May the devil take you, Vladimir Putin, and your brutal and inhuman behavior! You are leading both Ukraine and your people to the abyss. You are chasing Europe into the past.
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Rasmus Hanson, Member of Parliament (MDG)
On Thursday, we were several hundred people demonstrating in front of the Russian Embassy, this time against the horrific attack of the Russian regime on Ukraine. You may have been there before. When Russia invaded Czechoslovakia. when they invaded Afghanistan. I grew up with refugees from the Russian invasion of Hungary and from the invasion of Czechoslovakia who lived with us.
A few days ago, I thought Russia and the world had learned. It is too bitter a mistake to make such a mistake, once again, by standing there again, to protest another terrible, incomprehensible Russian aggression.
May the devil take you, Vladimir Putin, and your brutal and inhuman behavior! You are leading both Ukraine and your people to the abyss. You are chasing Europe into the past.
Now the people of Ukraine, who are living in the midst of this unreal nightmare, must see and feel our full support. According to Save the Children, at least 100,000 people have already fled eastern Ukraine. Those who will have to seek protection in another country should know that they will receive it here. The state and municipalities must be prepared to receive. Each of us must be ready to receive, and I know we are. My door is also open.
The last time a war broke out in Europe, Norway took in 12,000 refugees from Bosnia. We must accept at least the same number of Ukrainians. They must be granted automatic residency and exemption from the work requirement so that they can stay in Norway for more than three months. If Ukraine’s neighbors need it, Norway should also offer to transport here.
Norway’s parliament must declare that the huge revenue we will now reap from skyrocketing oil and gas prices will go to emergency aid in Ukraine and support for Poland and other countries that must take in an uncontrollable number of refugees. Before Christmas, the United Nations estimated that 1.8 million people need humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. Now the need has doubled.
But first of all, Ukrainians have the right to freedom, democracy and self-determination in their country. They will get it again! Ukraine must now receive all the political and practical support it can give. Norway and the world must show Putin that his brutal attack on his Ukrainian neighbors is certainly intolerable. Putin’s criminal regime has to contend with such ruthless countermeasures that he is finally learning that aggression has become too costly for him.
As a small neighbor of Russia, Norway itself has an interest in being among the most prominent supporters of Ukraine, showing the strongest unity with the Ukrainians, and is the most ready to retaliate against Russia. Even if it would cost us something.
The European Union, the United States and the international community are now putting pressure on Putin. The Norwegian government indicates its support for the sanctions. This is good, but not enough. The Millennium Development Goals demand that Norway independently assess whether we can do more. Norway’s greatest asset is that we are an oil and energy country, and we have the largest investment fund in the world, the Oil Fund. The Millennium Development Goals have struggled for years against the meaningless claim that the Petroleum Fund is not a political tool. It has never been clearer that the Fund is so far the largest instrument of our foreign policy. The Millennium Development Goals urge the government to immediately consider how Norway’s energy policy and Petroleum Fund investments, including preventing Russian companies’ access to the Norwegian continental shelf, can be used to weaken the Putin regime.
The attack on Ukraine is due to the fact that Russia is among fewer and fewer countries of the world that has never tasted democracy and human rights, has never recognized its many violations against others and its own people, and therefore has never bypassed its foolish, imperialist worldview.
Now, but not least, Norway must do its utmost to ensure that this colossal Russian war crime is the last time a Russian regime tramples on other peoples’ democracy and self-determination. The failure of Norway and the world’s reaction will determine whether the Russian regimes finally know that aggression is unprofitable, or whether Russia will continue to threaten peace as well in the future. It is our choice.
The Russians are also Norway’s neighbors and friends. They will continue this way. We should not hate the Russians. But these regimes that repeatedly oppress the Ukrainians, the Russians themselves and other peoples, we must now hate them.
The invasion of Ukraine must end with Putin suffering his final defeat and Russia finally finding a way out of its dark and oppressive history. The invasion will and must end, with Ukraine regaining its freedom, and Europe moving forward on the historic path to peace.
“Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer.”
