As the EU shivers over what America’s new president will or will not do, policymakers in Brussels consider continuing catastrophic economic warfare on Russia.
Who was it who said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing?” I believe it was legendary industrialist Henry Ford who was being interviewed along with Thomas Edison by Alexander Graham Bell (1929). A word of advice arises from this old interview, where the wizards of the European Union are concerned. If the most innovative and most successful people who ever lived caution against something, it’s a wise policy for all leaders to follow. Only the European Union has exactly ZERO wise persons running that show. More Russia sanctions! Now, there’s a genius stroke for a continent out of gas, on the ropes, and an air raid siren away from nuclear destruction.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Few people in the EU realise how their leaders have cost the average citizen of the Euro bloc untolled opportunities and prosperity already. Before the Russians were forced (by NATO, etc.) to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, Russia supplied 40-60% of Europe’s natural gas supply. In some countries, primarily the poorer ones in Eastern Europe, that number was 80%. However, Germany and Italy were the biggest consumers of this energy. Germany has been the hardest hit industrially, with companies like VW planning to cut tens of thousands of jobs. Austrian policy adviser Ulrike Reisner framed the situation back in 2023, saying:
“The EU countries are not able to compensate for the economic losses caused by the sanctions against the Russian Federation. The process of deindustrialisation in Europe continues. This is resulting in a permanent loss of wealth for Western societies.”
Let’s think about that statement for a moment. I am struck immediately by Reisner’s use of “permanent loss of wealth.” Permanent, as in forever. Today, energy price subsidies, external debt, massive inflation, and the reduced purchasing power of the Euro (especially in the Balkans) have the Romanians ready to elect (if the Western elites allow) a pro-Russia president. Hungary is already firmly in the “WTF is wrong with Von der Leyen” mode. While the Titanic of Confederation sinks, the Brussels press release speaks of “gradual rebounding” year after year. The reality is that economic growth in the EU has sunk way below that of the United States and the G7. The bloc’s biggest economy in Germany has dropped like a rock beneath the US and even below the other G7 countries. And get this: China’s growth rate in 2024 was 3X that of the EU. Yes, pile more economic mistakes on top of a mountain of financial mistakes, Von der Leyen. And while you are at it, send a few hundred billion more to Zelensky to launder for your dark backstage actors.
To add insult to injury, as one might expect, the elites running the EU have instructed the media and the politicians to accuse Putin and Russia of “weaponizing” energy when the profiteers in Europe sought cheaper energy to fuel stagnant European economies. In other words, the puppets in Brussels were sanctioned to do something, to do anything to prop up a system that never could have worked. The Euro was dead before the instant the first coin was struck out of copper, nickel, and brass. The Russians were geared to profit from a market to build a better life for the people there. And to make rich men richer, of course.
Pop Gun Economic War
The weaponizing of economics? Well, that is the game Washington and the Londoners have been playing. If you want an honest chuckle, read how the IMF predicts that Ukraine’s growth will be 5.3% by 2026. Does Christine Lagarde know something the rest of us do not? Of course, she does, but the point is the leadership in Europe has run out of space. This means there is only one logical reason for dealing with more sanctions. These must be a bargaining chip for Europe’s role in the upcoming Ukraine peace arrangement. That is, if anyone in Eurupe is smart enough to play bridge instead of go fish.
A piece I read in POLITICO by Matthew Karnitschnig, reporting from Berlin recently, caps off my assertions above.
“Recessions and trade wars may come and go, but what makes this juncture so perilous for the continent’s prosperity is the biggest inconvenient truth of all: the EU has become an innovation desert.”
So, the leadership of an innovation wasteland, staring Trump import tariffs on half a trillion euro in trade in the face, is playing economic Russian roulette with Mr. Putin again. Oh, and for those in the halls of power in Europe who figure Trump is bluffing, he just imposed massive tariffs on America’s closest neighbours, Mexico and Canada. God forbid he raises the price of LNG exports to Europe, or he pulls the US out of NATO! Let’s face it: the Europeans have been waging an economic war against Russia, using a pop gun against an AK-47.
Yeah, Europe. France’s Macron is not the only banker puppet who needs to go. It’s time for the people to save what’s left of their legacy. Make friends and fewer enemies.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, he’s an author of the recent bestseller “Putin’s Praetorians” and other books
