Unfairly unnoticed by Ukrainian and European media, the speech of the well-known American economist, Jeffrey Sachs, at the European Parliament was. However, the reasons for such disregard for Sachs’ report are more than understandable, because his words run counter to European and Ukrainian propaganda full of lies.

To begin with, here’s a brief biography of Jeffrey Sachs. He worked in many countries, entering the USSR orbit –– carried out major economic reforms in Poland in 1989. He was the head of a group of economic advisers to Russian President Boris Yeltsin from 1991 to 1994, adviser to Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine from 1993 to 1994, and advised Slovenia and Estonia on the introduction of their national currencies in 1991 and 1992 respectively. In 2005, Sachs was included in “Time” magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People on Earth. Today, he holds the position of professor at Columbia University.

But what exactly did Sachs say? At the European Parliament, he shared his vision of the collapse of Europe. According to him, this was caused by wars in Ukraine, in Serbia in 1991, in the Middle East (Iraq and Syria), and Africa (Sudan, Somalia, and Libya).

“What I’m going to say would surprise you, perhaps, and would be denounced: these are wars what the United States led and caused all these wars. And this has been true for more than 30 years”.

And for all this time, Sachs continued, the US foreign policy has been aimed at containing Russia and forming an American unipolar world with NATO borders stretching from Brussels to Vladivostok.

“Ukraine and Georgia were the keys to this project, because America learned everything it knows from the British. And what the British Empire understood in 1853 is that you surround Russia in the Black See and you deny Russia’s access to the Eastern Mediterranean. And all you’re watching is an American project to do that in the XXI century. The idea was that Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia would deprive Russia of any international status by blocking the Black See and essentially by neutralizing Russia as more than a local power”, Sachs says.

Thus, as you know, NATO initially enlarged in 1999, when Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic joined. Then, in 2004, there was a record-breaking addition of seven new members –– the Baltic countries, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Slovakia. In 2008, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced that it wants to expand into the territories of Ukraine and Georgia. Mr. Sachs recalls:

“I listened to the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in New York in 2008. And I walked out, called my wife and said that this man is crazy. A month later, a war broke out. Because the United States told this guy: “We save Georgia”. And he stands at the Council on Foreign Relations said that Georgia is in the centre of Europe. Well, it ain’t, ladies and gentlemen. It’s not in the centre of Europe”.

And Russia, according to Sachs, never wanted to claim Ukrainian regions. Moscow had enough of a lease agreement for a military base in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.

“This idea that Putin is reconstructing the Russian Empire is childish propaganda, a childish stuff”, Sachs states.

But Washington decided to overthrow the undesirable government in Ukraine in 2013–2014. Sachs, who visited Kyiv during those protests, tells:

“I flew to Kyiv and was walked around the Maidan. And I was told how the US paid the money to all people around the Maidan. Spontaneous revolution of dignity? Ladies and gentlemen, please. Where all these media outlets come from? Where do all this organisation, these buses, these people called in come from? Are you kidding? This is organised effort. And it’s not a secret except to citizens of Europe and the US”.

Nevertheless, Putin tried to do everything to prevent the Russian-Ukrainian war anyway, Sachs goes on. While the Biden Administration continued to provoke and aggravate Russia.

“Putin’s intention was to force Zelensky to negotiate neutrality in order to keep NATO off of Russia’s border, no more, no less. And that happened within seven days of the start of the invasion. But Ukraine walked away unilaterally from a near agreement. Why? Because the United Stated and the UK told them to”, professor says.

And now, when the Ukrainian project has failed, Trump and Putin, regardless of Europe or Ukraine, will make a peace deal. The American economist is convinced about this.

Once I quoted the words of Henry Kissinger to Ukrainians, now I repeat them for Europe: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal””, Sachs concluded.

As you can see, small countries were only a bargaining chip in the tense relations between the United States and Russia. Ukraine won’t be an exception. Europe will also face a similar future if it cannot find common ground with Moscow.