Russian media are experiencing paroxysms of enjoyment as a result of the European refugee crisis. Bits of saliva appear in the corners of the TV commentators’ mouths and their eyes bug out in orgasmic glee whenever they talk about the refugees. And talk about them they do. One celebratory report after another on the refugees is appearing on Russia’s state-owned television.
Russia’s Foreign Affairs minister Lavrov says that Russia will not even consider diminishing its support of Assad. Among other reasons for Russia to stay in Syria, ensuring that the flow of refugees towards Europe grows looms large.
Putin sees in the refugee crisis a real opportunity to kick the EU out of its role as the world’s #2 major player. The #1 spot obviously belongs to the US, and Putin never made any secret of his intense desire to see the planet subdivided between its two owners and commanders: Russia and the US.
The EU is getting in the middle of this cozy arrangement, which is why Putin’s propaganda has been vilifying Europe as a degenerate place where gay pedophiles run around unchecked, destroying everything good they encounter. This EU-bashing has been the staple of Putinoid propaganda for years.
The refugee crisis has given Putin’s media an opportunity to announce that the closing stage of the “decline of the West” has finally begun. Once the degenerate, gay-loving, feminism – infested Europe finally collapses, says Putinoid propaganda, Russia will step out of the shadows to which it had been unfairly relegated and bring the world the true light of its profound religiosity and traditional values.
Clarissa's Blog 
Did you see that Germany today announced a temporary suspension of the Schengen agreement and re-introduced border controls with Austria. They have also mobilized the entire federal police force (Bundespolizei) to man the borders and suspended train traffic from Austria to Munich until tomorrow morning. City and state level politicians are freaking out because they can’t figure out what to do with so many people arriving so quickly.
LikeLike
I don’t think the Schengen agreement will survive, unfortunately. Not that I ever used it or was going to but it makes me very sad to see it expire. It was such a beautiful, amazing idea.
LikeLike
The EU as a political and monetary entity is doomed, anyway, and doesn’t need Putin’s malicious help. Tragedies like the refugee crisis are only speeding up the inevitable.
I’m not typing this with any pleasure, just stating the obvious.
LikeLike
Intellectually, I know you are right. But still, when I hear this, I experience fits of rage. Not against you, of course, but against the fuckers who messed up such an amazing and important project.
LikeLike
Who fucked this up though? I think the real issue was thinking political / economic integration of seperate nations without a war would happen. Has it happened in any countries combining in the last 250 years without a result of a war or threat of the war? I mean that honestly as a question. Perhaps there is 1 or 2 examples, but net net its extremely hard to integrate… too many existing interests (politically, economically, socially, business, culture etc.)
LikeLike
The average german / brit/ spainaird etc. i don’t think ever wanted the EU, it was always the elites, who is not someone i think you usually side with, so curious of where your view is shaped from.
LikeLike
You couldn’t be more mistaken. In Spain, the enthusiasm for the EU was enormous for profound historic / cultural reasons.
It makes zero sense to analyze today’s events on the basis of what happened in the past. 250 years ago, the nation-state was only just coming into existence, and today it’s being eroded by the technological revolution.
LikeLike
So two ccomments: 1, I think we agree there really is no precedent for the EU (as there have been no examples). Certainly today i think the majority of many countries question / are straight hostile to staying in the EU. Perhaps it was different at the founding. The UK definitely does not want closer integration, and many things i have read makes me think the average german does not want to. Those are the most two powerful EU countries so that is important to establish. However, you are a Spain expert, so I will defer to you on their enthusiasm. Two questions: why was this enthusiasm there? and does it still exist?
My thinking it was because they had been far behind UK, Germany, France, and Italy and the EU was a chance to become an accepted mainstream player in europe? Interested to hear if this was one of the main reasons.
LikeLike
Yes, exactly, Spain had been historically marginalized in Europe and wanted to end that marginalization.
It’s entirely wrong, though, to suppose that Europeans are disappointed with the EU. They overwhelmingly love the open borders, the ease of travel, the chance to say “I’m from Europe”, the shared project, the collective assistance, etc. What they hate – and what many of them tend to confuse with the union – are the transformations that every nation-state is experiencing as a result of the technological revolution. They are afraid of the new and in such situations human brain tends to resist the idea of the future and grasp at something familiar in the past.
That familiar past is dead, though. Going back to small separate nation-states is an illusion. It can’t be done.
LikeLike
“What they hate – and what many of them tend to confuse with the union – are the transformations that every nation-state is experiencing as a result of the technological revolution”
How do you think the current refugee inundation ties into that? I’m really struggling to find a motive for Merkel’s opening the borders of another country (Hungary) and inviting hundreds of thousands of unvetted people with no practical skills that isn’t grounded in complete ignorance of economics and human nature and/or malice towards the entire continent.
Maybe it was founded as a desire to be seen as a moral country? In the mid-1980s I remember a young East German being frustrated at being expected to feel personally guilt for WWII. I imagine the international approbation of taking the supposed moral high ground must have been intoxicating. But now the hangover has already started.
LikeLike
There doesn’t even seem to be a principle at work here. One day it’s “let’s let everyone in, that’s the moral thing to do” and then two days later “no, scratch that, close the borders.” I’m observing all this with a feeling of extreme amazement. It would obviously be easier for everybody if an organizing principle were to be found because this is confusing everybody and creating massive injustice. I mean, how do you explain that yesterday’s refugees are better than today’s?
It’s like whatever feels good at any given moment. And the American mainstream media are even more confusing. There seems to be a tacit consensus that the EU must admit all refugees that choose to come and all coverage is conducted from this basic premise. Nobody is asking the badic question, though, of what if 100 million refugees choose to come? And what about a billion?
Maybe something is wrong with me but it makes my brain hurt seeing this see – saw of uncoordinated, illogical actions.
LikeLike
And… the German minister of labor estimates that only 10% of the arrivals have enough education to begin vocational training (I’m assuming this means above and apart from German language competence which I’m assuming virtually none of them have)
LikeLike
And let me stress for a moment what a bad track record Germany has towards its neighbors in recent years.
When the EU expanded in 2004 Germany did everything possible to prevent the dirty Eastern Europeans from being able to work there legally for as long as they could.
With Greece facing ruin in what amounts to loan shark debts Germany refuses any debt reduction (even thought he IMF says it’s needed).
Most German policy on Ukraine seems to be centered on not bothering Russia (and it’s gas imports).
They demonized Hungary for trying to follow existing laws and then start moralizing about how countries like Poland have to take in migrants (who don’t want to go there anyway) and the latest is that Merkel is lecturing Greece about not defending EU borders well enough.
In about a week Merkel has gone from someone I had no real opinion about to being the moral equivalent of Putin (in my judgement). that’s quite an accomplishment.
LikeLike
It’s like Germans can’t exist unless they have antagonized everybody to the utmost degree. I have no idea what the heck they are doing any longer. One journalist I recently read says that the Nazis are controlling them from beyond the grave in this need to prove that today’s Germans don’t send any trains with people to the East. To the contrary, they are accepting trains with people. It’s like a weird public ritual of expiation of their historic sins.
LikeLike
Here is the article I’m talking about: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/09/12/insane-asylum/?utm_source=The+Daily+News+Brief&utm_campaign=46427d1b3d-Morning_Email9_14_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b4a0944fbd-46427d1b3d-74427769
LikeLike