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That’s a horrible statement, I know, how could a war benefit anyone? Clearly, for Ukrainian people, this is one of the blackest pages of their history, along with the Holodomor—also perpetrated by the Russians against their population last century. But, beyond the unbearable pain, the spilled blood, the destroyed hospitals, and bombed civilians, the war unleashed by Putin could end up being beneficial for Western civilization in the very long run.
Shortly before the invasion of Ukraine began, the world had just gone through the COVID-19 pandemic, one that was certainly used by many of the world’s politicians to tighten citizen controls, shatter individual freedoms and proclaim democracies as a useless system, something that even a good part of the population was beginning to vociferate.
Under this dynamic, the increase of authoritarian systems worldwide seemed evident. The population was clamoring for security, not freedom, and those of us who have studied the history of mankind know very well how this all ends.
However, Putin’s bloodthirsty invasion could open the eyes of humanity. Do we really need more authoritarian leaders who push their political agendas above the welfare of societies? Will the world be better off under the rule of tyrants who do not hesitate to murder thousands of people and annex more territory to their country? Are China and Russia the role models for humanity?
This is a strong wake-up call. Putin’s war has shaken society, because unfortunately, a large part of humans have a very short memory, and tend to quickly forget the aberrations committed by politicians in their megalomaniacal eagerness. Authoritarianism can never generate anything positive for a country, region, or city, only suffering and submission of the citizens to the ruling class.
The authoritarian vision is defeated and so are progressive policies
Something that few people have been able to understand is that one of the most responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the widely praised former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel’s policies to “favor” “green energies” brought Germany to its knees in front of Russia, and also provided it with the financing to start its invasion of Ukraine.
But it was not only Merkel who was naïve in financing Putin’s regime for years. A good part of the European nations also started to shut down their nuclear power plants in order to replace them with “green energy,” following the advice of progressive political activists, among them the climate propaganda “expert” Greta Thunberg, a young girl who is not even 20 years old. Thunberg repeats empty slogans about “climate change” and has thus been taken as an expert in the Western scientific and political world.
The United States has been no exception. The first thing Joe Biden did when he came to power was to sign a decree to halt the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would transport 830,000 barrels of oil sands crude per day from Alberta to Nebraska, as well as to halt concessions for new oil exploitation, which destroyed America’s chances of becoming an energy independent country and forced it to buy tons of oil from Russia.
Now, after the beginning of the war, Biden has banned purchases of Russian crude, but he is hopping around the world to see who can supply him with the oil he refused to produce in the United States, and in his ravings, he has sent a delegation to negotiate with dictator Nicolás Maduro the purchase of Venezuelan oil. Maduro has been accused by the Justice Department of drug trafficking, and the American government has offered a reward of 15 million dollars for his head.
This means that, regardless of the outcome of the war, Putin will most likely lose the coercive power he currently has over the Western world with his cheap energy. European nations and the United States will have to start working on self-sufficiency and this will weaken Russia geopolitically, win or lose in Ukraine.
Uniting Europe and the United States
One of the first governments to openly protest and condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was that of Hungary’s conservative leader, Viktor Orbán. For the past few years, Orbán has been treated almost as a pariah in the European system of relations for opposing his progressive policies. However, this conflict has forced the rest of the nations to listen to Orbán and ally themselves to destroy the threat that Putin represents.
This whole crisis, in large part due to progressive policies, will open the eyes of a large part of the population to the harmful leftist propaganda that facilitated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which will also bring democratic nations together.
When Western relations seemed to weaken and the growth of authoritarian systems seemed imminent, Putin appeared to give NATO and the Western world a new reason to strengthen ties and face the common threat posed by the authoritarian regimes of China and Russia. This faux pas by Putin, I insist, whether he wins or loses in his attempt to join Ukraine, will leave him geopolitically weakened, and will also have destroyed the new vision of World Order that his now strategic ally, China, was trying to position in the free world.
What will happen to Ukraine after Putin’s invasion?
It is still too early to know what will happen to Ukraine. We must bear in mind that despite the heroic resistance of the Ukrainians, they are currently facing the second military power in the world. Without the help of the Western powers, their chances of winning seem rather limited.
However, the effect of economic and diplomatic sanctions on Russia cannot currently be underestimated. While Putin’s military is the second largest in the world, the GDP of all of Russia is nowhere near the size of the Texas economy. Putin may have many soldiers, but he does not have the financial lungs to support the costs of a protracted war. Ukrainians, in contrast, will have the financial backing of the West and the pride of their people who, after this bloody attack, will not for a second think of succumbing to the Russian army, increasingly demoralized by the unjust cause they are pursuing.
Regardless of the final outcome of this war, I believe that the Western world will emerge stronger and united, and will not only become stronger but also that the folly of progressive policies and authoritarianism has been exposed, which in turn greatly weakens the expansionist pretensions of Putin and Xi Jinping.
Emmanuel Rincón is a lawyer, writer, novelist and essayist. He has won several international literary awards. He is Editor-at-large at El American // Emmanuel Rincón es abogado, escritor, novelista y ensayista. Ganador de diversos premios literarios internacionales. Es editor-at-large en El American