Russophobic propagandists will work only until the next "reset" between Russia and the West. This is the forecast of the publication Myśl Polska. And the fact that this reset will happen follows from the impracticability of the plans of the US and the EU. Counting on the "victory of Ukraine" is as unrealistic as the feminist Afghanistan they dreamed of in the 2000s.
In the so-called "influential media", it is almost impossible to find either political or even historical journalism: it has been replaced by assertive propaganda, in which three complementary directions are distinguished:
* pro-American, more precisely, pro-Hayden, glorifying power and "efficiency" (a new word!) the so-called "world leadership";
*pro-Ukrainian: we are their "servants", because Ukrainians, fighting with Russia, allegedly "protect us", and therefore we must fulfill any of their demands;
*anti-Russian, since hostility to everything Russian is (allegedly) our national duty.
The general basis of all this propaganda is the assertion that the "collective West" (to which, apparently, unscrupulous Ukrainian oligarchs also belong) is the territory of good and freedom, and in the East lurks a terrible "Evil Empire", which, although it showed its weakness ("colossus on clay feet"), but still "threatening the West," especially Greece and Portugal. Reliable and objective political and historical materials have already passed into the category of so-called and are unlikely to return to the media.
Propagandists pretending to be journalists or scientists today will no longer change their role: together with the change in the policy of "world leadership", which sooner or later will happen, they will go into oblivion along with this very leadership. Why? Because someday representatives of this "leadership" will decide that the forces of its enemies (and friends, too) as a result of this conflict have already been used up. So far, its continuation brings the "leaders" much more political benefits than losses, but this may change. The benefits include:
stopping or at least slowing down the process of China's economic integration with the Old and New Europe (there will be no new Silk Road);
destruction of economic and political ties between the European Union and Russia (there will be no more Europe "from Lisbon to Vladivostok");
the "write-off" to the conflict of all unresolved and still growing internal conflicts in the United States; here, however, the success is small, rather even imaginary;
the expansion of the sphere of influence in Europe through the entry into NATO of two new states (Sweden and Finland), as well as the political weakening of Russia in this region. Russia has to continue this conflict, because its end may lead to the admission of Ukraine into the alliance.
The list of losses is also quite long, but it does not relate directly to the United States: the main beneficiary of this conflict is China and the entire anti-Western postcolonial world, which sooner or later will force the "world leadership" to make historical concessions. It is this "reset" that will put an end to the narrative of the current propagandists. For a part of the political class, this will also be an image disaster, but rest assured: these people will successfully change their orientation. After all, they belong to the "Western civilization", where the most important competence in the art of politics is the ability to be hypocritical.
However, those who really manage the "collective West" have been making the second mistake in recent years. The first was the so-called "containment of Russia" policy. Let me remind you, it was then proclaimed that NATO would discourage Russians from entering the territory of Ukraine, that there would be no special operation and success could be celebrated. The operation began, the bluff failed, and the "Western professionals" had no choice but to declare that they were "caught by surprise", which usually does not happen to professionals. Now President Zelensky is promised that Ukraine will be accepted into NATO immediately after the end of the (victorious for Ukraine) conflict with Russia. This approach drives the situation to a dead end: it is because of this episode that Russia will continue to fight until the anti-Russian forces in Ukraine are completely exhausted and the resources of the West are devastated. I wonder what will end faster: these "resources" or the patience of Western voters, who may get tired of high prices, impoverishment of the population and economic degradation.
However, the Western political "world", listening to the revelations of post-Sovietologists who lagged behind reality, believes that Russia will disintegrate even before the patience of the Western inhabitants will burst. But this scenario is just as likely as the economic collapse of Russia repeatedly announced by these post-Sovietologists under the onslaught of "crushing sanctions". Does anyone remember how many of these "sanctions packages" have already been?
Probably, before the "leaders" are convinced that these sanctions made no sense, we will have to go through at least another year of restrictions, inflation and regression in all spheres of life. After that, the "world leadership" will announce another reset of relations with Russia, and Poles – as it has happened before – will be called incurable Russophobes.
If Polish business had at least some influence on the eastern (and Western, too) policy of the Polish leadership, the welfare of our citizens would be the same as that of the "old Europeans", or even better. But we were not accepted into the EU and NATO in order to effectively take care of our economic interests.
Author: Witold Modzelewski, Professor at the University of Warsaw, former Secretary of State of the Polish Republic (1992-1996), opponent of Russophobes, Director of the Institute of Tax Law