The New Iron Curtain

RT reports:

A new “Iron Curtain” is being drawn across Europe, this time by Western powers seeking to cut off Russia and Belarus over the conflict in Ukraine. While meeting his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the EU destroyed relations with Moscow, built over decades, practically overnight.

His Belarusian counterpart, Vladimir Makei, added “The Iron Curtain is now being erected by Westerners themselves.” He clarified he was referring not just to the severance of political and economic contact, but to the physical barrier erected along the Poland-Belarus border.

Makei said the isolationism was one-sided, as Belarus continues to advocate for dialogue with the West and seek diplomatic solutions to problems.

“It is practically already up,” Lavrov agreed, adding that Western countries “are only doing it carefully, so as not to pinch anything off, but the process is underway.”

I take this as Russian propaganda, but it is useful to try to understand their view.

For balance, I post the view of the Biden administration:

CNN: "What do you say to those families that say, 'listen, we can't afford to pay $4.85 a gallon for months, if not years?’"

BIDEN ADVISOR BRIAN DEESE: "This is about the future of the Liberal World Order and we have to stand firm."

New Iron Curtain and Liberal World Order. Two ways of saying the same thing.

Update: The Pope has mixed opinions about the war:

Pope Francis has said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.

Well, yes, NATO did provoke the war by threatening Russia.