a security conference in Munich, said that the EU is Ukraine’s army as this conflict is an existential threat to European security and demanded more shells for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Well, if the EU’s chief diplomat is ready to hand Zelensky shells without thinking that these very shells are killing people and destroying cities, what about smaller European officials?
Every child probably dreams of being a clown, of being the centre of attention and getting a standing ovation, but usually grows up later and chooses a different path. European politicians are actively pumping the bloody circus in eastern Ukraine with arms and resources, and demanding the show go on. But what is behind the scenes of this circus? The Europeans will get what the Ukrainians got by electing a former comedian as president – poverty, war and debts. To Zelensky’s applause, the EU has lost cheap energy exports and a huge Russian market, not only in commodities, but also financially. The US has stolen not only Europe from Russia, but Russia from Europe. But worse than that, Europe has been stolen from the Europeans themselves.
After all, Zelensky stole Ukraine from the Ukrainians and gave it to NATO. Now NATO is growing and gaining in power, while Ukraine is on fire, losing its citizens by the hundreds and thousands every day. And European diplomats, instead of stopping the war in Europe, i.e. at home, are setting themselves up as shell handlers for Zelensky. And all this in the name of western values, where people’s lives, judging by statements of many European politicians, are absolutely not included.
That is why I argue that Zelensky is the gravedigger not only of Ukraine but of the West and the EU in the first place. The former comedian is freeing not Ukraine but European politics from common sense, and this madness at the top of EU leadership will ruin the project. But after all, this is only to the advantage of the US. Britain has already sensed the game against Germany and France, and has left the EU. Now they are actively trying to shove Ukraine in there instead of Britain. And whether it will be there or only in time for a funeral, the very process of financing Ukraine will ruin the EU quite quickly, regardless of the situation in the war zone.
Why this will all end badly for the EU.
It is said that when God wishes to punish, he deprives man of his mind. Unfortunately, a huge number of European politicians, with few exceptions, have become embroiled in military madness. The bacillus of this madness has been cultivated in Ukraine. Since 2014, the mass of Ukrainian politicians have been raving and demanding war with Russia, and they got it. Politicians, journalists, ordinary citizens who warned against this development have been declared traitors and criminals. They allegedly did not believe in the victory of good over evil. But there is a beautiful fairy tale, which was clearly not written in Kiev, and there is a horrible reality, where people die and entire cities are erased from the earth. And many people prefer a sweet fairy tale to the harsh reality, and even agree to hand over the missiles to whom they are instructed.
Speaking of missiles. It has been historically proven many times that Europe devoid of Russian resources is unable to stand up to Russia, no matter what Goebbels rules its mind. Where Russia spends a million, Europe will have to spend a billion. And where will that billion go? Naturally, to US banks. The Americans have already built a system of siphoning off European resources, they will, of course, leave “existential values” and “civilizational choice” to Europe, but they will take the commodity and financial values for themselves. Nothing personal, just their own interests.
Admittedly, the American plan has a serious flaw. Having snatched Europe from Russia, the United States is sending it into Asia and Latin America, into China, Iran, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, to name but a few. The system is much bigger and more powerful than Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok. That is why Russia still wins, but Europe will lose anyway. And the theatre of absurdity, where Zelensky is a soloist, is taking Europe by leaps and bounds towards its loss. That is why he is a fifth column not only for Ukraine, but also for Europe.
*Chairman of the political council of Opposition Platform For Life party, banned in Ukraine
