The comments expresses the writer’s opinions.
In order to undermine support for Ukraine, the Russians are now deliberately letting the war trigger a worldwide famine, the American author of many bestsellers claims about Eastern European and Russian politics and history.
In a major interview with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza – which today is reproduced in German “die Welt” – points out Anne Applebaum (57) that there was certainly no miss, when the head of the Russian television station RT a few days ago predicted that the rest of the world will be forced to negotiate with Moscow, the day the whole globe is hit by food shortages.
“The Russians are deliberately blocking the ports and are obviously willing to do anything to prevent Ukraine from exporting its grain,” she said.
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and plan
Applebaum believes the goal is to trigger a crisis – for example in Africa or Egypt – so serious that the West will have to lift sanctions and come to Moscow to negotiate.
She is confronted with the historian Timothy Snyder’s analysis of the Russian tactics, which he believes is an operation to destroy the Ukrainian state. Second, Putin will trigger a tsunami of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East – destabilizing the EU.
– That is right. The Russians have been working for ten years on a plan to destabilize the European Union. They also talk about this quite openly. They openly support political parties that are against the EU, support anti-EU politicians and try to do everything to destabilize democracy and thus make the EU disintegrate, Anne Applebaum answers and continues:
“NATO’s fault”
The question that now arises is whether the EU, together with NATO, perhaps with the UN, perhaps with Turkey and Egypt, can organize a kind of blockade in the Black Sea – so that Ukraine can export its grain. We’ll see. I do not know if we will succeed, because I do not know if all countries are determined enough – or if they want it.
– No matter what happens – be it high fuel prices or turbulence in the trading markets – they (the Kremlin, editor’s note) tell the people at home in Russia and in the rest of the world that Ukraine and NATO are to blame, says Anne Applebaum.
Be video: Here the rocket hits with violent force: – The proof
Either or
She warns that there are sanction plans, but no plans for information to explain to the people in the West why the sanctions are necessary. This shortcoming is deliberately exploited by Moscow to point out the Western powers as the culprits. In the West, there are already people who are convinced that things are like this:
– We must be prepared – and should have a clear answer.
Applebaum says she does not think the Western world has a choice in terms of maintaining sanctions – even if the West itself is hit hard.
News studio: The war in Ukraine
– Either we help Ukraine, continue this course and maintain the sanctions – otherwise we will have an open war throughout Europe. I can not see other possibilities. I believe that the defense of Ukraine is an existential task for the West – and that there is no room for maneuver here.
The author does not believe in an imminent attack on Lithuania to provide Russian land connections to Kaliningrad. To that end, Putin lacks military potential.
– But it is clear that if he wins the war in Ukraine then such a future scenario must be taken into account.
Asbjørn Svarstad
Asbjørn Svarstad started writing in the local newspaper Dagningen, was for a few years connected to VG. From 1987 Dagbladet’s stringer in Copenhagen. Has lived permanently in Berlin since 1996 where he has worked for various Scandinavian media. Works mostly with historical feature articles, political commentary and is an authorized guide in Sachsenhausen.
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No quick win
Applebaum is neither worried that Putin can deploy nuclear weapons against the West – nor that the Russian dictator will be “too strongly humiliated”, as many have so far warned against.
– At the moment, we are rightly helping Ukraine – but not to an extent that enables the country to get a quick victory – so far from it. The Ukrainians have not received planes, some of the weapons are only now beginning to emerge.
Applebaum says that at the beginning of the war it was impossible to judge Putin’s condition.
– But now I realize that the Russians – according to their own scenario – act rationally. They decided to withdraw from Kyiv, because the first attack was unsuccessful – but neither in the East do they take very risky steps.
Read more comments from Asbjørn Svarstad
Concentration camps and mass murder
– I am afraid of something completely different: the Russians are in the Donbass and decide at some point that they have achieved enough and therefore want a ceasefire. Then it may happen that the West says: OK, we have a ceasefire – this is the end of the war. In such a situation, there may also be pressure on Ukraine to stop them from fighting.
– In such a situation, Russia will have control over a fifth of the territory, can shuffle and roll – and deport the people from Donbass to Russia, organize concentration camps and massacres. After a few years of waiting, Russia can attack Kyiv again. This is the scenario I fear most, says Applebaum.
Urgent
Applebaum is asked if she thinks massive arms deliveries can still equip Ukraine in such a way that the attackers are driven back.
– It may still be too late. But it is about – as quickly as possible – getting Ukraine equipped with weapons that the Russians are not in possession of. I am thinking of MLRS equipment – like HIMARS rocket launchers that are capable of destroying Russian artillery and can be stationed at such a great distance that the Russians cannot bomb them.
Anne Appelbaum warns against peace talks now.
– In my opinion, it would be a mistake to believe that the violence in the occupied territories will end because if the open war ends. If we are to defend the lives of the Ukrainians and save the Ukrainian state, we cannot allow the Russians to destroy the eastern and southern parts of the country.
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Destroy Ukraine
But what do the Russians want with large tracts of land that have been bombed to pieces – and which will cost many billions to rebuild?
This is a full-blown imperialist war, which Putin is using to show that he is capable of expanding Russia’s territory – and of destroying Ukraine.
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