(Newswire.net — June 11, 2017) — The old saying “Americans were Europeans who went West and Russians were Europeans who headed East” can help shed light on a centuries-old struggle between Moscow and Washington to win the hearths of the Europeans, Russia- based Irish journalist Bryan MacDonald said in an editorial published by Russia Today.
MacDonald recalled that during the Ukraine crisis, Barack Obama’s administration succeeded in making the US partners turn economically away from Russia and impose sanctions. Incumbent US President Donald Trump, however, has infuriated his French and German allies to the point they might turn to Russia again.
By withdrawing from the Paris climate accord and “wavering on US commitments to its NATO military club,” President Trump demonstrated that the US is not interested in holding hands with its strongest EU partners.
That has positioned Russia as a potential fresh dancing partner, willing to teach the EU some new steps.
Among the first decisions taken by newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron was to extend an invitation to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to visit Paris. Also, the anti-Moscow rhetoric from German Chancellor Angela Merkel has toned down, with critics of Trump’s foreign policy growing.
Even the “Russophobic British press have become a little tamer,” MacDonald observed.
While German magazine Der Spiegel alleges the alliance between Germany and the US has entered a new more fragile phase, Chancellor Merkel is “publicly questioning whether transatlantic ties can endure.”
Earlier this year, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel stated that “Russia is the most important neighbor of Europe,” denoting Moscow as “the most important partner for negotiations.”
Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate deal has stricken hard the EU-US partnership. “Putin may have put his foot down in Ukraine, and we didn’t like it, but he’s not trying to destroy the f**king planet,” MacDonald wrote, quoting a “prominent EU official.”
“For all our disagreements with the Kremlin, at least they are a consistent bunch. The Americans have just lost the plot,” the same source from the EU has allegedly told MacDonald.