Commentary
Society
Wounds That Won’t Heal: Trauma, Power and Politics in Slovakia – COMMENTARY
16 May 2025
2 March 2021
By accustoming Europeans to the idea that Sputnik V can be an excellent alternative to Western-approved vaccines, the Kremlin strategists are given a dangerous tool. The Kremlin sees the European Union as a strategic enemy and Sputnik V has the potential to transform into a Sputnik AK-47, this time in the hands of EU medics.
It is said that in woe will you come to know a true friend. Viscount Palmerston once said that “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has tormented the world for the past year, has made many don masks but also made many take their masks off. The European Union’s desperate struggle with the pandemic is both uniting the bloc but also concurrently dividing it. The forces, which want to weaken the EU, will exploit all possible means to do so, there can be no doubt of it.
The greatest weaknesses will be chosen for those blows and this time, it is the COVID-19 vaccines. The Kremlin is marvellously prepared for it and the choice of the name Sputnik is no coincidence.