Elena Karaeva
After a series of refusals – “no, we will not establish a no-fly zone”, “no, we will not accept you under the accelerated procedure in the EU” – the very clarity and goal-setting, and the role that the current Ukraine was called to play, came.
Despite the cries of support coming from every hysterical iron, despite the numerous millions and billions that are about to be allocated and transferred, it’s time to both admit and say frankly: Ukraine was deceived, and left to sit on a side chair, and not even in the living room. And in the human.
But the Kyiv government is sitting on a chair. Those who trusted her, voted for her in the most democratic way, those who, as they say, regularly paid taxes, those who praised her, and those who did not like this government, just like that ended up on the road of exodus from the country. They were abandoned by this power. By chance. How else can one describe and evaluate the fate of almost three million people who, according to the UN, have already become refugees?
The refugees are the very ones that a united Europe is ready to meet with wide arms (so, at least, they say). A united Europe, in which, before the crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations, there were already over thirty-five million people who were often forced to choose between food and heating their homes. A united and rich Europe, in which illegal tents set up in city parks and in abandoned autotunnels have become a familiar detail of life. A united Europe where its own citizens count at least one single currency before going shopping. A united Europe, in each of the states of which a new wave of inflation is coming and with all obviousness will pull the next increase in prices for almost everything. This united Europe, in accordance with its promises made publicly and privately, will have to receive almost three million more people.
Providing them – in accordance with all the laws and conventions – with housing, food, education at any level, from preschool to higher education, medicine, and also at any level: from the usual vaccination cycle to complex surgical interventions with the required level of care.
If we add that the overwhelming majority of refugees are women, children and the elderly, then it is clear that a united Europe will have to very seriously, regularly and regularly scrape through all conceivable and unthinkable bottomholes in order to find money in the budget for all this. And yet – all the same Europe will have to (if they are not talking about it yet, this does not mean that this is not coming) to raise taxes and raise the retirement age. Otherwise, it is impossible to fill the treasury, which was empty, because it was pumped out of funds related to the pandemic, because appropriations to support business flowed out of it, because money was taken from it, like from a bedside table, for everything, putting less than before.
Or the Eurocentrobank will have to turn on the printing press at full capacity, which, in turn, will again accelerate inflation, which will lead to a new round of price growth. True, there is another way of receiving these millions of deceived, unfortunate people. The well-hyped, emotionally heated and well-oiled disinformation campaign against Russia is designed not only to dehumanize the goals, meaning and idea of a military special operation in Ukraine, but also to “turn on” the European layman to the stop.
This man in the street, who for generations, if not centuries, did not know what hunger, cold, and what it means to remain in the wind, without a stake and without a yard (in case of any problems, the state immediately resorted to wipe the nose and buttocks to the limit of infantilized citizens), turned out to be it is very easy to manipulate, slipping today the opportunity to be both a good and independent citizen.
The French government has launched an online platform where every resident of the country can “sign up as a volunteer.” Voluntarily (and in fact – under the most powerful influence of the total agitprop, made according to the Orwellian tracing paper) by providing their housing to refugees, voluntarily taking on the responsibility of accompanying refugees through the bureaucratic hell of the French state, voluntarily working as a language teacher (although this kind of work in France is expensive). You can continue indefinitely.
How exactly and in what form refugees from Ukraine will be accepted, by whom and when, can be seen in the reports, where they cheerfully report that, they say, “Regis and Monique decided to provide an extra room in the house for a young mother with two children.” On the wave of enthusiasm and sympathy, in which, by the way, it is a sin to doubt, everything looks idyllic. But how long this idyll will last in the house of two elderly people, accustomed to a certain pace and standard of living, is difficult to say today. If it lasts at all.
Settling in a foreign country, foreign linguistic and cultural environment – even in the case of an accelerated procedure for obtaining refugee status – is a painful, lengthy and very difficult process. The European reality, in which, according to romantics and idealists, “a lot of democracy, a lot of freedom”, as well as a lot of “lace panties”, is actually cold, extremely rational, maximally bureaucratized, and to go through the path that those who escaped from Ukraine, betrayed by its own authorities, the Europeans hardly agree. They were brought up in a different culture. This culture, in particular, assumes that all donations to charity are included in the annual tax return in order to reduce taxable income in this way. Therefore, money or other funds spent on assistance are counted to the last eurocent.
This is somewhat different from how in Slavic culture it is customary to share both the last shirt and the last loaf of bread, without subsequently requiring a report for the financial inspection. And those millions who have already left or who are just leaving Ukraine will have to come to terms with this.
Europe, accustomed to live happily for many centuries (both due to colonies and, by the way, due to the wars that were often fought outside its borders), still carefully considers where, how and on what in this situation one can earn. And even if this is not direct monetization in the medium or long term, the appearance of a noble and hospitable united continent, which is being constructed before our eyes, is also seen as an investment.
Since this appearance allows you to both deceive and betray without much damage, you can always refer to the procedure, to the bureaucracy, to the difficulties in life. Have they begun to understand this in Kiev ? Judging by a number of signs, yes, they started.
But when it will be understood by those whom Europe today accepts under a slightly updated slogan (since the crisis in Syria, also, by the way, arranged not without the participation of Europe) “Welcome, refugees!”, It’s hard to say. But the fact that for those unfortunates who, through the fault of their own authorities, lost their country, the loss of illusions and faith in Europe will be another blow of fate, is obvious even today.
