Hungarian President Viktor Orban, 59, is the first European Union [EU] leader to tell the truth about the U.S. and EU’s sanctions against 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin: They have failed. Putin worked successfully with the BRICS economic bloc, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to continue Russian oil sales to everywhere but the U.S. and EU. Putin would like for everyone to buy Russian oil but if he has to, he can certainly limit sales to China and India, the world’s largest oil consumers. Orban was the first EU leader to confront economic plans that hurt the EU more than it hurt the Kremlin. Most U.S. and EU elected officials think that the Russian economy suffers more than the U.S. and EU. Bit with gas prices and inflation soaring, the sanctions backfired. Biden was so convinced that crippling economic sanctions would Keep Putin from invading Ukraine.
Orban wants the sanctions and Russian oil boycott to end because it fuels the worst inflation in the EU in 20 years. Orban now thinks that if the economic sanctions are not rolled back, the EU’s economy will crash. Leave to the U.S. and EU press to know so little about the economy that only punishing Putin made any sense. “Initially I thought we had only shot ourselves in the foot, but now its is clear that our European economy has shot itself in the lungs, and its is gasping for air,” Orban told the Budapest radio show. Orban acknowledges that Ukraine needs help but the EU can’t sustain the crippling sanctions applied to Moscow. Orban says all the U.S. and EU sanctions has done nothing to bring the war to an end, instead has protracted the war in one of battlefield attrition. Orban is the first EU leader to tell Brussels that something must be done to save the EU economy.
EU officials refused to think for themselves, instead followed the White House like sheep, even when it was clear it was harming the economy. “The sanctions do not help Ukraine, however, they are bad for the European economy and if it goes on like this, they will kill off the European economy,” Orban said. “What we see right now is unbearable” asking Brussels for a change. Five months into the war, it’s clear that in the U.S. and EU economies and on the battlefield, the West has lost the war. Biden didn’t consider the effects on the world economy from boycotting Russian oil. Accounting for 10% of the global oil supply, Biden should have known before imposing his boycott the effect on the U.S. and EU. Mideast oil simply cannot compensate for the lost of Russian oil in the U.S. and EU. Unlike other elected officials, Orban’s the first high-profile leader to tell the truth.
U.S. and EU officials dismiss Orban as a Moscow apologist. But the fact remains that Biden’s reckless sanctions hurt the economies on both sides of the Atlantic. “The moment of truth must come in Brussels, when leaders admit they have made a miscalculation, that the sanctions policy was based on t wrong assumptions and it must be changed. All Biden has to show for his sanctions is dragging down the U.S. and EU economies, not pushing Russia close to his plans. When you remove 10% of the world’s oil market to the West, you’re creating shortages and skyrocketing prices, fueling the worst inflation in over 40 years in the U.S. U.S. press and Democrats all want to blame the inflation on extraneous factors like the pandemic but clearly it’s based on Biden’s Russia oil boycott. Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia showed he has regrets, especially in approval ratings, for what he’s done.
Both U.S. and EU countries now deal with budget deficits directly related to the Russian oil embargo. But Biden’s done something far worse to the U.S. and EU than simply applying crippling economic sanctions. Biden changes the war to a U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation, telling a horrified world March 26 in Warsaw Poland the Putin should not longer remain as president. Biden denied completely to his EU colleagues the role he played provoking Putin to invade Ukraine. Had Biden not armed Ukraine to the teeth to the point that it looked like a puppet U.S. state, Putin wouldn’t of invaded. Biden rejected all of Putin’s requests for months before the Feb. 24 war to rewrite Ukraine and Eastern Europe security arrangements. Biden ignored Putin’s requests for months, continuing to arm Kiev. No one in the EU asked Biden to consider the consequences.
Orban knows that other EU countries like Germany, who bought some 25% of its oil and natural gas from Russia, has been scrambling to figure out what to do. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, while trying to play good ally to Washington, knows that Biden has overstepped his bounds, expecting the EU to go down with the U.S., creating an economic mess not seen in post-WW II Europe. Apart from the economic consequences, no one in Brussels has loudly asked Biden to stop his proxy war to topple the Russian government. Whatever happened in Ukraine, Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky is all about PR, not about the consequences of the war in Europe and around the globe. Zelensky asked for a no-fly-zone and troops which would have started WW III on the European Continent. Zelensky, like Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) says, is all about himself.
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.
