With each passing day, the presence of President Vladimir Putin in office gives the West a terrible headache. Picture: Alexander Zemlianichenko EPA
“Register of Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine”, also known as the Register of Damage for Ukraine or RD4U, is an acronym for Western ganging up against Moscow in the wake of a glaring geopolitical clash of interests between the West and Russia.
Founded by the Council of Europe to proliferate ways to punish Russia economically and politically, the establishment of the RD4U was also a means by which to drain the Russian Federation off its resources invested overseas.
When the Biden administration declared a proxy war on Russia and mobilised NATO and the EU behind Washington’s foreign policy objective to isolate President Vladimir Putin and his nation, Europe fell for the ploy, sleepwalking into a totally unnecessary war they could have evaded.
In fact, had Europe elected to remain what the EU was founded for—to keep the war-prone continent united in purpose, particularly with regard to peaceful coexistence with itself and the world—the EU could have easily played a protagonist role and brokered peace between the US and Russia.
After all, Europe truly needs both Russia and the US for its own development and diverse geopolitical interests. However, over the last few decades, during which Europe became all but Washington’s lackeys, Brussels’ foreign policy has been premised on the old dictum "monkey see, monkey do”, mimicking virtually everything the US does overseas.
In establishing the RD4U, the Council of Europe claimed it would be a vehicle for use in pursuit of compensation for Ukrainian individuals, groups, or institutions that had suffered material losses due to the war in Ukraine.
In my view, this is a simplistic approach to reality by Europe and the West. They play blind to the underlying causes of the Ukraine conflict, which was triggered by NATO’s expansion to the doorstep of Moscow, posing an existential and security threat to the Russian Federation.
But, united by Russophobia, Europe continued to join hands without wise counsel, isolating Russia by any means necessary whilst shooting themselves in the foot. Over the last two years since the West imposed an unprecedented barrage of economic sanctions against Moscow, the Russian economy has instead grown, showing an upward trajectory in every respect.
Europe’s ban of Russian oil and gas, which the densely populated continent had purchased at a nominal fee prior to the Ukraine conflict, has continued to sour in sales as nations such as India and China, the world’s two largest nations by population count amounting to nearly 3 billion people jointly, have turned out to be Russia’s biggest trading partners.
In contrast, Europe turned to oil imports all the way from the US, paying six times more than the Russian oil next door, which was also easy to deliver using the nearby Nord Stream 1 and later the new Nord Stream 2, which was bombed by the Ukrainian operatives with silent approval of the EU.
Germany, which virtually co-owned the Nord Streams 1 and 2 with Russia, shot itself in the foot as the once Europe’s number one economy has since fallen to its knees, causing nation-wide anxiety and instability that has seen the approval rate of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz crumble to its lowest in recent memory. As things stand, Germany is gearing for snap elections early in 2025, and Scholz is set for an ignominious exit out of office.
Europe, and by extension, the West’s war on Russia, has boomerang. Far from Russia’s economy crumbling, the opposite is true for large parts of Europe, whose camouflaged unity against Russia has started to reveal failure. EU member states such as Hungary, Croatia, and Türkiye have become some of the most notable dissenters.
All these point to the inevitable failure of vehicles such as RD4U. It started to fail when it attempted without success to rope in the nations of the Global South in their proxy war against Russia.
The RD4U’s formation in May 2023 was subsequent to the manipulative declaration at the UN recognising that Russia be held to account for violations of international law in Ukraine, “including by way of payment of reparation”.
I raise this point in particular to juxtapose it with the US and EU’s unwavering support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Not only is the West shielding Israel from any accountability for destroying livelihoods, extinguishing Palestinians, and systematically obliterating their residences and communities, they invariably maintain an enabling environment for Israel’s impunity.
This is the clearest example of the double standards pursued by the West that have threatened the fundamental base of the UN Charter on multilateralism.
The powerful nations of the Global North have whittled down the international multilateral order into a unipolar global system controlled by the wealthy and mighty against the weak and the weary.
The RD4U has been a failure from the outset. The West will be acting illegally if they were to channel frozen Russian assets to Ukraine unilaterally. They will be breaking the same lawful international order they claim to fight for and represent.
They cannot apportion to themselves the roles of referee and player. They are as conflicted as Russia in Ukraine, and had the UN still enjoyed unimpeachable status, it would be ideal for the world body to act as a peace broker.
All these shortcomings and glaring failures of our global governance system have come to symbolise an international order facing challenges of great significance.
Russia has thus far survived the socio-economic and political onslaught of Washington and Europe due to its long-standing upper-class military and nuclear capability it built during the Soviet era. Were it not for the military super status, the West would have long effected regime change in Moscow and their remote-controlled stooge occupying the Kremlin.
With each passing day, the presence of President Vladimir Putin in office gives the West a terrible headache. Buckle up! It is going to get worse very soon when President-elect Donald Trump ascends the Oval Office on January 20, 2025.
He has already nailed his colours to the mast, vowing to stop the Ukraine conflict without delay. Today’s Europe can do nothing of major geopolitical significance without Washington. Watch them fall in line when Trump assumes power as the 47th president of the US.
Trump will not buy into the madness and folly of the RD4U. The thing is simply a recipe for the continuation of conflict, instead of a mechanism to end the war. And Russia would at any rate not tolerate any nation stealing its investment without retaliating in mirror form, if not worse. Mark my words.
* Abbey Makoe is founder and editor-in-chief of Global South Media Network. The views expressed here are his own.