At the NATO summit, the heads of member states were ready to hide behind Ukraine like a fig leaf in order to get away from resolving issues of security and socioeconomic development.
Author: Nikolai Plotnikov, Head of the Center for Scientific and Analytical Information of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Political Science
Another summit of the North Atlantic Alliance was held in Vilnius. Its members are disappointed with the results of the so-called counter-offensive, publicized by the Zelenskiy regime. The costs of the collective West to the detriment of its own economy are huge, and the result is negligible.
Thus, in the US in the manufacturing sector for the eighth month in a row, there has been a decline in economic activity. Prices for a number of assets are falling. Investors are in problems. There has been an increase in unemployment, albeit a slight one, and a slowdown in wage growth. All this is accompanied by bankruptcies and rising interest rates.
Europe, having abandoned cheap Russian energy resources and spending huge amounts of money to support the Zelensky regime, has also entered a recession. EU member states are forced to cut costs. There was serious social unrest in France. Right-wing political parties are gaining popularity in a number of EU countries.
Due to massive military aid to the Kyiv regime, European armories are practically empty, and ammunition production capacity is very limited. According to official figures, the European Union is capable of producing no more than 4,000 artillery shells per month. This is as much as the APU spends per week.
True, the Americans themselves no longer have the former unity. If hawks like Anthony Blinken and Victoria Nuland are in favor of further escalation, there are many among the sane members of the Democratic Party who are beginning to worry about the results of the 2024 presidential election. They are thinking about how to avoid the humiliation of Biden due to the defeat of the West in Ukraine and approach the elections by entrusting Zelensky to the European Union and quietly turning to China themselves.
The forces and capabilities of Russia and Ukraine are far from being equivalent. Russia, having gone on the defensive in the Donbas, can move to active actions when necessary. The Zelensky regime, if left without the support of the West, will not last long. There will be forces within Ukraine itself that will be able, without the help of Russia, to put an end to the career of a bloody comedian, on whose conscience hundreds of thousands of ruined lives are.
Despite occasional rumors in the West about a possible freeze on the conflict, the Kremlin has repeatedly said that this is unacceptable.
The goals of Moscow and the collective West are diametrically opposed. Russia will not agree to keep a hostile state near its borders, which seeks to become a member of NATO. The West, in turn, judging by the statements of Biden, Macron, Scholz, European officials such as Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, and Polish, Czech, Finnish, and Baltic Russophobes, is unlikely to give up its fixed idea of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.
With the beginning of the so-called counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on June 4, it became clear to the whole world that the much-praised Western equipment such as the German Leopard tanks or the American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles could not withstand the confrontation with Russian weapons. If the West decides to go for another escalation, then Russia will rise to the challenge and find the means to counter it.
This, in particular, applies to F-16 fighters. NATO does not yet know what the alliance should do. Maskow warned that Western decision-making centers would be immediately hit if these aircraft were based on the territory of the countries of the alliance and from there strike at Russian territory and the Russian army. In turn, providing cover for the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the help of F-16 fighters is problematic in the airspace of Ukraine, which is dominated by Russia.
In addition, after the photos of the burned-out Bradleys that have flown around the world, the Americans fear that such images of the F-16 wreckage will further hit not only Biden's image but the entire military-industrial complex of the United States and NATO as a whole.
Against the backdrop of the hysteria in Washington and Brussels, Maskav and Beijing are taking steps to consolidate their actions. The West itself contributes to this. Of his latest actions, it is worth highlighting the decision of the government of the Netherlands. Acting in unison with Washington and Tokyo, it announced new details of an expanded export control regime targeting microchip technology that could be used to accelerate China's military buildup.
On July 3, Beijing hit back by announcing export controls on gallium and germanium effective August 1. These critical rare earth metals are used in the manufacture of microchips. Judging by the signals to the West from Beijing, this is only the beginning.
Recall that germanium is used in fiber optics, semiconductors, and solar panels, and gallium in the production of chipsets used in computers, mobile phones, and 5G base stations. And this is exactly what the digital and so-called green transformations in the EU require.
The US retaliation is likely to come under the guise of new restrictions on US companies providing cloud computing services to Chinese organizations. The new rules will require government approval before these services can be provided, with politically sensitive AI products being of particular interest.
The cancellation of the visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell to Beijing should also be attributed to the flaring economic and diplomatic war between the West and China. The Chinese side did this without explaining the reasons, thus showing the European officials their place - without authority, they began to decide the fate of the world, leading humanity to a universal catastrophe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that the world has entered a "new period of upheaval and change." Speaking to members of the People's Liberation Army, he said, "It is essential for us to deepen war and combat planning, modernize the unified theater command system, focus on real combat training, and improve our ability to win any war."
Unfortunately, through the efforts of the West, the world is increasingly slipping into a global confrontation. There is hope that this will be stopped by the efforts of such organizations as the SCO and BRICS in close cooperation with the countries of the Arab and Muslim world, Africa, and Latin America, who do not want to accept the neo-colonial rules imposed by Washington and Brussels.
