The matryoshka is a Russian doll consisting of several dolls of different sizes, each contained within the others. When observing the largest one, the ones it contains are not immediately noticeable; thus, the matryoshka can be said to express a multi-layered reality that is not immediately perceived. As an allegory for today’s reality, it is fitting.
The outermost doll, visible in the showcase, corresponds to the official representation, the political narrative of conflicts. At this level, everything is summarized as East-West clashes, South-North tensions, NATO-Russia, USA-China, Israel-Hamas.
First doll
Yet, for at least eight decades, this type of narrative has been deceptive, exaggerating the contrasting aspects between poles or blocs, ensuring the maintenance of the status quo and the management of individual public opinions that unite against their respective “absolute evil.”
In reality, relationships, using Lenin’s apt formulation, are determined by the law of “unity and division.” This means that the common interests of competing powers often prevail over those that separate them, as demonstrated by the Cold War. Each side needs the other to better dominate its field.
Therefore, more than querrel between the USA and Russia or Russia and NATO, the main operations are those the USA carries out, or delegates to others, to the detriment of Europe; those conducted by China to absorb Russia; those involving India’s rise in contention with China, and so on.
Second doll
If we extract a second doll from the first, it demonstrates precisely this, showing that none of the reasons given to justify the invasion of Ukraine or explain the conduct of the Western reaction perfectly align with reality. Across economic, energy, and geopolitical fronts, the USA is profiting significantly from Russian actions, with the actual target being Europe—an overly ambitious Europe in American eyes on trade and diplomatic levels, to which Washington does not intend to grant excessive weight in the global reset.
How little the Americans are interested in damaging the Russian military machine is demonstrated by the objective data which should make us reflect on how the definition of a “multipolar” world is inappropriate and the American definition of “interdependent” and the Indian definition of “multialigned” are more fitting.
According to the report updated in December 2023, twenty-one months after the start of the conflict, Russian armament consists of 2811 components, of which only 14 are Russian, 790 are foreign – with not even 150 from its “allies” – and a significant 2007 are American, accounting for 71.39%. Furthermore, as documented by numerous American analysts, seemingly against their own interests at first glance, even the most sophisticated new-generation missiles in the Russian arsenal depend on Silicon Valley. A peculiar way of waging war.
It is therefore unmistakably evident that the conflict has so far served the reset and harmed us. A war, let us remember, unleashed by Russia that, willingly or unwillingly, complicit or cunning, in the logic of “unity and division,” has so far only benefited the Americans.
Third doll
Then there is a third doll. It refers to the financial dispute through which the “Global South” would aim for dedollarization.
However, the current reality tells a different story.
In 1946, the U.S. GDP represented 50% of the world GDP. Due to the growth of other economies, this ratio decreased every year until 2021 when it accounted for 21% of the global GDP. In two years of conflict, it has gained four percentage points, rising to 25%.
Regarding transactions in global markets, a fundamental element of monetary dominance, according to the latest report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on over seven trillion dollars in daily movements, the Dollar was present in 88% of cases. Following were the Euro at 31%, the Yen at 17%, the Pound at 13%, and the Chinese Renminbi at just 7%. Among these, only the Renminbi is the currency of the BRICS. Transactions also occur between multiple currencies, so these percentages should not be summed up, as the sum would be 156, resulting from a misinterpretation.
Lastly, we must consider that a significant portion of U.S. Treasury bonds is held by Asian countries, especially China and Japan. In financial logic, this ties Tokyo and Beijing to the power of the Dollar, perhaps more than Washington. No creditor aims to make its debtor fail or devalue its currency.
Fourth doll
Let’s move on to the fourth doll. Here, we find the dynamics of global capital.
Despite some temporary blockages affecting prices, you may have noticed that wheat continues to leave Ukrainian ports despite the Russian fleet. Global interests can be contested but not bypassed.
The war contributes to ongoing transformations.
The French magazine “Conflits,” outlining the strategic rise of the United Arab Emirates, notes how it has attracted rivers of Russian and Ukrainian capital into Dubai’s real estate. Regarding wheat, we are buying more than necessary from Ukraine with the intention of helping them, and, somewhat senselessly, hoarding chickens. We could easily buy them and leave them there for local consumption. Instead, we are competing with our farmers, many of whom are facing bankruptcy in various European nations.
It’s madness, but it fits into the logic of the reset, as the free market, defended mainly by the strongest exporting economies – the European and the Chinese – falls into the logic of local specializations. Some agricultural sectors are considered a burden, unlike others, such as viticulture, which is also targeted for export.
Thus, Europe, already dragged into war and hindered by Russian and American interests, inflicts internal harm because, like others, it is a prisoner of a capitalist exploitation logic that proves to be suicidal.
In conclusion
All of this essentially conveys three things.
1. The representations of reality to which we are accustomed are all false or distorted, and it is necessary to adopt a serious, concrete, and real understanding.
2. The positive aspects we can glean from the war in Ukraine include European awareness of the need for rearmament and the acquisition of strategic autonomy. This is accompanied by the recovery of patriotic feelings simultaneously European and of national warfare, which, in an era where ideologies have been replaced by religious, fanatical, and psychotic fundamentalisms, can prove fruitful.
3. While it is entirely absurd, suicidal, and insane not to always support European interests, our unity, and the pursuit of our power, we must not forget that, at the same time, we cannot rely on our current leadership. We must counterpose a very different cultural model to the dominant one and break free from the internal constraints we have imposed to serve the foreign-oriented free market. We cannot reason solely with an accounting logic because it is often short-sighted.
In the appendix, among the many sources of this article, two in particular:
https://static.rusi.org/RUSI-Silicon-Lifeline-final-web.pdf
