Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Raimundas Karoblis – Order of Yaroslav the Wise
For a country of only 2.8 million people, Lithuania has produced a large number of friends of the week for Ukraine (four so far.)
But that shouldn’t be surprising, as this small Baltic country, like Ukraine, has also long suffered from Russian aggression and occupation.Lithuania and the other Baltic states Latvia and Estonia realized after the collapse of the Soviet Union that their existence as independent states might one day be threatened by a resurgent Russia. That’s why they instituted political and economic reform to qualify for membership of the European Union and NATO, which they achieved in 2004.
On joining the EU and NATO, Lithuania hoped it had secured its independence for the foreseeable future. However, within four years Russia had attacked Georgia, and six years after that, it had invaded and occupied Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and launched its war in the Donbas.
Then came the election of U. S. President Donald J. Trump. He has not only many times praised (and failed to criticize) the sinister Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, he has disparaged the NATO defense alliance, complaining that the United States spends too much on the defense organization, and its allies too little. Trump at the NATO summit in Brussels in May even failed to endorse Article 5, the statement in the North Atlantic Treaty that underpins the West’s collective defense. He finally endorsed it in July during a speech in Warsaw to a collective sigh of relief from the allies.
Lithuania knows that if the Kremlin is not stopped in Ukraine, its next stop might be the Baltics. In 2016 Lithuania supplied lethal weapons to Ukraine — the only country yet to do so — in the form of machine guns. It has also sent 150 tons of ammunition, which Ukraine badly needs, having lost control of its only ammunition factory in Luhansk.
In late November, Lithuania’s defense ministry, led by Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis, submitted a draft resolution to the Lithuanian government on supplying Ukraine with more than 7,000 Kalashnikov rifles, almost two million cartridges, more than 80 machine guns, several mortars, anti-tank weapons, and other military equipment, together worth nearly 2 million euros.
Karoblis is thus Ukraine’s Friend of the Week and winner of the Order of Yaroslav the Wise for taking the lead in providing much-needed defensive aid to Ukraine.
Silvio Berlusconi – Order of Lenin
If Americans had wanted to know what their country would be like under the leadership of a rich businessman with no prior experience of politics, they could have looked at how Italy fared under its former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi, a convicted tax fraudster who told Italian journalists when he entered politics in 1994 that he was running to avoid going to jail, has many similarities to U. S. President Donald J. Trump.
He failed to keep his promise to sell his business assets to avoid conflicts of interest whilst in power. He failed to keep election promises, while refusing to admit it. He talked up the achievements of his government, calling it a “continuous miracle” and claiming, without evidence, that “earlier governments pale” in comparison.
Berlusconi’s attitude to women is well known: his “bunga bunga” sex parties were infamous. When an earthquake hit the city of L’Aquila, Berlusconi said the 17,000 people left homeless should imagine they were going on “a camping weekend.”
Like Trump, Berlusconi has feuded with the media. While Trump commonly attacks CNN, Berlusconi’s target is the respected UK weekly magazine the Economist (this dislike is mutual — the Economist described Berlusconi as unfit for office.) And, like Trump, Berlusconi’s gaffes and controversies did not seriously harm his rise in politics.
However, it is attraction to authoritarian leaders that Berlusconi’s similarity to Trump is most disconcerting.
In 2009 he became the first Western politician to visit Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
And he is a friend of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. In September 2014, after Russia invaded and started its occupation of Crimea, and launched its war in the Donbas, he derided the West’s response of sanctioning Russia for its aggression, saying Russia had no choice but to defend “Ukrainian citizens of Russian origin that it considers brothers.”
In November a TV channel owned by Berlusconi’s media empire aired a film alleging three Georgians had been paid to shoot police and protesters in Kyiv on Feb. 20, 2014 in order to provoke the overthrow of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. However, BBC Monitoring, which investigated the film’s claims, found that footage of a key witnesses in Kyiv had been faked.
So Berlusconi is Ukraine’s Foe of the Week and winner of the Order of Lenin for helping Putin spread his lies and fake news about Ukraine.
