Great Game 2.0: The Defunct British Empire “Strikes Back” in Ukraine and Eastern Europe
Geopolitics is a game on a fixed chessboard in which not only the main players change, but also colours of the pieces, and the rules themselves are fluid. Although basic mechanisms remain unchanged, and some scenarios come back years or even centuries later to remind us that Game of Thrones is invariably played in front of our eyes, usually too distracted to notice its outlines. Once again, British agents appear in Eastern Europe and the Central Asia persuading the natives to wage war against Russia in order for Britain to regain its dominant position, initially in Europe, and ultimately also in the Middle East. The Great Game continues.
Distribution of roles
Only people who cannot recognise changes in international politics may still think that the Ukrainian game is being played by (only) Russia and the United States. Not at all. Of course, the American hegemon still keeps general control over the entire geopolitics of the Western hemisphere, but its choking economy forces the division of tasks. The reality is that if the US does not focus on the Chinese question, it will not only lose its (already broken) primacy of the World’s first economy, but also will be dethroned as the most important centre of global capital, which is already considering whether to change the side supported.
As Wall Street once (partially) replaced The City, today the possibility of shifting the main burden of global finance to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing is still on a table. Since China is already the World’s main industrial centre – concentrating elements of major capital decisions could save the consumptive form of Capitalism known as Fordism, dominating since the end of World War 2. And all of this while America and the UK are already implementing a great transformation of capitalism under the pretext of COVID-19 and the Climate Crisis.
Americans must turn to face these challenges, focus on the Far East and the Pacific, otherwise they can get an almost lethal kick in their… back.
The Empire strikes back
Howbeit Washington dominated and paralysed Europe for so many decades not to leave it without the enlightened Anglo-Saxon leadership now. History and geopolitics have come full circle, when we are witnessing a bizarre, but absolutely serious attempt to rebuild the British Empire.
Not Americans but Britons are main Russia opponents in Ukraine. In fact Westminster has taken full control over the foreign policy (including energy security) of Poland and the Baltic States.
British presence is more than visible ion the historical battlefield of the Great Game, i.e. Central Asia. Each week brings further evidence of increasing British involvement in the conflict with Russia. Another Boris Johnson’s visit to Kiev (just after the European leaders) is recognised in the UK as a proposal that cannot be rejected by Volodymyr Zelensky: let the Ukrainians not even think about any scenario other than entering the bloc organised under British dominance with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (and probably Moldova and Romania). The second level of the same plan would be UkroPolin, a Polish-Ukrainian state hybrid, promoted in the Polish and Ukrainian politics especially by politicians openly controlled by the British Embassy. And, of course, the final act of the operation would probably be to throw this whole alliance against Russia.
New colonies of the old Empire
England increases its own assets in Ukraine. When Kiev was preparing to attack Russia, the Britons trained at least 22,000 Ukrainian soldiers (Operation Orbital). Now Prime Minister B. Johnson has promised to train another 10,000, probably in Poland. Since February, Westminster has transferred £1.3 billion to Kiev, supplied thousands of NLAW anti-tank missiles, rocket launchers and artillery systems, including NATO M109. Even the stupid final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is expected to be hosted by Ukraine next year will be organised in… the United Kingdom. Indeed, maybe Ukraine will be emerged with Poland into the UkroPolin, but only to turn them both into British colonies.
War propaganda in the UK may not be as primitive as in Poland or Lithuania, but almost as intense, although at least there are some independent voices tolerated as well from the Left (George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain, Chris Williamson’s Corbynists from The Resistance Movement), as from the Right (popular conservative writer and blogger Peter Hitchens). Censorship, however, is reaching universities, and the mainstream media passionately haunt any public criticism of resurgent Imperialism.
British-Russian War?
Nevertheless, the pro-Kiev wave in the UK seems to decrease, and ordinary English and Scottish families ask i.a. for delays in paying out the so-called “Thank you” for hosting Ukrainian immigrants to their homes (many English and Scottish families still wait for promised £350 a month). It does not matter much, because “the oldest European (Liberal) democracy” is not democratic, nor pro-free speech anymore, and the political and financial establishment almost straight declares that the UK itself is at war with Russia.
The Great Game is back. Today it is played not only in diplomacy, on battlefields and within fights of intelligence agencies, but also in a virtual dimension. Techniques are changeable, but domination is always the case. Only one empire can survive, and when it cannot do so, it prefers to split itself up to prevent an end to Anglo-Saxon hegemony. How Sir William Harcourt once said to the young Winston Churchill: “Nothing ever happens…”
