20th July 2018

Last week Europe was treated to a visit from the US President, Donald Trump, a visit which only served to provide more evidence that the current American Head of State has no interest in maintaining the order America built since 1945, nor in fulfilling the role we have become accustomed to the Americans playing in the post-war era. This has led myself and many others to argue Europe must make plans and ready itself for a time when we can no longer rely on the US at all, for that moment is clearly approaching. After the events of this week, we would all be wise to conclude the pace of that movement has accelerated, and so much Europe’s strategy to make itself capable of autonomously acting in the world.

You might think I’m referring to the embarrassing meeting Mr Trump held with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, where the man rejecting the reports of his own intelligence agencies in favour of the ‘strong denial’ of Mr Putin that Russia did not at all meddle in the 2016 US election. Certainly Trump made a fool of himself there and only demonstrated to the rest of the world that he stands much closer to the Russian President than any US leader since 1945. However, this only confirmed what we already suspected – that Trump is no friend of Europe’s. Much clearer was when he referred to the European Union as a foe over the weekend (in the same breath as China and admittedly Russia), or indeed when he made justifications for the Russian seizure of the Crimea. No, I’m talking about the arrest of alleged Russian agent Mariia Butina, and the details released in the supporting Affidavit about her activities in America specifically regarding her connections to US politics. She has been reported as primarily a gun-rights activist by much of the media, but more interesting to me is her presence at the ‘National Prayer Breakfast’ in Washington D.C. in 2016 and 2017, and the resulting connections between the Russian government and US congressmen made from those meetings.

TYT Investigates wrote an enlightening article on the connections between Ms Butina and the organisers of the prayer breakfast, a fundamentalist Christian organisation called the Fellowship Foundation, including a private meeting and the alleged promise of 10 seats at the 2017 breakfast for Russian envoys. The significance comes for Europe when it is noted that the Fellowship Foundation has sponsored “37 trips abroad by individual members of Congress in the last 18 years. Fourteen of those trips have been by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), co-chair of the 2016 National Prayer Breakfast. Since 2008, Aderholt took 11 out of 17 trips sponsored by the Fellowship.” And he’s not the only one; three other Republican congressmen have also undertaken these trips, several of which have been to parts of Eastern Europe such as the Balkans and Ukraine. The TYT Investigates article makes clear that what connects the 4 congressmen is their opposition to EU standards on gay-rights legislation necessary to join the Union; “all four have met with proponents of anti-gay policies, or participated in events at least implicitly counter to gay rights, in Ukraine and other European nations”.

Fostering anti-gay sentiment on Europe’s eastern frontier in states seeking to join the Union has been a tactic of the Russian government since before the Ukraine conflict began in 2014. Buzzfeed shed light on the strategy being deployed in Ukraine in 2013, and it has become similarly intertwined with the debate on seeking to join the Union in several Western Balkan countries. Anti-gay propaganda is one of many tactics used by Russia in a broader discernible strategy of divide et impera in Eastern Europe to prevent the Union from cementing its presence in states along the Russian border. Cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns have added to the general sense of confusion. The Kremlin has also sponsored far-right parties in Italy, Austria and France, which I think is safe to assume is part of a Russian attempt to undermine the unity of the European Union and hence make Europe incapable to speaking for itself or exerting a presence on the world stage. United, Europe is a challenge to Putin’s Russia. Divided, Europe is its playground.

Returning to America, of course we can’t be certain of whether the US Congressmen were aware of the Fellowship Foundation’s dealings with Russia and the sponsored propaganda trips took place long before Butina got in touch with the organisation in 2016. All the same, republican members of congress with access to the levers of US power and access to the most powerful people in the world have been involved in efforts which could undermine the cohesion and security of Europe on our eastern frontier. They are spreading propaganda which completely flies in the face of our own beliefs and commitment to human-rights, to prevent states from joining the European Union, as well as to states within the Union (Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and Croatia) in a clear attempt to divide the Union and its voice on issues such as the defence of human rights and our response to Russia. Trump’s America is a culmination of increasing division between Europe and the US; a difference in beliefs, values, social standards and international objectives. The Iraq war was just the beginning. Whatever our governments did, the protests in Europe against the war were larger than anywhere else in the world, with millions on the streets on 15th February 2003. If Europe is truly built on the idea of peace, then why can Europe’s voice not be used in the service of that ideal and of diplomacy? Must we be tied permanently to an imperialist project pursued increasingly vigorously by successive American governments over the past 20 years, rather than determining our own vision of defending the values of a free and just world?

Russia, it should be clear by now, is no friend of the EU or of any European country. Putin and his government are pursuing an imperialist agenda like all of his predecessors, the likes of which the left and our allies have denounced time and again, on our part historically and on America’s part today. Russia is doing the same and we must resist that by acting as a single, undivided Europe in the face of the superpowers. However, we must now see that whatever the case was before, Europe is now a pawn in the imperialist, self-serving agenda of the Trump administration and America’s republicans. These are so-called ‘normal’ republicans implicated here, not Trump’s alt-right henchmen, which we are rightly wary of when they come to Europe. They republican congressmen. So this isn’t a Trump phenomenon. It is how a significant section of the American political class sees Europe in relation to their own agenda to maintain American power. Do we allow this to continue or find a way or extricating ourselves from this subservient position?

No one wants to paint the US as a power as hostile as Russia is increasingly becoming. But we can’t allow our fate to be left in such hands, hands which are not our own, over which we have no power. Countries across the world are sliding into despotism, xenophobia, isolation and a general ugliness not seen in many decades. Some say Europe should simply watch this slide, abdicate our responsibility to act as a beacon of the achievements of the past 70 years and in so doing be consumed by the same forces. There are progressives who believe the opposite however, who believe Europe’s power and voice obliges it to protect human rights, diplomacy and the multilateral order, democratic government and equality; these principles we have declared are our own. Who know only a progressive international can face off the nationalists and the failing establishment which gave life to them. Who know Europe must bind itself close together if we are to have the strength to defend the free world and its promise of a better tomorrow.