Aprime time current affairs programme; a discussion about Donald Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine. “He’s doing excellent things,” says a firebrand politician on the panel, before listing White House actions that have belittled Volodymyr Zelenskyy and weakened his battlefield position – military aid suspended; satellite communications obstructed; intelligence withheld. “Do we support this?” It is a rhetorical question.
“We support it all. Absolutely,” the celebrity host responds. “We are thrilled by everything Trump is doing.”
Such approval might not be out of place on polemical rightwing channels in the US, but these exchanges weren’t broadcast to American audiences. The show’s anchor is Olga Skabeyeva, one of Vladimir Putin’s most dependable propagandists. To hear the highest pitch of praise for Trump’s bullying of Ukraine you need to watch Russia’s state-controlled Channel One.
When Russian and US delegations met in Saudi Arabia last month to discuss a resolution to the war in Ukraine, the most revealing feature of the conversation was the exclusion of any Ukrainians.
Less discussed, but still significant, was the inclusion in Putin’s delegation of Kirill Dmitriev, an alumnus of Stanford University, McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, now head of the Russian state investment fund. His pitch was that US businesses have foregone billions of dollars in profits by quitting Russia. Sanctions against Moscow are presented as another way that Ukraine and its European accomplices are ripping off America. Shortly after the Saudi meeting, Dmitriev was formally appointed Putin’s “special representative for investment and economic partnership with overseas countries”, with a mandate covering deals with the US.
Living through it day to day, I assume most people are just confused and unbalanced, but looking back at this historically, it’s going to be so goddamn obvious.
Trump is systematically destroying ties with all of US’s allies going back 70-80 years. There is no justification, not even “fentanyl” and “immigration” apply to most of the allies we’re picking fights with. The only country safe from criticism is Russia.
To me there is no doubt what’s happening, but it’s incredibly discouraging that there doesn’t seem to be a thing we can effectively do about it. American voters were offered a cyanide pill, told it was candy by a known conman and liar, and ate it despite us all shouting, “It’s cyanide, don’t be an idiot!”
I would expect nothing less from Putin’s puppet.
“emerging” JFC thanks guardian for just now mentioning the thing that’s been blatantly obvious to anyone with eyes and ears for over a decade
That image in particular says everything we need to know.
Sucks for Ukraine but I’m looking forward to how this will affect the world geopolitically. Hopefully the breaking of Europe with America will give the global South some breathing room.
This will really be an interesting question for the so-called global south. Since most countries there are generally considered to politically align with China/Russia due to “anti imperialism”, it’s going to be interesting to see if they remain on the side of Russia although this is now the side of the US or whether they alternatively remain opposed to the US but find themselves on the same side as the Europeans.
As an American, I’ve only ever thought good things about our ties with Europe. I haven’t been paying attention to the southern half of the globe much, and I’d like to hear more about how that scary outcome could help things there. Apologies for my …well, American-ness.
Well, the crux of the issue is that for the last 80 years Western and Central European countries have been content to be America’s lackies and help further their imperialist ambitions around the world even though the EU itself is mostly not imperialist itself (emphasis on mostly stares at France). The biggest example of this is probably Israel. If Europe cuts off America they’d have no reason to continue supporting Israel (which they absolutely do; the EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner) because the only thing Europe gains from supporting Israel in the first place is pleasing America.
