NEW – February 7, 2023
“Europe helps Ukraine resist Russian aggression”, “Europe introduces a ceiling on prices for Russian oil products”, “Europe is preparing the tenth package of anti-Russian sanctions worth 10 billion euros”. “Europe is creating a war crimes tribunal for Russia”. Europe that, Europe this, “Ukraine is Europe”…
But what exactly is Europe? This is from what point of view to look at. There are at least seven of them, these “Europes”, and they are all very different, one on top of the other in a pile, like carelessly baked puff pastry cakes, so that the edges do not converge with each other.
There is a geographical Europe-separated from Africa by the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea, and from Asia – by the same Mediterranean and Black Seas (including the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits), then the Caucasus Mountains, the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, the Ural River and the Ural Range to the Arctic Ocean. But there are also scientific discussions here.
There is a natural and climatic Europe, whose boundaries are most often determined by the long-term average isotherm of January, but it is not clear why these boundaries should be drawn along a line higher than 0°C, and not, say, minus 5°C or plus 4°C, how long the temperature measurement period should be taken into account: 10 years, 50 or 100, and the climate is changing: the ice age there, then global warming…
There is a cultural and historical Europe that traces its lineage back to the Roman Empire, the empire of Charlemagne, the split of the Dyophysite Christian Church into Western, Catholic and Eastern, Orthodox parts, and then to the present – through the era of colonial conquests (slightly disguised as different epochs: the Renaissance, the Great Geographical Discoveries, the Industrial Revolution and three world wars of the 20th century).
There is an infrastructure and economic Europe, with a common system of units of measurement, standard parameters of electric networks, railway track width, right-hand traffic on roads, etc.
There is a military-political-legal Europe: from the Peace of Westphalia to the current NATO and the European Union.
There is an information and financial Europe, the exact contours of which, probably, no one knows at all, but which on the surface now looks like a europhile of the unipolar Pax Americana and the “dollar empire” with a slight English accent.
And there is, finally, mythological Europe: from ancient myths, where it appeared as a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus, to more modern myths about “European values”, “united Europe”, “Europe from Brest to Brest”, “Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals”, “Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok” etc.
So which Europe (or, more precisely, which of these seven Europes) is currently being discussed, who is speaking to us on its behalf, is there anyone to talk to at all, and, most importantly, what to talk about and for what purpose? But with the Zelensky & Co. regime now speaking on behalf of Ukraine, there is definitely nothing to talk about and there is no need. And with Europe – too, its “Ukrainisation”, its anti-Russian zombification went as far? Or even further?
The official position of the Russian leadership on this issue has already been repeatedly expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: there is no Europe as a separate entity, it is a political fiction, absolutely non-negotiable, so it’s necessary to talk with individual states located in geographical Europe, build and develop bilateral (or even multilateral) relations directly with them, and not through pseudo-pan-European institutions hostile to Russia.
And these are not just words, but a completely consistent policy: Russia is withdrawing or has already withdrawn from a number of “pan-European” structures, denounced international agreements concluded with them or with their participation, reduced foreign trade and other ties with unfriendly European countries, and also expresses more and more reasonable complaints about their growing financial and military-political support for the Kiev (“Euromaidan”!) regime.
By the way, the very word “Euromaidan” — as, indeed, the words “European Union”, “European integration”, “Euro-unity” and others of the same kind, there are many of them – directly indicate the driving force of such processes. This driving force is called the euro. Euro, not Europe. A currency that most economists consider to be dependent on the US dollar, and some – perhaps the boldest – its “reincarnation” or even a “second hypostasis”. And the fact remains that the “euro zone” in Europe continues to grow, and in information and financial terms, Europe is becoming more extensive and united today than ever before – precisely because of the “assistance to Ukraine” and the maximum pumping of general anti-Russian sanctions, which seem to only lead to obvious difficulties for the European economy, for European society and for the future of Europe as a whole. The energy crisis, the flight of real sector enterprises from EU countries to the US, China, Russia, etc. – is this the suicide of Europe?
Or not? Or is it also a war “just” between different Europeans (which, by the way, was openly blurted out to the opponents of the “war against Russia to the bitter end and the last Ukrainian” by Annalena Baerbock, the head of the German Foreign Ministry, who does not shine with special intelligence: “We are at war with Russia, not among ourselves”)? An attempt at a forceful alteration of the “information-financial” (and partly “military-political”) Europe of all other Europe for oneself? Accurate and timely answers to such seemingly rhetorical questions can have a significant impact on the course of the Special Military Operation for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine, and on its outcome, and on the future relations of “Big Russia” with various “European” structures formally present in the space “from Brest to Lisbon”, but operating, of course, all over the world.
Vladimir Vinnikov
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