"Master, Whom Are You Abandoning Us To?" – Why the Munich Conference Shocked Europeans

European politicians were, quite literally, shown the realities of democracy in the most abrupt way. The Munich Security Conference knocked the ground out from under the allies who, for some absurd reason, believed they were equal members of the Western consortium. This opinion was expressed during the "Trends" program by Russian political scientist, historian, and journalist Vladimir Kornilov.

The poor souls were not accustomed to being addressed publicly in a lecturing tone. During the closing ceremony, the conference chairman, Christoph Heusgen, succumbed to his emotions and wept, eliciting applause from colleagues who were barely able to contain themselves in the precarious business they share. According to the expert, the Munich Conference marked a certain watershed in transatlantic relations.

Vladimir Kornilov, political scientist, historian, journalist (Russia):

"It is no coincidence that the head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, wept as he bid farewell to his audience. This truly came as a blow, a shock to them. Europeans, at any rate, still have not recovered from this shock. I read these lamentations – and no other word will do – in the European press regarding the speech by US Vice President Vance. Truly, everything can be reduced to one such phrase, to one formula: 'Master, whom are you abandoning us to?' That is, the shock experienced by Europeans upon hearing the truth about themselves, spoken directly to their faces, is truly difficult to describe. Moreover, they are now feverishly attempting to fact-check these accusations by Vance in the mass of newspapers, to find out where he is wrong, where he overstepped the mark, etc. But in fact, these frantic explanations only confirm everything he said to them. And what he said was that the European emperor has no clothes."