EU-Russia alliance

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a keynote address in his home city of St. Petersburg this weekend to outline his belief that America uses NATO to drive a wedge between the EU and Russia. Instead, he offered an alternative vision for European unity.
Jean-Claude Juncker has a dream. The EU Commission president can see a future where a common European home stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to its Pacific counterpart. This weekend, he told The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that “for the EU and Russia, the prize, one day, could be great: A vast region governed by the rule of law, trading freely and working together on common projects.”
In 2010, Vladimir Putin had a similar mental picture. And he took to the pages of Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung to announce it. “We propose the creation of a harmonious economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok,” Putin suggested. “In the future, we could even consider a free trade zone or even more advanced forms of economic integration. The result would be a unified continental market with a capacity worth trillions of euros.”
Now, if you are sitting in Amsterdam, Vienna or Rostov, this makes complete sense. Despite the fact that most of its territory is located in Asia, Russia is a European country. After all, it has given the continent much of its greatest literature and high culture. Moscow is Europe’s largest city and St. Petersburg one of its artistic jewels. Furthermore, Russians are overwhelmingly Christian and European in sensibility and outlook.
However, if you are perched in Washington, all this is your worst nightmare. Make no mistake, there is one thing the US establishment fears more than anything else. That is any form of alliance between, what it perceives as, German-led Europe and Russian-dominated “Eurasia.” So much so that its primary foreign-policy focus since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been to prevent it.
Particularly since 2003, when France, Germany and Russia joined forces to oppose America’s illegal invasion of Iraq. That moment, which united continental Europe’s three main powers against US interests, concentrated a lot of minds.
If you think this is “pro-Russia” scaremongering, check out Stratfor, the American intelligence organization, known as the “shadow CIA,” which advises the State Department. Its founder, George Friedman, is on the record as stating that “the primordial interest of the US over which we have fought wars, the First, Second and Cold Wars, has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united they are the only force that could threaten us, and to make sure that that does not happen.”
With this in mind, Washington needed to drive a wedge between Paris, Berlin and Moscow and NATO was its vehicle. Of course, such a policy was nothing new. Putin believes that America milked the 2013-14 Kiev Maidan turmoil to justify the existence of NATO. The Russian President thinks that Washington exploited the delicate Ukrainian ethnic balance to place Russia in an impossible situation.
Nevertheless, Putin acknowledged that America remains the world’s most powerful country. But when it comes to the US projecting that power, he shot back: “The world needs a strong country like the US, but we don’t need it to constantly interfere in our affairs, telling us how to live and interfering in Europe’s attempts to strengthen ties with us.”
In fairness, it’s not only nefarious American meddling blocking an EU-Russian alliance. There are also ideological differences. Putin and those Eurocrats who believe in greater Europe, independent of the US, share the same broad vision. However, EU officials are adamant that this coalition must take place on their terms, with their understanding of “European values” as the driver. In Putin’s case, he’s thinking more of a free trade area of nation states, all with their own ambitions and ideals.
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Transcend Media Service