Third World War: the Russia-Ukraine conflict may spark it, says George Soros
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Nearly three months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, billionaire investor George Soros warned on Tuesday that the ongoing destructive conflict could trigger the Third World War the planet cannot survive.
The world must mobilize all the resources to bring this war to an early end, and the best and perhaps the only way to preserve the civilization is to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible.
“The invasion may have been the beginning of the Third World War and our civilization may not survive it,” he said in his annual speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos.
China’s President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are tied together in an alliance that has no limits, Soros observed.
The February 24 invasion of Ukraine didn’t come out of the blue. President Putin had, Soros claimed, informed Xi about it well in advance when they met on February 4 at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing and issued a long statement announcing their cooperation had “no limits”.
According to Soros, Putin informed Xi of a “special military operation” in Ukraine, but it is unclear whether he told the Chinese President that he had a full-scale attack on Ukraine in mind.
“The US and UK military experts certainly told their Chinese counterparts what was in store. Xi approved, but asked Putin to wait until the conclusion of the winter Olympics,” Soros said.
“Xi resolved to hold the Olympics despite the Omicron variant that was just spreading in China. The organizers went to great lengths to create an airtight bubble for the competitors and the Olympics concluded without a hitch,” he said.
Soros claimed Xi Jinping harbors a ‘guilty secret’. He never told the Chinese people the government had inoculated them with a vaccine designed for the original Wuhan variant and offered very little protection against new variants.
In the meantime, the investor said, Putin’s so-called “special military operation” didn’t unfold according to plan. He expected his army to be welcomed by the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine as liberators. His soldiers carried with them their dress uniforms for a victory parade, but that is not what happened.
Putin and Xi also have a lot in common: they rule by intimidation, and as a result, they make mind-boggling mistakes.
“Putin expected to be welcomed in Ukraine as a liberator; Xi Jinping is sticking to a Zero Covid policy that can’t possibly be sustained,” Soros said.
Putin might have recognized that he made a terrible mistake by invading Ukraine. But he cannot start peace negotiations, which would be akin to his own resignation. The inconclusive Russian invasion of Ukraine did not serve China’s own potential interests either (in Taiwan).
“China ought to have been the senior partner in its alliance with Russia, but Xi Jinping’s lack of assertiveness allowed Putin to usurp that position.”
According to Soros, the Zero-Covid policy had made President Xi Jinping unpopular in China. “Contrary to general expectations, he may not get the third term he covets because of the mistakes he has made. But even if he does, the Politburo may not give him a free hand to select the members of the next Politburo. That would greatly reduce his power and influence and make it less likely that he will become ruler for life,” he added.
