Russia is not Europe

In a corrupt system, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Alexei Navalny

Russia, the largest country in the world, covers two continents. The largest part is located in Northern Asia, the smaller part in Eastern Europe. More than 70% of the population lives in the European part of Russia. The center of power is also concentrated in the European part of the country; the capital Moscow and the second largest city, St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, Russia is not Europe. Russia does not identify with European values ​​and norms. In fact, Russia is decidedly anti-Europe and undermines the European unification in every possible way.

So, why are most Russians geographically part of Europe, but politically anti-European? Why is it that Russian oligarchs invest in European real estate and football clubs, park their expensive yachts in European ports, prefer Western haute couture and send their children to exclusive European educational institutions, but at the same time those in power fundamentally distrust, or even hate, the West?

First of all, Russia has no democratic tradition. The country has been ruled by absolute monarchs for centuries and by an authoritarian communist party since the early twentieth century. These harsh regimes gave no room to democratic institutions and civil liberties. The vast Russian empire has always had a diverse population, forcing rulers to maintain unity rather than allowing political pluralism and regional autonomy. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia under Boris Yeltsin entered into a kind of democratic experiment that completely derailed. The country suffered from corruption, serious crime and economic chaos. After the turn of the century the Russians welcomed another strongman to tackle the problems: Vladimir Putin, former chief of the Secret Service (FSB). Twenty years after he took office, the state has complete control over the media, the country no longer has any significant opposition, and elections are little more than a farce. This form of government is diametrically opposed to the democratic rule of law that the EU advocates and the regime is concerned that the principles of liberal democracy will spread to the Russian Federation.

Secondly, the Russian Orthodox Church plays a central role in Russian politics. Since the Middle Ages, when the Russian Orthodox faith became the state religion, Church and State have been closely linked - with the exception of the communist period. Under Putin, the Church has become a mouthpiece for his regime. The Russian-orthodox Patriarch Kirill unconditionally supports Putin and openly speaks out in favor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With their strong conservative and nationalist ideas they promote patriotism and oppose 'Western decadence'.

Thirdly, the Russian power elite is deeply frustrated regarding the 'Pax Americana' and the demise of the Soviet Union. The military and financial power of the United States has brought a certain stability to the world for decades. That dominance is declining, to the benefit of China in particular. Putin sees the changing world order as an opportunity to strengthen his own position of power. According to Putin, his 'eternal friendship' with China should create a ‘multipolar’ world order, of course with an important role for the Russian Federation. Whether China will grant the Russians that position remains to be seen. Furthermore, the question is whether Russia, with an economy the size of Italy, can afford a leading position in the world. I cannot help but feel that the Soviet Union collapsed as a result of what is called ‘imperial overstretch’. Despite this, the Putin regime sees the West as the opponent in its pursuit of greater influence in the world.

Fourth, in line with the foregoing, Russia views the continued eastern expansion of the EU and NATO as a danger to its own security. Russian military doctrine prescribes buffer zones in neighboring countries, as if to protect the country's security interests, and is probably one of the main reasons for the invasion of Ukraine. Some Western commentators and populist politicians subscribe to the Russian belief that the West has moved too much towards Russia. It is true that during the negotiations for German unification in 1990, a verbal promise was made that NATO would not expand further east. However, this is not included anywhere in a treaty and, more importantly, sovereign states have the fundamental right under international law to determine for themselves which alliances they join. And no one can blame them for the fact that the Eastern European countries chose the EU and NATO rather than Russia, after more than forty years of Russian domination.

From the Russian perspective, certain aspects of their distrust and animosity towards the West can be explained and to some extent even understood. The Russians deserve outright respect for their fight against the Nazis during the Second World War and their support for freedom fighters, for example during the Spanish Civil War and the Apartheid regime in South Africa. However, the Putin regime differs in many ways from the communist rulers. As pernicious as their methods were, the communist leaders were driven by an ideology whose principles seemed sincere. Putin's motivations are of a completely different nature. Rabidly nationalist, ultra-conservative and historically revisionist. His reading of Russian history is biased, to say the least. Putin is belligerent and does not deserve any credibility in his crusade against the West, his accusing finger is downright hypocritical.

So why is the Putin regime a threat to Europe and how do they operate? During his reign, he restricted press freedom and the Kremlin now completely controls the media. He amended the constitution, which imposed a maximum of two terms, and was recently sworn in as president for the fifth time, after being declared the winner of fraudulent elections again. Opponents and critics are jailed or killed. Even when abroad, Putin’s opponents are not safe. The Putin clique does not shy away from shameless self-enrichment. His personal wealth is difficult to determine, but is estimated at $40 billion. That wealth was obtained through corruption, extortion and abusing his position of power to acquire interests in Russian state-owned companies and oligarch capital. The methods by which this is done can best be described as large-scale kleptomania. Companies are blackmailed or outright hijacked by his henchmen. Bill Browder, owner and founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the largest foreign investment company in Russia until 2005, has experienced it firsthand. In his book 'Pursued by the State Mafia' he describes how his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered because he was on the trail of 230 million dollars in corruption money. That trail led to Putin, whose loyalists then went after Crowder.

Now let's zoom in on how Putin is waging his 'hybrid war' against the West. Moscow is bombarding Europe and the US with large-scale disinformation campaigns with the aim of influencing public opinion and free elections, fueling divisions and destabilizing Western countries. This concerns large-scale activities. One campaign, recently discovered, targeted German voters with the message that support for Ukraine comes at the expense of German citizens. To send about a million messages via X, the former Twitter, the Russians used more than 50,000 fake accounts. Czech intelligence gathered evidence of bribing EU politicians in exchange for pro-Russian stories. Russia is disrupting GPS traffic in the Baltic Sea region, which poses a risk to air traffic. The Putin regime is inflaming Russian minorities in Western countries and destabilizing societies in Moldova and Georgia, among others. Moscow is planning attacks on the European (digital) infrastructure, including energy supplies. The country is rapidly switching to a war economy. All in all, very worrying, especially considering the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Hostility, which we thought disappeared with the end of the Cold War, is back. Europe completely misjudged relations with Russia after the Cold War. European countries, including industrial giant Germany, became energy dependent on Russia. At the same time, European countries neglected their armies and defense industries, based on the naive idea that Europe would no longer have war.

But Russia is not Europe. Russia opposes the West and even claims to be at war with NATO, although this seems mainly for internal use. The West condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supports Ukraine with weapons, has imposed sanctions on Russia and is increasing its defense spending out of fear of an armed confrontation. This situation poses enormous challenges for the EU, with consequences that will have a major impact on the citizens of Europe. Nostalgic-nationalist Russia is fighting the West in what the Kremlin calls an 'existential conflict', opportunistic China is supporting Russia in its pursuit of a multipolar world order to strengthen its own position of power, and the divided US has turned inward and may even take an isolationist course after the upcoming elections. Europe's position in this interplay of forces, economically strong and militarily weak, is shaky but not entirely without prospects. China cannot afford to lose the European market with 450 million relatively prosperous consumers. Russia cannot win a hybrid nor a conventional war against a power bloc with an economy more than 16 times larger. And the US will lose its position in the world even faster if it turns away from Europe, leaving the defense of democratic values ​​and the rule of law to the EU. One factor is of decisive importance for Europe's position: unity. The EU, divided in many respects, must stand together against Russian aggression, Chinese interference and the erosion of democracy by America's populist right. This requires an extremely difficult balancing act for the European institutions, especially if the upcoming European elections result in a major victory for the populist right.

The EU has no choice but to think and act as one Europe. The EU must become a geopolitical player on the world stage by transferring national economic and security decision-making powers to the EU's supranational institutions. If we fail to adapt to the changing world order, the fundamental principles of European cooperation, our peace and prosperity, are at great risk.