Let's clap eyes on "beauty" Ukraine and the horde of Western “suitors” courting it. The best of the joke is that each of them – despite being NATO members – is pursuing its personal goals. The political and military "dances" around the "beauty" revealed to the whole of Europe that the notorious "Atlantic solidarity" is a mere beautiful phrase forgotten at the current critical moment. Everyone is visibly looking for their own personal way out of the escalating crisis.
It's probably no exaggeration to say that each of the "suitors" is rigidly and cynically working out its agenda, using the "beauty" as an excuse to increase activity, but as soon as the goal is achieved, they will let the incoming crisis wave strike it.
Indeed, if you take a swipe at the NATO "suitors", their notorious "Atlantic solidarity" begins to crumble, turning from a monumental fresco painting into a multicolored mosaic. We have to ask ourselves which leaders of the NATO countries are most active as regards Kiev? We can see that the list includes: Biden (USA), Macon (France), Johnson (Great Britain), Duda (Poland), Erdogan (Turkey) and Germany represented by the newly elected government. Others are not that persistent to constantly stay above the radar in the media on such an occasion.
So, who wants what? A very interesting question, and once everything and everyone is unscrambled, the mosaic will blaze with color… Let's go down, at least in simplistic terms, the motivation list of every "suitor" mentioned above and come to certain conclusions about their reasoning.
We’ll start with the richest candidate – the USA. For Biden, "dancing" around Ukraine is an opportunity to distract the nation from their own crisis phenomena. Covid captures the territory of the United States, like Rothbart captures Odette in Swan Lake. Inflation moves from trot to gallop. Among Washington’s political elite, everyone is squabbling with each other, including individual "interest groups" in the Biden administration itself. There is a plenty of other issues, all of them outweighed by the looming Democratic wreck in the midterm congressional elections. And suddenly... such an information and geopolitical "gift": Russia allegedly wants to attack Ukraine, which is a perfect opportunity for the United States to valiantly save the "beauty." The media is thrilled! As much as eight thousand US military were sent to Europe to help cope with deterring "Russia’s aggression". Adequate reasoning, indeed!
The US Embassy in Kiev echoes the US stance: "Ukraine has repeatedly tried to implement the Minsk agreements in good faith, including by passing a law on special status every year. At the same time, Russia violates the ceasefire, refuses to resolve this and other problems constructively, and pretends that it is not a party to the conflict that it fomented." Here, all the statements by the State Department are fake, but people are buying them. And Biden should become Mr. Nice Guy in the eyes of voters by the beginning of elections…
That is, the anti-Russian hysteria in the American media and among the congressmen is a typical "information cover operation". Ukraine is a manipulation object for Washington. We assume that nothing terrible will happen, as there is hardly anyone who needs war, but Biden will be the one to claim "victory over Russia" to be credited for this in the November elections this year.
For French President Macron, who recently visited Moscow, the upcoming elections (April) are a vital issue. Therefore, a trip to the Kremlin is not only and not so much a "settlement" for Ukraine. Take it up a notch –"saving Europe from war" is a thumping political success before the upcoming presidential elections. Macron has publicly stated that he managed to prevent an escalation in Russian-Ukrainian relations when visiting Moscow: "My aim was to freeze the game, to prevent an escalation and open up new perspectives … this objective for me is fulfilled. France has strengthened its credibility." Wow! Vive la France! But what has Ukraine to do with it?
We look down the list of those who want to promote themselves in this context, and we see Boris Johnson bending under the blows of his political opponents. The British Prime Minister is being driven from his place not for political failures, but for having a party in his Downing Street office amid the Covid pandemic, with mass events banned in London. However, Boris felt like Orwell-style "more equal than others", making "dances" around Ukraine an option for political salvation, if he defends London’s geopolitical positions, which the British are seeking. Everything around is crumbling, and Britain is no longer strong enough to assuredly remain in the narrow circle of the winning powers after the current global crisis. Over the centuries, the British Isles have got used to the role of a World Empire, but the current situation may prevent them from making it into the "Top League", as it already comprises the USA, China and Russia, while England sees the second roles as simply insulting. This why Johnson wants to gather some kind of alliance around Ukraine, at least for the sake of saving his political career.
And so, Johnson takes Poland’s long-standing Intermarium idea and takes it to Kiev, and this (already British) project engaging Poland, Ukraine and Turkey will grow out of the confusion of the Ukrainian crisis. That is, he wants to extend the line of British control from the Baltic to the Black Sea, certainly with the presence of authorities friendly to London in these countries. At the very last moment, something "didn't work out", and the signing of relevant papers was postponed, but Johnson has a stranglehold on Kiev, sending planes with expensive gifts (military equipment and lethal weapons) to the "beauty" in order to be the first to win its heart.
Take Erdogan. Why did he rush to Kiev right after Johnson? He even got Covid-infected there, but was quite satisfied with the economic result of his visit to Zelensky. The thing is that it took the President of Ukraine just a few hours to address the issue of opening a free trade zone with Turkey. This not only invites advanced Turkish technical products to the Ukrainian market, but also makes Turkish foodstuffs the key competitor to that country’s domestic agricultural products. In general, the situation brings back Kiev’s signing the Association with the EU, which is the reason for the Maidan revolution of 2013. No one then read the 996-page document as people were rushing to Europe "for lace panties", and it brought Ukraine only losses and restrictions.
Well, Erdogan should be happy with the entire Ukraine opening up amid fierce competition for every foreign market around. And this decision may well be an element of a big English game, given Erdogan's close relations with the leadership of Britain’s MI6 headed by his friend Richard Moore. I wonder what did Johnson promise to Zelensky in Kiev? Perhaps he recalled how the President of Ukraine, when he came to London, paid a "private" visit to MI6 headquarters. The British seem to have outgamed everyone here…
Also, please note Britain’s painful reaction to Macron's visit to Moscow. As the London Daily Mail wrote, Macron suggested to Putin that Kiev be assigned a "neutral status", which, in turn, would deprive Ukraine of any opportunity to join the North Atlantic Alliance, but... Macron did not coordinate the initiative with the rest of NATO. Therefore, the English newspaper emphasizes, the French President’s "apparent failure to consult allies ahead of the talks with Putin could render any agreement meaningless." Macron is "doing his own thing, we don't know what's happening. He's gone beyond the NATO position." What a nice comment, with a scent of utter British jealousy and animus toward the French.
For the British, the opportunity to strengthen their influence in the Poland-Ukraine-Turkey chain fits into the long-standing island strategy. It took England centuries to create a British influence zone in Eastern Europe against Western Europe pursuant to Britain's old policy of splitting Europe. And here you are ˗ history repeats itself.
Interesting is also the German reasoning in the "Ukrainian case". They are apparently so outspoken for Kiev that Zelensky even refused to receive Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock when she flew to Kiev the other day. This was brought about by Germany's refusal to transfer lethal weapons to Ukraine because it is too early for it to become the "mistress of the seas". And this bold demarche, when the "beauty" brushes off a vital "suitor", implicitly demonstrates how different the interests of London and Berlin are, as the first person of Ukraine does not want to welcome a high-ranking representative of Germany after her arrival from England. Although both are NATO members, their relationships are not free from shortcomings…
Nevertheless, Germany needs Ukraine to remain in Berlin’s zone of influence, as it really wanted to take control of Kiev back in 2014 but was pushed back by the Americans. Now the Britons are doing the same, but for Germany (under any government) Ukraine is a continuation of "Drang nah Osten" policy, only without war. And at the same time, new Chancellor Scholz needs Nord Stream˗2, which the same Anglo-Saxons are trying to knock out from under his feet so that the Germans won’t "get hooked on" the gas distribution valve for the whole of western and central Europe. And Stolz's next visit to Kiev will clarify things for the new German administration.
Thus, the leading Europeans are playing their own game in Ukraine, and for the United States it is a matter of switching national attention to a "crisis away from borders". Therefore, watching all the "suitors’ moves", Russia behaves calmly – such "wedding dances" are clearly not an overture to military action. Rather, these are attempts to take the most convenient place in future regional layouts. It is clear that if one of the "suitors" "twitches", many in the West will be really surprised by the result. But so far, we are watching the cloud of dust around "beauty" Ukraine raised by NATO.
Well-known Italian journalist Lucio Caracciolo called the hysteria over the Ukrainian crisis a "situation of strategic uncertainty." He writes that he would prefer "tactical unpredictability" with a speedy way out of the crisis. As a result, we see a hodgepodge of the "suitors", and the confused "beauty". Of course, for the Kiev authorities, there is great deal of choice of partners. Probably, present-day Kyivites would prefer the whole of NATO, but it is also a "bloc"... And, as we can see from the developments to date, the Atlantic Alliance is already dizzy over the diversity of its own interests and fancies. Our "beauty" drove them crazy!
