Latvia Central Banker: Europe Already at War With Russia

Latvia’s central bank governor, Martins Kazaks, said Europe is already “at war” with Russia.

“It’s naive to think that we are not at war [with Russia],” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

He said that while the conflict was not happening “physically on our ground” there were cyberattacks happening “all the time,” physical damage to underwater cables in the Baltic Sea, and violations of Danish airspace by drones.

“We need to be resilient to deal with that,” Kazaks said.

The report comes two days after an ally and former adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Boris Yeltsin said Moscow could use nuclear weapons against Europe if it “comes close to a defeat” against Ukraine.

“What is defeat of Russia? If Russia comes ever close to a defeat, that would mean that Russia now would use nuclear weapons, and Europe would be finished physically,” Sergey Karaganov told Tucker Carlson on his podcast “The Tucker Carlson Show.”

“So, I mean, it’s simply impossible even to think about it, but they have been talking because they need a war to rationalize their stay in power, to rationalize their existence.”

Karaganov also criticized the Russian government for being “too patient” with Europe and said, “everybody in the world now laughs at Europe, which used to be, by the way, one of the core centers of world power.”

“Sooner or later, if they continue to support this war, sacrificing numerous of the Ukrainians and others … we’ll have to punish them severely. Hopefully in a limited sense,” Karaganov said.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters Wednesday that Ukraine, not Russia, is holding up a potential peace deal, rhetoric that stands in marked contrast to that of European allies, who have consistently argued Moscow has little interest in ending its war in Ukraine.

In an exclusive interview in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to wrap up his nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said, was more reticent.

"I think he's ready to make a deal," Trump said of Putin. "I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal."

Asked why U.S.-led negotiations had not yet resolved Europe's largest land conflict since World War II, Trump responded: "Zelenskyy."

Kazaks told the Financial Times that Europe could reduce the chances of a direct war with Russia by backing Ukraine so Moscow “does not win in Ukraine” and by bolstering Europe’s militaries “to create a view in Russia that [any attack] is a high risk and not even worth contemplating.”

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