President Putin has developed a
nationalist
ideology based on ethnic and religious
grounds the unique qualities of the
Slavic race and holy
Russia he has cast Anglo-Saxon world
domination as the enemy not only of
Russia but of the rest of the world
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hello I'm George
Soros sanctions are a necessary evil
they are necessary because neither the
European Union nor the United States
is willing to risk war with Russia and
that leaves sanctions as the only
alternative to resist Russian aggression
they are evil because they hurt not only
the country on which they are imposed
but also the countries which impose them
Russia is uh Germany's third largest uh
export market so uh a depression in
Russia it has a negative effect on the
the German economy as well and the same
applies to many other European countries
it's high time for the members of the
European Union to wake up and behave as
countries indirectly at
War they are much better off helping
Ukraine to defend itself
and having to fight for
themselves Europe seems to be blissfully
unaware of being under attack and
Carries On business as usual it treats
Ukraine as just another country in need
of financial assistance like Greece or
Ireland by enabling Ukraine to defend
itself
Europe would also be indirectly
defending itself moreover an injection
of financial assistance to Ukraine would
also indirectly stimulate the European
economy I was born in Hungary in
1930 and I'm Jewish so when the Germans
occupied Hungary I would have actually
perished if it hadn't been for my fun
mother who arranged for false identities
I learned at a very early stage how
important what kind of political regime
prevails and I became a great believer
in a European Union as it was originally
perceived I saw it as an embodiment of
uh the ideal of an open
Society I was very very disappointed
because of the Euro
crisis what was designed as a voluntary
Association among equals uh turned into
something very different which is a uh
creditor deor relationship where the
debtors have difficulties in paying
their debts and the creditors uh set the
conditions and the conditions they set
effectively make it difficult for the
deters ever to escape uh from their
inferior position the European Union is
confronted by a resurgent Russia that
has turned from a strategic partner into
a strategic
rival instead of Communism President
Putin
has developed a nationalist ideology
based on ethnic and religious grounds
the unique qualities of the Slavic race
and holy Russia he has cast Anglo-Saxon
world domination as the enemy not only
of Russia but of the rest of the world
the only reason why Putin's Russia can
seem to be the attractive alternative
ative to people in Europe is because for
anybody let's say under 50 in a heavily
indebted country the European Union
itself seems like the
enemy and then Putin seems to be a
friend because otherwise uh given the
corruption uh the
repression uh that Russia stands
for should not appeal to the people in
Europe but it does Putin's ambition to
recreate a Russian Empire has brought it
to being a new Ukraine that is adamantly
opposed to its endemic corruption and
inefficient government it's led by the
cream of Civil Society young people many
of whom have studied abroad and refused
to join either the government or
business because they found both of them
Republicans they were willing to risk
their lives on maidan for the sake of a
better future for their country and they
are determined not to repeat the
mistakes of the past including the
political infighting that miscarried the
orange Revolution but the old Ukraine is
far from dead
it dominates the Civil Service and the
Judiciary why should they work for
practically no pay unless they use their
position as a license to extort
bribes they are locked in a battle with
the reformists this is where the
International Community can play a
decisive role by offering financial
assistance can measur it with the
magnitude of the reforms they can
influence the outcome when I speak about
Ukraine I speak from personal
experience uh I established a foundation
in Ukraine in
1990 uh before Ukraine became
independent it is entirely run by
ukrainians and it has established deep
roots in Ukrainian Society I visited
Ukraine uh three times uh since Maan I
was really struck by the tremendous
Improvement in the Civil Society the
maturity and the expertise of the people
and they are basically people who' been
in business either in Ukraine or abroad
and are now returning and actually uh
devoting uh maybe a year or so of their
lives to help Ukraine so they are
volunteers and that is the strength of
the new
Ukraine the sanctions imposed on Russia
have worked much better and inflicted
much more damage on the Russian economy
than anybody could have expected Russia
needs o prices to be above
$100 in order to balance his pure the
combination of sanctions and lower oil
prices have pushed Russia into a
financial crisis the fact is that Putin
is in a very
very difficult position because the
allegiance of the people was based on
the fact that Putin secured uh Financial
stability and gave people uh Rising
standard of
living using uh the high value of
oil and that has now changed the
European Union is joining us in imposing
major sanctions on Russia it's most
significant and wide- ranging sanctions
to dat because of the sanctions and the
and even more so because of the collapse
in the price of
oil now there's Rising inflation people
savings are at risk they face a
substantially
reduced uh standard of living and that
is not what they bargained for when they
uh applauded uh the annexation of Crea
so the attitudes are rapidly changing
and people are beginning to realize that
the interests of the Putin regime are
not identical with the interests of
Russia as conditions in Russia
deteriorate the Putin regime will become
increasingly
repressive and uh it could really return
to uh the the worst uh stages of the
Soviet Union where people were really
tolerating the regime because of of of
fear so Russia could even threaten uh
war with the West therefore the pressure
has to be maintained until Putin's
policy or the Russian policy is
changed Europe needs to wake up and
recognize what is at
stake if it fails to reinforce the new
Ukraine the new Ukraine will probably
fail and Europe will have abandoned the
values and principles on which the
European Union was founded the European
Union will continue to disintegrate
under the strain of the deflationary
forces that will continue to Prevail as
long as the austerity policies are
maintained I I'm a a passionate believer
in the original uh idea of the European
Union of a a voluntary Association of
equals that are willing to uh sacrifice
some of their sovereignty for the common
good so by coming to the help of Ukraine
I think Europe could also recapture the
original idea uh that led to the
formation of the European Union by see
saving Ukraine the European Union would
be also saving itself
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