AS 2023 draws to a close, three events stand out. First is the attrition war in Ukraine that has become the catalyst for the growing clout of the multipolar world as seen in the expansion of the Brics nation into Brics-10.

Next, the rapprochement engineered by China between rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia that has empowered Middle East countries to eschew the interference of the decaying unipolar world.

And finally, the spectacular military victory of Hamas over Israel on October 7, which has made the quest for an independent, sovereign Palestinian state the focus of Middle East conflicts.

These events show the failure of America and its western allies to anticipate the unexpected.

Nowhere is this underscored than in the naïve statement made by the US National Security Advisor, Jack Sullivan, in which he described the broad-brush landscape of a quieter Middle East.

Sullivan rattled off a long list of positive developments in the Middle East that allowed the Biden administration to focus on other regions and other problems.

Eight days later after the speech, Palestinian resistance fighters Hamas launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel.

But the year’s troubles really began with the “expected” incident of state terrorism in December 2022, when the Nord Stream pipeline was blasted with C4 explosives.

From the West’s perspective, the bombing was “expected” to be some sort of clincher that sometime early this year, Russia’s foray into Ukraine would be decisively ended as the country would be deprived of massive gas revenues needed to finance the war.

The unexpected happened, instead. It is EU countries that are now suffering economically as the sanctions boomeranged on them leading to the deindustrialisation of their economies, especially in Germany’s case. 

This happened because it’s cheaper Russian oil and gas that have powered the economic growth of Germany and the EU economies all this while, especially the former with its huge manufacturing base heavily dependent on oil and gas.

Now one by one, countries in the Eurozone are experiencing negative growth that will lead to a recession, judging by their latest GDP results.

In contrast, Russia is expected to have a growth of 3.5% for the whole of 2023, which conclusively proves that it has won the sanctions war.

This is where the global mainstream media – singularly owned by entities in the “collective West” that have a strong connection with political Zionism – is in cahoots with their governments in spreading Russophobia.

It is only recently that their reports on the Ukraine war have finally caught up with reports by the Russian media and independent news channels.

This is a good sign, although there are still media people who refuse to come to terms with Russia’s inevitable victory and are bent on prolonging the war via their news reports and op-eds. – December 22, 2023.

* Jamari Mohtar reads The Malaysian Insight.  

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.