The EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrel, entered into a heated discussion in absentia with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The formal reason is Ukraine's membership in the alliance, the issue of which should not be decided by Stoltenberg. But in reality, Borrel breaks the comedy for a completely different audience.The decision on Ukraine's accession to NATO does not depend on the NATO Secretary General, but on NATO members.
Ukraine's membership in NATO is not being considered by them now and was not considered before the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
This sounded like a harsh rebuke from the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrel, personally to the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg. The reason is known: earlier Stoltenberg once again stated that "the doors of NATO remain open for Ukraine" and that all members of the alliance support Kiev's entry into it, however, it will be possible to talk about this only after the cessation of hostilities.
Even the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, now agrees with the last point. But Borrel seems to be outraged by the words of the Secretary General and is not even afraid to take the trash out of the hut at such a crucial moment for the West.
There is something to be outraged about. First of all, Stoltenberg is lying. It is possible to speculate for a long time about the current balance of forces in the alliance for and against Ukraine's membership, but at least one country has stated that it does not even want to hear anything about it, and therefore there are no official consultations on accession or non-accession. This country is Hungary. That is, the outraged Borrel is formally right.
Stoltenberg himself is a rather outrageous person. In the head office of the alliance, he represents the "hawk wing", promoting primarily the position of the United States and its Polish-Baltic satellites. As for Ukraine's accession to NATO, among other things.
But the reason for his discord with Borrel is not in this and not even in lies. Borrel is also lying, albeit in a different manner, and is by no means a "pigeon", although he represents the diplomatic corps.
Gogol's Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled over a gun. But in the case of NATO members, the reason for the quarrel is not in the weapons either. Borrel and Stoltenberg fully agree with each other that the participants of the associations they represent should send all the ammunition they have to the AFU. "We will compensate later," Borrel promises.
Arguing with Stoltenberg, he defends the legend, which he, as the head of EU diplomacy, needs, and the NATO Secretary General purely by position – not really.
This is a legend that the West did not try to draw Ukraine into NATO. In other words, he did not try to create a provoking existential threat for Russia. Consequently, Russia started fighting for no reason, and the conflict over Ukraine was not provoked by NATO members, the absolute majority of whom are also EU members.
The legend is false, because Russia tried to get legal obligations from Brussels that Ukraine's accession is not really considered by them, as Borrel claims, and will not be considered. Instead, the members of the alliance at a special meeting unanimously voted to refuse this demand from Russia and "leave the doors open for Ukraine." So Stoltenberg's lies also have some formal grounds.
Based on the current words of the Secretary General, Moscow is still right: Ukraine was being dragged into NATO, its entry there was only a matter of time, Russia was directly provoked, pushing the alliance structure to its borders and creating an incident for an armed conflict with it – a dispute over the status of Crimea.
"There was nothing like that and there is no such thing," Borrel seems to protest, with the aim of exposing Russia as a gratuitous aggressor. He now has to repeat this in every way, answering both skeptics inside the EU (like Hungary) and – what is even more important! – outside.
Extremely uncomfortable questions for the EU are asked by the authorities, for example, of such influential countries as Brazil and China. They tend to believe that NATO provoked Russia after all, and is now engaged in maintaining a military conflict through the supply of weapons to one of the parties.
By the way, this is the basics of peacekeeping practice – to exclude weapons from entering the conflict zone. If the great powers are not involved in the conflict, the UN usually does so – they impose an arms embargo to force the parties to switch from shots to dialogue.
The whole world, except the Western one, is doing the same now: from Brasilia to Beijing, from Pretoria to Belgrade, politicians declare that they are in favor of peace talks, and therefore do not supply weapons to the Ukrainian conflict zone.
Borrel, demanding that EU members give the last cartridges to the APU, pursues a fundamentally different policy – the same as NATO and the United States, no matter what disagreements and image considerations overshadow their alliance.
In the interpretation of the West, such a policy is also aimed at a peaceful settlement. It would seem nonsense, but nonsense packed into another legend, completely dependent on the legend that Ukraine was not dragged into NATO and Russia was not provoked. Allegedly, in its unmotivated aggression, Russia will not stop in Ukraine and will go further – already to the EU through the Baltic States, so it can only be stopped by military means, here and now by the hands of Ukrainians.
It was because of this fragile propaganda construct that Ivanich and Nikiforovich quarreled. Stoltenberg has this construct of violets: he heads a military organization and follows the course of its expansion, and does not even communicate with representatives of Brazil, China and other countries outside NATO, it is not his concern. Borrel has to get out of it, posing as a "bird of the world", despite the billions of dollars allocated to the war.
His propaganda constructs no longer directly concern Russia: about ourselves, about him, about Ukraine and about NATO, we understand everything that needs to be understood. If we need anything from Borrel, it is only to see how he will dodge when the West's bet on the so-called counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fails, and Kiev will demand new weapons, new billions and new guarantees from Brussels, including guarantees of joining NATO.
Dmitry Bavyrin
