Putin using Ukraine ‘to bring Europe to its knees’
A big motivation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was to sow turmoil more broadly in Europe. Now he is trying to make the entire continent suffer, according to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Speaking in an interview on Monday at his office in the capital Tirana, Rama described Ukraine as “the tool to fulfil the ambition of Vladimir Putin to put Europe on [its] knees.
“This is what I’m afraid many people don’t understand,” said Rama, who is hosting European leaders on Tuesday for a summit on the Western Balkans.
“It’s not about Ukraine, it’s about Europe. And the bet is very, very clear to me, to make Europe suffer economically and financially to the point that something under the rug starts to fire up and create instability and chaos within the European countries,” he said.
With Putin’s war in Ukraine in its 10th month and his troops bogged down on the ground, the Russian president has resorted to large-scale missile strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, hitting targets that trigger widespread blackouts and disrupt gas flows to Europe.
Members of Putin’s administration have also accused Nato, which Albania joined in 2009, of waging a “proxy war” against Russia by supplying Ukraine with military and economic aid.
European leaders have accused Putin of weaponising energy against Ukraine and the continent as a whole. The Russian leader has periodically halted gas flows to countries in Europe. For months, Ukraine’s war-hit ports were also unable to export grain, adding to global food price inflation and cost-ofliving pressures.
Rama said Putin’s broader goals argue even more strongly for Europe to keep resisting his tactics. While Albania is not part of the EU, Rama has been a fierce critic of Putin and his war.
The bloc backed a price cap on Russian oil that kicked in on Monday after months of fraught negotiations. The EU has imposed rounds of sanctions on Russia’s economy and its members have sent weapons and financial aid to Ukraine. But as the war drags on into winter, concern is rising about how long Europe can maintain unity.
Rama said he did not believe the conflict was yet at a point where negotiations could happen. He said it was too difficult to say how long the war could last, because there were too many variables and Putin had been left unchecked for years.
“This reminds me of an interview with a Polish coach before the game with Argentina, when someone asked him how you block Messi? And he said, really? You didn’t block him so many years, now you ask me to block him?” Rama said, referring to the two countries’ World Cup match. “So, I don’t have the answer for how long this war will continue.”
Rama argued that Putin would negotiate only if he is weakened enough and compelled to. “If he sits down like someone that is strong,” Rama said, “then this war will not end.”
Equally, Putin was for the first time being properly challenged, he said. “His previous wars have been much more showdowns of ruthlessness towards far lesscapable countries or communities in terms of resisting. So, he built a myth that we are seeing differently today, thanks to Ukrainian resistance, the myth of the unbeatable Russian army, which in fact doesn’t look very unbeatable,” he said.