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Europeans actions betray a desperate hope that the world can be stuck at maybe early 2014 where US and Russia were friendly trading partners and no one cared about migrants. Davos took a disgruntled canadian with a chinese card in his back pocket to flip the bird at trump, while europeans spent the entirety of 2022 onwards both begging for USA to commit to fighting back against Russia while simultaneously refusing to punish Russia with any tool that could either be permanent or harmful to Europeans themselves. The revealed preference is to have someone else punch Russia just hard enough to forget this current regrettable state of affairs and return to the glory world where Europe could grow fat on Russian gas and moralize to others about rights.
If Europe could smack Putin down and help Ukraine as Europeans worried about Russia seem to vocally express, fucking just do it. No, Europeans are disinclined to act because it lays bare the clearest division: Hans will have to risk something just so Mohammed can reap the benefits of his sacrifice back home. The European governments are paralyzed from within: a single stroke of pen can make seizure of Russias assets legal just like how Russia seized European assets, and that same stroke can add a footnote to suborne ECHR to any domestic law. The only robust conclusion is that European leaders do NOT want to confront Russia, do NOT want to address their migrant issue, do NOT want to take responsibility for their own defense and expect the USA to bear the brunt. The European people may have genuine sympathy for Ukrainians being attacked by africans and dagestanis impressed into Russian service, but the sympathy ends where any European must sacrifice anything meaningful that robs from either locals about to Notice the problem of the migrants or migrants who riot over getting boring White People food instead of their own michelin grade culinary masterpieces.
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