Why do the Western power elites wage their war against Russia so relentlessly?

The former editor-in-chief of the “Tribune de Genève” and Grand Councillor of the Canton of Geneva Guy Mettan published a very readable article in the Weltwoche of 1 October 2022 entitled “Europe betrays its values”. The subtitle concretises: “Peace, democracy, human rights, environmental protection: In the fight against Russia, we sacrifice everything we hold sacred” (see article "Europe betrays its values")
  The Western power elites’ disregard for European and universal values has, it must be added, been a problem for a long time. However, time and again people have found ways to counter this. The international working group “Mut zur Ethik”¹, which I am part of, was founded almost 30 years ago and is one of many examples. If you look more closely, the disregard for European and universal values has actually been going on ever since there has been such a thing as the “West”. Only in between, for example after devastating catastrophes such as the Second World War, have larger parts of the Western power elites come to their senses for a while and tried to give politics a new face, one that is oriented towards principles of political ethics².
  But at the latest with the supposed “victory” in the first Cold War after 1990/91, Western power elites indeed spoke very loudly of their mission of values, but in reality, practised exactly the opposite.

No ethical foundations

The war that the Western power elites are waging against Russia therefore has – although this is precisely the core assertion of Western propaganda – no ethical foundations, but other causes and goals. One must always be aware of this: The Western power elites are not waging war against Russia so relentlessly because it is about defending European values, democracy or heroic virtues³. It is about something else.
  That the Western power elites are waging war against Russia is obvious:

• The information war against Russia has been working with prejudices for a long time. More than 20 years ago, for example, a research paper at a Berlin university stated: “The analysis of Russia reporting in the ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, FAZ’ and in Der Spiegel has shown that primarily bad news or ‘bad events’ are transmitted from Russia. […] Stereotyping is used to convey Russian events. So, the news factor ‘negativism’ has a very big weight in the case of Russia coverage.”⁴ Research in other Western countries would come to similar conclusions. Since 24 February 2022, prejudices against Russia and Russian politics have been conveyed in an extremely aggressive manner every day in all Western mainstream media – with an unprecedented propaganda roller. The demonisation of the country’s president, which stokes fear and hatred, stands out. However, this information war is not only directed against the “enemy” Russia and Putin, but with its hypocrisy and its messages appealing to aggressive emotions, it also corrodes coexistence in our Western societies.
• The Western power elites are trying to bring Russia to its knees with an economic war of immense proportions (sanctions).
• The Western power elites supply the Ukrainian military with huge quantities of weapons and ammunition. For these power elites, Ukrainians in particular are supposed to fight “to the last man”. To put it bluntly, one could also say: fanatical Ukrainian fighters are the “useful idiots” of Western power elites. This was already the case in the Second World War, when the German Wehrmacht used the extreme nationalist forces around Stepan Bandera for its goals. Fanatical ideologies always lend themselves particularly well to such “missions”.
• The Western power elites are also waging their war against Russia with direct war participation: in the training of Ukrainian fighters, with logistical services, military “reconnaissance”, military “advice”, direct military orders and acts of military sabotage.

It is about more than the future of Ukraine

The question of why and for what purpose the Western power elites are doing all this, in my opinion, cannot stop at the borders of Ukraine. As understandable as the call for a ceasefire in Ukraine is – this call must not neglect the fact that there is so much more about it and that this war of the Western power elites will not be over even if the weapons in Ukraine cease.
  I suggest reading again the speeches of the Russian president of the past 22 years up to his last detailed speech on 1 October 2022 and to examine them impartially for their degree of reality. It is possible that in this way one will find answers to the question of the why and the wherefore of the relentless war of the Western power elites against Russia. In these speeches, one learns that Russia is radically questioning the previous claim to power of the Western power elites: with his demand for equal security for Russia (as well as for all other states of the world), with his demand for respect for the foundations of the Charter of the United Nations, with his demand for an independent Russian way in questions of family, religion and nation, with his demand for a different world economy, with his demand for a different world financial system, with his criticism of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism.

How the war can end

The war of the Western power elites can be ended in various ways:

• The worst variant is total war, ending in a nuclear inferno. Some Western media, including in Switzerland, are virtually screaming – like Goebbels – for such a total war – and perversely calling it “solidarity”. Heaven forbid!
• A Russian military and political defeat would allow the Western power elites to triumph. This would not be a good end for the world as a whole.
• After significant military and/or political successes by Russia and/or the realisation of the hopelessness or excessive costs of continuing the war, the Western power elites are coming to their senses and looking for a new modus vivendi in terms of “Realpolitik”. That would give us breathing space. But make no mistake: the period of détente in the first Cold War was also a modus vivendi on thin ice. The first half of the 1980s showed that.
• The peoples of the Western world are finding the courage to follow a humanly viable path that sends their power elites into retirement and builds social, economic and political conditions that are guided by the principles of political ethics. This continues to be an ideal worth working towards.  •

¹ cf. Verein zur Förderung der Psychologischen Menschenkenntnis (ed.). Mut zur Ethik. Eine Besinnung auf gesellschaftliche Grundnormen und moralische Grundhaltung im Individuum (Reflection on basic social norms and basic moral attitudes in the individual). Volume on the first conference from 24 to 26 September 1993 in Bregenz, ISBN 3-906989-35-6 and in particular the principles adopted there on pages 543ff.
² cf. as groundwork: Sutor, Bernhard. Politische Ethik Gesamtdarstellung auf der Basis der Christlichen Gesellschaftslehre (Political Ethics. Overall presentation on the basis of Christian social teaching), 1992 (2^nd edition), ISBN 3-506-79090-0
³ The terms refer to the article by Guy Mettan in the Weltwoche of 1 October 2022 and in this journal.
⁴ Crudopf, Wenke. Russland-Stereotypen in der deutschen Medienberichterstattung. (Arbeitspapiere des Osteuropa Instituts der Freien Universität Berlin, Arbeitsschwerpunkt Politik, 29). Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, Osteuropa Institut, 2000, S. 42 (Russia stereotypes in German media coverage. Working Papers of the Institute for East European Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin, Focus on Politics, 29. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for East European Studies, 2000, p. 42). Accessible through: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/44025/ssoar-2000-crudopf-Russland-Stereotypen_in_der_deutschen_Medienberichterstattung.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&lnkname=ssoar-2000-crudopf-Russland-Stereotypen_in_der_deutschen_Medienberichterstattung.pdf