“Analysis of the confrontation between the USA and Russia: what does Ukraine choose — authoritarianism or the European rule of law?”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Let’s imagine two retired boxers. Both their best years are long behind them, both suffer from dementia but still believe they are invincible.
The United States and Russia, like these aged gladiators, decided to fight for the title of world champion. The problem is that they are fighting in a federation that they themselves invented, and for a belt that is losing its meaning for the rest of the globe. And Ukraine, unfortunately, has become the ring in which this bloody geriatric duel takes place.
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American investigative journalist, writer and war correspondent Chris Gedges wrote about “the warlike frivolity of aging empires.” This is a perfect description of what Washington and Moscow are doing today. Both states, which are being eaten away by internal chaos, are fleeing into unpredictability. Their politics are emotional swings, muscle playing, and Cold War nostalgia.
An oasis of cold calculation: Europe and China Against the background of this American-Russian fever, the rest of the world looks surprisingly… rational. Let’s look at China or the European Union (with the support of a calm Canada). These are not ideal formations, but they are predictable.
Beijing with its authoritarianism and Brussels with its bureaucracy appear today as oases of cold calculation. There is no place for “militant frivolity”. There is tough business, there are long-term economic plans, there is concern for the stability of markets and societies. China doesn’t want to set the world on fire — it wants to buy it. Europe does not want a war of empires – it wants trade and procedures.
Meanwhile, the US and Russia are behaving like arsonists at an ammunition depot. They have created their own hermetic reality in which only bare military power counts. In this scheme, rationality gives way to obsession. Control institutions – whether it is the Russian Duma or the American Congress – become only a background for the “imperial” ambitions of the leaders.
Ukrainian trap And here, at the very epicenter of this madness, stands Ukraine. The country was drawn into the fight of “retired boxers”. The Russian enemy is an empire in the phase of terminal disintegration, which wants to drag Ukraine to its grave. In turn, the American ally is a colossus torn by internal contradictions, and for whom this war is part of a global face-saving game.
But the greatest danger lurks not only at the front. It lies in the temptation of imitation.
Fighting with Russian chaos and brutality, Ukraine begins to drift dangerously towards the model that dominates this “circus of the old”. An alarming process can be observed in Kyiv: marginalization of the parliament, centralization of power in the hands of the president and his entourage, neglect of democratic procedures in the name of “military necessity”.
Don’t raise your own dragon It is worth asking the question: does Ukraine want to be part of this rational, predictable world of Europe, where parliaments decide, and the law means the law? Or maybe she wants to join the “federation of retired boxers”, where the caprice of the leader and bare strength reign?
Ukrainian soldiers are not giving their lives in the fight against the Russian dictator to build their own version of the dictatorship in the rear. That is not why Kyiv is fleeing the Russian sphere of influence, to fall into the trap of authoritarianism – only dressed in national colors.
If the society allows the Verkhovna Rada to become a mute decoration, and the president – whoever he is – to turn into an autocratic ruler, then Ukraine will lose this war, even if it wins on the battlefield. Because why all this? Why this blood, destroyed cities and millions of refugees?
The struggle is to be different from Russia. To be a predictable, legal, European state. If this goal is forgotten and in the name of fighting the dragon, the state itself will become a dragon, then this scary boxing match will have only losers. And Ukraine will be the largest of them.
Piotr Izdebskyi
A column is a type of material that reflects exclusively the point of view of the author. It does not claim objectivity and comprehensive coverage of the topic in question. The point of view of the editors of “Economic Pravda” and “Ukrainian Pravda” may not coincide with the author’s point of view. The editors are not responsible for the reliability and interpretation of the given information and perform exclusively the role of a carrier.