The US Feels It ‘Won’ Europe in The Cold War

Over the past few weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron has threaten to send troops into the Odessa region of Ukraine, representing a major escalation in the conflict and if followed through, a declaration of war against Russia. The declaration comes as Russia is making consistent gains on the battlefield

The US feels it “won” Europe in the Cold War, political commentator and senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute George Szamuely told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Wednesday.

While discussing the situation in Ukraine, Szamuely said that the US saw the leadup to the Ukraine conflict as a "win-win" situation, saying that the push to get Ukraine into NATO would have either surrounded Russia if Moscow didn’t respond or would provide the opportunity to hurt Russia militarily and economically if they did.

“For the United States, [the Ukraine conflict] fulfills the goals they set for themselves at the end of the Cold War, ‘Hey we won the Cold War, we want our winnings. And our winnings [are] we scoop up the entire European continent within our military alliance.’”

Szamuely noted that the US goal of inflicting economic damage against Russia “hasn’t really worked very well,” describing the policy as “very cynical” and “bloodthirsty.”

“As far as the United States and NATO were concerned, it was a win-win for them. They either push Russia further and further against the wall by pulling Ukraine into NATO” which would surround Russia, turning it into “essentially a minor power in the world,” or “Russia is forced to intervene and try to prevent this, in which case Russia has a difficult war on its hands…which will divide Russia from Europe.”

Meanwhile, Szamuely said that Macron's threats were meant to set a redline in Ukraine with the aim to partition it "with a view to continuing the war at some later date," adding that it is obvious that Macron is "pursuing an American-driven agenda" that is "clearly harming Europe."

The move to accept Sweden and Finland into NATO was also a geopolitical attack on Russia, Szamuely admitted, despite them lacking “much of a military to speak of” they will serve as a base for the US intelligence infrastructure.

When asked about European leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who have distanced themselves from the US/NATO position on Ukraine and Russia, Szamuely argued that the EU would like to get rid of them.

“The EU and US threw a lot into elections a couple years ago that failed… They had a US ambassador, David Pressman, openly threatening Orban,” Szamuely recalled. “You can never rule [it] out. They have all sorts of things at their disposal and if they really want to get rid of a leader, they find troubling, they would probably find some underhanded way of doing it,” he warned.

“The EU [and US are] going to have to make this decision… Orban is usually isolated when they have these votes… but if in the coming EU parliamentary elections, the various populist parties – the Alternative for Deutschland in Germany, the National Rally in France – then they might decide that Orban is really becoming a problem for [them].”

Szamuely noted that “Fico is now coming under attack” by the EU and that they are similar to the ones Orban faced. “The EU is thinking of taking measures against Fico that are the same ‘rule of law’ issues [that were used against Hungary] in Slovakia,” Szamuely explained. “It’s amazing how the EU suddenly invents this rule of law when someone is critical of EU policy.”