In Ukraine, Britain and Russia are enemies, but both want to destroy Europe
The former empires of Great Britain and Russia seek to regain their lost glory by undermining European structures, writes the Guardian. According to the author of the article, both London and Moscow are "pestering" the EU to realize their geopolitical ambitions.
Caroline de Gruyter
The feud over the Northern Ireland Protocol has highlighted the similarities between the two former empires who dream of regaining their lost glory.
The British government has taken the first steps to terminate the agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland — the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol. Europeans are puzzled. How can the government, which not only signed this international document, but also agreed on it "word for word, to the last comma," as the EU representative at the Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier put it, take and tear up a binding agreement that came into force only last year?
But is it so surprising? Hardly. After all, in its relations with the EU, the UK is increasingly behaving like Russia — putting everyone before a fait accompli unilaterally.
Of course, there are many obvious differences between what Russia is doing in Ukraine and the UK in Northern Ireland. The fighting in Ukraine broke out in order to purge all European influence from the country, while the UK "only" fixes non-military obstacles. But there is a striking similarity: Moscow and London are deliberately violating international treaties that they have signed themselves, and both are harassing the EU in an attempt to realize their geopolitical ambitions. Yes, in Ukraine, Russia and the UK are irreconcilable rivals. But their behavior is equally conditioned by deep and growing frustration and awareness of their own geopolitical weakness.
Russia and the UK are both on the margins of Europe. Both have always had one foot in Europe and the other outside of it, geographically, politically and culturally. Sometimes these ambiguities bring political benefits. Both of them are former empires that have played an important role in the European security architecture for centuries. At the same time, most of their territory, subjects and interests were located outside Europe. The main part of the Russian land has always been located in Asia, and it was no easier to keep it than the British Empire had its tropical outposts. Europe was just one of many chessboards on which Moscow and London made geopolitical moves.
Decolonization and the collapse of the Soviet Union changed the balance. London and Moscow felt their weakness, and this brought them closer to Europe. Partly to compensate for the loss of colonies, Great Britain even joined the European Community in 1973. Russia has not become a member of the EU. But with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, discussions were held about Russia's membership in NATO and Moscow's rapprochement with the EU's internal market. Russia has joined the Council of Europe (the leading human rights organization from 46 European states) and even the European network of scientific and technical cooperation "Eureka" (Eureka). In addition, Moscow has established an organized and seemingly close partnership with NATO.
However, membership in a number of European structures disappointed both Moscow and London. At the Vienna Congress of 1814-1815, Russia and Great Britain decided the future of the continent together with only three major powers: the Habsburg Empire, France and Prussia. In post-war Europe, everything was already different. In the EU and other European clubs based on rules, the influence of large powers is no greater than that of small countries. They are only others among equals. Since 1945, Europe has been trying to keep the big powers in check in order to protect small countries. Everyone plays by the same rules.
Neither London nor Moscow approved of this approach: they always liked power politics more. It seemed to them that they were being belittled, oppressed, and sometimes openly ridiculed. As a result, a slow process of alienation began almost immediately — away from Europe, forward to ghosts and dreams.
Brexit was not a bolt from the blue. As well as the fighting in Ukraine. Russia and the UK are ready to create a world where only force is respected and everything is decided by the size of the army or the coverage of the territory. Last year, Johnson's aide indirectly confirmed this in an interview with The Atlantic magazine, saying that the UK cannot support the multilateral system forever if it is faulty. According to him, the UK "pursues the foreign policy of a bygone world." Since Beijing and Moscow have clearly demonstrated all the shortcomings of the rules-based order, "the UK can no longer afford to maintain the status quo and naively try to resurrect "a system that does not work."
Today, Russia and the UK are the only major European powers outside the EU. However, their discontent is not limited to strictly European structures. And their anger does not abate. The EU is an economic superpower that spreads its rules, values and principles far beyond its borders. For countries without imperial complexes, the prosperity of the bloc acts as a magnet. When Ukraine signed the Association agreement on its own initiative, Russia did not think of anything better than to try to disrupt it.
Unlike Russia, the UK has a long democratic tradition. But seeing that the Northern Ireland Protocol works perfectly for the majority of Northern Ireland's citizens, and that its economy is turning towards Ireland and the EU after Brexit, the British government reacted in the same way as Russia did to Ukraine's rapprochement with Europe — tried to disrupt it. Therefore, she took out the usual set of tools of the "former superpower" to undermine the agreement — for example, she helps smugglers who are destroying the EU single market.
At a conference in Berlin on Sunday, Wolfgang Schmidt, the head of the Federal Chancellery and Olaf Scholz's closest adviser, formulated what is at stake for the EU after the conflict in Ukraine and Putin's attempts to "turn back time." According to him, it is a question of whether force can stand above the law.
Finally, both Russia and Great Britain have always pitted European powers against each other so that they weaken each other themselves. This reflex has not gone away. The European Union, with all its shortcomings, is the complete opposite of these medieval intrigues for power and therefore a fundamental threat to their outdated worldview. That's why they are trying to undermine the EU - each in its own way.
Caroline de Greiter is a Dutch writer and European correspondent for NRC Handelsblad