There are various countries in the world under both US and EU sanctions including Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba. The most officially sanctioned country is Russia, and these sanctions have come in response to its aggressive and illegal invasion of its much smaller and weaker neighbour, Ukraine.
Sanctions on totalitarian regimes prevent them from having access to very important markets that provide finance, commodities and products that could be used for war and oppression. This is why, for example, there are heavy sanctions on North Korea because sanctions prevent the government from having direct access to the US Dollar and important products it could use to build weapons. As a result of sanctions, the North Korean regime is compelled to turn to international crime to source its US Dollars.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is dancing to the tune of US President Donald Trump about US sanctions, as he believes that sanctions from Russia should be removed following a peace deal with Ukraine. As the Secretary-General of NATO, Mark Rutte did not have the authority from other NATO members to make such a statement. He is also going against NATO’s remit by making such a proposal. Lifting sanctions on Russia is not in the security interest of Europe.
Russia under Vladimir Putin is an imperialist and belligerent state that has committed war crimes, invaded its smaller and weaker neighbours multiple times, and committed civilian massacres in Ukraine apart from displacing many others in the cities that it now occupies such as Mariupol and Sievierodonetsk. Today, Russia arms and supports dictatorial states in Africa and the Near East, and has consistently supported and allied itself with some of the most brutal and murderous dictators such as Bashar al-Assad. Russia is unequivocally and undoubtedly, the world’s most murderous and brutal terrorist and imperialist state. To lift sanctions on this state just because it has won a war against a much smaller and weaker neighbour would be madness and a total renunciation of the international rules-based order. Vladimir Putin is also wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
We would also like to point out, that the Untied States has adopted a pro-Russian position and is actively supporting Russia’s rehabilitation at the world stage. Our investigations and regular coverage on Russia’s war in Ukraine and the diplomatic negotiations between the US, Ukraine and Russia, show a consistent series of actions by the Untied States that have supported Russia in material terms. Europe seems to be going along with this bizarre rehabilitation on submissive terms. We would also like to point out that rehabilitating Russia on the world stage would go against the natural principles of justice in relation to Russia’s victims in the foreign wars it started.
Lifting sanctions on Russia would strengthen its war machine and its fascist, terroristic, totalitarian state that is also a direct and open threat to European security and democracy. Russia is not only at war against its neighbours, which it wants to conquer to revive its empire; Russia is also at war against all of the democratic world because this order is the only thing that stands against its expansionism. Russia is waging this war against the democratic order very publicly by supporting and financing political parties in the West which support its foreign policy. Russia is literally buying out our democracies and elections. This process will not stop with a peace in Ukraine. The NATO Secretary-General can not go against his remit by literally supporting policies and positions which would result in the direct and material harm of the countries that he is supposed to represent.
The Maltese Herald was born in a period when the spread of Russian disinformation and subversive campaigns against Western democracies became regular and rampant activities. As a media outlet, we exist in the information space, which is inundated daily by fake news and disinformation that is spread by Russian networks, and Russian financed media outlets. We believe it is our role to fight against disinformation by simply counteracting it with facts. However, we strongly believe, that if sanctions were to be lifted from Russia, small and independent press outlets like ours would be competing and fighting against a renewed and even bigger wave of Russian-financed operations in Western media and publishing.
In conclusion, it is apparent that lifting sanctions against Russia would strengthen the Russian state at the expense of independent media outlets in the West. Therefore, we strongly oppose any policy or position that supports removing economic sanctions on Russia even after a peace deal with Ukraine.
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Historian and Publisher
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