Ukraine's Message
By John Perkins
Russia’s attack on Ukraine clearly demonstrates that the old economic hit man (EHM) strategy focusing on intimidation and outright invasion continues to haunt the dark side of the human character. One potentate, Putin, commanded millions of people to support the satanic destruction of lives and the environment and terrify the entire world with the specter of nuclear holocaust. At the same time, this event brought countries around the world together in unified actions against that potentate. Nations and the international corporations that drive our economies are showing a willingness to make sacrifices as they stand against Russia.
Rather than responding with massive military resistance, governments and private institutions have turned to an economic alternative. Governments have implemented sanctions against Russia’s central bank, as well as against key individuals and businesses, and blocked many of Russia’s largest banks from access to SWIFT, a network that facilitates the smooth transaction of banking operations between countries. Businesses – both large and small – are refusing to deal with Russia and closing down their operations there. If Putin believed his actions would create divisions between countries, this rapid unification proved that his strategy was ill-advised.
The Russian invasion presented China with a particularly challenging dilemma. Beijing’s authoritarian form of government, combined with its threats against Taiwan, tempted it to align with Russia. On the other hand, the invasion demolished New Silk Road infrastructure, alienated many countries that are vital to China’s ambitions, made its non-interference policies appear hypocritical, and opposed the desires of its younger generations to participate in the creation of a peaceful, environmentally sustainable, and commercially integrated world. Reuters summed it up this way:
Russia is destroying what China is trying to build. Having refused to condemn President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and suppressed domestic criticism of Russia, Beijing is alienating many eastern European countries where it is constructing trade, investment and technology relationships under its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.
The article went on to describe Ukraine as “strategically positioned across rail, road and energy pipelines linking Russia to the rest of Europe.” It pointed out that:
Chinese companies have been upgrading the country’s (Ukraine’s) ports and subways. . . Beijing is stuck watching missiles wreck a country once receptive to its overtures. The attacks are galvanizing pan-European sentiment against China, which refuses to call Russia’s move an invasion. As the West and Moscow make it harder for private companies to transact, the flow of goods along the “Iron Silk Road,” a rail system across which $75 billion of Chinese products traveled to Europe in 2021, is likely to slow. (1)
With the shadow of a nuclear holocaust hanging over us all, we can only hope that countries like China and India that are themselves nuclear powers, carry enormous economic weight, and are interdependent with Russia in many ways will work with the US and Europe to strike sense into Putin and negotiate a solution that avoids the unthinkable. Assuming that happens, this moment in history sends a monumental message that we simply have no choice but to end archaic strategies of domination once and for all.
The invasion follows on the heels of a global pandemic. The coronavirus has taught us that radical change is entirely possible. When the need arises, we can change, and we can even enjoy some of the changes. Perhaps these two events, despite the horrible suffering each has inflicted, may turn out in the long run to be the catalysts we need to elevate ourselves into a new consciousness of what it means to be successful humans on our beautiful, fragile planet. Let us hope that the ultimate gift from both the pandemic and the Russian invasion is a global recognition that we can and must come together to understand that we humans are a part of, not apart from, our Living Earth. The idea that we are indispensable is self-destructive hubris.