“When Russia insults the high representative of the European Union, it is insulting all Europeans.”
A couple of weeks ago, as reported here, the co-founder and honorary president of El País, José Luis Cebrián, penned an op-ed in the newspaper titled “Defending Ukraine to the Death… of Ukrainians” in which he warned about the potentially dire consequences of the war in Ukraine for Europe’s future. As I noted in my post on that piece, Cebrián raised concerns about the real objectives of the war, the way it is being waged and the way it is subordinating the objectives of the EU project to those of the NATO military alliance.
In conclusion, Cebrián wrote:
This is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, but a proxy war between NATO and Russia. Neither of them can be absolute losers if we aspire to a lasting peace in Europe and want to prevent the conflict from spiralling into a third world war. But the voices in favour of a ceasefire do not seem to have much effect on the rulers of democratic Europe, ours included, ready as they are to defend Ukraine until the death of the last Ukrainian.
“Spawn of Satan”
In other words, even the rare voices of disquiet within European policy circles that are calling for a change of direction on the war are getting short shrift from most of the region’s rulers. Which brings us nicely to one of this week’s episodes of farcical European leadership. On Tuesday, Cadena Ser, a Spanish radio broadcaster belonging to Grupo Prisa, which also happens to be the parent group of El País, ran a story with the following bizarre headline:
Robles Lashes Out at Russia for Calling Josep Borrell a “Spawn of Satan”: “We cannot accept Threats”
Margarita Robles is Spain’s acting minister of defence and on Tuesday she gave a speech at the headquarters of SATCEN, the EU satellite coordination centre, on the outskirts of Madrid. Also in attendance was Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and a former cabinet colleague of Robles’ in the Pedro Sánchez government.
During that speech Robles brought up some of the recent incendiary comments made by Vladimir Solovyov, a prime-time Russian television presenter and pro-Putin propagandist, about Borrell. On his daily TV show Solovyov had called Borrell a litany of names including “idiot”, “enemy of the Slavs,” “enemy of the Russian people”, “little demon” and “spawn of Satan.” He also noted that Borrell, while “supposedly holding the position of quasi foreign minister of the European Union, behaves like a minister of war.” That one is true.
Solovyov also launched a verbal onslaught against Borrell’s native country of Spain, which he described as the “world’s evil” for its centuries of colonising other countries. And this, I imagine, was probably the final straw for Robles, who responded with these words:
“We cannot accept threats or insults from Russia. When Russia insults the high representative of the European Union, it is insulting all Europeans. Threats are not acceptable. Russia has to know that the European Union will continue to support Ukraine, because supporting Ukraine is supporting peace, freedom and security.”
As Cebrián said, people like Robles are willing to defend Ukraine “until the last Ukrainian.” They are also perfectly happy to use even the most insidious examples of Orwellian doublespeak, such as “war is peace”, to justify their ends.
In return for her unyielding support for Ukraine, Robles was awarded the “distinction of honour” by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence of Ukraine on Monday. The acting Minister of Defence received the medal from the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain, Serhii Pohoreltsev. Zelensky’s government also gave honours to Spain’s Secretary General of Defence Policy, Admiral Juan Francisco Fernández Núñez, and the Director General of Defence Policy, Lieutenant General Fernando López del Pozo.
Robles’ defence of Borrell is absurd for at least three reasons:
- Robles, a senior albeit acting minister of the Spanish government, was not responding to comments made by a senior official of the Russian government, but rather a Russian propagandist working for Russian state television. In other words, it wasn’t “Russia” insulting Borrell; it was a Russian TV presenter. By directly responding to Solovyov’s insults, Robles gave greater prominence to those insults while bringing the ministry she represents down to Solovyov’s level.
- Robles’ assertion that when Russia insults Borrell, Europe’s gaffe-prone chief diplomat, it is insulting all Europeans is farcical. For a start, there are tens of millions of Europeans from non-member countries who are not EU citizens and whom Borrell does not represent in any shape or form. They include millions of Russian citizens living in Western Russia. It is also arguable whether Borrell even represents EU citizens given nobody ever voted for him. In fact, Robles’ assertion is reminiscent of former US NIAID Director Anthony Fauci’s statement that “attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science”.
- It wasn’t Solovyov, or any Russian for that matter, that began this latest war of words; it was Borrell himself. Channelling his inner John McCain, he said in an interview with El País on August 19 that “the Russian economy is too small compared to the real geopolitical players.” Asked about EU relations with China, Borrell stressed that the Asian giant is not Russia: “China is a real geopolitical player, while Russia is an economic dwarf, it’s like a gas station whose owner has an atomic bomb.”
Describing Russia as an economic dwarf is not just offensive, it is plain wrong. Russia’s autarchik economy has weathered 18 months of all-out war against it from both the US, the world’s [declining] economic superpower, and the EU, the world’s largest trade bloc. It is one of the world’s biggest exporters not only of energy but all sorts of vital commodities. It also just overtook Germany to become the fifth wealthiest economy in the world and the largest in Europe on PPP (purchasing power parity) terms, and is on target to grow at a rate of around 2.5% this year, while many EU countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, are sliding into recession.
What’s more, despite 11 rounds of sanctions against Russia, Europe’s economy is still heavily dependent on the natural gas coming out of Russia’s “gas station” — only now it’s in liquefied form, which is a lot more expensive and more difficult to transport…
Continue reading on Naked Capitalism
Nick Corbishley 