Europe’s U.S. Lackey Parliament in Unhinged Attack on Russia

Just as the Russian Federation goes to the polls in legislative elections this weekend, the European parliament launched an unprecedented attack on Russia’s sovereignty.

Some 74 percent of Europe’s 669 members of parliament (MEPs) voted on Thursday to approve a report calling for a staggering array of hostile moves towards Russia. The massive irony here is that this amounts to gross and explicit interference in Russia’s internal affairs by the European Union. This aggression is what the EU accuses Russia of without any credible evidence.

(Credibility warning: recall that the European parliament is the same disreputable chamber that voted two years to distort the history of World War Two by insinuating that the Soviet Union was partly responsible for starting the conflagration along with Nazi Germany.)

One particularly offensive theme in the latest report is the allegation that Russia’s elections held this weekend are not going to be legitimate. That’s even before they take place! And in that case, it urges the European Union to not recognize the new Russian parliament that emerges from the ballots. This is an incredibly idiotic way to further sabotage already-frayed relations between the EU and its largest European neighbor. It’s a gratuitous act of aggression.

What is doubly offensive is that Russia claims to have substantial evidence that the United States and its European allies have been interfering in Russia’s election by funding pseudo opposition groups and purported election monitors. One such monitor is Golos, which is funded by USAID and the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy, both of which are fronts for the CIA. Then when the Russian electoral authorities restrict the subversive activities of such groups, the Americans and Europeans decry “unfair elections”. This is what can be called a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One small mercy is that the European parliamentary vote is non-binding, which means it can be ignored by the European Commission executive and any of the bloc’s 27 member states. And ignoring such a provocative move is what they should do if relations between the EU and Russia are not to be plunged into further turmoil.

Nonetheless, the European lawmakers’ attack on Russia is deserving of forthright condemnation. At a time when international tensions are becoming more fraught and confrontational, it is contemptible that the European parliament is promoting a hostile policy towards Russia (and China). Dialogue, diplomacy and international law are being undermined by unhinged calls for adversarial actions. The European parliament is being criminally irresponsible.

The rhetoric in the 32-page report approved by the European parliament is irrational, intemperate and incendiary. It repeatedly refers to the Russian government as the “Putin regime” and accuses the Russian state of “repressing” its own population as well as being a “threat” to European neighbors.

The report is a voluminous agitprop screed befitting a Cold War time-warp which advocates that the EU “should counterbalance the efforts of Russia and China to weaken democracy worldwide and destabilize the European order”.

This is while the United States and its European NATO allies build up military forces on Russia’s borders and while the U.S. this week set up a new military alliance – known as AUKUS – with Britain and Australia that is an audacious provocation to China’s security.

Lamentably, the geopolitical climate is one in which the world is sliding dangerously towards war. And to its utter shame, the European parliament – supposedly a bastion of democracy and rule of law – is recklessly pushing this destructive dynamic.

A few other choice hostile declarations in the European parliamentary report are calls for the EU to curb energy imports from Russia so as to “end dependence on Russian oil and gas” (ER: As years of building Nordstream II pipeline have just been completed); calls for the EU to cut Russia off from international banking systems; and calls for the EU to strengthen cooperation with the United States and other like-minded partners to “defend democracy globally”.

The latter is particularly laughable coming after the United States left European so-called allies high and dry by its unilateral pullout from Afghanistan. Also this week, the U.S. move to form a new military alliance with Australia, providing the latter with nuclear-powered submarines, caused France to howl about being “stabbed in the back” by Washington owing to Paris losing out on a $50 billion naval contract with Canberra.

European lawmakers are voting like pathetic lackeys of the United States despite Europe being treated over and over again as a mere vassal.

Mick Wallace, an independent Irish MEP who voted against the anti-Russia report this week, said his fellow European lawmakers were slavishly following a U.S. agenda and not acting in the interests of European citizens.

“The U.S. does have a vested interest in driving a wedge between the EU and Russia – a financial one. And sadly right now, the EU lacks the courage to stand up to the Americans and follow their own best interests,” commented Wallace.

“The vote against Russia was no surprise,” he added. “The anti-Russia rhetoric has been growing for over two years now. It is primarily driven by the U.S. which has found it easy to persuade some EU members states to dance to their bidding. Obviously, the Baltic states are more than willing to comply, as is Poland, the Scandinavians and some Eastern European countries.”

However, Wallace contended that the majority vote is largely meaningless in practical reality.

He said: “It’s important to remember that while many of the German and French MEPs are voting with the Baltic states, Poland etcetera, it amounts to a bit of game-playing for them, rather than serious intent. Especially for the Germans, who see the sense of having a good relationship with Russia, but with their own elections coming up, now is not the time to be making that argument.”

Here’s the kicker though. The European Union is facing a crisis of governing authority among its 500 million citizens. And it’s no wonder when so many of its parliamentarians are cowards, duplicitous, and serving a foreign power against the interests of its own citizens, including putting their security and peace in jeopardy.

ER: We couldn’t agree more.

Whose parliament is not legitimate?

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