Sanctions against Russia have failed to alter the Kremlin’s policies and actually increased popular support for Vladimir Putin. Now, there are growing calls for a change of tack.
Like a lake reliant on multiple affluents, the individual headlines eventually morph into a whole. An assemblage dripping with drivel. Russia is apparently attempting to infiltrate – or interfere with – the Baltics, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Finland. And all at the same time to boot. Which is pretty impressive for a country that doesn’t even boast the largest economy in Europe (that being Germany).
This follows Moscow’s alleged success in securing the US Presidency for Donald Trump and convincing millions of Brits to opt for Brexit. Not to mention how it seemingly orchestrated recent election successes in Bulgaria and Moldova for its “useful idiots.”
Nevermind the fact that the Kremlin’s soft power can’t convince the majority of Ukrainians to love it, despite practically everyone understanding the Russian language there and a great many citizens boasting direct family ties to their neighbor. We are expected to swallow how Russia is so incredibly influential that it dominates politics practically everywhere. Like an elephantine geopolitical octopus. Something even the US couldn’t manage in the late 1940’s when it controlled around half of global GDP. And was handing out interest free loans to boot.
The reason this nonsense narrative has taken hold is simple. The Western establishment – which thought it had achieved “the end of history” twenty-five years ago – is getting a severe kicking. And sustained by an absolute conviction that it oversees the sole legitimate belief system in the world – an assumption which would survive a trek through the most Byzantine hall of mirrors – it’s looking for somebody else to blame. Indeed, at this stage, Popes from the Middle Ages would be impressed by Eurocrats’ resolute belief in their infallibility.
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