OPINION: Russia is a barbarous aggressor so why can it seduce MEPs Daly and Wallace?

SOMETIMES you do have to wonder. How is it the case that seemingly otherwise, intelligent, even well-educated people are seduced by Russia, or what they believe it to represent?

In my student days I was endlessly bewildered by those members of the then Workers Party - (formerly Official Sinn Fein, later Democratic Left, later still the Labour Party - though a Workers Party remains in existence still in Ireland) - many of them personal friends, who seemed so bewitched by the Soviet empire (though they would never have used the word 'empire' to describe it).

Some even visited Eastern European states back then in the days of the Iron Curtain – as guests of relevant regimes – and returned as though they had visited the Promised Land, all that milk and honey.

During the 1980s the Workers’ Party became, to paraphrase historian John Mulqueen, the ‘Soviet voice’ in Dáil Éireann. To get there (and stay) they adopted many of the strategies associated with Soviet so-called 'democratic centralism' i.e. dictatorship (though they never used the word!) from the top.

They, secretly, infiltrated the media, academics and the trades unions during the 1970s and 1980s. They were particularly successful in doing so where the Union of Students in Ireland was concerned, though in that instance they were somewhat more upfront about their allegiances.

They had what can only be described as a deep faith in things Soviet and, as counterbalance, a deep-seated distrust, prejudice even, of all things US of A.

It was the sort of faith that had no difficulty in explaining away or finding a different 'explanation' for the atrocities under Stalin, including the starving to death of an estimated three million Ukrainians during forced collectivization of farms there in the 1930s, or the brutal crushing of uprisings in Hungary and then Czechoslovakia… the beating down of the wise and great art beaten down.

As with all people of a deep faith, discussion was futile as they were beyond persuasion. It took history to sort them out and, in particular, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

These latter day zealots were by no means unique. Even the great playwright and Dubliner George Bernard Shaw was beguiled. He visited the Soviet Union in 1931 and found Stalin – whom he greatly admired – to be “charmingly good-humored.” He “expected to see a Russian worker and I found a Georgian gentleman,” he said.

At the end of that trip he wrote: “Tomorrow I leave this land of hope and return to our Western countries – the countries of despair.” Returning to Europe he described Stalin as a “giant,” while other politicians were “pigmies” and he dismissed the 'myth' about hunger in the Soviet Union by saying he “ate the most slashing dinner in his life” while there.

Some time later he would write: “I myself am as strongly susceptible as anyone to the fascination of the Russian character as expressed by its art and personally by its artists.”

For a man whose middle name could have been 'Sceptic' this was extraordinary self-delusion. Of course, as proven by our more recent (former) Workers Party friends, he wasn’t the only Irish person to indulge such fantasy. Nor were they the last.

It continues to this day through the actions of the two Irish MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace. Here is Clare Daly on Twitter at the weekend, in response to Taoiseach Micheal Martin’s strong speech last week at the UN condemning Russian actions in Ukraine and calling for that country’s removal from the UN Security Council: “Scandalous! @MichealMartinTD supposed leader of neutral country behaving as #NATO stooge when he should be championing peace & end to the war. Where was his call for US, UK & France to lose their seats for Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria? Pathetic!”

Here is Mick Wallace on Saturday last, also on Twitter, on a speech by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said the war in Ukraine was “about autocracy versus democracy”, and addressing Ms von der Leyen directly, he said: “What you are really saying is that the #EU is taking instructions from the #US, regardless of the cost to the #environment + citizens of Europe. Both EU + US are undermining their own climate ambition just to punish Russia – this is brain dead stuff as the Planet is burning…”

Not once since Russia invaded Ukraine last February have either of these two MEPs criticised that action or the subsequent discovery of war crimes by Russian troops against murdered ordinary people in Ukraine uncovered as those soldiers were forced to retreat.

Not once have they criticised Russian bombings of residential parts of cities, schools, hospitals or civilian areas of Ukraine generally, not to mention its wiping off the face of the earth of places such as Mariupol.

I only hope this is remembered at the next European elections when Ms Daly and Mr Wallace are held to account for all of this by the electorates in the Dublin and South European constituencies.

Meanwhile in Moscow Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who supports Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, told his country’s men at the weekend that: “The Church recognizes that if someone, moved by a sense of duty and by a need to fulfill his oath, remains faithful to his calling and carried out what his duty commands, and if he dies while carrying out that duty, then he, without doubt, is committing an act tantamount to sacrifice. He is sacrificing himself for others. And consequently we believe that this sacrifice washes away all the sins he has committed.”

He advised: “Go bravely to fulfill your military duty. And remember that if you lay down your life for your country, you will be with God in his kingdom, glory and eternal life.”

He said: “The fear of death drives a warrior from the battlefield, pushes the weak to betrayal and even to rebel against their brothers. But true faith destroys the fear of death.”

Yes, that’s Patriarch Kirill, one of Putin’s main recruiting sergeants, telling the men of Russia that if they go to war against Ukraine and are killed they are guaranteed a place in heaven for ever and ever… Amen!

It is hardly the first time in history that a Churchman has held out the promise of eternal life while sending men to their deaths, but it is comparatively rare in these times. Then, clearly, Kirill is more Russian than a man of God and doesn’t appear to be any rush himself to be a warrior in Ukraine.

Russia is the barbarous aggressor in Ukraine, attempting to suppress a people and, with our own long, tragic history of suffering under the yoke of a larger, sometimes merciless bully intent on making itself great (again!), we indomitable Irishry should be among the last to side with the big guy as he attempts to crush his smaller neighbour.

The Taoiseach is 100% correct in describing Russia at the UN as behaving like a “rogue state” and not playing a constructive role on the UN security council which is charged with securing international peace. There was, he said, a “huge irreconcilability” between Russia being a permanent member of that council and its behaviour in attacking Ukraine.

As a result of its invasion of Ukraine last February it should lose its permanent seat on the UN security council, he said.

There are currently five permanent members of that security council: the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France. There are also 10 non-permanent members elected for a two-year term. Ireland currently holds one of those positions and will do so until the end of this year.

Well done Taoiseach!