Jakub Krzemiński
Warsaw / May 25, 2021
Among other propaganda cliches of Putin's regime there is the concept of "old and new Europe". By "old Europe" the Kremlinites mean the countries of Western Europe where the political leadership is overflowing with paid agents of the Kremlin's influence as well as with "useful idiots". These countries have been constantly praised by Russian propaganda for their "pragmatism" (that is, for their venality and cowardice). However, in recent years, these countries have also found themselves in the Kremlin-made list of "unfriendly nations". As for the countries of the "new Europe" which include the former Soviet sattelites, protectorates and occupied territories, they have been invariably vilified, cursed, watered with all sorts of lies and slander. Such animal hatred is caused, among other things, by the fact that both these nations and their leadership keep showing Europe and the world examples of loyalty to the real Western values of freedom, the principles of European and global collective security. After all, it is the Kremlin regime who is the sworn enemy of all those values and principles - as, alas, is a large segment of the Russian population.
Oddly enough, this Kremlin's hatred is directed, first and foremost, at the Baltic states: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. After the act of state air terrorism of the Lukashenko regime that shocked the world on May 23 this year, committed under the dictation of the Kremlin, it was the Baltic states that led the campaign of retribution against the state terrorists of Minsk and Moscow for actions that bring death and war to Europe and the whole world. And what has just happened in Riga, the capital of Latvia, is particularly eloquent.
Riga hosts the World Ice Hockey Championship. After the Lukashenko regime committed an act of air piracy, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs and Riga Mayor Martins Stakis came to the square where the flags of the participating countries were flying. The Minister and the mayor brought with them Belarusian national white-red-white flag. With their own hands, they removed the Lukashenka's red-and-green rag from the flagpole, contemptuously crumpling it. And the two men personally planted in its place the proud flag bearing the image of Pahonia (Pogoń), the true symbol of Belarusian people and statehood, for using which the henchmen of Lukashenko torture and kill Belarusian patriots.
"Among the flags of the Ice Hockey World Cup, we support the flag of free Belarus! This flag was entrusted to me by political refugees from Belarus. The flag which symbolizes the regime of state terrorism has no place in Riga — that's why we took it down," the mayor of Riga wrote on Twitter.
The removal of the symbol of terrorism and the installation of the symbol of freedom did not please the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Rene Fasel, the person
with reputation tarnished by widespread rumors of corruption and questionable ties including the ties with Lukashenko. Therefore, it is not a big surprise that in his letter to the Mayor of Riga, Fasel called the incident "unacceptable" and demanded to put back the "official flag of Belarus" in its previous place or to remove the flag of the International Ice Hockey Federation from the square where all the flags of IIHF member-nations are flying.
Martins Stackis' answer can hardly be defined other than admirable. Here is example for you, dear "old Europe” of Fasels, suicidally pampering dictators and accepting their support.
"I have received a request from Mr René Fasel, the President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), to return the red and green flags of Belarus to the public space of Riga. If that is not done, he has requested to remove the flags of IIHF instead... Everyone has to pick a side - to stand with the persecuted people longing for freedom or with a bloody and uncontrollable dictator. I have made my choice, and we will proceed with removing the IIHF flags from the public space in Riga," Mr. Stackis wrote on his Facebook wall.
And IIHF flags were removed.
Now let's get to the main thing. The act of the Mayor of Riga is not just the act of a man of honor, a man of freedom. This is the act of someone who, not in words, but in deeds, is fighting for the security of his country, of Europe, and of the world. As for the people like Fazel, one can say that they are not just corrupt. It would hardly be an exaggeration if someone labels them as enemies of the security of their own countries, of Europe, and the whole world. And willingly or unwillingly, they act like the accomplices of state and international terrorism. Someone might even label them as international criminals as their acts are subject to international jurisdiction in the way similar to the crimes of the terrorist regimes that are ready to sponsor them. "Good Old Europe" already had an experience of the monstrous bloody devastation caused by the Second World War. But did she learn any lesson from it?
By contrast, the "new Europe" is doing everything to ensure that this will never happen again. Therefore, the "old Europe" should know and remember: as long as there are people of honor and freedom on the continent, such as the Mayor of Riga Martins Stakis and Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs, the "old Europe", still has a chance not to fall under the missiles of her terrorist "business partners", not to lie in the wreckage of her homes or planes and not to be under brutal torture in terrorist dungeons, like Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich.
Finally, all of us should understand, if it is not too late, that cowardice and venality of political leadership, inevitably destroys the foundations of global security and leads directly to a new military catastrophe.