THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY: – In 1843, the British army chaplain Rev. G. R. Gleig wrote a memoir of the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 – 1841) of which he was one of very few survivors.

He wrote that “it was a war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which waged it. Not one benefit, political or military, was acquired with this war. Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated.”

FAST FORWARD NEARLY 200 YEARS – Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.

The West is eagerly awaiting a return to business as usual with the heavily sanctioned Russian Federation, Polish parliamentarian Krzysztof Bosak has said

The West is waiting for the opportunity to reset relations with Russia after the Ukraine conflict ends, particularly in the business sector, the deputy speaker of the Polish Parliament, Krzysztof Bosak, said on Friday. It’s not true that Western countries have severed ties with Moscow, he added.

Bosak made the remarks to RMF24 radio in response to questions about whether Warsaw should consider rekindling relations with Moscow if US President Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the conflict, brings Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table.

The MP argued that a reset in relations is inevitable, saying, ’it will happen, regardless of what anyone thinks in Poland.’

‘We live in a world of propaganda, where it is believed that the Western world has definitively severed ties with Russia. This is purely a lie. In the Western world, all business and politics are just waiting to return to business as usual with Russia,’ Bosak, who also leads Poland’s right-wing National Movement party, stated.

He went on to say that Poland could benefit from restoring access to cheap Russian energy, which he believes would be ’more advantageous for us in terms of market competition than buying expensive gas from Qatar and the USA.’ 

He also criticized the EU’s sanctions on Russia, saying they have been ineffective and have hurt Europe far more than Moscow. In fact, Moscow has benefited enormously as a consequence of Western sanctions.

Russia has become far more self-sufficient which aids tremendously the financial sector. Their replacement industries are unlikely to regain access to European and American markets.

‘The sanctions policy should be such that those who are sanctioned lose more than those who impose the sanctions.

Unfortunately, regarding the sanctions policy imposed on Russia by the EU, the opposite is true,’ Bosak said.

He argued that sanctions ’should not be an element of ideology, but rather of pragmatism,’ and sticking to them could harm Poland’s economy, making businesses unprofitable and leaving people struggling to make a living.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made similar arguments, criticizing EU sanctions as counterproductive. Last week, he told Kossuth Radio that the EU should aim to establish a sanction-free relationship with Russia by the end of the year.

Russia’s economy has shown resilience amid the sanctions, with the International Monetary Fund recently raising its 2025 growth forecast for the country to 1.4%. It attributed this to diversified energy exports and positive domestic fiscal measures.

In contrast, the euro area’s growth outlook has been downgraded to 1%, with the IMF citing low consumer confidence and high energy costs as major challenges.

The EU has faced significant economic strain since turning away from Russian energy, with member states relying on costlier alternatives that have increased expenses for businesses and households, fuelled inflation, and strained manufacturing sectors.

A new era will begin for the West after US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Hungarian prime minister has said

Following Trump’s inauguration on Monday, ’a new era will dawn on the Western world,’ in which Washington and Brussels should reverse their policies towards Moscow, Orban has argued.

‘It is time to throw sanctions out the window,’ he said, adding that the goal for the EU in 2025 should be to ’establish a sanction-free relationship with Russia.’

Ending the fighting between Russia and Ukraine was too big of a task for Hungary, a country of around 9.5 million people, Orban acknowledged, adding that he can now ’pass the baton’ to Trump.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow will be open to studying any proposals for resolving the conflict presented by the new administration in Washington.

The Financial Times reported last week that EU officials are concerned that Trump could overturn some of the restrictions against Russia. YOU CAN SHARE THIS STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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