War in Ukraine: A Conflict Narrative That the US and Europe Don’t Want to Hear

“Ukraine and its allies, including London, have been pushing Russia for the past millennium. [aliança militar] They bullied us for many years – to cancel our NATO borders, our culture.”

That’s what Yevgeny Popov, a member of the Duma (Russian parliament) and a TV presenter in Russia, told the BBC on 19 April. “It is clear that NATO’s plans for Ukraine are a direct threat to Russian citizens,” he said.

His perspective is both surprising and illuminating because it presents a very different narrative than the Kremlin’s view of the issue in the US and Europe.

To European and American ears, these explanations sound almost unimaginable, ignoring the widely documented facts. But these are the beliefs of not only Kremlin supporters in Russia, but also of people around the world.

After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the UN held an emergency vote – 141 out of 193 UN member states voted a week later to condemn the move. However, many major countries, including China, India and South Africa, chose to abstain. Therefore, it would be misleading for the US and European leaders to believe that the whole world shares NATO’s view – that Russia is responsible for this disastrous war – because the rest of the world does not.

So why do so many countries avoid invading Russia?

There are many reasons, from simple economic or military interests to accusations of hypocrisy about Europe’s colonial past. There is no single reason. Each country may have its own particular reasons for not wanting to publicly condemn Russia or drive President Putin away.

‘No limits’ to collaboration

Let’s start with China, the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion inhabitants, and most of them get their news about Ukraine from the state-controlled press, just like Russia.

China hosted a high-level visitor to the Winter Olympics just before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24.

“There is no limit to the cooperation of the two countries,” said a Chinese statement released after the meeting. Does this mean that Putin has warned his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that he is about to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Absolutely not, says China. But it is difficult to imagine that such an important neighbor does not have even the slightest clue what will happen to him.

China and Russia may one day become strategic rivals, but today they are partners and share a common disdain for NATO, the United States, Europe and their democratic values ​​bordering on hostility. China has already clashed with the United States over China’s military expansion in the South China Sea. Beijing has also clashed with the US and European governments over its treatment of the Uyghur population, the attacks on democracy in Hong Kong, and the promise to “take back Taiwan”, if necessary, even by force.

China and Russia have a common enemy in NATO. The worldview of these governments is transmitted to their populations. Therefore, many Chinese and Russians do not have the same aversion to the invasion of Russia and its alleged war crimes as the United States and Europe.

India and Pakistan have their own reasons for not wanting to make Russia an enemy. Both India and Pakistan abstained from the UN vote to condemn the invasion.

India gets most of its weapons from Moscow, and after its recent conflict with China in the Himalayas, India believes it may one day need Russia as an ally and protector.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was recently sacked, has been harshly critical of Europe and especially the United States. Pakistan also buys weapons from Russia and needs Moscow’s approval to help protect its trade routes with the interior of northern Central Asia. Khan visited Putin on February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

Hypocrisy and double standards

In addition, there is the accusation shared by many, especially in Muslim-majority countries, that the United States and Europe are guilty of hypocrisy and double standard judgment. In 2003, the United States and the United Kingdom chose to ignore the UN – and much of the world’s public opinion – by invading Iraq, leading to years of violence. Washington and London are also accused of helping prolong the civil war in Yemen by arming the Royal Saudi Air Force, which frequently launches airstrikes in support of the country’s official government.

For many African governments, there are other, even more historical, reasons at play.

During the Soviet era, Moscow loaded the continent with guns as it tried to counter American influence from north to south. In some places, the legacy of the colonization of Western Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries is a source of resentment that continues to this day. France, which sent troops to Mali in 2013 to prevent the country from being taken over by Al Qaeda, is not a popular government in the country, which is a French colony. With most of the French troops gone, Mali was occupied by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, supported by the Kremlin.

So where is the Middle East in all this?

It is not surprising that Syria, along with North Korea, Belarus, and Eritrea, supports the Russian invasion. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad relies on Russia for its survival after his country risked being invaded by Islamic State fighters in 2015.

But even longtime US and European allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were relatively restrained in their criticism of Moscow while supporting the UN vote. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, has a good relationship with Vladimir Putin – his previous ambassador in Moscow was on hunting trips with the Russians.

It is also worth remembering that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a bad relationship with US President Joe Biden. Their mutual discontent is so great that the two refuse to answer each other’s calls. Before that, when world leaders met in Buenos Aires for the G20 Summit – in late 2018, just weeks after the US and Europe accused the Saudi crown prince of ordering the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi – most leaders in Europe sided with the Saudi prince. he was distant. treatment. Putin, on the other hand, gave the prince a warm greeting. The Saudi leader does not forget this gesture.

None of this means that all the countries mentioned, except Belarus, actively support this invasion.

On March 2, only five governments voted against Russia’s condemnation of the UN invasion, and one of them was Russia itself. But what this means is that, for various reasons, the United States and Europe cannot assume that the rest of the world shares their views on Putin, sanctions, or openly opposing Russia’s invasion with arms supplies to Ukraine.