BUDIMIR: WESTERN EUROPE IN A PROXY WAR WITH RUSSIA

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 23 /SRNA/ - Professor Željko Budimir said that Western Europe is engaged in a proxy war with Russia.

"Following the departure of /Hungarian Prime Minister/ Viktor Orbán, Europe is already deeply involved in militarization, particularly in the remilitarization of Germany. Relations with Russia are such that NATO is now less aggressive than the European Union," Budimir said at an academic discussion in Banja Luka, where he spoke on the topic "Republika Srpska, the EU and Turkey in the Cacophony of Great Powers". He added that the EU sees itself as a force and a party to the conflict and wants to become independent of the transatlantic link, at least while U.S. President Donald Trump is in power. "Europe and the EU will either collapse within the next two years or be restructured around the traditional European powers - Germany and France - with the United Kingdom acting as an external balancer in those dynamics, and we will likely enter a new phase of totalitarianism," said Budimir. He added that it can be expected that within the next two to five years, Germany and Japan will once again pursue new military nuclear technologies. Speaking about the emergence of a multipolar world, Budimir said that he does not believe it has already been established, but that the current period represents a transition from US hegemony to multipolarity based on civilizational foundations. He stressed that a balance of power is still far from being achieved, and that its goal is not to prevent war, but to ensure the independence of states and the survival of such actors within the international system. Budimir stated that Iran survived the US attack because it is a civilization with roots stretching back to early antiquity and due to its autarkic system. "Iran is a civilization that carries a sense of self-sufficiency within itself and has enough strength and resilience to withstand an attack by a superpower such as the United States, with geography also playing an important role," Budimir said.