War in times of pandemic

While this month our main focus is on climate issues here in Catalonia, elsewhere all the worst predictions have come true and war, in all its cruelty, has broken out again in Europe. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, falsely attributed by Putin’s regime to a war on Nazism, is causing a human tragedy: thousands of deaths, cities destroyed, economic hardship. For the first time, however, the EU has decided to go beyond its traditional cosmetic sanctions and approved a package of economic measures that will undoubtedly cause very serious problems in Russia.

Ukrainian courage in the face of the Russian invasion has become a global phenomenon, possibly because it is also a war in which social media and information have become very valuable and active tools.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, a former actor turned politician, has shown great skill in using direct communication and social media, and has clearly defeated the Russian president in the war of the international narrative.

It is too early to assess the consequences of this tragedy, and to know how deteriorated Russia’s global position will be. However, everyone seems to agree on one thing: this war has buried the era that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and ushered in a new one, in which the world’s superpowers once more use intimidation to relate to one another. It is also a new era in which the emerging superpower, China, threatens to replace the old one, the United States.