By a narrow majority, 47-year-old British Foreign Minister Liz Truss became leader of the Tory Party and Prime Minister replacing 58-year-old beleaguered Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Whatever anyone says about Johnson, he did what his 65-year-old predecessor Theresa May couldn’t do, bring Brexit to the U.K. Jan. 31, 2020. While Johnson boasted about the accomplishment, there’s nothing in the U.K. economy since Brexit to jump up-and-down about. Wracked by hyperinflation, especially in energy, U.K. citizens face a nightmarish scenario of rising prices and shrinking salaries. Truss promised immediately to cut taxes, an old Tory plan to stimulate the economy. But no one knows what the prospects for the U.K. economy, with London still squabbling with Brussels over terms of the Brexit deal in Northern Ireland. Most U.K. citizens think now Brexit was a mistake.
Brexit was the U.K.’s way to react to hordes of immigration coming from the Mideast and North Africa, putting strain on the U.K economy, where the pound hit the lowest level to the U.S. dollar, about $1.15, compared with $0.99 for the Euro. Whatever one says about the poor performance of the pound, the euro has done even worse under the post-Covid era where inflation has seized the EU and U.K. economies, largely because both countries chose to back the U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation. Whether admitted to or not, on both sides of the Atlantic, the Feb. 24 war in Ukraine has done more harm to the EU and U.K., driving the worst inflation in 40 years, primarily because of the Russian oil embargo. Whatever one thinks of Ukraine, U.S., U.K. and EU sanctions have been a disaster for both economies, putting average citizens into economic peril.
Russia isn’t thrilled with Truss, essentially rubber stamping Boris Johnson’s anti-Russia policies, promising to continue the U.K. sanctions that have brought more misery to British citizens than Russia. Russian nationalist leader Leonid Slutsky said British citizens will continue to suffer because of London’s anti-Russian sanctions. “It is not Russia and its president who are to blame here but the thoughtless sanctions policy of Downing Street,” Slutsky said. Truss, as U.K. foreign minister, made a statement that the U.K. would never accept Russian sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh, in a serious gaffe, prompting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to say facts bounce off Truss. Kremlin officials said Western leaders, like Truss, have a poor grasp of geopolitics. Truss’s past comments only make matters worse for the U.K. going forward with relations to the Kremlin.
Truss doesn’t have the rapport with Russian officials to stop what looks like a winter cutoff of Russian natural gas via the Nord Stream I pipeline. Nord Stream II, developed by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was cancelled Feb. 22, only two days before 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Since then, 79-year-old President Joe Biden has led a Transatlantic coalition to apply crippling economic sanctions to Moscow. But instead of hurting Moscow, the sanctions, including a Russian oil embargo, has created the worst inflation in 40 years, creating shortages and spiraling energy prices. Biden didn’t grasp the economic impact of the Russian oil embargo, currently squeezing world markets, causing the worst inflation in 40 years. Putin has compensated for Western sanctions, relying on his BRICS bloc, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Economic sanctions, promised by Biden to end the Ukraine War, has only made U.S. and EU economic situation much worse. With the Euro worth less than a U.S. dollar, it’s clear the European Union has shot itself in the foot going along with Biden’s crippling economic sanctions against Moscow. Biden has practically stood on his head to get China to denounce Putin’s Ukraine War. But instead of building consensus, Biden has insulted China, especially over Taiwan. Biden has driven China into a close military and political alliance with Russia, all because Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken branded China committing genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Western China. So, to push human rights, Biden wrecked U.S.-Chinese relations, at the closest point of coming to blows since the 1949 Maoist Revolution. All the talk from the Beltway is a bout Trump’s Mar-a-Lago docs but the real threat to U.S. national security comes from Biden.
Rising to the top of No. 10 Downing Street, 47-year-old Liz Truss managed to scratch her way to the top. “Truss seems to the Kremlin a representative of this new generation of superficial Western politicians,” said Tatian Stanovaya, founder of R.Politik. Truss has confused the Baltic and Black Seas, showing, for a Foreign Minister, her ignorance of basic geography. Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Truss’s confusion of the Baltic and Black Seas showed “the stupidity and ignorance of Anglo-Saxon politicians. “It’s hard to imagine anything worse,” said Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, saying Russian-U.K. relations have hit rock bottom. Given the mood in mood toward Russia in Westminster, British hostility toward the Kremlin broke new ground. Truss’s stint as Prime Minister all depends on how fast she can deal with the U.K.’s economy woes, getting worse by the day.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
