The Ides of March that will change the world (even more)

Silvia Roman

Updated Sunday, March 10, 2024-02:10

We recently recounted in these same pages the key role played by

William Burns

, director of the CIA, in the development of the Gaza war.

Well, Burns is becoming involved to a large extent in another conflict: that of Ukraine;

the one that should keep us Europeans from sleeping more and more every day.

The head of American spies says that if the United States were to abandon Ukraine it would be a mistake of "historic proportions."

Not only because of the consequences that giving way to

Vladimir Putin

's war ambitions would have for the West , but because, in the eyes of the planet, Washington's decision would be absolutely incomprehensible, causing absolute distrust of the leading world power throughout the years. remaining years of the 21st century.

As

Gideon Rachman points out in the

Financial Times

, "it would be all the more incomprehensible because - unlike the wars in Vietnam or Afghanistan - the US military is neither fighting nor dying."

The Russian president has the wind blowing in his favor.

He enjoys and takes advantage of the good streak he is enjoying.

Although it's not really a matter of luck.

In geopolitics almost nothing is fortuitous, not even in characters like the volcanic

Donald Trump

, who suddenly shouts at a rally to journalists "you are the enemy of the people" and the reporters have to run.

Everything is measured.

It's pure strategy.

And this is what has happened with Putin and Trump, two disruptive politicians whose paths converge this coming week to catapult themselves to the top and destabilize the world order if their move has the definitive effect on November 5, election day in the United States. .

This Tuesday the 12th, there will be a new round of Republican primaries in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington, and everything indicates that the voters of these four states will be the ones who definitively, and officially, crown Trump as the candidate of the Republican Party.

Five days later, on Sunday the 17th, presidential elections will be held in Russia, where Putin (bragging about the votes he gets without any rival) will cling even tighter to the throne of the Kremlin.

Everything can get worse in Europe.

This new moment of glory for

Trumpism-Putinism

has been in the works for a long time.

At least since the 2016 US presidential campaign, full of interference from Moscow, confirmed by subsequent investigations such as that of the US Senate intelligence committee, in which Russian efforts to influence the elections eight years ago were demonstrated, in which Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat

Hillary Clinton

.

"Computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party were hacked and information damaging to Clinton was leaked. Moscow's intention was to damage Clinton's campaign and help Trump's, undermining the democratic process in the United States," reads a statement. report.

According to this investigation, as well as that of

Robert Mueller

(the special prosecutor of the Russian plot) and other parallel ones carried out by journalists from media such as

Time

magazine , the month of March 2016 was key.

That's where it all started.

And at the highest level.

Exactly at the same electoral moment in which we find ourselves now, exactly eight months before the great American event.

"Agents from Russian military intelligence, known as GRU, hacked the emails of staff working for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. These efforts began in earnest in March 2016. During that month, agents sent emails that looked like security notifications from Google to many Democratic campaign employees and volunteers. But instead of helping them lock their accounts, these emails told recipients to click a link to change their password, and when the user did so, this gave Russian agents access to their accounts," notes another document.

Almost a decade later, we find the Kremlin again as another protagonist in the race for the White House.

However, now, with the war in Ukraine entering its third year, the benefits that Vladimir Putin hopes to reap if Donald Trump manages to return to the Oval Office are focused more on the war field than on the political, personal or commercial.

It is about being able to continue devouring Ukraine and, who knows, Moldova, Poland or the Baltics, that is, reaching direct confrontation with NATO.

But Trump has already made it clear: that Russia "do whatever the hell it wants" with those countries that do not dedicate 2% of their GDP to Defense (Spain included, of course).

And, if the Republican's nose inflates too much, he will remove the United States from the Atlantic Alliance in 2025.

Meanwhile, Moscow is playing to turn everything around.

Russian interference in American elections?

No, on the contrary.

Thus, this Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the United States ambassador,

Lynne Tracy

, to warn Washington not to interfere in its elections on the 17th, those for which Putin, in power since 2000 , could not have the path more smoothed and clear.