From Batko Milacic for the Saker Blog

On February 15, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation hosted an international conference “Geopolitical war of the West against Russia: Ukrainian case”. During the event, political scientists, experts, journalists and public figures from Russia, United States, Italy, Germany, Finland, Belgium and other countries discussed possible developments around Ukraine.

Director of the Democracy Research Foundation Maxim Grigoriev reminded the audience about the Colin Powell’s accusations that Iraq has nuclear weapons, which launched the US attack on Iraq and about the massive disinformation campaign in the part of Western press against Syria. Grigoriev was a member of the commission that traveled to the Syrian city of Douma, where, according to some media reports from the West, government forces carried out a chemical attack against the civilian population, which served as a pretext for Washington to launch another missile strike.

“I personally was in the same house and entrance where video footage of dead people was allegedly filmed,” Maxim Grigoriev said. “We interviewed the people who lived there. None of them were hurt. We described in detail that information war against Syria and the activities of the White Helmets group in our book.”

The situation in Ukraine that has developed over the past eight years has much in common with the information provocations of the United States against Syria.

“As you know, the shelling of the civilian population of Donbass, whose victims include women and children, is qualified by international humanitarian law as war crimes,” Grigoriev stressed.

Director of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise Valery Korovin in his speech emphasized that the massive information campaign against Russia is an obvious evidence that the US is interested in new war and it is preparing for it. Experts from the US and Europe discussed the reasons for the geopolitical war of the West against Russia.

“The fact is that from a geopolitical point of view, Washington needs this war for several reasons,” Korovin explained. – Firstly, this war will very seriously throw Russia away from Europe and create a huge number of problems in building Russian-European relations, including building a geopolitical axis. Secondly, Washington certainly needs some kind of common enemy. There was a moment when the US lost this enemy. They were assigned international terrorism, then Islamism, which was equated even with fascism. Now such an enemy is again being made from Russia.

Another reason for the aggressive policy of some Western countries towards Russia, Korovin see in the need to consolidate the NATO bloc, which has lost all meaning without a clear geopolitical opponent, in the role of which the USSR used to act. The policy of sanctions and pressure is also one of the elements of the geopolitical game of the US with Russia.

“Ultimately, the imposed sanctions should greatly undermine the position of the Russian president, turn the elites against him and thereby accelerate what Western strategists want – the removal of the Russian president,” Korovin said.

Alexander Malkevich, the general director of the St. Petersburg TV channel, drew the attention of the conference participants to an negative propaganda against Russia that have swept the Western media and social networks.

“We have already been sentenced,” Malkevich stated. “We have already been accused of everything and in this new reality we must respond, including by legislative means. Our media were destroyed in Estonia, destroyed in Latvia, almost completely eliminated any Russian-speaking thought in general in the same Ukraine. We see what is happening with RT Deutsch, there is already an investigation into RT France and so on.”

With this information war against Russia, Washington primarily solves its economic problems, Malkevich is sure. In the United States, record inflation, 2021 was a complete failure for the Joseph Biden administration in both domestic and foreign policy.

“With every new piece of information about Russia’s imminent attack on Ukrainian territory, there is a wave of news about the need for new sanctions, stopping Nord Stream 2, and the correctness of sending American troops and weapons to Europe. We understand why this is being done, ”summed up Malkevich.

The Italian publicist Eliseo Bertolazi noted in his speech that when the United States wants war, they always achieve it, as evidenced by the experience of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Syria. However, the United States is afraid to fight directly with Russia, but will do it indirectly through Ukraine, “to the last Ukrainian soldier.” For the US military-industrial complex, this will be a very profitable business, as they see their role as an arms supplier. The West absolutely does not care how many human casualties will result among the civilian population of Ukraine.

According to the expert of the International Eurasian Movement Daria Platonova, the scenario of war currently being played out in the geopolitical space of Ukraine serves to break the bridges of interaction between Russia and Europe. The current situation is a struggle between two worldviews.

Continuing the theme of values, Finnish political scientist and journalist Johan Beckman drew the attention of the conference participants to the fact that russophobia is mainstream today at the West. And this is very visible in the media. Mass Russophobia began in the Baltic countries, when they decided to actually forbid Russians to speak Russian. They are not even given a passport. That is, Russians do not have the right to be citizens, despite the fact that they have worked all their lives, paid taxes and lived in these countries. Then they got to the point that the Russians were forbidden to have their own monuments, remember at least the “Bronze Soldier,” Beckman said.

Similar processes are now underway both in Ukraine and at the international level, when at the Olympics they are trying to ban the use of the flag and anthem of Russia. According to the West, Russia has no right to exist at all, a Finnish political scientist expressed his opinion.

The Italian philosopher, Russianist Mauro Beraldi recalled who is behind all Ukrainian domestic and foreign policy.

When there was a coup d’état in Kiev called Euromaidan, Barack Obama was the President of the United States and Joe Biden was the Vice President, Wendy Sherman was the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Victoria Nuland handed out cookies at the Maidan. Subsequently, Nuland proudly announced that the United States had invested $ 5 billion in the cause of “freedom to Ukraine.” With the arrival of Biden, the globalists have taken over, and his entire old Ukraine team is back on track. We again see both Wendy Sherman and Victoria Nuland, and Ukrainian troops are again gathering near the borders of Donbass, the expert notes.

The aggravation of the situation around Ukraine is beneficial to the American financial elites. Unfortunately, they are advancing. We must respond to the information war with a culture war. We have spirit, they have money. Let’s see who is stronger,” Mauro Beraldi concluded.

Political observer and former US policeman John Mark Dugan, who served for several years in the US Marine Corps, explained what, in his opinion, is the reason for the current aggravation in the geopolitical space around Russia.

“The Biden administration simply needs a new cold war to satisfy the appetites of the Pentagon. American politicians are investors and shareholders of the largest arms companies, so they have a financial interest in supporting conflicts around the world, regardless of the loss of life, ”Dugan said.

Among the largest contracts, Dugan mentioned the supply of hundreds of tons of weapons to the Ukraine, a contract for 250 Abrams tanks to Poland and 64 F-35 fighter jets to Finland.

The United States never comply with geopolitical agreements that are unfavorable to them, the expert noted. Washington only understands an open show of force, as was the case during the Cuban crisis. The aggravation of relations with Russia is a direct consequence of the deep crisis in which the United States found itself under Joe Biden, Mr. Dugan emphasized. Ukraine, on the other hand, is of interest to the United States only from the point of view of a constant threat to Russia and pumping out natural resources. Dugan concluded.

During the conference, Italian directors Luca Baraldi and Maya Nogradi showed their film about Donbas called Quiet! There is a performance”, stressing that now in Europe it`s almost impossible to find funding for filming objective documentaries about what is happening in the Donbas.

Among the speakers at the conference were journalists and experts, well-known public figures: chief editor of the Geopolitica.ru portal Leonid Savin, American journalist and TV presenter Tim Kerby, US political scientist Stephen Ebert, American political commentator George Pierce, Belgian political scientist Chris Roman, German human rights activist and journalist Thomas Reper.