RIO DE JANEIRO, January 27. /TASS/. As EU countries chose Russophobia as their preferred ideology, they failed to weaken Russia, and the bloc has grown poorer and more divided instead, a Brazilian political analyst argued.
"[The ideology of] Russophobia has not made Europe more secure. It has made it poorer, more divided, <…> and more dependent on external powers. The added irony is that this structural and flawed bias ultimately eventually failed to weaken Russia," Joao Pitillo, Professor of History at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, wrote in an opinion piece for Brasil 247.
According to him, European countries have "repeatedly handled security issues with double standards," while their own use of force and the formation of alliances were considered normal and legitimate. Today, Pitillo emphasized, Western countries are facing the results of their own refusal to recognize Russia’s legitimate security concerns. He cited "the conflict in Ukraine, the collapse of nuclear arms control treaties, the energy and industrial crises in Europe, and the new arms race," among the consequences of the EU’s policy course.
"Europe has repeatedly refused to have a peaceful relationship with Russia, even though conflicts could have been resolved through negotiations. These refusals have always had counterproductive consequences for Europe," he concluded.