Bens Latkovskis in Neatkarīgā comments on the recent statements of Sergey Karaganov, an advisor to Putin:
Karaganov is promoting a policy that, unfortunately, finds quite a few receptive ears on both sides of the Atlantic (as well as the Pacific) Ocean. That is, Europe has become an obstacle to the new world order, where the right to a voice will belong only to three – the USA, Russia, and China. Europe as a serious player must disappear from the stage. Its time has ended. So there is no need to despair and give up. Who should not? Putin, of course.
One may wonder why these musings of Karaganov should be further circulated. Isn’t this exactly what he and the forces behind him want? Probably so, but it would not be wise to bury one’s head in the sand and pretend that such ideas are not rampant in the minds of Kremlin strategists, and not just theirs. Precisely because for many years there was a belief in the West that "normal" people, just like us, who most wish to live well and prosper rather than fight and die, were already sitting in the Kremlin, it led to the fact that in 2022, the full-scale war in Europe caught the West completely off guard.
Even now, after four full years of military actions, the West is still only "waking up." They have not fully awakened even to this day and live with the confidence that the war in Ukraine does not concern them. Neither today nor tomorrow. Such simple trust in the "common sense" and "desire to live" of Russian leaders is extremely dangerous because people always want to believe and hope for the best, and if "common sense" ultimately loses to unrestrained aggression, then the one who is better prepared for the worst scenario is in a more favorable position.
