“The Agreements Signed by russia Aren’t Worth the Price of the Sheet of Paper They Are Written on”
The outstanding German statesman and politician Otto von Bismarck rightly noted in his time that “the agreements signed by Russia are not even worth the price of the sheet of paper they are written on”. These words of his remain relevant today.
Let’s recall at least the “Budapest Memorandum”, under which the Russians were supposed to act as a guarantor of Ukraine’s security, in exchange for its renunciation of nuclear weapons. Everyone knows how it all ended.
We have another example where the insidious and vile Russian nature is fully revealed. Recently, US President Donald Trump persuaded President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy not to launch missile and drone strikes on Moscow on May 9 during Russians’ military parade.
Zelenskyy promised D. Trump not to bomb Moscow on that day, which gave Putin the opportunity to hold a military parade and at least somehow save his face against the background of continuous failures on the Russian-Ukrainian front.
However, the President of Ukraine, in his characteristic manner, did not forget to troll Putin and issued a decree that allowed the Russians to hold a military parade on May 9 this year without hindrance. Putin did not understand the humor and took revenge in his characteristic manner. He waited until all the attention of the international community was focused on Donald Trump’s visit to China and launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine. As a result of the attack, civilians in Ukrainian cities were killed again, and we were once again convinced that the Russians cannot be trusted in any case. There is no doubt that Ukraine’s response to that attack will be adequate, and for this we already have both forces and means that can hit important military facilities, including nuclear ones, throughout the territory of the RF.
Now a few words about the personal relationship between Trump and Putin.
Why does Donald Trump call Vladimir Putin his friend all the time, stubbornly tries to keep him in power and return him to the circle of influential international politicians, despite the fact that Putin unleashed a war of aggression and is already a war criminal?
It is worth noting here that D. Trump, unlike the vast majority of previous US Presidents, is not a professional politician. He never was, and it is obvious that he will not be. Donald Trump is a typical capitalist who thinks only about his own enrichment. This can explain the fact that today in his administration there are only people personally devoted to him, and not specialists experienced in public policy and management.
Separately, it is worth paying attention to who exactly is conducting important international negotiations on behalf of the United States today. It is known that Trump’s business partner Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Kushner, who is also a businessman, very often visit Moscow. Obviously, they can only talk to Putin about business, and not some state affairs. Hence Trump’s motivation for the quick end of the war between Russia and Ukraine. He is interested in ending hostilities on any terms only because he hopes to get grounds for lifting sanctions against the RF, in order to continue to do business with Putin without hindrance.
This once again shows that Trump is not a politician, but a typical capitalist who will always be interested only in his own benefit and nothing else. This explains the current US administration’s actual giving up the USA’s global political leadership and the instability and unpredictability of today’s America in its relations with its European partners, Ukraine included.
Under such circumstances, we must, first of all, rely on our own forces and create military-political alliances with countries and peoples that are directly interested in preserving long-term peace and political stability in Europe, as well as know and understand well all the challenges and threats that come from Russia.
One of the promising areas of Ukraine’s foreign policy and security activities today may be the development of allied and partnership relations in the “Lublin Triangle” format, together with Poland and Lithuania. This would give an impetus to expanding the circle of participants, where France, Germany, Great Britain, as well as the countries of Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe could also have their interest. As a result, this could become the basis for the creation of a new European security system, which would make it possible to quickly end the Russian-Ukrainian war, punish Russia for its crimes and establish a just and lasting peace on the continent.
Oleh Bereziuk
Institute for Global Politics
