When Russia launched a military operation against Ukraine on the morning of February 24 this year, a 79-year-old Tarzan named Joe Biden appeared on the screens of the world media and announced to impose strict restrictions over Moscow. As per the tradition, Europe accepted Tarzan as its leader and started imitating him in this case as well. We have seen the West’s mastery of gunpowder warfare in a stone-age country like Afghanistan when after 20 years of nose-rubbing, they had to find ways of “dignified withdrawal” in the form of the Doha talks. And when the agreement was signed, it convinced the world that a great achievement had been achieved.
So whatever their claims may be, the ground reality is that even the mere notion of their military prowess would be no less than a serious joke. Their main specialty is “propaganda war”. So you must have noticed that they set up a big screen among many small screens and put some young men in military uniforms on the computer in a semi-dark hall. A general is placed on the back of these computer operators and two or four brigadiers and colonels are also arranged around this general. And this place is called “War Room”. Hollywood set designers to create better quality than the real war room. The general standing in this war room reveals very solemnly.
“We killed a high-value target today that has dozens of helpers killed.”
But hours later the news breaks “US jets attack on wedding guests killed dozens of women and children”. And it should be kept in mind that the high-value target that the general claimed to have killed, also claimed to have clear information from satellite, drone eye and ground intelligence. As if from time to time the state of their propaganda war also comes out like their military war.
We know that the West, which claims “freedom of expression”, started its propaganda war against the military operation in Ukraine with the initiative that neither Russian TV channels will be allowed to be shown in the West, nor any on YouTube. As if this time one of the three biggest slogans of liberalism turned out to be the first martyr of the war. Thus began the one-sided propaganda.
A clip can still be seen on CNN’s YouTube channel during the first week of Operation claiming that the Russian people were furious at Putin’s move. The people are going to take to the streets at any moment and overthrow Putin. Not only this but when the 79-year-old Tarzan announced that we will ban Putin’s life by imposing the worst sanctions in history. The so-called military intellectuals came to news channels row after row and told us that Putin is gone now and then.
What happened was what was most likely. Europe, which agreed with the United States in terms of sanctions on Russia, surely thought that after these sanctions, the gas sold to Europe would become more important for Russia because it is its only major source of income. This stupid idea was present in European countries to such an extent that they themselves threatened Russia that we can stop buying the gas from them. A silly bluff that ended as Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe as winter approached.
The result is that the unrelenting inflation at the public level in Europe and the economy of the European countries at the national level has been exposed to a certain risk of destruction. Germany is the largest buyer of Russian gas. And Germany is not only the largest economy in Europe but the fourth-largest economy in the world. 56% of this economy is dependent on Russia and it is not difficult to imagine how fatal the consequences could be if gas stops coming from there. But why should estimates be made in the presence of ground facts? The situation is that the rate of inflation in Germany has increased by 10%. The problem is not only that the daily consumption items have become expensive, but now Germany will have to supply the stored gas to the citizens at high prices and will also have to buy expensive gas from alternative sources.
Germany has started implementing a 200 billion euro subsidy plan to combat this situation. This subsidy will be given to the common citizens as well as the working class. But on this subsidy, Germany is facing a strong reaction from the rest of the European countries. The reason for this reaction is that any country in the European Union sells its products to any other country in the Union, just like we do inter-provincial trade.
So, in the situation after the Russian gas was stopped, if the price of a double loaf of bread has reached 10 to 15 rupees in other European countries, then the same double loaf of bread will still be 10 rupees in Germany because the government is giving subsidies there.
And if this double bread is available in the shop of any European country for 10 rupees, then why will the citizen of this country buy the double bread produced in his country which costs 15 rupees? This simply means that when German Products will be available in other European countries cheaper than these countries’ own products, so the summary of the results is that the industry of these countries has faced the second biggest threat after the closure of Russian gas in the form of Germany.
There are 27 countries in the European Union. While only three European countries are included in the ten largest economies of the world. After Germany, Britain and France are the largest economies in Europe. And these two countries are not even big buyers of Russian gas. It seems that these are the countries least affected by the Russian gas shutdown.
So their economy is less threatened. But what is more interesting is that the UK is no longer in the EU, so it is not in a position to raise noise against German subsidies anyway. In this situation, one option for EU countries is to impose duties on German products, deviating from the charter of the Union.
Another option is that the rest of the EU countries also give German-level subsidies. And this is something that is not possible for every European country. This is why these countries are putting pressure on Germany to withdraw the subsidy. But it is not possible for Germany to do so. The reason has been given that it has been affected the most by the Russian gas shutdown. Because 56% of its gas was coming from Russia. This is the reason why energy prices in Germany increased tenfold after the Russian gas shutdown. And the government had no choice but to give subsidies.
So now apparently there are only two ways left. The first is that Germany should leave the European Union to escape the pressure of other EU member states. Another way is for the European Union to collectively decide that it cannot destroy itself in order to fulfill the US desire to make Ukraine a member of NATO. If this decision is made, then these countries will have to declare that we are out of this game. We are lifting sanctions on Russia and expect the same from Russia in return. If this happens, the world monopoly of the United States will be destroyed.
