The Munich Conference ---- The recent Munich Security Conference represented another step towards war. ---- This conference, organized by a private foundation, allows participants-heads of state, government, and international organizations, ministers, parliamentarians, and high-level representatives of the armed forces, science, civil society, business, and the media-to engage in informal exchanges on key international policy issues. It also provides a platform for their propaganda.
This year's conference took place from February 13th to 15th. The first day featured a performance by the most important leaders of the European Union member governments, accompanied by the British Prime Minister, who emphasized the need for Europe to play a more active role in international politics. In particular, German Chancellor Mertz advocated for a sovereign Europe, uniting and strengthening Europe within NATO. The other leaders' speeches were in the same vein: French President Macron emphasized the importance of the nuclear option and stated that, to negotiate from a position of strength, Europe must develop its own defense toolbox.
The following day, February 14, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with a mellifluous speech, brought the European tyrants back into line. Reassuring them of the centrality of the transatlantic bond and affirming the desire for a strong Europe, Rubio reaffirmed the United States' leadership role, citing the US administration's role in the October 7 hostage-freezing from those he called barbarians and in the establishment of a sham truce. Regarding Ukraine in particular, he stated that the United States' role is essential to achieving peace.
Compared to Vice President Vance's speech last year, it's fair to say the tone has changed completely, but the content is the same: Europe is treated like a subordinate, not spared criticism, but demanded loyalty.
But what's behind this diplomatic shell game?
Take the money and run
The reason the war in Ukraine continues, the reason the bloody streak of two million dead, wounded, and missing continues to lengthen, is not the disputed territories, but the approximately two hundred billion euros of Russian property confiscated as a result of the sanctions and held at the Belgian bank Euroclear.
The original draft peace plan, proposed by Donald Trump, stipulated in point 28 that "$100 billion of frozen Russian assets will be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine; the United States will receive 50% of the profits from this initiative. Europe will add $100 billion to increase the amount of investment available for the reconstruction of Ukraine. The frozen European funds will be released. The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas. This fund will be designed to strengthen relations and enhance common interests to create a strong incentive not to return to conflict."
Predictably, Russia will pay the costs of the war in exchange for the territories, except that the money, in Trump's mind, should all go to the United States, and the European Union will have to contribute another $100 billion of its own.
Steal a little and you'll end up in prison. Steal a lot and you'll end up at the top of the stock market.
The sum of money involved in the scandal that engulfed some of Zelensky's associates-$100 million, split into at least eight parts-is paltry compared to the plunder by Russian and US oligarchs. Putin, for example, owns a mega-yacht reportedly worth $100 million alone, part of a fortune that could be as high as $200 billion. Steve Witkoff has a personal net worth of around $2 billion, while Jared Kushner is now a billionaire thanks to the Gulf interests he cultivated under the "Abraham Accords" during Trump's first term. Donald Trump, who was on the brink of economic ruin before his 2024 presidential bid, spent his first year in office amassing money left and right, totaling at least $3.4 billion.
Compared to the official corruption of Russia and the United States, Ukraine appears to be a model of integrity and transparency.
The war certainly increased the flow of money to some US defense contractors. But the real beneficiaries of the war were the Russian oligarchs. According to the Center for Economic Policy Research, "the number of Russian billionaires has increased since the war began, while even billionaires subject to Western sanctions have become richer on average" thanks to the acquisition of foreign goods, import substitution with domestic production, and profits made in key sectors such as fertilizer and oil.
It is a golden rule of the oligarchy that the rich are able to enrich themselves further during any major shift in politics, the economy, or war. Any peace agreement will bring enormous profits to the Russian oligarchs, freed from sanctions and once again able to ride the global economy. Kushner imagines he can get from Russia what he has already gotten from his Middle East deals. And Trump wants his share, too.
The Russian and US oligarchs are orchestrating this diktat of a "peace" agreement. Money is the real stake; The narrative of Russia projecting its sovereignty and Ukraine protecting its own serves only to fools.
Europe Holding the Hot Shot
Regarding the European Union, it is worth remembering that when the current President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was German Defense Minister (until 2019), her ministry was embroiled in a scandal involving the awarding of lucrative external consulting contracts, a scandal that led to parliamentary investigations.
Subsequently, during the pandemic emergency, Ursula von der Leyen, in her capacity as Commission President, saw her name associated with a scandal related to the supply of vaccines.
Would it be surprising if another scandal arose in the shadow of the war emergency?
Francesca Mannocci, in "La Stampa" on February 15, put it bluntly: "It's not enough to pay Ukraine; we must pay for our own strategic maturity. Paying means accepting that European unity is not a moral value but a security technology; it means depriving Moscow of the revenues that finance the war and depriving Washington of the excuse that Europe 'isn't doing enough.'"
Paying means the EUR315 billion that the European Union and member state governments have allocated to allow Kiev to continue the war, a commitment that has grown throughout 2025, reaching EUR90 billion even before the European Parliament approved the relevant law.
Paying means cutting by a third the allocations for the Common Agricultural Policy and cohesion funds (EUR400 billion), as foreseen in the budget prepared for the next seven years.
Cutting the revenues is a pious illusion, because Trump has already taken control of the Russian funds frozen in European banks.
The threat of the financial crisis looming over the European Union and its member state governments can only be averted by prolonging the war emergency, and this can be done in various ways: by obstructing the signing of the peace agreement in Ukraine that would sanction the loss of hundreds of billions, or by raising the spectre of the Russian threat. Recourse to the Russian threat, among other things, allows the European Union to justify the use of extraordinary budgetary instruments, thus unloading the burden of recent years' foreign policy failures onto its citizens. But it also allows the European Union to deploy a propaganda apparatus financed by the "Democratic Shield" program, which silences antimilitarist and pacifist opposition.
Growing poverty, authoritarianism, and militarism loom large over Europe, increasingly tied to the United States's chariot.
Tiziano Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/ucraina-grande-affare-a-chi-conviene-continuare-la-guerra/
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Link: (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #5-26 - Ukraine: Big Deal. Who Benefits from Continuing the War? (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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