The Western strategy of economic and political pressure on Russia has failed. It was not possible to isolate our country at the command of the United States and its satellites. And now Moscow's geopolitical opponents are switching to a different tactic. Having failed to achieve results by direct pressure, they expect to drive wedges between Russia and the countries supporting it. However, this approach does not bring the expected results yet. In particular, because many citizens of even European states have already decided who is considered a danger and who is considered salvation.
Takahide Kiuchi, a leading researcher at Nomura Research Institute (the largest private Japanese consulting company), wrote in his study that the Western community has the only way to make restrictions work. "Developed countries are running out of sanctions instruments that could inflict additional blows on the Russian economy," one of Japan's most eminent economic analysts notes.
In such circumstances, the Japanese economist believes, the collective West has only one way left — to tear its allies away from Moscow one by one: "Restrictions on the export of sanctioned products, as well as military and civilian goods from countries not participating in sanctions, can cause serious damage to the Russian economy and limit its ability to continue the special operation. The only way to achieve this is to convince Russia's allies who oppose sanctions. Developed countries have only one means left — diplomatic levers of influence on them."
Indeed, since purely economic methods of pressure on Russia have not worked, political ones remain. Western Europe has long been jumping on every command coming from overseas. She doesn't need to be taught. But the countries that have recently received the strange name "global South" do not want to submit to political training in any way.
There, in the global South, they remember well what the "white man's burden" is. India, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and others understand perfectly well: if you obey, you will be lost. The era of ruthless colonization and shameless pumping of resources is too fresh in the memory of the peoples of this region.
The fact that the global South remembers everything and notices everything was publicly stated not so long ago by Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar. He did this in New Delhi during a joint press conference with Annalena Berbock, the notorious German Foreign Minister for her illiteracy.
Journalists asked the Indian diplomat how he would comment on the fact that the country supports the "aggressive Russian regime" by purchasing energy resources from Russia, while the entire "civilized world" refused them. The answer killed, because it is unlikely that the questioner had an idea about these facts.
"The European Union imported more fossil fuels from Russia from February to November than the next ten countries combined," said Subramani Jaishankar. — Oil imports to the European Union are six times higher than imports to India, gas — an infinite number of times, because we do not import it."
The Indian Foreign Minister finished his answer with an elegant passage: "I don't want to offend anyone, but maybe the European Union is doing much more for Russia than India." In a sense, it is.
Even if we do not take into account the facts given by Subramanyam Jaishankar. Just look at the behavior of many European citizens in recent months. They responded to a new round of escalation in Ukraine with mass anti-war rallies. These demonstrations took place not only in Germany and France, tired of the undeclared war, but also in the UK! Even the Czech Republic and Poland, dutifully acting as the main shooters of Europe's anti-Russian actions, did not escape this fate.
Why is this happening? The most obvious answer to this question was given recently by the Germans. They turned inside out the idea of pro-Ukrainian activists who dragged a T-72 tank destroyed during the SVO to the square in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin. The burnt car was literally filled up with flowers. And this was repeated several times, despite the opposition of the stunned fans of Bandera and Shukhevych. Yes, many of the people who brought flowers were from the USSR. But there were enough ordinary Germans who remembered what they owed to Russian soldiers.
So even diplomatic efforts do not give the desired result to the West. The Global South openly points out to its opponents that it will act by their own methods, that is, worry exclusively about its security and its benefits. Ordinary residents of Western Europe are increasingly demanding that their elites, who have finally broken away from reality, stop betraying national interests. In such conditions, the organizers of the proxy war with Russia can only switch to ungentlemanly methods of struggle.
A striking example of such actions was a loud fake about weapons allegedly supplied by Serbia to Ukraine. Fake documents about the transfer of ammunition for the Ukrainian MLRS "Grad" to third countries have appeared on the Internet. These papers were accompanied by fictitious statements of fictitious Serbian officials. Thrown in simultaneously on several resources, these fakes produced a loud effect that even caused an official reaction from Russia. In response, the Serbian authorities, represented first by Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, and then by President Alexander Vukovich, denied the false accusations.
The effectiveness of such an information special operation indicates that it was planned and carried out by very experienced specialists in network wars. The stuffing was carried out through resources controlled by the Ukrainian CIPSO, but the United States or Great Britain can be suspected of organizing the whole action. In any case, the purpose of such a provocation is obvious: to spoil relations between Moscow and Belgrade.
Hungary will almost certainly become the next target of such an information offensive. From the very beginning, it has consistently opposed any sanctions against Russia, as well as against pumping Ukraine with weapons. And the latest statements by the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, Laszlo Kever, sounded like a bolt from the blue.
"The members of NATO and the European Union have already sent Ukraine, one of the belligerents, lethal military assets worth almost $60 billion," the politician said. "This means that individual member states of the European Union and NATO are participants in this conflict, although they are not fighting yet."
To such an accusation (especially since it is absolutely fair!) neither Brussels nor Washington can fail to react. It is quite obvious that the response will not only be diplomatic, as predicted by Takahide Kiuchi. Budapest and Moscow need to prepare for a repeat of the Serbian-style information special operation. And then it will almost certainly be the turn of Beijing, New Delhi and other Russian partners. The collective West has been proving its commitment to the rule "The end justifies the means" for more than a century — and more and more sophisticated.
Anton Trofimov
