As the military battle between Russia and Ukraine proceeds, a parallel battle rages on the media, political, and economic fronts between Russia on one side and the US and the EU on the other. The battles expose horrifying levels of double standards which beg serious questions about the value system that dominates global politics: Is it a system of solid integrity, or one that is adapted to the interests of the world’s superpowers? It has become obvious that that value system is neither firm nor upright; it hinges on its compatibility with the interests of the superpowers that hegemonise global politics and conflicts to serve the single power that controls the world.
It is true that evident historic and strategic dimensions have contributed to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The conflict, however, features dimensions that go beyond the geographical, and its repercussions promise to redefine the superpowers that will control tomorrow’s political, strategic and military world.
The stances adopted by the US and their EU allies since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine crisis have exposed their flagrant double standards; the standards according to which they assess events and actions no longer conform with the values that the world, including the US and its European allies, agreed upon in the wake of WWII. These standards now appear inapplicable, and the formation of a new world order where the centres of power and leadership would shift according to the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war, has become imperative. I here present blatant examples of the double standards that point to the breakdown of the current global value system and the need for a new one.
The western media’s hysteria decrying the Russian invasion of Ukraine reeks of disgraceful double standards applied to the Cuban crisis in 1962 and the Ukrainian crisis 60 years later. Back in 1962, the US under President Kennedy saw Russia’s plans to install missile bases on Cuban soil as an existential threat to American national security, yet it has today failed to see that the same act in eastern European countries molted out of the Soviet Union was an existential threat to Russian national security. Despite Russia’s warnings, the US and its European allies insisted on including these once Soviet countries in the EU, and thence into NATO. In 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the European Union, followed by Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020. However, in 2008 the Russia-Georgia war kept Georgia from joining the EU, and today the current war is preventing Ukraine from joining the EU.
The Americans and Europeans have sprung to get back at Russia, with utter disregard of any of the universally recognised principle of not involving activities or competitions in politics; the West saw fit to inflict all possible harm on its Russian adversary, with no attempt to contain the conflict. A host of sanctions was levied on Russia, starting with freezing Russian Central Bank accounts and boycotting Russian banks, to cutting Russia off the Swift system that controls foreign trade and transfer money. Most western companies operating in Russia suspended their activities, so was the export of necessary equipment needed for Russian industry; accounts of Russian companies and public figures in western banks were frozen, and certification of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was suspended. European airspace was closed for Russian air carriers; Russia reciprocated by closing its airspace to European aviation. Boycott of everything Russian reached levels that contradict the freedom and human rights touted by EU countries; Russia Today TV channel and Ria Novosti news agency have been blocked from western platforms, and Russian students were expelled from American and European universities. The final blow was to toss sports in the game through banning Russians from participating in any sports competition.
Western double standards were epitomised by the West’s fierce condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a vicious crackdown on democracy and human rights. This while the barbaric US behaviour in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Iraq are still fresh in mind, including the ruin and genocide committed, also the imposition of a fait accompli consistent with American and European interests regardless of all historic and humanitarian considerations.
Who can overlook the double standards in the West’s harsh condemnation of a football player who during a game wore a t-shirt featuring the Palestinian flag, yet the many players who today wear t-shirts displaying the Ukrainian flag are applauded.
The words of Russian President Vladimir Putin ring true: that the US does not tolerate Russia as an ally, friend or an equal superpower. The past three decades have served to expose the West’s double standards of alleged keenness on world peace, even as it throws this principle to the wind in the strive to establish the US as the sole superpower in the world—whether with or without merit.
Accordingly, the many changes taking place around us involve resetting the balance of power in the world. The statement issued in the wake of the Russian Chinese summit on 4 February 2022 in Beijing on the side of the Winter Olympics, hinted at a new global system where China and Russia would cooperate more closely to redistribute power in the world to achieve multipolarity among superpowers. Russia and China rejected exclusive American leadership of the world, especially that the US is proving it is no longer capable of honouring this role.
As we observe the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war, especially regarding the restructuring of the global system, we note that the system formed in the wake of WWII, with the United Nations tasked to maintain a just peace in the world, has teetered and lost its ability to play its part. The world scene is now ready for the birth of a new system with new standards.
Watani International
16 March 2022
