Russia is in hot waters again as Russian Opposition Leader, Navalny’s poisoning has been revealed recently. And the EU is intimidating Russia with sanctions again that might make Russia’s Corona-hit economy tipsy-turvy.
As per Russia, this is nothing out of the ordinary as Western European NATO allies are usually quick to accuse Russia on the basis of political matters.
NATO Europe seems to be America’s henchmen, willingly doing its dirty work of challenging internal matters of the world’s largest and most resource nation.
In the past, Europe has imposed sanctions
on Russia on matters that were not concerned with them. Take the Crimean
annexation of 2014 as an example.
Cream of Whose Cup?
Crimea had been part of Russia culturally even in ancient times but then became a part of Ukrainian territory.
Originally a referendum was taken in Crimea in which majority Crimeans voted to be a part of Russia due to their Slavic affinity and nostalgia of the good old USSR days.
Russia had also been supplying energy supplies at subsidized rates. Meanwhile, the EU was repeatedly trying to lure Ukraine into joining to gain an upper hand as it saw this as a chance to devitalize Russia.
Ukraine in the middle seemed to be falling in the trap and when Russia saw this, it was not pleased so they could see that the EU had reached its doorstep.
Hence they decided to bring their generosity to halt and ask for repayment of its loans on gas supplies. Ukraine realized that even though the EU presented a rosy picture, it wasn’t willing to pick the tab for Ukraine.
When Ukraine realized its mistake, a referendum was held in which they opted to be a part of Russia. The EU, seeing its failing plan, started whining and imposing sanctions on Russia with the blessings of then U.S secretary of state, John Kerry.
Since then Russia hasn’t really been on the best terms with Europe. One might say that Europe was worried in 2014 about protecting its territorial interests.
But then they had already become active members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in April 1949, therefore, they were safe from any form of harm, to begin with.
Perhaps Europe has been intimidated by Russia’s growing power and ruggedness. Or maybe they just can’t seem to tame the beast. European giants like French Military General Napoleon and pathetic dictator Hitler were downsized by Russia, hence possibly Europe saw Russia as unconquerable.
It’s the immense size and political ideology still seems to put Europe on its heels. Whenever Europe imposes sanctions, it’s the Russian citizens that suffer and further alienate themselves from Europe.
The worse the times, the more they trust
their leader, Putin. All Russians are not really ready for a liberal leader
like Navalny owing to its bittersweet experience in the past with the last USSR
leader Gorbachev who was responsible for the disintegration of the USSR.
Russian Liberal -The Ideal European
Europe's Favorite Liberal Gorbachev had granted the independence of the demanding state that led to a crash in local economies, massive unemployment and poverty.
Russia’s national interest was damaged and its pride was hurt. Had there not been Putin, Russia’s economy would still be in shambles due to the economic fallout.
And Putin's political crispness and straightforward approach seems to sit well with the Russian population. Hence this gives Putin ultimate power to crush the opposition openly since his countrymen are hardly against him.
As citizens see Putin protecting its people and stabilizing the country's economy even in the face of hard economic sanctions by Europe, they are less likely to oppose his unrealistically lengthy rule.
Recently, some people were displeased with him as constitutional amendments were introduced to make sure that he held his political reins tight.
The amendments made sure that Putin could
stay in power for a longer-term without question. Navalny, the liberal, raised
his voice and cried foul.
Butchering the Whistleblower
But the ruling party dismissed the matter saying he was just crying wolf. And hence started a series of strange events in Navalny’s life.
Attempts on Navalny’s life started nearly out of nowhere. It seemed that someone was repeatedly trying to kill him. He often found himself at the heart of threateningly lethal situations.
Only God knows how he landed there because even Navalny didn’t seem to know how or why. Here’s an interesting story.
Navalny was on his flight to Moscow when he suddenly fell ill. Germany suspected foul play and immediately offered help.
And Germany wasted no time in admitting Navalny to one of its best and most reputed hospitals. Post-German Toxicology tests, it has been revealed that Navalny was poisoned as his tea was laced with Novichok.
Now just any Tom, Dick and Harry couldn’t have poisoned him because Novichok, a military-grade chemical, is hard to obtain without the government for personal use.
Novichok is not rat-poison. It is a military weapon which can be only authorized by the Russian government. With the elephant in the room, nobody is left guessing who did it.
Russia meanwhile continued to deny that Navalny had been poisoned at all. By the way, the same poison was used to dispose off Sergei Skripal in broad daylight in Salisbury, openly democratic England.
EU’s only liberal hope, Navalny was on deathbed. There was no chance he would live to see another day. Germany not only strongly condemned the attack but also threatened to take action.
Germany was left foaming at the mouth and
offered further hospitalization services to Navalny and further demanded an
explanation from Russian authorities regarding the Navalny poisoning case.
Uncle Sam’s Frown
So Germany decided that in case the Russian authorities couldn’t offer a satisfactory explanation, Germany would halt Ruso-German project of Nord stream 2 through which Russia would transport 55 cubic meters of gas to Germans.
The Problem is, It’s difficult to say whether this is a genuine humanitarian reaction or whether Germany is doing this to please big brother who was unhappy with this project, to begin with.
Big brother didn’t want its other big guy to gain new areas of influence in Europe and hence Big brother was planning to snatch Germany’s lunch money by imposing sanctions on a lucrative port.
Even After so many millennia of evolution,
it’s difficult to say whether the diplomats are still human or not. But by the
end of the day, the good news is Navalny seems to have survived again (to
Putin’s dismay). Let’s see how the next attempt on his life would be made.
Written by - Perin Hossar
Edited by – Adrija Saha
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