By Wale Ajao

The western powers under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO ) ended their meeting in Turkey on July 7 and 8. They did not make serious attempts to restore peace by ending the almost five years old Russo Ukrainian war.
   
Instead of brainstorming seriously in search of peace they ended up commending Ukraine for being able to use drones to damage refineries inside Russia. This has brought real hardship to Russians who now have to queue  for long time in search of petrol .

The western powers also pledged to increase military budgets at a time when the masses in Europe and America need more welfare packages to cushion the effects of high energy costs. 

The western powers are also not sufficiently mindful of the rising death tolls in both Ukraine and Russia.

Instead of admitting their error America and NATO members are really hoping that Russia will eventually be brought down and out. Yet so far this looks like a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained.

For five years the west has pursued the agenda of defeating Russia yet this has not been possible The west has portrayed Russia as the belligerent nation Yet this is not true 

Russia has argued that the Minsk agreement was abandoned by the west who went behind the scene to mastermind the emergence of a regime in Ukraine that wants a NATO base in Ukraine Yet the Minsk agreement provided that there will be no NATO base near Russia. 
   
Russia has also said that Ethnic Russians in crimea, Doneskt, Luang,  Zaprorizhia and kerson all have indicated readiness to join the Russian federation especially in Crimea where a referendum was conducted.

America and Europe rejected all the points Russia made. They refused to accept Russia to join NATO when Putin made the move. They thereby showed clearly they have a hidden agenda of isolating Russia.

The NATO summit in Turkey has now turned out to be a golden opportunity lost 
This is because the right way forward would have been for the west to make more concerted effort to achieve peace instead of preparing for a confrontation with Russia.

The west merely used the summit in Turkey to build up an unwarranted fear of Russia to justify unnecessary increase in military budget. Especially since Russia has said several times it has no intention of going to war against NATO countries.

This tendency to keep producing argument for war against Russia and all attempts being made to crush Russia is the great issue in world politics today.

Will the west be able to wipe out Russians and our world will still remain intact given the fact the Russian is a nuclear power and a permanent member of the security council of the United Nations? 

Are the western powers not putting themselves and the rest of the world at the mercy of what goes on in the mind of Vladimir Putin the Russian leader? 

In the sense that anyone can imagine what will happen if Putin comes to the conclusion that the Russian federation is about to be wiped out of existence through this unending machinations of the west. 

Or does the west think that Putin will not unleash nuclear weapons if the west gets close to cleaning the Russians off the slate?

Since it has become clear that all sanctions imposed on Russia has failed. It has also become clear that for the past three months that Ukraine has succeeded in causing petrol scarcity in Russia and it’s attendant hardship, Russians have not risen up against Putin as the west expects. 

This shows that quite unlike the expectations of the leaders of the NATO countries Russia is not going to be easy to bring down and out.

This means that the best way forward is for the West to turn a new leaf by stopping the unending machinations against Russia. The west should allow peace to reign and avoid nuclear holocaust an unnecessary disaster for mankind. 

At the roots of the anti Russian propaganda by the west is the fact that America has chosen herself as the leader of the world. America in pursuit of herself imposed leadership of the world has military bases all over the world. 
 
In the days of the cold war anti Russian sentiments were justified on the need to safeguard democracy world wide and promote free enterprise system 

The struggle against communism was used as the bogey to stop Russia from gaining influence in world politics.

Surprisingly after the end of the cold war when Russia and china embraced market economy America still sees Russia and china as enemies 

America and the west still wants to dominate the rest of the word They cannot accept a situation where Russia and china will share global business with them. This is the most plausible explanation of the unending western machinations against Russia and china. 
 
The lesson for Africa is that Africa must read between the lines and formulate appropriate response and not be hoodwinked by western propaganda.

Ajao is a Lagos-based journalist. He can b e reached via: [email protected]