Oleg Davygora17:47, 07/05/23

Europe’s spectrum of “useful idiots” is a Cold War term for unwitting allies of communism.

The Economist has published a list of European countries that knowingly or unknowingly become Russia’s collaborators . The list is called Putin’s Useful Idiots.

According to the material , it included Hungary, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Serbia and Switzerland. The role of pro-Russian politicians like Marine Le Pen, Robert Fico, Matteo Salvini and others is singled out separately.

“The spectrum of Europe’s ‘useful idiots’ – a Cold War term for unwitting allies of communism – is wide. In politics, both the extreme right and the extreme left parties disagree on many things; but in Ukraine, these extremes often converged in demanding immediate “peace which would effectively reward Russian aggression with land. In the media and academia, intellectuals still seem happy to ignore evidence of Russia’s imperial intentions and its slide into the criminal realm, and instead lament that Europeans are confused about what they call a proxy war between America and Russia, or perhaps even more grandiosely, between America and China.And in the business world, despite numerous rounds of Western sanctions,Russia also has many “friends” left, the article says.

Putin’s aides include several European governments. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister since 2010, was the most obvious. The populist leader repeatedly criticized the West for supporting Ukraine and continued to import Russian gas to Hungary. His government also refuses to allow the transit of weapons transferred to Ukraine by other members of Hungary through NATO and the EU. Neighboring Austria, more calmly but just as successfully, has also largely sat out the fight, citing its non-NATO membership and self-proclaimed role as a bridge between East and West, offering little help to Ukraine even as its trade with Russia swells.

Greece, another EU member, is abiding by EU sanctions but has refrained from further tightening sanctions on Russian oil supplies, perhaps because Greek firms make so much from trade. Just recently, and under strong American pressure, Cyprus, an offshore financial haven, closed about 4,000 Russian-owned local bank accounts. Facing less pressure, non-EU countries like Turkey and Serbia don’t even bother to hide the lucrative covert services they provide to Russia.

Some countries have turned seemingly noble intentions into policies that warm Putin’s heart. Citing its vaunted neutrality, Switzerland has resorted to cunning local laws to block arms shipments to Ukraine, including 96 mothballed Leopard tanks in Italy owned by a private Swiss firm.

In Slovakia, polls show that the party of Robert Fico, a left-wing Russophile who accused “Ukrainian fascists” of provoking Putin, is likely to win a national election scheduled for September.

A French parliamentary commission recently criticized Marine Le Pen, President Emmanuel Macron’s closest rival in last year’s elections, for repeating Russian propaganda after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. She condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but last October, seven months after the start of the war, she said sanctions against Russia were not working.

In Italy, while far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni is a strong supporter of Ukraine, Matteo Salvini, who leads the second largest party in its coalition, is another opponent of sanctions and, at least before the invasion, a declared admirer of Putin.

Pro-Putin European statements

According to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,  Ukraine is no longer a sovereign state . According to him, such a conclusion can be drawn because of Kyiv’s dependence on the support of Western countries. Orban also claims that Ukraine, despite the confidence in its victory, will not be able to get it.

Austria will oppose the provision of security guarantees for Ukraine at the EU level and will refuse to agree to such obligations. This was announced on June 29 by Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.

(C)UNIAN 2023