OPINION

The system must be changed

The system must be changed

We thought we would finally get some peace after the collapse of the communist system in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. We were mistaken. Now, more than ever before, Russia seems to be a wickedly intelligent power that is not only gradually taking over Western strongholds like the United States and Western Europe, and expanding its influence in its neighborhood and Syria, but is also deeply involved in Turkey, for decades NATO’s last line of defense in the region. There are serious games afoot.

Worrying signs of political disintegration are starting to appear in the United States. The Democrats and mainstream liberal-leaning media are ramping up a campaign against president-elect Donald Trump just as he’s about to take up residence in the White House. Then we have intelligence reports suggesting that his electoral victory was the result of cyber attacks orchestrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We can understand the frustration of the Democrats and the establishment in general at its unexpected political defeat, but Trump will be taking up office in just 10 days and the US needs a powerful leader who will command respect and not be seen as a puppet of Putin. The West in general also needs a powerful president at the helm in Washington, because America is perhaps the only country that can restore some balance to the world.

In Western Europe, Chancellor Angela Merkel has already spoken of Russian intervention in the upcoming German elections, accusing Moscow of manipulating support for the Euroskeptic AfD party. In France, many believe National Front head Marine Le Pen is being bankrolled by Moscow after she took out a loan with a Russian bank because French lenders were unwilling to help her fund her pre-election campaign.

All of a sudden, Putin appears to be orchestrating a campaign to destroy the West’s political fabric. And all this comes at a time when Russia is facing serious economic problems and the West has a decided advantage in areas such as the economy, technology and the military. Some analysts believe that after losing the battle of communism in Europe, Moscow may now conquer it with other means.

Sure, Putin is not a benevolent philanthropist; he is an old-school politician, a traditionalist who sets his goals and goes after them with ruthless determination. But the vibrations rocking the political establishment in the West are not the result of the Russian president’s supernatural powers; they are the result of the system that has prevailed for the past few decades coming to its end. Now the system needs to change, because without transformation we are heading toward a complete political breakdown and the loss of all control.

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