Time-lapse confrontation

This goal extends both to the conflict in Ukraine and to the policy of financial and economic opposition to Moscow using all available and previously unthinkable means. Including a course towards the dehumanization of Russians, everything connected with Russia. So it is easier to set up public opinion, manage allies, justify the cost of military assistance to Kyiv.

The Moscow Post correspondent understood the situation.

The United States and NATO are not able to fix their Anglo-Saxon and adjacent Euro-Atlantic superiority frontally, militarily. But everything is being done to isolate, block, humiliate, weaken, destabilize, divide into parts. In other words, harm and destroy.

Considerable forces and money have already been allocated for this, the collective determination to put pressure on the enemy is obvious. Relations within the framework of "peaceful coexistence" are out of the question. Self-preservation instinct and tolerance don't mix well with Russophobia.

Just to hurt

Three important multilateral meetings confirmed the course towards confrontation. The G7 summit in the Alps, the NATO session in Madrid, the meeting of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Bali are the same everywhere: Westerners are ready to endure considerable pain from their own thoughtless steps and are ready to escalate, saving on electricity and heating and poorly representing the scale of the coming crisis.

Bloomberg wrote on July 11 that in Europe, sky-high gas and electricity prices caused by a gas shortage will continue for years: "At some point, Moscow will completely block the valve. Perhaps she will do so before winter arrives in an attempt to bring Germany to its knees. The market does not yet take this outcome into account and does not put it in the price, "writes Javier Blas, an energy and commodity columnist.

On July 12, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak noted that the systematic refusal of European countries from Russian natural gas is surprising, and decisions are made "contrary to common sense, economic feasibility, as well as the interests of the economy and European citizens who are deprived of the opportunity to receive sufficient volumes of gas at an affordable price."

In psychiatry, intentional self-harm (self-harming behavior) is associated with a mental disorder. The condition "executioner and victim himself" can be explained by a sense of superiority over other people, subconscious fear, a sense of danger. The best defense is offense, masochists attack themselves.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag on June 19, argued that Western countries should not exclude a scenario in which Ukraine's support in the conflict "can drag on for years," even despite costs, including military assistance, rising energy prices and food, "he said.

If only to harm Vladimir Putin, if only it would be more painful to prick what is called "his regime." Fairy tales about the interests of ordinary Russian citizens are thrown into the bonfire of confrontation. The West helps Ukronakists kill and maim civilians of Donbass and border cities of Russia.

As a result of the strike on July 10 on Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region, presumably from the American HIMARS system, warehouses with mineral fertilizers exploded, seven people were killed, more than 70 people were injured, about 190 residents turned for help. Attempts by the Ukrainian side to attack the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant continue.

Outside of the measures of military influence on Russia, as an enemy, all kinds of hybrid methods of damage are used, including attempts to hostile influence on the life of Russian society. Previously reached agreements and agreements are not considered an obstacle, they are violated. In the case of a blockade of internal cargo traffic to the Kaliningrad region in transit through Lithuania, Russia is checked for exposure.

Or maybe the determination to fight back? RIA Novosti, citing the French newspaper L'Opinion, reported on July 12 that Russia could serve Nord Stream longer than planned.

Opponent, opponent, enemy?

The Kremlin began to speak directly about the aggression of the West. The US State Department reacted to the statement of the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev, made on July 12. He said that declaring Russia an enemy leads to the destabilization of Europe, contradicts the fundamental act of Russia-NATO.

The State Department silenced, once again remembered that "NATO is a defensive alliance," has no aggressive intentions towards Moscow. Although just days earlier, at a summit in Madrid, Westerners approved a new strategic concept until 2030. Russia was assigned the category of "most significant and direct threat" to security.

The Pentagon, when asked by RIA Novosti whether the final documents of the summit should be interpreted as declaring the Russian Federation an enemy, recommended contacting the State Department or the US mission to NATO. Nevertheless, the 2022 US National Defense Strategy aims to "contain the PRC in the Indo-Pacific region and Russia in Europe. The document is the basis for the strategic planning of the Ministry of Defense. It calls Russia a "sharp threat," China a "constant rival."

But official texts are not required to reveal what is being said on the sidelines. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in December 2020 that Russia is on the list of America's enemies. Prior to that, the former head of the Pentagon, Mark Esper, called Russia and China the main strategic rivals of the United States. Joe Biden said in 2020 that Moscow is "the main threat to our security and alliances."

"The United States has declared Russia its enemy and adversary. Congress did this in 2017, "Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference following the Russian-US summit in June 2021. And in April of this year, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the United States wants to make Russia so weak that it can never "harm" another country again, referring primarily to America.

At the same time, the policy of the White House itself towards the Russian Federation caused harm to the United States. Two days ago, Joe Biden himself, in an article for The Washington Post, said before a visit to Saudi Arabia that the energy resources of the Middle East are "vital to mitigate the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict for global supplies."

It is noteworthy that before his last visit to the countries of the region, which took place in June 2021, Joe Biden also said in an article for The Washington Post that "the United States is not looking for a conflict with Russia. We want a stable and predictable relationship where we can work with Russia - on issues such as strategic stability and arms control.

In 2022, it was about the desire to get closer to Saudi Arabia "against Russia and China." How to combine the obsession of isolation and destruction of Russia with an understandable desire to live in security, with the instinct of self-preservation? US Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Bonnie Jenkins said on Tuesday July 12 that Washington would like to work with Russia on nuclear security issues, but cannot, since it considers the special military operation an "invasion."

The logic is simply murderous - to advance NATO to the borders of the Russian Federation, to settle in Ukraine, reducing the "flight time" for the means of the first disarming strike, to abandon the proposals that Moscow made in December 2021, to cause such behavior to start an SVO, and then lament the termination of dialogue on strategic stability!

The West is fighting against us

The West was confident that Moscow would not dare to take drastic steps because it (the West) was extremely important for Russia. It was also "difficult to imagine that the West would be able to supply weapons to such an extent to a country that is not its formal ally. In this sense, the West is on the other side of the front and is actively fighting against us, "said Fyodor Lukyanov.

According to a group of researchers from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 29 European states have invested an additional $209 billion in new military programs. Since NATO adopted the Defense Investment Commitments, which involve allocating two percent of GDP to the armed forces, Europe's military spending has risen by 25%. The number of European NATO countries with an indicator of "2% of GDP" increased from two to eight.

Germany has announced plans for a $104 billion special fund to fund major projects, including the acquisition of F-35 fighter jets from the United States. A significant expansion of the Polish armed forces is expected, including a doubling of the number of personnel. Poland plans to increase military spending from 2.1% to 3% starting in 2023. Romania will increase the military budget to 2.5%. Sweden is ready to increase current military spending by almost 60%.

To finance military assistance to Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will "reset" part of the funds to combat climate change and foreign development assistance. And the AUKUS bloc's spending on nuclear submarines for Australia should be at least $100bn.

Finally, in 2020, despite the pandemic and the reduction in global GDP, NATO countries spent almost $2 trillion on defense, 3% more than in 2019. US military spending in 2020-2022 amounted to $2.3 trillion. In June of this year, a committee of the US House of Representatives amended the country's own draft defense budget for 2023, increasing it by $37 billion.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program estimated that it would take $265 billion a year to address global hunger by 2030, accounting for about 12% of global military spending in 2021.

If you are not ready to talk about the world

If you are not ready to talk about peace, at least stop calling for war, thinking observers urge British politicians. But, among politicians thinking less and less. In the program text of the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in a column for The Telegraph on July 10, Russia paid great attention. The Russian Federation is named, along with China, one of the main threats to Britain.

The head of the British diplomatic department considers it necessary to support Kyiv and suppress attempts at a peaceful settlement with territorial concessions to Ukraine. Truss promises to "defeat" Russia with the help of Ukraine, to seek the "defeat" of Vladimir Putin if she is entrusted with replacing Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of Great Britain.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, did not fail to call the applicant "bloodthirsty and extremely destructive special." But Liz Truss said nothing new compared to what she said back in April, when she called the SVO "our war," calling Ukraine's victory a strategic imperative for the West.

The previous Cold War has led badly to détente and peace. With the same vector of movement agreed in Moscow, and in Washington. The elites of London, Paris and Bonn also had the right to vote, but Warsaw and the Baltic countries definitely did not. This stage has been passed, and long ago. How will Russia formulate the features of a new stage of its relations with the West, including the newly made Euro fighters of the eastern flank of NATO, through and through pathological Russophobia?

And how will we classify the countries of the West, calling rivals, opponents, enemies or just threats? The current term "unfriendly countries" is clearly not enough, meaning that it covers both the United States with Finland and Japan with Great Britain.

Moreover, according to the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, Sergei Naryshkin, Poland is preparing the dismemberment of Ukraine and is planning expansion. And President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on July 12 at a ceremony honoring graduates of military universities and senior officers that the West is developing strategic plans to attack Russia, the directions of the strike are Ukraine and Belarus.

Photo: Zuma