by Michel Klompmaker
At the moment, the Ukrainian capital Kiev is under siege and being bombed. The West is watching and Putin can carry out his long-devised plan without too much opposition. Let’s not pretend that this has been a big surprise. It quickly brings to mind 1938 when the ‘Anschluss’ through Austria with Germany became a fact. Putin has waited neatly with this invasion until after the Olympic Games in China so as not to embarrass his supporters there. One dictator learns the tricks of another dictator. China is now going to learn from the reaction of the West and can benefit from this, in the very important step for China, namely the ‘Anschluss’ of Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China that is on the program. Let’s not be naive and think that this is a utopia and that the intake can be prevented through consultation. Time for the West to wonder if we shouldn’t divide the world in two… a part that is undesirable and objectionable to the West and a part that is as little involved as possible with such dictatorships. This means that many western knots have to be counted… no more SWIFT, but also no more sponsors like Gazprom to admit to the Champions League. But banks are also embarrassed, because all those billions of money are stored somewhere. Meanwhile, the European Union has changed the sanctions regime. Continue reading…