Václav Havel: „One inherited disadvantage of democracy is that to those who are devoted to it places limit of action, but those that disrespect it are able to do almost anything.”
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Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State: "The lesson of recent history is that once the Russians enter your house, it's sometimes very hard to get them out."
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I attach for discussion the opinion of a Ukrainian journalist in Kiev on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus gave up their nuclear weapons to the RF in 1996. The Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994 is the only agreement in which Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus - the 3rd former nuclear powers - gave up their nuclear weapons in exchange for their security back in 1996. This anniversary took place without any media coverage. The memorandum could be a model for other states such as Iran, North Korea, etc.
However, a letter from a journalist in Kiev shows that the Memorandum is not, at the moment, a topic in Ukraine. The Budapest Memorandum, as a guarantee of the territorial integrity of states in return for the abolition of nuclear weapons, should be a topic not only for NATO, including the US, but for Swiss diplomacy and also a solution for Iran and North Korea.
Why is the Budapest Memorandum not a topic if there is nothing better?
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Current events in Kazakhstan resemble in their elements the events on the Maidan. Russia works in a deliberate manner, always with a long lead time, when it is not constrained by democracy.
It is no coincidence what is happening around Russian gas, e.g. in Germany. Huge gas storage tanks are filled before every winter. One of the giant storage tanks leased by Russia's GASPROM was only 5% full last October, instead of the usual 90%?! If this is not purposeful manipulation, what else is? The market is as wobbly as ever. Gasprom has leased more bunkers across Europe...
Will the democratic countries get tough or will Russia continue to mock their policies. It recognizes and respects only strength.
This exhibition on crimes against humanity by the Russian army „Chechnya the End Solution“, was banned shortly after its opening in the European Parliament building. Its author, the Pole Adam Borowski, brought it to me. I myself organised or lent on seven places, including the Václav Havel Library, with his personal participation. I very much appreciate his personal, publicly spoken thanks.
After generations of elite loss, the Czech Republic is still a provincial, petty-bourgeois, plebeian country, riddled with corruption in all layers of society. It cannot be otherwise after all it has been through in the last 100 years, including its current government.
Let us not be surprised that there is already talk behind the scenes about the new Czech ambassador to the US, Jakub Kulhánek, who recently resigned as foreign minister. I have never noticed that he has been able to speak coherently on any topic for a long time or has been invited to participate in live discussions. If he has, he has only read. He has a stuttering problem, but of course that's not his fault. He is the candidate of the pro-Russian Prague Castle. I have no doubt that President Milos Zeman will try to push him through to the post of ambassador to the US. That's the kind of obedient he needs.
The current foreign minister, Jan Lipavsky, speaks diplomatically and persuasively in the media. He's going to have a hard time. He recently asked the Czech ambassador to Beijing, Vladimír Tomšík, to refrain from making statements in support of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing, as President Zeman had ordered him to do. We are the only EU country to have done so, obediently. Russia needs to be flattered...
Russia only recognises the power of guns and money. Why can't the EU block all the accounts and assets of Russian oligarchs in EU countries? Much of it is stolen money, or bought with stolen money, which could one day be returned to countries that desperately need it. If the population still has the strength to start building a country on democratic principles. The Ukrainians had it. In Kazakhstan it was taken from them by the army, both their own and Russia's.
Putin is single-mindedly trying to recreate the USSR, which would be much more threatening to the world. Will the EU and NATO stand by and then wonder again? Russia can easily cope with ministers like Josep Borrell.
Jan Šinágl, 10.1.2022
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Komentáře
Europe seems to be in a phase of transition. The US is gradually pulling out and European governments are specializing in outsourcing responsibility. .. preferably to some consulting firms like McKinsey & Co. That won't help in this case. Because only those who take responsibility have a chance to enjoy freedom.
Marcel Zwygart
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