DISINFO: The US is killing the EU’s economy and turning it into the state of late USSR
SUMMARY
While speaking about ‘Euro-Atlantic solidarity’, for decades the US has been doing its best to constrain the economies of European countries and Russia. Germany has de facto been occupied by the US, and the USSR collapsed as a result of complicated games by external opponents. Russia managed to overcome Western pressure and reach nearly complete economic and political sovereignty. As for the EU, its economy is doomed because the EU has no resources. Hence, it will turn in the state of either the USSR's economy in the late 1980s, or the type of economy that Russia or Ukraine had in the early 1990s and early 2000s. The US usually puts pressure on its allies, betrays their interests and destroys them economically to turn them into political vassals.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation about the alleged disintegration of the EU. l The EU and Germany in particular are presented as puppets of the US, which wants to destroy Europe's economies for its own benefit.
See our analysis of the Kremlin's claims about the EU's lost sovereignty. Pro-Kremlin outlets often use the narrative about different countries being under the American thumb - see other examples here.
The article draws false parallels between the economic development of the EU and the USSR and fits into a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the EU's alleged imminent collapse. Unlike the USSR, which was a totalitarian state with the communist ideology as official policy, command economy, and very limited civic and political rights, the EU has a market economy, high standards of human rights' protection, and no dominant ideology.
The claim about the dire economic situation in EU countries contradicts factual evidence. The European Commission data estimated economic growth in the EU and the euro area at 3.5% for 2022, which is said to be “quite outstanding outturns, proving the remarkable resilience of the EU economy to the headwinds unleashed by Russia's war against Ukraine and in particular the energy crisis”.
See similar disinformation claims alleging that the US is trying to destroy and occupy Europe; and that the EU's economic collapse is approaching