Flamingo Oblomingo 🦩

Here is your Diesel! Putin and Trump! 😡

Europe Is Being Carved Up While Its Leaders Are Still Deciding Who Should Speak. I have a question for Europe’s leaders. Where were you this week? Where was the European leader standing before the cameras, declaring that Europe’s borders, security and future are not bargaining chips for Washington and Moscow? Who told Donald Trump, publicly and unequivocally, that his administration has chosen the wrong side of history? Who announced that Europe would consider sanctions against American companies profiting from Russian energy while Ukrainian civilians are being killed? And who delivered the simplest ultimatum of all: Europe must have a seat at the negotiating table, or European sanctions against Russia will remain in place. No American president gets to negotiate them away. Yes, some European leaders have spoken. Kaja Kallas, Giorgia Meloni and several foreign ministers have criticised Trump’s Russian diesel deal. Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Støre even called Putin on October 27. But here is the extraordinary part: they explicitly stated that they were not speaking for Europe. And that brings me to something almost too absurd to believe. European leaders have been discussing who should represent Europe in negotiations with Russia since at least May. Five months later, with November practically upon us, they still haven’t agreed on a representative with a clear mandate. Five fucking months. We are talking about the future borders and security of our own continent, not choosing a new chairman for the Brussels gardening committee. Meanwhile, Trump is easing sanctions on Russian diesel. Washington and Moscow are exploring further commercial opportunities. And the Kremlin is discussing the possibility of additional American sanctions relief. Russia invades European territory. America negotiates commercial arrangements with the aggressor. And Europe continues discussing who should attend the discussions. You could hardly invent a more humiliating demonstration of geopolitical paralysis. And the stakes go far beyond Ukraine. We are watching the possible emergence of a new world order in which Washington, Moscow and Beijing treat Europe as a collection of territories, markets and spheres of influence to be divided between them. Russia wants territorial control. China wants economic and strategic leverage. Trump’s Washington increasingly appears willing to treat European security as another transactional opportunity. Their interests are not identical, but their willingness to pursue them at Europe’s expense should terrify every European government. I am not suggesting Europe should stop negotiating. Quite the opposite. Europe should be leading negotiations over European security, defining the conditions, controlling its sanctions policy and making unmistakably clear that Ukraine’s sovereignty is non-negotiable without Ukraine’s consent. And if Washington chooses to help finance Putin’s war economy, Europe should be prepared to examine economic consequences for those involved, regardless of whether they are Russian or American. Enough carefully worded expressions of concern. Enough summits about future summits. Enough waiting for Washington to rediscover its principles. Europe has the economic power, the institutions and the democratic legitimacy to defend its own interests. What it desperately lacks is a common political voice willing to use that power. History will not remember how many meetings European leaders attended. It will remember whether they stood up while the future of their continent was being negotiated. And right now, the silence from Europe’s collective leadership is becoming almost as alarming as the conversations taking place without it.