On Western Europe's Complicity in Russia's War
Mariam Naiem · 3 Aug 2022 · Adapted from original Twitter thread
If you are in Western Europe, you might ask yourself: “Why do we have to bear the costs of some conflict far away?”when thinking about Russia’s war against Ukraine. Take a seat; we need to talk about the uncomfortable truth of Western Europe’s co-responsibility for Russia’s war.
(I am not talking about NATO imperialism at all, by the way.)
By seeing this war only as a Ukrainian problem, many people ignore their government’s support of the russian economy and military even after the Russo-Ukrainian war started in 2014. For example, some EU countries were condemning the war in Ukraine but at the same time were exporting weapons to russia, knowing how these weapons would be used.
EU member states exported weapons to Russia after the 2014 embargo
Source: www.investigate-europe.eu
Another example: Switzerland refuses to admit injured Ukrainian soldiers due to their Neutral Position. Apparently, neutrality also means a favorable environment for Russian oligarchs.
Hearing about a war somewhere in some distant place, I strongly advise you to learn how your Western state could have affected the political situation of that place. It may turn out that the war is much closer than you think, well within reach of your taxes.
The collective Western Europe has been fueling the Russian dictatorship by becoming dependent on their natural resources, selling plenty of weapons and components, and hosting their money and oligarchs, all while pretending that this dictatorship is under control.
After all this damage, they now support Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees selling this to voters as a form of charity. But this is not charity. These are the costs of the decades of complicitly accepting this aggressive dictatorship. We Ukrainians (as well as other Easter Europeans) warned about this because we have been on the receiving end of Russian aggression for centuries, only to be dismissed.
The financial, military, and humanitarian support from Western Europe is not a form of charity but a price that has to be paid, and a long overdue morally correct response to now fully developed Russian fascism that could have been stopped in its infancy.
I want to emphasize here: I am very grateful to everyone who helps us. In no way do I intend to diminish the contribution of individuals, organizations, and governments who support us every day. The critique above is about long-standing policies.