RUSSIA, EMBRACED BY THE GLOBAL SOUTH, WILL ULTIMATELY EMERGE FROM COLD IN THE WEST

The collective west cannot do without Russia. Sooner or later, with a Russian victory in Ukraine, the western powers will have to accept Russia back into good standing.

The renewed welcoming of Russia into the western orbit is already starting to emerge. Recently, after an election which brought Robert Fico and his party Smer (Direction) to power, Slovakia will now reestablish relations with Russia. Already the Slovak Minister of Culture has announced that cultural exchange programmes with Russia will be restarted.

In Hungary the prime minister Viktor Orban also has an increasingly friendly relationship with Russia after coming to a mutually beneficial agreement on the supply of Russian natural gas to Hungary.

Both Slovakia and Hungary now approach the situation in Ukraine in the same way, having an identical stance on not supplying the regime there with military aid, instead concentrating solely on humanitarian aid. They refuse to support adding to the futile continuation of military hostilities there (the NATO stance) and instead advocate negotiations aimed at establishing a ceasefire and ultimately an end to the war.

‘Slovakia's newly appointed Prime Minister Robert Fico will not back further military aid for Ukraine nor support further sanctions against Russia.’

- Reuters

In addition to the above Slovakia and Hungary are refusing to sign off on the EU plan to provide an additional fifty billion euro so-called aid package (over a four year period) to Ukraine unless the resulting outcomes are strictly audited and a new vote on whether to continue is held each year. The EU mandarins are currently seeking to strip Hungary (and presumably Slovakia) of its voting rights. This undemocratic process along with withholding of funds is inexorably pushing Hungary eastward.

Germany is suffering from the fallout caused by the ending of inexpensive gas from Russia. Now in deep recession Germany is steadily deindustrializing. The Green Party, in power along with others in a coalition government seem content with this situation as a Germany impoverished but having less of a carbon footprint suits them. However, it is surely the case that the German public will not tolerate this lowering of their life quality (of which they have been very proud in the past) for long. The chances are very high that the present coalition government will fall. The result of this will surely bring a more Russia-friendly government to power.

‘At least part of the country’s poor performance has to be blamed on its reckless energy policy which relied heavily on imports of cheap natural gas from Russia and a premature decision to shift to renewable energy when the infrastructure wasn’t ready.

While the German people and the businesses based there are suffering, so are investors.’

- Forbes

Italy is currently led by Giorgia Meloni, a political actress who posed as a radical activist to get elected and who then immediately looked for elite EU backsides to kiss. The Italians must surely have realised quite quickly how they were duped and vote more carefully on the basis of the old motto, ‘Once Bitten Twice Shy’. Meloni has curiously taken Italy out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative at a time when Italy has plunged deeper into an economic crisis.

‘An Italian government crisis, once so frequent as to be a near nonevent, has exposed the fragility of a Europe contending with rising energy prices, a plunging currency, faltering leadership, and a war in Ukraine where time appears to favor Russia’s resolve over the West’s uncertainty.’

- Angelo Carconi/EPA 

Once again, as the economic situation in Italy worsens the appeal of inexpensive Russian gas to fuel economic growth will rise and voters will vote for the parties supporting this reversal of earlier policy by Meloni and her European backers.

As most of Europe enters recession Russia is achieving higher and higher economic growth. The economic and financial weapons the collective west used against Russia have failed one after another. The nations expected to join the West in attacking Russia instead drew closer to her and formed even more economic ties with Russia than before. Future prospects appear bright indeed whereas the West, continually embroiled in conflicts requiring vast financial expenditure, looks destined to fall ever deeper into an economic morass.

Russia is moving inexorably to achieve all her goals in Ukraine. Once achieved it is inevitable that the relationship of previously hostile political elites to Russia will move toward a re-establishment of normal relations. A strengthened Russia, backed by the growing number of BRICS members and those who remained good friends when the western powers became enemies cannot help but move gradually back into a favourable status in the West. Western nations desperately need Russian energy and, with their economic weapons failing to seriously damage Russia they will finally have to confront the inevitable, they need Russia far, far more than Russia needs them.