The aggressive invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin gets fiercer every day. In 1994, Ukraine returned its nuclear arsenal in exchange for a promise by Russia to respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity and look what happened.
Is it all and only Putin’s fault? Has the so-called Russian man in the street nothing to do with this aggression? I am not sure.
Many Russians oppose Putin. Yet, millions of Russians in the army, the police, secret police, foreign office, national, regional and local governments and their families actively support him.
After perestroika and glasnost, there was hope for change. Russia was welcomed with open arms. But many former Soviet states and allies did not share that optimism and sought EU and NATO membership.
These have now been proven right. Trusting the large majority of Russians to follow the rule of law and security order has been a mistake. Dependency on Russian raw materials has also been a mistake.
We face a daunting dilemma. Do we confront Russia with economic force, excluding all Russians from all political, economic, cultural and social activities, wherever they find themselves around the world? Or do we try to be selective?
In my opinion, the selective approach is not effective. Just as the Russian army in Ukraine is destroying everything and murdering everybody indiscriminately and lying blatantly about it at the UN Security Council, we have to react to this in a wide-ranging and indiscriminate way, short of all-out war.
Putin is not out to gain territory but to try to stop the spread of democracy and libertarian principles into Russia. He is being helped by all Russians (a small minority protest and are arrested).
Therefore, Europe and the US must cut all ties to Russia, including supplies of oil and gas, must seize all property, all bank accounts of all Russians and of all Russians who have changed their citizenship for a European one in the last 20 years (since Putin came to power), even if painful for us.
This is our dilemma. Germany and Italy depend on Russian energy supplies. Our system of government is at stake. Businesses will lose money. Citizens would have to curtail their travel plans and suffer cold for the remainder of winter. The cost of living will go up. A small price to pay when compared to what the Ukrainians are suffering on our behalf today.
The seized property of all Russians in our territories, unless they prove they have been actively anti-Putin for the past years before releasing any of it, will help our governments with resources to pay for alternative energy sources and to compensate losses on Russian investments. We would fight against this putsch against our democracy by Putin turning Russia into a pariah state.
Even Poland and Hungary seem to have changed course out of fear of their Russian neighbour- John Vassallo
Negotiations between the Russians and Ukrainians are ongoing. I hope that the Ukrainians will find some proposal acceptable in order to stop this brutal war, even if it means giving up some territory to Russia and promising to turn itself in a neutral and demilitarised state, provided that the territory that is lost, the Crimea and the two Eastern provinces mostly populated by Russians, also become completely demilitarised and neutral.
Sanctions on Russia and Russians abroad as well as the complete stoppage of all oil and gas imports from Russia should continue until the Russians decide to change their regime and join the world. Putin can never be forgiven just as Stalin and Hitler will never be forgiven. What is at stake is our system and our way of life and we must fight for them.
Malta too is drawn into this dilemma. Just as I blame Russian citizens who back Putin, I also blame Maltese citizens. Our majority backs Robert Abela and Joseph Muscat and today’s election result will likely confirm this. These introduced and upheld the sale of EU passports. They allowed organised crime to take over our country with cheating, money laundering and tax evasion. Jobs for friends and impunity for ministers and party faithful for all fraudulent acts in the last nine years led to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Malta seems not to belong to the European family of nations. It gets gas from Azerbaijan, gives away hospitals to con men like Vitals and sells EU citizenship to Russian, Chinese and Arab oligarchs and to African and central European dictators and their families. It is completely isolated in the European EU family as the EP plenary vote on golden passports and visas demonstrated. Is it time to eliminate the sale of passports forever. Even Bernard Grech seems to wish to retain the system, shame on him too. It should go.
Is Malta European? Should the EU kick us out? Ignoring European values by having biased national TV and radio; by letting a journalist be murdered; by giving jobs, tenders, lands and other benefits to party friends and financers; by letting oligarchs berth their yachts and their bank accounts and penthouses; by letting Mafia use gambling companies to launder their money; by letting companies escape their tax dues to European countries through empty holding companies; by letting wealthy foreigners escape wealth taxes and income taxes in their countries to pretend to come to Malta and pay only 15 per cent on what they transfer to Malta.
The present government is guilty on all these fronts. If they win with a large majority, we probably will show that we are not European enough to form part of the EU. All Malta would have failed to live up to the dilemma facing all Europeans.
Even Poland and Hungary seem to have changed course out of fear of their Russian neighbour. They remember Prague 1968 and Hungary 1956 with Russian tanks invading. Distance to Russia does not absolve us of our solidarity duty with our fellow EU member states to defend our values. Voting in a government unwilling to do so makes us a country one is ashamed of.