It's winter in Europe.
Soaring energy prices have become "Europe's number one problem", in which "not all European countries are in the same boat". Consumers in many European countries now have to pay more than usual prices – gas bills have risen to "a dozen or twenty times" than they were a year ago. For European countries, the degree of dependence on Russian gas or oil resources is not the most important, but how their governments respond to popular protests over energy shortages and soaring prices.
"The jury is still out on whether Europe can come together to develop a unified energy response."
It was in this context that Britain's David Lawrence warned: "It will be a winter of discontent for Europe, with energy cuts and poor people freezing to death at home." He believes that in the eyes of ordinary people in Britain, energy problems are energy problems, and no one wants to listen to politicians' rhetoric of "reducing energy to support Ukraine". So with Britain's energy shortage and soaring prices, the British public will increasingly blame British politicians rather than the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Although the UK's two main political parties are still supporting Ukraine, this is likely to be affected by popular discontent over energy issues.
Germans are more worried about energy shortages, fearing that an aggravation of energy problems will eventually lead to a "solidarity problem". Germany's current government, a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberal Democrats, is working to help Germany's poor "pay their bills" while creating incentives to reduce energy consumption. But Germany's current policy is to prioritize the household life of ordinary people over industrial consumption, so the German government is likely to fall into long-term debt and reduce Germany's domestic industrial production capacity. It is not impossible to eventually weaken Germany's overall national strength.
The French government has well-functioning nuclear power plants, and the 58 operating nuclear power plants provide 76.34% of France's total power generation, and the French energy crisis is not so serious. Therefore, France still has a bunch of idlers who roam the streets every day chanting the slogan "for Ukraine". Although France does not have much energy problems, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is still there, the problem of rising prices in France is quite serious, and recently protests such as strikes and demonstrations have broken out from time to time in France, demanding higher wages to offset the impact of rising prices, although these protests have not caused a fundamental crisis, but Macron is still busy with it.
△Caternon Nuclear Power Plant, France
Italy is one of the largest importers of Russian gas. A considerable number of Italians are confused about the Italian government's involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and in their view, "Italy should not be involved and pay a high price for conflicts between other countries." After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Italian government "quickly took diversified measures" to reduce Russia's natural gas imports to about 1/3 of the pre-conflict period. Overall, Italy's energy problem is not serious, but a considerable number of Italians are very dissatisfied with Italy's involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and they believe that Italy does not need to lose its own interests to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which is "completely incomprehensible and unnecessary behavior", so among the Italian people, the number of people supporting Ukraine is much lower than that of other European countries.
Despite all kinds of differences and problems in the treatment of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict among European countries, on the whole, the propaganda methods of European countries are doing "very well". Now the people of many NATO countries think that Russia "refuses to supply Europe with natural gas and other energy sources", and even if it does not make money, "it will watch the Europeans freeze." In fact, Putin proposed in the middle of this month to restore gas supplies to Europe through the undamaged part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and to build Europe's largest gas hub in Turkey, but the German side rejected such a proposal "on behalf of the whole of Europe" on the grounds that "Russia is no longer a reliable energy supplier." Listen, this is the European media rendering "Russia's refusal to continue to supply Europe with natural gas and other energy sources", but it is understandable to consider that the European media are all BBC and the like.
In addition, Ukraine has become more and more "unappreciated" for NATO's military assistance, and now the entire NATO has fallen into a peculiar state - not to provide assistance to Ukraine or to provide assistance to Ukraine is slow, that is, to trample on their so-called "freedom and democracy". Zelensky said that military assistance from Europe "has been felt and appreciated by the Ukrainian people." But Ukraine's foreign ministry doesn't say that, saying that "Ukraine received this aid very late" and that it was "sometimes delivered very slowly." So a large number of Ukrainians think that "if NATO had provided us with assistance earlier, we would have suffered fewer casualties, our defense would have been better, and our counterattack would have been more powerful", and the spread of this sentiment has led to the gratitude of Ukrainians to NATO is actually not very strong.
In the complex situation between Russia and Ukraine and Europe, the biggest beneficiary is undoubtedly the United States. The American website War on the Rock even cheekily said: "Europeans have discovered that American support and leadership are essential to Europe's defense today." The website also calls on Europeans to improve their ability to act in unison, and that the EU and NATO should further deepen their coordination and cooperation, and invest further in military spending and expanding Europe's defense industrial base. The US media smugly said: "The Russia-Ukraine conflict has pushed Europe to the position of the United States" and boasted that the United States is the most reliable partner in a global environment. In this context, "Washington has a unique opportunity to engage constructively in Europe," thereby enhancing U.S. influence and dominance in Europe. Lo and behold, the ambition of the wolf son of the United States has not been concealed.
"Looking ahead to the coming months, we in the United States believe that you Europeans will get through this. The difficulties are real, but so are the political beliefs that people will face. This means that, under the wise leadership of the United States, the continent can emerge stronger and more united from the crisis of this conflict. This is the summary of how the American media spent "the (most) difficult winter in Europe."
Believe me, the brainwashing of the American media is top-notch.