2024-04-11 03:51:40
He pointed out that Russia’s entry into Europe three hundred years ago was not positive at all, it was ugly and brutal. According to Zīle, if there are people who think differently, then it can only be considered as political dreaming, which is wrong. In the opinion of the MEP, Russia has disappeared from European thinking and this does not apply only to the current owner of the Kremlin.
“To my surprise, too, from the experience of the 1990s, it was expected that the new generation of Russians would see what capitalism would mean, what the advantages and disadvantages were. They had traveled a lot. I thought that their thinking and general perception would change. I was wrong as well like many other politicians in Western countries. What is happening with the current leadership, at least for the next generation, maybe even longer, Russia will not return to the West,” said Zile.
He noted that it is difficult to say whether Russia has turned to the East. According to fortune telling, the situation is more complicated. Russia has been engaged in this process for several years, engaging in various partnerships and coalitions with other countries. Currently, Russia has cooperation with China, North Korea. The MEP emphasizes that it is a win-win for all these regimes, which is dangerous.
“Also the fight for the so-called global south. This is a huge challenge for the Western democratic world as well. This issue is much more complicated than whether Russia is switching from the West to the East,” said the MEP.
Asked whether Russia’s withdrawal from the West, both politically and economically, could benefit the European Union and Latvia, and whether it is possible to live with it in Europe, Zīle emphasized that it is definitely good. He said that there were expectations of reaching such a situation even after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine. Apparently, the rest of the Western countries also understood that “the time of hope is over”.
Zile mentioned the 2013 conference. At that time, the situation in the Latvian banking sector was such that almost half of the investments came from Russia, and Latvia wanted to join the Eurozone. At the conference, the MEP tried to point out that this is a dangerous situation, because the influence of Russia is so great, the influence of Russian money and companies is just as great.
The MEP emphasized that Latvia started selling temporary residence permits to investors and developed the transit business, which made up a large part of the country’s growth. According to him, the same applies to the rest of the Baltic states, perhaps less to Lithuania and more to Estonia, but also Latvia, according to Zīle, was very vulnerable in this situation.
“Now it’s all over. Other Western countries have also realized that cooperation, economic ties with Russia have ended, not to mention political ties. In the previous panel discussion, there was already talk of secession. Currently, there is no possibility to even think about the possibility of re-establishing relations with Russia,” the MEP emphasized.
He mentioned that during the financial crisis in Latvia – in 2008 and 2009 – Russia’s influence began to increase, but Latvia has learned from it. Smaller shocks have hit the country, for example, in 1998, Latvia had huge trade ties with Russia and the CIS countries during the financial crisis. Some turbulence was also observed in Latvia, where Russian pensioners protested, Russia threatened to stop imports from Latvia.
“At that time, our businessmen exported their products to Russia. If I remember correctly, in 1999, there was a fall in the gross domestic product (GDP), but we recovered after that. The situation was difficult for one year, but we changed our trade ties, reorienting ourselves to the West, and the situation improved,” said Zile.
According to him, the same applies to the current situation – it must be understood that ties with Russia have been cut. Zile emphasized that we need to shift our focus to companies that previously operated in the East and West. In his view, it should be understood that this is a task for the governments of the European Union (EU) member states.
“It must be understood that any resources from Russia, such as precious metals, metals, the energy sector – all these resources from Russia are no longer intended for Europe and are not available. I think this is a good thing, although painful,” Zile said.
Asked about weapons and “butter” or social services, so that society can afford what it wants to afford, is it easier to convince society in Latvia that it is necessary to invest in defense, because, for example, in Germany there are extensive discussions about the dilemma of weapons and “butter”, Zile pointed out that when talking to colleagues in the EP, the European Commission and the Council of the EU, you can see how politicians in Brussels perceive these issues and how they think.
He admitted that this issue is still important and painful in Western Europe. If, for example, the social budget is “cut”, it creates problems for governments. People take to the streets, unions protest. It is complicated, concludes Zile. On the other hand, in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, this issue is not relevant at all.
“We understand that it is necessary to invest in defense. Of course, we also need to think about this part of the “butter”, but the public understands why – we have to give up a little bit of this “butter” in order to get bread. In this case, the bread would symbolize our freedom and security. If we don’t have this bread, then the “butter” doesn’t make any sense either. Investing in defense is the only way we can ensure that we can think about other important issues,” said the MEP.
Asked whether the West still has any advantage to use against Russia, Zile explained that this issue has been discussed at the highest level. There was talk, for example, about the influence of “Gazprom” and the supply of resources. The MEP did not reveal which politician said that Russia has a long-term interest in infrastructure to supply gas to Europe, for example, but it is now clear that they do not. As a matter of fact, we should forget about relations with Russia in the economic field. In his view, there is no future there, because if you look at the GDP of the EU as a whole, it is much larger than that of Russia.
“In the long term, we always think we are stronger, but all the time we have only thought about this ‘butter’. We also have to look at weapons. We always thought that mutual trade with Russia provided us with some kind of mutual benefits and security, but this is not the case. In the Baltic countries, in our region, we have extensive experience and history with Russia. Many representatives of the new generation have said that we should cooperate with Russia, but for too long we have been eating from Russia’s hand in the Baltic region as well,” said Zīle.
2024-04-11 03:51:40