Actually what I really mean is “the stupidity, the stupidity”. If Conrad’s Kurzt was saying something about Western colonialism and its horrors, then the modern West is guilty not so much of horror, but of stupidity. Kurtz might cry today “the stupidity, the stupidity”. European Council President Antonio Costa, former Prime Minister of Portugal, is quoted as saying:
If Russia considers that Ukraine’s borders are just a line on a map, why should it respect any other country’s borders? [1]
Interestingly Antonio Costa seems to have followed a fairly typical political class route to his current post. A long spell at University. a short spell in law, (the EU website does not say where, perhaps a corporate law firm?), and then a political career. Once again, we see a major European politician who has not had a serious career outside politics. (In comparison; Trump has had a career in real estate and Putin in intelligence, which is probably why they both recognise the value of talking rather than finding reasons not to talk). This web site has already commented on how career politicians are part of the problem.
Turning to Costa’s statement. It is, of course, totally politically ignorant. It is also genocidal. Politically ignorant, because it fails to grasp the specificity of the Ukraine situation. If Putin was interested in ignoring borders he would have taken Donbas long before 2022. That he waited so long is evidence that he respects international borders. Ukraine had the option to grant autonomy to the culturally distinct region of eastern Ukraine. They agreed to. Germany and France signed up. But then, they all spat on the contract. Borders are not the only “rights” enshrined in the UN Charter. The right to self-determination is as well. And, Costa’s own EU also has a document which supports minority rights. Had these people respected these rights, then there would have been no redrawing of borders. Genocidal, because, in line with the European narrative in general, it fails to say anything at all about the ethnic Russians in Crimea and Donbas, and other Russian fellow-travellers, who were abused and discriminated against by the extreme Ukrainian nationalist regime which came to power in a US backed coup in Ukraine in 2014. Airbrushing these people out of the discourse is not, I accept, exactly the same as genocide, but it is a kind of mental genocide, and it facilitated their cultural dispossession by the Kiev regime, (removing Russian as an official language, forcing shop-keepers in these regions to greet customer’s in Russian, and so on).
It would almost be better if these people were simply nakedly opportunist and cynical and were simply out to grab all of Russia’s wealth. (There may be some people motivated in that way, in particular in the US, but I don’t think this applies to people like Starmer, Macron and Costa). This total stupidity, this complete absence of any thought about the matter, is more or less unbearable.
In his speech [1] Costa also says, “By supporting Ukraine we are supporting the UN Charter, the international rules-based order, in Europe and beyond.”. And this is the precise key point. The UN Charter is one thing. The “international rules-based order” is an invention of a coterie of Western liberal nations, (including the US under Biden, possibly not under Trump), which advances their interests and which is substituted for the actual UN Charter. This is what scholar Richard Sakwa, calls The Great Substitution. His thoughtful and evidenced work on his subject is presented in his book, The Lost Peace. How the West failed to prevent a Second Cold War.
Update – more madness
There is really no end to it. This is Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands:
It is important to realise this and Putin has to know that [if] he would try to get a square kilometre of Estonia or of Poland, or of Slovakia, or for of Spain or Portugal, for that matter, that our reaction will be devastating and that the full onslaught of Nato will be upon him.” [2]
Rutte is trying to stop the centrifugal forces which are already very visible in Europe. (See for example this: “And when the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a plan for billions more for the military, called ‘ReArm Europe,’ two of the bloc’s largest countries, Italy and Spain, thought that was all a bit aggressive. So now the plan has been rebranded as ‘Readiness 2030.'” [3] EU High Representative, the amazingly ridiculous Kajas Kallas, tried and failed to get the EU to stump up an annual tax to “support Ukraine”. She couldn’t even get them to find 5 billion for shells. Italy and France demurred. Rutte is trying to rally them, but, it looks like each country is going to be focussing on its own interests. [4]
Putin, already knows that it would not be a good idea to pick a fight with NATO. Rutte is in some kind of time-lapse parallel world. Putin pointed this out some time ago; “only a madman in his dreams, could think that Russia would attack NATO”. * Is Rutte, are European leaders, really working themselves up into a tizzy that Russia is about to attack European NATO countries? (There is even some EU scheme to tell citizens to prepare emergency survival kits. [6] Maybe they will be issuing gas masks next). Whether or not Trump’s team are ready to swallow the necessary pills to end the war, I don’t know, but at least they talk some sense. This is Steve Witkoff offering a breath of fresh air to correct European mania: “The Russians are going to march across Europe. I think that’s preposterous.” [5] Indeed. But, that the Chief of NATO and European leaders thinks it a serious idea is odd, unless, of course, they don’t really believe it, and it is just an excuse to ramp up more arms spending and consolidate elite positions, by terrifying the populations of European countries. Orwell has written the definitive book on how a totalitarian state needs to conjure up an enemy to keep its own population quiescent. (Mearsheimer makes the comment that if they really thought that Russia was about to invade Europe things would be very different, and instead of 5 year plans there would be immediate action).
* This seems to be the exact quote: только больной человек во сне может представить, что Россия нападает на НАТО [7] I am not fantastic at Russian but a literal translation might be “only a sick person in their delirium could imagine that Russia will attack NATO” . (в сне – means in your dreams at night, but, in English, ‘dreams’ can also mean what you want, which is a different word in Russian).
Notes
- https://www.consilium.europa.eu/de/press/press-releases/2025/03/25/speech-by-president-antonio-costa-at-the-european-policy-centre/
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/mar/26/jd-vance-greenland-denmark-ukraine-russia-black-sea-europe-news-live?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-67e424a38f08134b916f2dc1#block-67e424a38f08134b916f2dc1
- https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/world/europe/ukraine-us-nato-eu-defense.html
- https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/no-concrete-pledge-eu-leaders-vow-support-for-ukraine-with-some-reservations/9l9mmfdyj “But some southern European capitals have been more reticent, reflecting a division between those geographically closer to Russia and have given more aid to Ukraine and those further away that have given less as a share of their economies.”
- https://news.sky.com/story/trump-envoy-steve-witkoff-dismisses-starmers-ukraine-plan-as-a-posture-and-a-pose-13334349
- https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/26/brussels-ask-eu-citizens-to-put-together-a-72-hour-emergency-kit-to-face-crises#:~:text=The%20EU%20wants%20every%20member,for%20improved%20civilian%2Dmilitary%20cooperation.
- https://altapress.ru/politika/story/putin-tolko-bolnoy-chelovek-vo-sne-mozhet-predstavit-chto-rossiya-napadaet-na-nato-158977