The West is interested in prolonging war, not ending it
Elena Panina, Director of the Institute of International Political and Economic Strategies — RUSSTRAT, in her Federal News Agency column commented on the recent statement of the ex-president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus, who said that the world powers, under the guise of an imaginary love for Ukraine, are actually trying to show their hatred for Russia. The politician also called the events in Ukraine a war of the West against Russia, noting that the conflict should be resolved by direct negotiations between Russia and the West.
Vaclav Klaus' words that the ingoing confrontation in Ukraine is not between Moscow and Kiev, but between Russia and the West, have become one of the few rational and sober signals coming from Europe today.
Klaus knows well how propaganda and manipulation machines work, and questions the "love for Ukrainians" that has suddenly taken hold of the Western media. He correctly diagnoses that the West is interested in prolonging the war, and not its ending, acting on the principle "the longer the war lasts, the more it will weaken and harm Russia”. At the same time, the Western bloc does not just support the Kiev regime, but itself is becoming more and more active participant in the armed conflict.
Klaus belongs to the generation of veterans of Czech politics, for whom the word "world war" is not a hypothetical possibility, but a personal experience. Being born during the Second World War and having spent the years of his youth waiting for a third one, Klaus understands what the militant demarches of Johnson and Borrell can lead to, being combined with the growing participation of NATO in the fighting in Ukraine. And also with the discussion of the closure of ports for Russian civilian vessels, the naval blockade of Russia, which, in fact, is also equivalent to a declaration of war.
The collective West does not realise that its participation in the Ukrainian conflict has gone too far. The hands of the "Doomsday clock" (a project of American atomic scientists counting down to "midnight", symbolising the beginning of a nuclear cataclysm), which were last shifted in 2020 after the termination of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF), should show 23.59.59 today. This obviously did not happen even in the most dramatic moments of the Cold War, excluding the Caribbean crisis.
Unfortunately, the things that Klaus feels well are not understood by the absolute majority of European politicians who live in a completely different reality. Today, the political class of the West is in euphoria, it seems to many now that the bet on the militarisation of Ukraine has justified itself and investments in the Ukrainian military machine have brought their results.
Having been formed in the era of postmodernism and the geopolitical triumph of the West, they do not understand how fragile the modern world is and what consequences war can lead to. They are characterised by extreme infantilism, they look at the world through the eyes of spoiled and capricious children who spend their leisure time playing more and more realistic computer games. They do not feel the difference between the virtual and the material world, between the "war game" and the real war.
The question arises – do they indeed actually control the process? Or are there other structures behind their backs that are beginning to come out of anonymity, like the "Council for Inclusive Capitalism" created by transnational oligarchs?
Reflections on this topic in the West are either absolutely taboo, or have been transferred to the niche of conspiracy "fairy tales". Meanwhile, Vaclav Klaus, whose first years of life came during the occupation of the Czech Republic by the Third Reich, cannot hide his anxiety for the future of his country, his state.
When he says that in the European Union the conflict in Ukraine will be used to limit the state sovereignty of the community countries, he is based on facts. Economically, Germany has long absorbed the Czech Republic, and now, apparently, the political stage begins. And the statements of Chancellor Scholz about a sharp increase in the military budget and the militarisation of Germany look extremely traumatic for the Czechs who survived the Second World War. What this can lead to, Klaus knows firsthand. Therefore, his fears that "the Czech Republic could become one of the greatest victims" are also fully justified.
Unfortunately, there are very few rational and sober-minded people like Klaus both in the Czech Republic and in Europe now. Except Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban, absolutely all major leaders who advocated dialogue with Russia have been squeezed out of politics, are in prison or under house arrest, and are under the sword of Damocles of lawsuits and criminal cases.
In this cohort there are names such as Sarkozy and Fillon, Berlusconi and Salvini. Austrian Chancellor Kurz, without waiting for them to "come for him," resigned and left the country. In Eastern Europe, mores are much tougher – few people remember that a Polish politician Andrzej Lepper who was considered as pro-Russian, was found hanged in his own office, and his colleague Mateusz Piskorski was declared a "Russian spy" and spent several years in prison.
Many of those who said sensible things yesterday turned out to be repressed and intimidated, hurriedly trying to "change their shoes". The most striking example is the current President of the Czech Republic, Zeman, who, apparently fearing revenge for his previous pro–Russian statements, today calls for tougher sanctions against Russia and disconnecting the Russian Federation from the SWIFT system.
Against this background, Klaus, who has long retired from politics, but remains in the public field and is not afraid to say what he thinks, remains "the last of the Mohicans." Unfortunately, there is reason to believe that his warnings will turn out to be a voice crying out in the desert.