Only 10% of Europeans believe that Kyiv will be able to win the conflict in Ukraine, The Guardian reports on the results of a sociological survey made by Datapraxis and YouGov for the European Council on Foreign Relations. The results shocked officials as they say that despite all the efforts of the Ukrainians, still twice as many Europeans believe that Moscow will win in this longterm conflict. And then it will end with the conclusion of an agreement between the countries.
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The study was conducted in January, that is, even before taking control over Avdeevka – the main success of Russian forces over the past year – among residents of 12 countries: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
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“To make the case for next European support for Ukraine, EU leaders will need to change the way they talk about the war,” study co-author of the European Council on Foreign Relations Mark Leonard said.
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Leonard said the most compelling argument to an increasingly skeptical public was that continued aid “could lead to a sustainable, negotiated peace that would benefit Kiev rather than Putin’s victory.“
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At the same time, the question is raised again that two years after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the introduction of international sanctions and the isolation of Putin, companies and people who support Moscow still remain in the EU. And it seems that there are more and more of them.
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After all, European companies are suffering colossal losses from sanctions against Russia. Thus, according to the 2023 tags, private EU firms lost more than 103 billion euros from restrictions on cooperation with Russia. Some are simply on the verge of ruin, and to prevent this, they continue to work with the Russians through intermediaries.
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But if you can somehow “talk” with the owners of such companies and convince them to stop working with Russians, then what about the Russians who live in the European Union and openly support Putin’s soldiers, not only with words, but also and money.
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Photo of Igor Tauberger (Archenkov) from his page in Facebook
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Some Russian media publish news that some residents of Germany are sending money to Russian soldiers who are now fighting in Ukraine. An emigrant from Russia, from the very beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he helps with money those who buy ammunition and equipment for soldiers at the front. Businessman Igor Tauberger (Archenkov) was born in Astrakhan, but moved to Germany in 1995, where he opened an entire chain of stores with Russian products, a Russian restaurant, and even tried to create a pro-Russian political party that would defend the rights of Russian-speaking Germans. Fortunately, his political views were not supported in Germany, and Igor continued to do business. But when the invasion began, he started to transfer different amounts of money to buy things and equipment for the Russian army.
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Thus, journalists from Astrakhan write that several volunteer movements have been formed in the city that collect money and buy cars, body armor, thermal imagers, walkie-talkies, quadcopters and much more that Russian soldiers need in the war against the Ukrainians.
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Photo of Omar Omarov, who bought a car for SVO soldiers.
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They even publish photos in which you can see that almost everyone is collecting help for the soldiers: students, pensioners, schoolchildren, businessmen and officials of Putin’s Russia. And all these volunteer movements are sponsored by Igor Tauberger (Archenkov).
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Of course, in Germany he tries not to talk about his sponsorship of the Russian army and does all this secretly and quietly through other countries.
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But the most important question is, how many Russians like Igor from Astrakhan now live on the territory of the European Union countries and continue to secretly help Putin and his soldiers? And, most importantly, why are they doing this while living in the EU? At the same time, we do not have any laws protecting EU countries from Russians like Igor. By supporting Putin, he is not breaking any law, but it smells very bad. After all, people like Igor also conduct their own separate pro-Russian propaganda and remain, at the same time, completely unpunished.
