Except the EU can’t compete industrially or millitarily with any of those 3. The EU needs to correctly identify who to partner with for its own survival, and it’s clear that the PRC is the best option, Russia being a second choice. The US Empire is dying, and the EU imperialists are either going to fall down with it or be forced into cooperation with those it has convinced itself are existential enemies.
Maybe there’d be some hope for that to happen if everyone in the EU hadn’t been conditioned to be racist as fuck against anyone to the east or south for centuries
The EU has a much larger GDP and a significantly higher defense budget than Russia (about 457 billion USD vs. 146 billion USD in 2024). While its industry is more fragmented, it can be rapidly scaled up when needed as demonstrated in Ukraine. and the comparison to russia also lacks because the EU doesn’t consider the current situation as active war. However, compared to the US and China, the EU still lags behind their global projections. Although Russia has increased its arms production in recent years, it is suffering from sanctions and material losses in the Ukraine conflict, which limits its military capabilities. Overall, the EU is economically and industrially stronger than Russia, but still trails the US and China in a global comparison. Since there is a noticable shift of power in the world the EU started to focus more on China and India as trading partners and leave the US who traditionally were European allies.
The EU has a much larger GDP and a significantly higher defense budget than Russia (about 457 billion USD vs. 146 billion USD in 2024)
The EU is far more financialized, in terms of gross industrial output the EU is behind the Russian Federation. This is a holdover from their soviet legacy. In terms of real production, Russia succeeds, despite lower GDP, because money stretches much farther in Russia. 1 million USD worth of Russian goods gets you a lot more than 1 million USD in European goods, to make things simple.
Europe could make up the gap, but it is so dominated by finance capital and energy dependency that this makes it incredibly difficult without adopting socialism.
Overall, the EU is economically and industrially stronger than Russia
This is false. The EU is financially stronger than Russia, largely thanks to modern neoimperialism in Africa, but industrially is far behind.
Since there is a noticable shift of power in the world the EU started to focus more on China and India as trading partners and leave the US who traditionally were European allies.
Correct, the EU is being demoted from imperial vassal to periphery, and since it would take devastating losses in open conflict with a major power without US backing it has to seek other allies.
Ridiculous Russia have zero people, they’ve lost 2m in manpower. They have a lot of land but in every measure they are less powerful than the EU. They are economically the size of Spain. The EU contains Spain and it’s not even the largest economy. Russian propaganda much?
What the EU doesn’t have, at least in the short/medium term, is energy. That industrial base needs (a lot of) energy. Russia was able to supply this cheaply, while the US is charging an arm and a leg. Of course in the long run, renewables can help keep that energy production local, but that means developing closer ties with China. And right now the US is trying to throw up walls to prevent other countries from accessing China’s renewable energy products.
The EU does indeed have a significantly larger potential industrial base than Russia. But that also requires coordination, intentional action, and long-term planning. So far the EU hasn’t seemed capable of doing these things but who knows, maybe Trump has been the wake-up call Europeans need.
I also hope Trump has shown Europeans that the US is the bigger threat to European sovereignty than Russia. And this will be true after Trump is gone, it’s not a one-time thing (Biden did things hostile to European sovereignty but that goes under the radar because he was more supportive of Ukraine). But yeah, if the EU makes some coordinated effort to build military defenses, they shouldn’t have a problem protecting their sovereignty against Russia. And that assumes Russia wants to try and military conquer parts of Europe, which I do not believe but even if I did, a more robust, domestic EU military would be enough to prevent an attack even if that was Russia’s intention.
The US is Europe’s fake friend - with or without Trump - and it frustrates me to no end that Europeans can’t see it.
What’s deeply ironic about this situation is that one of the main reasons the EU has remained distant to Russia is the US. Cold war was between US and Russia. More recently US opposed Nord Stream 2. Now US suddenly is friendly to Russia and EU are running around like headless chicken because they made it their own identity to be hostile to Russia. There haven been people suggesting that while indeed Russia is antidemocratic etc. one can still try to carefully cooperate, because it happens to be a neighbor and it makes sense strategically. Who knows, maybe in the process one could positively influence Russia, it doesn’t have to be always the other way. But these people are instantly called Russian assets and demonized. And it’s not like this kind of reasoning was the real issue anyway, as in the meantime you see western democracies happily collaborating e.g. with Turkey or Saudi Arabia. The Ukraine war complicates things though. Aside of the humanitarian and economic tragedy, it’s a diplomatic disaster, as it makes Russia look quite hostile to Europe, whether they actually „want to continue“ beyond Ukraine or not.
I wouldn’t say “right behind,” Europe was very happy to buy Russian energy for decades until the US sabotaged Nord Stream. The US Empire is by far the most dangerous.
Russia has quite a bit more than just those areas, but importantly, the EU still needs fossil fuels. It could sidestep this by purchasing large amounts of solar from China, or making or buying nuclear reactors, but it can’t do so overnight. Moreover, the EU is heavily financialized, and industry is hurting. Much of what the EU consumes is made overseas, or comes from overseas resource extraction, especially from European neocolonies in Africa. Imperialism is decaying, so this puts the EU in an even tighter spot, hence political instability and a strong rightward shift.
I’m not sure what you are trying to say. Russia has way less industrial output than the EU. Russia is more imperialist than the EU. EU is shifting right, but is still wayyy to the left of Russia. Saying we should align with Russia is like saying we should align with turkey. Or Saudi Arabia.
Russia is the 4th largest economy by GDP, adjusted to PPP, and isn’t as heavily reliant on finance capital as the EU is. Moreover, Russia has no colonies nor neocolonies, and doesn’t run their economy based on export of capital and plundering the surplus value of the global south, like the US and EU do.
Imperialism is characterized by the following:
-The presence of monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life.
-The merging of bank capital with industrial capital into finance capital controlled by a financial oligarchy.
-The export of capital as distinguished from the simple export of commodities.
-The formation of international monopolist capitalist associations (cartels) and multinational corporations.
-The domination and exploitation of other countries by militaristic imperialist powers, now through neocolonialism.
-The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers.
The global north, Europe included, uses this export of capital to super-exploit foreign labor for super-profits. It also engages in unequal exchange, where the global south is prevented from moving up the value chain in production, allowing the global north to charge monopoly prices for commodities produced in the same labor hours. Russia does not do this, it has a paltry sum of the world’s finance capital, and this is proven by just how low their nominal GDP is compared to it’s GDP adjusted to PPP.
The Russian Federation and the EU are both right-wing, but the EU is actively imperialist. The fact that progressive nationalist movements like the Alliance of Sahel States are kicking out European plunderers, and the PRC is presenting as an alternative to western domination, is exactly why conditions within the imperialist west are declining and causing a shift to the far-right. Austerity politics are enforced due to capitalist decay.
Except the EU can’t compete industrially or millitarily with any of those 3. The EU needs to correctly identify who to partner with for its own survival, and it’s clear that the PRC is the best option, Russia being a second choice. The US Empire is dying, and the EU imperialists are either going to fall down with it or be forced into cooperation with those it has convinced itself are existential enemies.
Maybe there’d be some hope for that to happen if everyone in the EU hadn’t been conditioned to be racist as fuck against anyone to the east or south for centuries
They have to do something, which is why political instability is on the rise.
The EU has a much larger GDP and a significantly higher defense budget than Russia (about 457 billion USD vs. 146 billion USD in 2024). While its industry is more fragmented, it can be rapidly scaled up when needed as demonstrated in Ukraine. and the comparison to russia also lacks because the EU doesn’t consider the current situation as active war. However, compared to the US and China, the EU still lags behind their global projections. Although Russia has increased its arms production in recent years, it is suffering from sanctions and material losses in the Ukraine conflict, which limits its military capabilities. Overall, the EU is economically and industrially stronger than Russia, but still trails the US and China in a global comparison. Since there is a noticable shift of power in the world the EU started to focus more on China and India as trading partners and leave the US who traditionally were European allies.
The EU is far more financialized, in terms of gross industrial output the EU is behind the Russian Federation. This is a holdover from their soviet legacy. In terms of real production, Russia succeeds, despite lower GDP, because money stretches much farther in Russia. 1 million USD worth of Russian goods gets you a lot more than 1 million USD in European goods, to make things simple.
Europe could make up the gap, but it is so dominated by finance capital and energy dependency that this makes it incredibly difficult without adopting socialism.
This is false. The EU is financially stronger than Russia, largely thanks to modern neoimperialism in Africa, but industrially is far behind.
Correct, the EU is being demoted from imperial vassal to periphery, and since it would take devastating losses in open conflict with a major power without US backing it has to seek other allies.
Ridiculous Russia have zero people, they’ve lost 2m in manpower. They have a lot of land but in every measure they are less powerful than the EU. They are economically the size of Spain. The EU contains Spain and it’s not even the largest economy. Russian propaganda much?
How many times has Russia supposedly been about to collapse? You’d think after the dozenth, people would learn
You’re confusing finances with raw industrial power. An 8 USD big mac in Switzerland isn’t 3 times better than a 2.54 USD big mac in Indonesia.
What the EU doesn’t have, at least in the short/medium term, is energy. That industrial base needs (a lot of) energy. Russia was able to supply this cheaply, while the US is charging an arm and a leg. Of course in the long run, renewables can help keep that energy production local, but that means developing closer ties with China. And right now the US is trying to throw up walls to prevent other countries from accessing China’s renewable energy products.
The EU does indeed have a significantly larger potential industrial base than Russia. But that also requires coordination, intentional action, and long-term planning. So far the EU hasn’t seemed capable of doing these things but who knows, maybe Trump has been the wake-up call Europeans need.
I also hope Trump has shown Europeans that the US is the bigger threat to European sovereignty than Russia. And this will be true after Trump is gone, it’s not a one-time thing (Biden did things hostile to European sovereignty but that goes under the radar because he was more supportive of Ukraine). But yeah, if the EU makes some coordinated effort to build military defenses, they shouldn’t have a problem protecting their sovereignty against Russia. And that assumes Russia wants to try and military conquer parts of Europe, which I do not believe but even if I did, a more robust, domestic EU military would be enough to prevent an attack even if that was Russia’s intention.
The US is Europe’s fake friend - with or without Trump - and it frustrates me to no end that Europeans can’t see it.
What’s deeply ironic about this situation is that one of the main reasons the EU has remained distant to Russia is the US. Cold war was between US and Russia. More recently US opposed Nord Stream 2. Now US suddenly is friendly to Russia and EU are running around like headless chicken because they made it their own identity to be hostile to Russia. There haven been people suggesting that while indeed Russia is antidemocratic etc. one can still try to carefully cooperate, because it happens to be a neighbor and it makes sense strategically. Who knows, maybe in the process one could positively influence Russia, it doesn’t have to be always the other way. But these people are instantly called Russian assets and demonized. And it’s not like this kind of reasoning was the real issue anyway, as in the meantime you see western democracies happily collaborating e.g. with Turkey or Saudi Arabia. The Ukraine war complicates things though. Aside of the humanitarian and economic tragedy, it’s a diplomatic disaster, as it makes Russia look quite hostile to Europe, whether they actually „want to continue“ beyond Ukraine or not.
Of all choices, Russia is the most dangerous right behind the US.
I wouldn’t say “right behind,” Europe was very happy to buy Russian energy for decades until the US sabotaged Nord Stream. The US Empire is by far the most dangerous.
Sabotage as in actually sabotaging the physical pipeline or just salting the contracts by lowering the demands for the goods?
Bit of A, bit of B.
A bad. Doesnt matter who does to whom
B 50/50 on that.
Then you should read about who really blew up Nordstream.
Russia has literally nothing of value to offer us.
Vast industrial capacity and tons of oil and natural gas, both of which the EU needs but does not have.
Only major industries Russia has are weapons (we sell those, they are a competitor) and fossil fules (we are in the process of not using them)
not anywhere close to fast nor soon enough to help the situation.
I disagree. Renewables have been growing exponentially for years. Its already making an impact in some countries, sadly way less in others.
Mostly due to the PRC and its incredible increase in solar and other renewables.
Russia has quite a bit more than just those areas, but importantly, the EU still needs fossil fuels. It could sidestep this by purchasing large amounts of solar from China, or making or buying nuclear reactors, but it can’t do so overnight. Moreover, the EU is heavily financialized, and industry is hurting. Much of what the EU consumes is made overseas, or comes from overseas resource extraction, especially from European neocolonies in Africa. Imperialism is decaying, so this puts the EU in an even tighter spot, hence political instability and a strong rightward shift.
I’m not sure what you are trying to say. Russia has way less industrial output than the EU. Russia is more imperialist than the EU. EU is shifting right, but is still wayyy to the left of Russia. Saying we should align with Russia is like saying we should align with turkey. Or Saudi Arabia.
Tell that to roughly a quarter of the entire continent of Africa that lived or still lives under French imperial control
Russia is the 4th largest economy by GDP, adjusted to PPP, and isn’t as heavily reliant on finance capital as the EU is. Moreover, Russia has no colonies nor neocolonies, and doesn’t run their economy based on export of capital and plundering the surplus value of the global south, like the US and EU do.
Imperialism is characterized by the following:
-The presence of monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life.
-The merging of bank capital with industrial capital into finance capital controlled by a financial oligarchy.
-The export of capital as distinguished from the simple export of commodities.
-The formation of international monopolist capitalist associations (cartels) and multinational corporations.
-The domination and exploitation of other countries by militaristic imperialist powers, now through neocolonialism.
-The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers.
The global north, Europe included, uses this export of capital to super-exploit foreign labor for super-profits. It also engages in unequal exchange, where the global south is prevented from moving up the value chain in production, allowing the global north to charge monopoly prices for commodities produced in the same labor hours. Russia does not do this, it has a paltry sum of the world’s finance capital, and this is proven by just how low their nominal GDP is compared to it’s GDP adjusted to PPP.
The Russian Federation and the EU are both right-wing, but the EU is actively imperialist. The fact that progressive nationalist movements like the Alliance of Sahel States are kicking out European plunderers, and the PRC is presenting as an alternative to western domination, is exactly why conditions within the imperialist west are declining and causing a shift to the far-right. Austerity politics are enforced due to capitalist decay.