RUSTRAT Institute Editorial

Will the once-powerful organisation retain its status and continue its activities?

Russia and its allies are not going to submit to externally imposed solutions. The anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West at the instigation of Washington have led to a severe energy crisis in Europe. The world economy is suffering. The information war has escalated.

Western leaders, while voicing the necessity of enlargement of the UN Security Council, admit that they have lost the former power of influence in the world and insistently seek support from other countries.

There is a systemic contradiction between the current balance of power in the international arena and the existing UN governance mechanism. All international issues, according to the accepted rules, should be decided by the international community. This does not suit America, which claims to be the unquestioned definer of "good and evil".

The strategic task of the United States is to replace the UN structure with a new mechanism of international governance, "more in line with the new de facto world order". The Yalta system of international security is in crisis. Despite all the obvious shortcomings in terms of objectivity, the work of the UN does not suit Washington either, as it creates obstacles for the United States to pursue far-reaching plans. This [...] has been evident for quite some time.

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Elena Panina

Joe Biden received a curious letter from 30 congressmen. The gist of the letter is that the US-Russia conflict in Ukraine must end, otherwise it can end badly. The congressmen suggest the following logic:

✅ Biden's policies were crucial for the "courageous and heroic Ukrainian people" to inflict a "historic military defeat" on Russia - as the latter has "drastically reduced the stated objectives of the invasion".

In other words, Russia is already considered defeated.

✅ Biden himself argued that it was crucial to avoid direct military conflict with Russia, which would risk World War III.

At the same time, the chances of using nuclear weapons are getting higher and higher, so the authors of the letter fully agree with Biden on this issue.

✅ "Given the devastation created by the war for Ukraine and the world and the risk of a catastrophic escalation, we believe it is in the interests of Ukraine, the US and the world to avoid a protracted conflict. Therefore, while mentioning the US support for Kiev with a kind word, we need to "redouble efforts to find a realistic framework for a ceasefire".

✅ If there is a way to end the war, America is obliged to use every diplomatic opportunity to do so. Among the incentives to end the war are an easing of sanctions and "security guarantees for a free and independent Ukraine that are acceptable to all sides." The alternative is a protracted war with "incomprehensible but catastrophic risks".

✅ The conflict threatens tens of millions more people around the world as prices of wheat, fertilizer and fuel lead to hunger and poverty. A protracted war with increasing intensity threatens to kill and plunge many more Ukrainians into poverty.

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Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial

The leaders of the European Union, as with those of the United States and NATO, seem to be criminally insane.

The European Union’s summit of foreign ministers this week formally committed the bloc to training Ukrainian military forces on EU territory to fight against Russia. That inescapably makes the 27-nation EU a party to war in Ukraine.

Nearly two months ago, in a previous Strategic Culture Foundation weekly editorial published on August 19, we postulated that the conflict in Ukraine had already metastasized into a Third World War. That warning has been corroborated by the dramatic escalation of military involvement by the United States-led NATO alliance and the European Union in Ukraine.

This week, the European Union’s Council on Foreign Affairs announced a Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM) to Ukraine which would involve training of up to 15,000 Ukrainian troops over the next two years. Germany and Poland are to be major training hubs. The headquarters for the EUMAM is to be in Brussels. This indicates long-term planning for war and, lamentably, the spurning of any kind of diplomatic solution.

The EU-wide training program is but the formal, comprehensive adoption of missions that had up to now been undertaken more discreetly at national, bilateral level. The United States, Canada and Britain have had military advisors in Ukraine since 2014 where they have been mentoring NeoNazi formations such as the Azov Battalion. Training of Ukrainian troops has also been conducted in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia and the other Baltic states.

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