Are the USA and Europe starting to wake up?

Photo: depositphotos

Has the attitude of Europe and the USA towards Russia changed in the light of recent international events? Analyzing the reports of the American and European press and the statements of officials, it can be concluded that Vladimir Putin has crossed the next “red line” beyond which new sanctions may await him.

The first “swallow” of the new international aggravation can be called the harsh rhetoric unaccustomed to American diplomats regarding Russian crimes in Syria.

“What Russia supports and does is not a fight against terrorists, it’s barbarism,” said United States Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria.

“Instead of seeking peace, Russia and Asad are at war. Instead of helping to deliver life-saving assistance to civilians, Russia and Asad bombed columns of humanitarian aid, hospitals and those in a hurry to give first aid to those in need, ”she added.

As a result, the United States suspended negotiations with Russia on the Syrian conflict, accusing Moscow of not fulfilling its obligations under the cease-fire agreement in that country. The British estimated the situation in the United States.

"Russia risks becoming a rogue state due to its actions in Syria" - said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

7 put forward by October has become another rather sharp step by the American side. official charge Russia by the US Presidential Administration in an attempt to intervene in the 2016 election process of the year, including by hacking into computers of the National Committee of the Democratic Party and other political organizations. This conclusion was made on the basis of a joint statement by the US Department of Homeland Security and the National Intelligence Agency.

“We are confident, given the scale and complexity of these attacks, that only the highest Russian state officials could authorize these actions,” the document says.

On the same day, information appeared in the press about the arrest of three Russian spies (one of whom had already acquired American citizenship) for trying to “get advanced microelectronics from American manufacturers and suppliers and export it to Russia, bypassing the state licensing system established to control export products. According to the US Department of Justice, among the technologies that the defendants managed to take out were digital-to-analog converters and integrated circuits, which, as the Office indicates, are widely used in military technology.

At the same time, the rhetoric with which the American press reported about this fact of Russian espionage in recent years is far from interesting. So, the article of one of the New York editions begins with words: “If you belong to the“ 90's children ”and missed the main drive of the Cold War, don't be discouraged - America-2016 is again embraced by it. Today, Russia may be organizing hacker attacks on our elections, we have people hanging strange flags with the image of the Russian despot at our finest architectural sites, and according to a report from the district attorney’s office, the 3 man has just been arrested for illegally selling military technology to Russia. The cold war is back, baby! ”

Even European countries, which until recently had a rather mild and conciliatory attitude towards Russia, against the backdrop of recent actions by Moscow, were forced to harden their position. In this regard, the publication of the interim results of the investigation by the joint investigation team (JIT) about the crash of Boeing 777 in eastern Ukraine in July 2014 should be singled out separately. In particular, the group established the exact location of the launch of the Buk complex, which shot down the airliner.

“The rocket was launched by the BEECH complex. This BEECH was brought from the territory of the Russian Federation and after launch returned to the territory of the Russian Federation ", - said Wilbert Paulissen, Head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Netherlands National Police.

In addition, Washington Post journalist Rick Noack in his A recent article notedthat Sweden announced the restoration of conscription, including the country plans to call for military service and women.

“According to experts, in Sweden, the revision of the approach was provoked by the fear of Russia. The annexation of Crimea by Russia and the movement of its troops near the borders of the North European countries caused alarm in the capitals of the EU countries. In Sweden, Finland and Norway, parliamentarians and the media regularly express concerns that Russia will need only a few hours to launch an invasion. The Russian military has several million military personnel and relies on military conscription, ”the article says.

Germany responded in its own way to the growing aggression of Moscow. Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs, MP from the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) Norbert Rettgen called Russia guilty in serious war crimes in Syria and stated that because of this, Germany could impose additional sanctions. By US and German media reports, the possibility of the European Union introducing new economic sanctions is at an early stage of discussion, and it is not yet clear what support they will receive from the Social Democrats, Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners of the Christian Democratic Union.

Ukrainian analyst Vitaly Martynyuk in his blog notesthat the visit of Vladimir Putin to France on October 19 will be directed, first and foremost, to try to get out of growing isolation and to achieve the lifting of sanctions. However, in his opinion, the Russian leader’s chances of achieving this are extremely low.

However, it is also premature to fall into euphoria over the fact that “the West has finally woken up” and will repel the aggressive policy of Moscow. First, Russian propaganda, long and successfully operating in Europe and America, skillfully plays on the critical attitude to its state inherent in the Western audience. For example, Americans consider a critical attitude to the authorities to be the main achievement of their democracy and a guarantee against the onset of a dictatorship, and at the moment the rating of the current government is rather low. In the eyes of Americans, the information supplied by Russian propagandists, independent of the official authorities, is sometimes perceived as a “matrix breakthrough” and the only way to learn an alternative point of view, which the Kremlin actively uses.

The situation is similar in Europe. As a result, a significant percentage of people positively related to Putin’s Russia still remain among Americans and Europeans. Do not forget that the support in the United States of the Republican candidate Donald Trump, known for his sympathy for Vladimir Putin, is still relatively high.

Meanwhile, seeing the stricter position of the West regarding the Kremlin’s antics, Putin, in his usual manner, tried again to “raise the stakes” and intimidate the United States and Europe with a “nuclear club”. In particular, at the beginning of last week, he ordered to suspend an agreement with the United States on the disposal of excess weapons-grade plutonium. According to the relevant decreesuch a decision is caused by the "threat to strategic stability as a result of unfriendly actions" of Washington against Moscow. One of the conditions for the renewal of the agreement, Putin, called for the abolition of the “provisions of the US law on supporting the freedom of Ukraine directed against Russia”.

In response to the Kremlin’s “plutonium demarche”, US Secretary of State John Kerry firmly statedthat “in support of a stable, united and democratic Ukraine, the West will remain unshakable”, and A number of American experts notedthat such a decision by Moscow is capable of inflicting much more harm to Russia than to Washington.

Nevertheless, information was leaked to the American press that, according to congressmen, the White House is in fact trying to strip the sanctions bill.

“According to lawmakers and staff of both parties, the White House is secretly trying to dilute Caesar’s Act on the Protection of Civilians in Syria” - an 2-party bill that would sanction the Assad regime for mass torture and murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity Says in the Washington Post article.

In the meantime, Russia, as if feeling a certain weakness and indecision of Washington, continues demonstratively boorish and aggressive policy, combined with frank threats against the United States. October 5 Russian Embassy in Washington posted a photo montage on Twitter: The rocket on the air defense system is aimed at the face of the spokesman for the White House, Josh Ernest.

Against the backdrop of these antics, internal Russian propaganda has also become tougher, again instilling in the “Putin electorate” the idea of ​​the inevitability of war with the West - both nuclear and conventional. So, on October 7, in one of the central Russian newspapers - Izvestia - appeared an article aboutthat the US war with Russia is almost inevitable, citing alleged statements by American generals. From the words of the Kremlin militarists go to the case, in particular, how reports the wall street journalRussia has strengthened its contacts with Iran in the light of the Syrian crisis, and is deploying additional missiles in the Middle East.

“On Thursday, the Russian army announced that a new small warship armed with cruise missiles would join its naval group off the coast of Syria in the coming days. This will strengthen the presence of the Moscow Navy in the region. It is expected that the only Russian aircraft carrier will also join this grouping by the end of this year, ”said journalist Thomas Grove.

One can only hope that the United States and Europe will not succumb to the next round of Putin's blatant blackmail and will not try to return to a policy of "appeasing the aggressor." As practice shows, against the background of a similar strategy of the West, the Kremlin’s appetites are only growing.

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