Diary of my Death (2/2)

Lecture “Courage for Ethics,” 03–06 September 2026

Patrik Baab

21. September 2026September 21, 2026 · 32 Min. Lesezeit32 min read

The Maltese politician Roberta Metsola was elected President of the European Parliament in 2022 and confirmed for a second term in 2024. She called for more weapons for Ukraine and rapid accession to the EU.1 She declared that the EU had to rearm in preparation for a war with Russia: “Ukraine is fighting for Europe. Ukraine’s security is Europe’s security.”2

Roberta Metsola belonged to the EU establishment. She made her brother-in-law Matthew Tabone her chief of staff, with a basic salary of €20,000 a month.3 The University of Malta found “serious shortcomings” in her thesis and said she had plagiarized extensively; nevertheless, her doctorate was not revoked.4

The methods were always the same: they babble about freedom, democracy and values, the opium of the people, an alibi mantra, while a handful of figures—Brussels Eurocrats, asset managers and military men—set the agenda and send forward their political performers, spineless narcissists who surrender every conviction at the cloakroom for a little limelight, a seat on a supervisory board or the feeling of power. The system deliberately selected those with total character defects, because people with a genuine conscience and moral compass were simply of no use in a machine based on exploitation.5

On her trip to California at the end of May 2026, she had met Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, Chuck Robbins of Cisco and other representatives of the Big Tech sector for small talk.6 At the beginning of July 2026 she granted the platform companies a wish and, in a procedural coup, used a procedural trick to put chat control back on the agenda after a majority of members had rejected it in March.

Journalist Peter Borbe commented: “No, it is not Putin who threatens freedom and democracy in Europe; it is a sleazy cartel of officials in Brussels that uses even the dirtiest tricks to turn the continent step by step into a gigantic surveillance state. The trick worked: chat control was reactivated, and in the parliament, already weakened by the holiday season, the project could no longer be stopped. Roberta Metsola and Manfred Weber are particular string-pullers in this operation. Also astonishing, however, is the role of the large U.S. tech corporations, which beforehand lobbied massively for permission to snoop. They WANT to spy on their customers’ private emails and now have permission again.”7

The business model of Europe’s political elite: they began as supposed servants of the people, but pursue policies against the interests of voters, operate total surveillance of citizens and squander their tax money on the military-industrial complex or the financial industry. They behave like “Economic Hitmen” who, on behalf of their friends in Washington or in U.S. corporations, ruin their own countries and are handsomely rewarded for it.8 Roberta Metsola worked closely with transatlantic organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the EU-US Trade and Technology Council and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.9 Finnish President Alexander Stubb befriended CIA agent Valerie Plame.10 Chancellor Friedrich Merz was chairman of the supervisory board of BlackRock’s German division from 2016 to 2020 and belongs to Atlantik-Brücke.11 Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil had belonged to Atlantik-Brücke for years.12 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum.13 EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas belonged to the advisory council of the Munich Security Conference; she received the Transatlantic Leadership Award of the Center for European Policy Analysis and the Henry A. Kissinger Prize of the American Academy in Berlin.14 Former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock received a professorship at Columbia University in New York, where professors earn an average of about US$245,500. While she has feathered her nest, others pay for her war policy with their lives.15 Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell: “We bought all of Europe.”16

“Brussels,” according to economist Markus Krall, “is one of the most corrupt swamps there is.”17 In the previous European Parliament, 163 members had been involved in 253 criminal offenses or scandals. A corrupt network stretched across Europe into Ukraine, as President Zelenskyy’s former press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, had told Le Journal du Dimanche.18 Most of the weapons and financial aid for Ukraine, she said, flowed back to Western corporations. The “only winners” were those “who profit from this war: certain politicians and lobbyists. The peoples, by contrast, pay the price.”19

After leaving office, the “servants of the people” then strolled through the revolving door into the favored companies, sold them their networks as lobbyists and collected a fat dividend for the destructive work they had done. Take what you can while you can. What remained was the pile of rubble we have today. “The great and powerful,” writes Zygmunt Bauman, developed “a preference for the fleeting and the temporary, while the losers desperately try to keep their junk running.”20 And they continued to sit in the digital cage they regarded as the highest form of freedom.

They looked along the bay toward the piers of Bomba, where the boats and nets of Maltese fishermen had given way to luxury yachts. They formed the backdrop for tourists photographing themselves in the warming sun on the ferry deck, a memory of a deceptive idyll that had lured them here and that shattered against the razor-sharp, backward-raked stem of a futuristic monster owned by an oligarch who had long since cast the net of his digital financial flows over the mirage of freedom.

Some superyachts belonged to special-purpose companies behind which, in turn, stood a limited company in Bermuda, the Virgin Islands or the Isle of Man; authorized to sign was a law firm in the City of London, and whoever went looking grasped at nothing. The technique of power in digital capitalism was appearing and disappearing, slipping away, evasion: “In liquid modernity,” Zygmunt Bauman wrote, “the settled majority is ruled by a nomadic, extraterritorial elite.”21 The detachment of power from any territory, its ability to move freely beyond the reach of democratic controls and to evade responsibility, had become the defining characteristic of power and at the same time the hardest blow globalization could inflict on those under surveillance and dependent on wages.22

Malta profited from the Ukraine war: arms deals were financially processed through special-purpose companies and accounts in Valletta. Ukrainian oligarchs used holdings and financial vehicles, especially in Cyprus but also in Malta, such as Trident Trust, to place their assets beyond the reach of their own state, save taxes and gain access to the EU or the City of London.23 They included Anton Prigodsky with his Malta-registered ZUC Ltd,24 Kostiantyn Zhevago with Wargny Storage Ltd. and associated companies,25 the founders of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov,26 and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his network.27 Multi-layered special-purpose companies based in Malta and Cyprus and funds in Luxembourg were popular for saving taxes and concealing ownership.28

At the NATO summit in Ankara in July 2026, Luxembourg had positioned itself unequivocally. The small state of only 700,000 inhabitants and no standing army wanted to transform itself from a tax haven into a financier of war. Even then Luxembourg was one of the world’s leading financial centers. By the end of 2025, assets managed in Luxembourg-domiciled funds amounted to €8.2 trillion; 58 percent of all cross-border funds worldwide were administered there, making it Europe’s largest fund hub. Luxembourg was not a country but a money pump redirecting the wealth of the world into the pockets of the global elite.29

The new business model was death. That was why Luxembourg became the European pillar of the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), the so-called NATO bank headquartered in Canada, which was intended to channel private capital, backed by state guarantees, into armaments projects.30

Private capital: that meant that pension and retirement funds, health insurers and fund investors could now, with tax advantages in Luxembourg, invest in war and thus in the deaths of their children and grandchildren. The money flowed from citizens’ pockets through a sea of blood to U.S. arms and technology corporations. The hegemon in Washington cannibalized its vassals.31

At least the nights were now less horrific than the first ones, those endless nights that would not pass, which he had spent lying on his back with the balcony door open, monitoring his own sleep and jolting awake whenever his eyes closed, because the instant of falling asleep and the moment of his arrest had become one. His open eyes showed him the tangible reality of a searchlight circling at the lighthouse or a passing ship, yet they widened in terror when the curtain billowed in a breath of wind and the gentle dance in his head swelled into a roaring storm, when footsteps in the corridor announced in his thoughts the breaking down of the door, when he tossed around and started because his room on the sixth floor left no escape route.

From 2022 to the beginning of 2026, the EU and its member states had invested at least €216.7 billion in the Ukraine war.32 The West had frozen around €300 billion in Russian state reserves, most of it at Euroclear in Brussels. On top of this the EU had added a “reparations loan” for Kyiv of up to €130 billion, of which around €90 billion had already been pledged against Russian foreign assets. With the new loan, the EU’s total commitment amounted to almost €283 billion—money spent or pledged for the war. Added to this were record defense budgets of €381 billion in 2025 alone and a new NATO target that would require more than €630 billion annually—a pyramid of war financing measured in trillions.33

The wager had begun at the end of 2013 with the coup on the Maidan in Kyiv financed and organized by the United States, the European Union and NATO.34 Ukraine’s assets—ore, gas reserves, black soil, pipelines, steelworks—seemed worth the confrontation with Russia. But the wager went wrong. The people of eastern Ukraine opposed the coup, Crimea rejoined Russia, Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent, the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation of the coup government brought a war against the civilian population,35 and the arming of Ukraine and its gradual alignment with NATO standards ended with the Russian invasion. Washington partially withdrew and Europeanized the war and its costs.

The European Commission planned annual increases in defense spending through 2035 to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, a cumulative war chest of about €2.6 trillion. This led into debt that could no longer be repaid in peacetime but only discharged in war. The fresh money had inflated the armaments sector to such an extent that a halt in weapons production would have triggered an economic core meltdown. Only access to Russian resources could still save the EU.

On 1 August 1936, Hitler’s General Friedrich Fromm had submitted a memorandum for the Wehrmacht’s General Army Office. In it he pointed to the self-reinforcing dynamic of rearmament. The mobilization capacity of the armaments industry, he argued, created a predicament in which only war remained as a way out.36 For the Eurocrats too, the principal enemy was peace. Europe’s elites needed the war.37

The EU had supported NATO’s eastward expansion, including Ukraine, and thereby created a new confrontation. Together with the United States and NATO, it organized and financed the coup on the Maidan in 2014; its intelligence services directed the genocide in the Donbas from 2014 to 2021, and the EU silently tolerated this. The West thereby provoked the Russian invasion; Britain and the United States boycotted the peace agreement ready for signature in Istanbul in spring 2022; in November 2022 Washington and Brussels rejected General Mark Milley’s advice to end the war when Ukraine was at its strongest; the EU refused diplomacy.38

Europe’s elites prevented democratic debate through censorship, sanctions and political persecution. In this way they sought to protect themselves from growing opposition and from an end to the war. The war in Ukraine had become a struggle for survival for the warmongers. They wanted to keep the United States in the war because they themselves were too weak; they wanted to ruin Russia and gain access to its natural resources; they wanted to pump money into the arms industry and thus halt the economic decay they themselves had caused; they wanted to cling to power and suppress growing discontent among the population.39 Censorship, sanctions, martial law and the state of emergency had long since become permanent practices of government.40

But the war had long since been lost. The Russians had disabled the port of Odesa with missiles and reduced Ukraine to a landlocked country that was no longer viable on its own.41 Only about 25 million people still lived in Ukraine, half the population of 52 million in 1991.42 What remained was a failed rump state, heavily indebted and, without the natural resources of the eastern oblasts, economically finished.43

It was a war that NATO now wanted to freeze because it was losing this proxy war and because, in the event of peace, it would have had to return the frozen €300 billion in Russian foreign assets—which it could not do because the money had long since been pledged. A defeat, according to Glenn Diesen, would have left Europe “without a clear role or significance in a multipolar world.”44 It would be Europe’s relapse into insignificance and geopolitical agony. The EU had only two options left: bankruptcy or war.

Those responsible were not sitting only in Kyiv, but also in Washington, Berlin, Paris and London. Europe’s elites wanted to prolong the war at any price; in doing so they shared responsibility for almost two and a half million deaths on the Ukrainian side by mid-2026.45 An entire people had been carved up on the slaughter bench of Western interests. They had blood on their hands. The collusion of Western elites with Ukrainian neo-Nazis also meant collusion with their death squads. This elite walked over corpses. The Western elites, it seemed, were in a blood frenzy.46

On those nights everything was strange; the soul seemed to leave the body and watch him lying there, bound by his fear. The darkness formed into a winding tunnel leading down to the bottom of the soul, into a cold and empty nothingness that brought him no closer to the end of his horror. He turned on the light, got up, looked at himself in the bathroom mirror without finding any resemblance to himself, his features distorted by the foreboding of interrogations.

With the first glimmer of the sea, the strength to control himself completely left him, to perceive everything while dozing as he did in a war zone—every sound, every movement—as back then in Prizren, when an anti-tank mine exploded a hundred meters away, the panes of the window that had been opened a crack shattered, the kinetic energy shot the splinters over him like arrows, and he surrendered to exhaustion and sank into a heavy, dreamless sleep that he wished would never end.

If there was no outrage behind him and no refuge before him, then to live with dignity in the kingdom of this world meant: swindle once more those who have already been cheated, kick once more into the dirt those already lying in the dust, spit once more on those already humiliated. Whoever reached for dignity and tried to pull himself up grasped at emptiness; slowly at first, then quickly, then faster, it had withdrawn. To live with dignity was the fury of disappearance.47

At some point sleeping and waking could no longer be separated. The threshold had been worn away.48 For the dream, as Sigmund Freud said, is the guardian of sleep; but now reality itself became a nightmare.49 In this endless second, as the threat gained the upper hand, the dream blurred into a state of wakefulness, an irresistible fatigue overwhelmed him as he sensed that the dream would soon end and he would have to return to the unconsciousness of awakening, where he would have to cross the boundary between the ghost ride and real danger in order, in reality, to sink into the sleep of reason from which he would never return until the great sleep, death.50

“Be careful!” strangers advised. “I hope you’ve taken precautions!”—“You still live in Germany?” His name was on Myrotvorets, the death list of the Galician Nazis and their intelligence service, which had also listed Daria Dugina, who died in Moscow in a car bombing;51 the Ukrainian MP Oleg Kalashnikov, who was shot in Kyiv in 2015;52 and Anatoliy Shariy, who narrowly escaped a sniper’s fire in Catalan exile.53 And agonizing fragments of memory forced their way into consciousness from back then, in 2002, when in the heavily guarded residence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul the rifle barrels of Blackwater mercenaries had been pointed at him and his cameraman, pale, had pointed out the red dot on his forehead. Fragments of memory wove the carnival into a dance of death. Ukraine was not Europeanized—Europe became Ukraine: a collection of squeezed-dry, failed frontline states full of weapons, military dictatorships behind democratic facades, where the law of the fist prevailed. A friend said anxiously: “They’ll shoot you too!”

When, in the heat of the night, he saw the dreamer lying beside him, in that endless second in which everything flowed into everything else—sleeping, lying awake, fantasizing—and the ridge between starting awake and falling asleep began to blur, he was just seeking shelter behind the entrance to a vestibule from a burst of bullets fired from a passing black car whose occupants and license plate disappeared beneath a tangle of streamers, for it was carnival; it was the time of monsters.54

Then agents of the assassination squad appeared, army pistols in their hands, and bent over him. “One less again,” one of them said, kicking his corpse with his foot. Then out of the darkness appeared the landlord who had served him that afternoon in the bar near Repubblica: “Besides, he paid with counterfeit money,” he said, showing the fifty-euro note.55 “Give it here,” said one of the intelligence men, because he could see that the money was genuine. “That goes into the files.”

A stiff sea wind at Valletta airport stirs up the ashes at the bottom of the soul.

Vgl. auch Estermann, Josef: “Diese Politiker sind nur die Sprachrohre mächtiger Interessen.” Die Öffentlichkeit solle sich der militärisch-industriell-digitalen Kriegsmaschine entgegenstellen, ruft Jeffrey Sachs auf. Infosperber, 19.07.2026, https://www.infosperber.ch/politik/diese-politiker-sind-nur-die-sprachrohre-maechtiger-interessen/

Eccles, Mari: Big Tech’s face-time with the European Parliament. Politico, 28.05.2026, https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-eu-influence/big-techs-face-time-with-the-european-parliament/

https://themindness.substack.com/p/elite-capture-and-european-self-destruction

https://x.com/nightglow98/status/2094164625725985064 Wilkerson, Lawrence: U.S. Considers Nuclear Strike Against Iran. Glenn Diesen, 19.08.2026, Watch on YouTube

Töpper, Claudia: Korruption und die EU. Apolut, 28.07.2026, https://apolut.substack.com/p/korruption-und-die-eu-von-claudia

https://www.lejdd.fr/International/exclusif-corruption-derive-autoritaire-iuliia-mendel-ex-porte-parole-de-zelensky-se-confie-au-jdd-180306 “Elle affirme que Zelensky a détourné la guerre en instrument de consolidation personelle, que la corruption s’est généralisée au sein entourage immédiat, tandis que la démocratie se délite et que la crise démographique s’aggrave sur le territoire ukrainien...Pour Mendel, Zelensky est devenu ‘le principal bénéficiare de la guerre’. Elle estime que la poursuite du conflit lui a permis de conserver le pouvoir après la suspension des élections, et accuse des proches du président de tirer profit de milliards d’euros d’aides provenant de l’Union européenne... Mendel impute également uns part de responsabilité aus États occidentaux, estimant que leur soutien continu à Zelensky repose aussi sur des calculs politiques et économiques: uns part substantielle de l’aide militaire finit par alimenter les entreprises européennes de défense.” Zelensky accusé d’exploiter la guerre pour rester au pouvoir, selon son ancienne porte-parole. Daily Beirut, 03.08.2026, https://www.lejdd.fr/International/exclusif-corruption-derive-autoritaire-iuliia-mendel-ex-porte-parole-de-zelensky-se-confie-au-jdd-180306

“Trident Trust is an offshore registrar offering asset management services around the world. According to Panama Papers, the trust was a long-standing intermediary for Akhmetov. The record shows Akhmetov as a “well-known client” for international registrars and often commissions their services, for example, taking out a loan from an international bank to buy a luxurious jet. Another case, in a letter to Trident Trust, as of 29 October 2014, Akhmetov’s representatives insisted that two new offshore companies, Inglen Investments Limited and Pluscom Holdings Limited, should be registered as soon as possible. They refused to provide any further information, “as the parent companies and beneficiary owner are all well-known to the agent.” The providers accepted the order with no further questions asked. Lawyers, filing incorporation papers, stated “jet ownership” as the object of new companies, the investigation says. Two months later, on 16 December 2014, one of these shell companies obtained a loan from Credit Suisse to purchase a Falcon 7X executive jet with the tail number P4-SCM. The market value of this jet easily surpasses $50 million.33 Journalists also revealed that Trident Trust had been cooperating with Akhmetov up until 2018 at least.” New Strategic Concept: Clans of Ukraine: Analyzing Links Between Key Groups of the Ukrianian Oligarchy and European and U.S. Families and Intsitutions. newstratcon.org 2024

Redl, Josef: Oligarch Zhevago: Ukrainischer Voestalpine-Lieferant in Geldnot. Profil, 11.05.2026, https://versii.if.ua/novunu/the-kremlin-banker-behind-media-outlets-spreading-messages-against-ukraine-and-the-west-investigation/ Shome, Arnab: Binance Planning to Invest in Bankrupt Union Bank: report. Financamagnates, 06.12.2019, https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/binance-planning-to-invest-in-bankrupt-union-bank-report/

Harding, Luke: Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connections. The Guardian, 03.10.2021, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/revealed-anti-oligarch-ukrainian-president-offshore-connections-volodymyr-zelenskiy Loginova, Elena: Pandora Papers Reveal Offshore Holdings of Ukrainian President and his Inner Circle. Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, 03.10.2021, https://www.occrp.org/en/project/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle Lysenko, Yana: Dokumentation: Offshore-Geschäfte: Selenskyi und Kolomojskyi in den Pandora-Papers. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 19.10.2021, https://www.bpb.de/themen/europa/ukraine-analysen/342240/dokumentation-offshore-geschaefte-selenskyj-und-kolomojskyj-in-den-pandora-papers/

Murphy, Martin u.a.: “Wir wissen nicht, wie wir überleben sollen” - Wie Russlands Reiche um ihr Vermögen bangen. Handelsblatt, 30.03.2022, https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/oligarchen-wir-wissen-nicht-wie-wir-ueberleben-sollen-wie-russlands-reiche-um-ihr-vermoegen-bangen/28210666.html Wrede, Insa: Wie man Briefkastenfirmen das Wasser abgräbt. Deutsche Welle, 04.10.2021, https://www.dw.com/de/pandora-papers-wie-man-briefkastenfirmen-das-wasser-abgr%C3%A4bt/a-59401202 Candea, Stefan u. Vlad Lavrov: Ukraine oligarch links to off-shore cash heaven revealed. The Black Sea, 05.11.2013, https://theblacksea.eu/stories/ukraine-oligarch-links-to-off-shore-cash-haven-revealed/ Sadek, Nicole u.a.: ICIJ’s guide to Russian wealth hidden offshore. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 20.04.2022, https://www.icij.org/investigations/russia-archive/icijs-guide-to-russian-wealth-hidden-offshore/ Prozorro: 670 Million Hryvnias Hidden in Blacklisted Offshore Zones. Transparency International, 07.10.2019, https://ti-ukraine.org/en/blogs/prozorro-670-million-hryvnias-hidden-in-blacklisted-offshore-zones/ Harding, Luke: Revealed: ‘anti-oligarch’ Ukrainian president’s offshore connections. The Guardian, 03.10.2021, https://ti-ukraine.org/en/blogs/prozorro-670-million-hryvnias-hidden-in-blacklisted-offshore-zones/ Kempmann, Antonius: “Panama Papers” belasten Ex-Premier Lasarenko. Tagesschau, 13.04.2016, https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/panamapapers-141.html Halling, Steffen: Die Rolle der Oligarchen und der Umbruch in der Ukraine. Ost-West Europäische Perspektiven, OWEP 04.2014, https://www.owep.de/artikel/758-rolle-oligarchen-und-umbruch-in-ukraine

Forsgren, Mattias: Hegemonic logic. “If you can defeat a strategic enemy not using any US troops you’re at the acme of professionalism.” - General Keith Kellog. Substack, 17.07.2026, https://mattiasforsgren.substack.com/p/hegemonic-logic

https://www.lejdd.fr/International/exclusif-corruption-derive-autoritaire-iuliia-mendel-ex-porte-parole-de-zelensky-se-confie-au-jdd-180306

Olga Bachova, X, 24.06.2026, https://x.com/OlgaBazova/status/2069843118120378666 (Dort auch Screenshot eines Dokuments). Zum Vergleich die ukrainischen Verlust-Zahlen des russischen Verteidigungsministeriums vom 05.08.2026: Gesamt: 1,783.695, 2026: 274.400. https://mskvremya.ru/article/2023/1520-poteri-ukrainy-za-vremya-spetsoperatsii

Schernthaner, Julian: Seiut Jahren: Ukraine führt Todsliste gegen Oppositionelle. Freilich-Magazin, 10.10.2022, https://www.freilich-magazin.com/welt/seit-jahren-ukraine-fuehrt-todesliste-gegen-oppositionelle Russland identifiziert zweiten Verdächtigen im Autobombenanschlag auf Daria Dugina. Le Monde, 29.08.2022, https://www-lemonde-fr.translate.goog/en/international/article/2022/08/29/russia-identifies-second-suspect-in-daria-dugina-car-bomb-killing_5995132_4.html?_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=de

https://www.solidaritaet.com/neuesol/2022/37/mirotworez.htm

  1. https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/ukraine-krieg-eu-parlamentspraesidentin-ermuntert-mitgliedstaaten-zu-lieferung-von-kampfjets-a-9b15156d-d47b-4b06-bea7-3a4bf13682fb ↩︎

  2. https://x.com/amuse/status/1897973149104214189 ↩︎

  3. Hoppe, Till: Matthew Tabone wird Kabinettschef von Roberta Metsola. Table Briefings, 29.04.2024, https://table.media/europe/news/matthew-tabone-wird-kabinettschef-von-roberta-metsola ↩︎

  4. Schwere Mängel in Abschlussarbeit von EU-Parlamentspräidentin Metsola - sie behält Titel trotzdem. Apollo News, 12.04.2025, https://apollo-news.net/schwere-maengel-in-abschlussarbeit-von-eu-parlamentspraesidentin-metsola-sie-behaelt-titel-trotzdem/ ↩︎

  5. Weber, Thomas: Bekenntnisse eines Economic Hitman (Teil 1): Der Motor hinter den Kulissen. Substack, 21.07.2026, https://tweber66.substack.com/p/bekenntnisse-eines-economic-hitman ↩︎

  6. https://route96.pareto.space/56a68747386297f70512dce809ab28da866be3cee1c3b39e5214abfb527076bf.pdf ↩︎

  7. https://germany.news-pravda.com/russia/2026/07/09/296278.html ↩︎

  8. “Wir sind eine Elite aus Frauen und Männern, die internationale Finanzorganisationen dazu benutzen, jene Bedingungen zu schaffen, mit denen andere Länder der Korporatokratie unterworfen werden sollen. Und diese Korporatokratie beherrscht unsere größten Konzerne, unsere Regierung und unsere Banken. Wie unsere Pendants in der Mafia bieten wir EHM (Economic Hitmen) einen Dienst oder eine Gefälligkeit an. Das kann zum Beispiel ein Kredit zur Entwicklung der Infrastruktur sein: Stromkraftwerke, Schnellstraßen, Häfen, Flughäfen oder Gewerbeparks. An den Kredit ist die Bedingung geknüpft, dass Ingenieurfirmen und Bauunternehmer aus unserem Land alle diese Projekte bauen. Im Prinzip verlässt ein Großteil des Geldes nur die USA, es wird einfach von Banken in Washington an Ingenieurbüros in New York, Houston oder San Francisco überwiesen. Obwohl das Geld also fast umgehend an Unternehmen zurückfließt, die zur Korporatokratie (dem Geldgeber) gehören, muss das Empfängerland alles zurückzahlen, die Schuldsumme plus Zinsen. Wenn ein EHM richtig erfolgreich ist, dann sind die Kredite so hoch, dass der Schuldner nach einigen jahren seinen Zahlungsverpflichtungen nicht mehr nachkommen kann. Dann verlangen wir wie die Mafia unseren Anteil. Dazu gehören vor allem: die Kontrolle über die Stimmen in der Uno, die Errichtung von Militärstützpunkten oder der Zugang zu wichtigen Ressourcen wie Öl oder die Kontrolle über den Panamakanal. Natürlich erlassen wir dem Schuldner dafür nicht die Schulden - und haben uns so weider ein Land dauerhaft unterworfen.” Perkins, John: Bekenntnisse eines Economic Hitman. Unterwegs im Dienst der Wirtschaftsmafia. München 2007(4), S. 22f. ↩︎

  9. https://sais.jhu.edu/news-press/event-recaps/president-european-parliament-calls-strong-transatlantic-alliances-and-unity ↩︎

  10. Tammilehto, Olli: Finnlands irrationale Entscheidung. Die Folgen der “Elite Capture”. Schweizer Standpunkt, 24.07.2026, https://www.schweizer-standpunkt.ch/news-detailansicht-de-international/finnlands-irrationale-entscheidung.html ↩︎

  11. Rügemer, Werner: Blackrock Germany. Die heimliche Weltmacht, ihra Praktiken in Deutschland und Friedrich Merz. Berlin 2025(2) ↩︎

  12. Bonilla, Nel: Elite Capture & European Self-Destruction: The Hidden Architecture of Transatlantic Hegemony, Worldlines, 29. Juni 2025, ↩︎

  13. https://www.weforum.org/press/2016/08/world-economic-forum-announces-new-board-of-trustees-2016/ ↩︎

  14. https://securityconference.org/en/about-us/advisory-council/ ↩︎

  15. Schmitt, Richard: Neuer Job für die Ex-Außenministerin: Baebock bleibt in New York. Tichy’s Einblick, 25.08.2026, https://www.tichyseinblick.de/kolumnen/aus-aller-welt/neuer-job-fuer-baerbock/ ↩︎

  16. “Wir haben ganz Europa gekauft. Wir haben Zeitungsverleger gekauft. Wir haben Gewerkschaftsführer gekauft. Wir haben Parlamentarier gekauft. Wir haben zwei Generalsekretäre gekauft: Jens Stoltenberg und Mark Rutte. Wir haben ganze Länder gekauft - ihren politischen Apparat und alles, was ihn beeinflusst. Ab 2002 haben wir dann richtig Gas gegeben. Milliarden von Dollar für die CIA und andere. USAID war ein Instrument. Sie haben die liberale Demokratie zur Waffe gemacht. Aber wir haben das Europa, das es heute gibt, ganz bewusst geschaffen. Und jetzt zahlen wir den Preis dafür, denke ich. Denn es wird noch sechs bis zwölf, vielleicht achtzehn Monate dauern, bis wir einige dieser Leute loswerden. Und die Parlamente? Gott weiß, wie lange es dauern wird, die Leute dort loszuwerden. Wir haben Europa minutiös nach dem Bild geformt, das wir uns vorgestellt haben.” Ex-US-Oberst Lawrence Wilkersen, X, 23.08.2026, ↩︎

  17. https://auf1.tv/wirtschaft-auf1/korruption-und-verschwendung-wohin-geht-unser-geld ↩︎

  18. Exclusif: Corruption, dérive autoritaire: Iuliia Mendel, ex-porte-parole de Zelensky, se confie au JDD. Le Journal du Dimanche, 02.08.2026 ↩︎

  19. Gräser, Tilo: Der (un)aufhaltsame Untergang der Ukraine. Apolut, 05.08.2026, https://apolut.net/der-un-aufhaltsame-untergang-der-ukraine-von-tilo-graser/ ↩︎

  20. Bauman, Zygmunt: Retrotopia. Frankfurt a. M. 2018(2), S. 22 ↩︎

  21. “Als wesentliche Machttechnik zeichnet sich jetzt das Ver- und Entschwinden ab, das Ausbüchsen, das Sich-Entziehen, die Verweigerung jeglicher territorialen Beschränkung, samt der damit verbundenen mühseligen und kostspieligen Aufgaben der Errichtung und Erhaltung einer ordnung in diesem Territorium... In der flüchtigen Moderne steht die seßhafte Mehrheit unter der Herrschaft der nomadisierenden, exterritorialen Elite.” Bauman, Zygmunt: Flüchtige Moderne. Frankfurt a. M. 2003, S. 18f., 21 ↩︎

  22. “Zygmunt Bauman zitiert Max M. Mutschler: “Sich frei und nötigenfalls außerhalb der Reichweite anderer zu bewegen, um sich seiner Verantwortung entziehen zu können, ist das zentrale Merkmal der Macht in der heutigen Zeit.” Bauman fährt fort: “Die Ablösung und Emanzipation der Macht von jedwedem Territorium ist der schwerste Schlag, den der von seinem Ende noch weit entfernte Globalisierungsprozess der Grundfunktion und vor allem der vermeintlichgen Omnipotenz (und damit Lebensfähigkeit) des Leviathan, wie Hobbes ihn erdachte, bislang versetzt hat.” Bauman, Zygmunt: Retrotopia. Frankfurt a. M. 2018(2), S. 32 ↩︎

  23. https://www.tridenttrust.com/europe/malta ↩︎

  24. https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/stories/anton-prigodsky ↩︎

  25. Prokoptschuk, Igor: The “Kremlin Banker” Behind media Outlets Spreading Messages Against Ukraine and the West. VERSII.IF.UA, 13.10.2025, https://versii.if.ua/novunu/the-kremlin-banker-behind-media-outlets-spreading-messages-against-ukraine-and-the-west-investigation/ ↩︎

  26. Kolomoisky and Akhmetov among clients of Credit Suisse - OCCRP, The New Voice of Ukraine, 21.02.2022, https://english.nv.ua/business/kolomoisky-and-akhmetov-among-clients-of-credit-suisse-occrp-50218531.html#goog_rewarded ↩︎

  27. Ukraine ex-minister named in corruption scandal arrested trying to leave country. Times of Malta, 15.02.2026, https://timesofmalta.com/article/ukraine-exminister-corruption-scandal-arrested-trying-leave-country.1124119 ↩︎

  28. Zypern als Oligarchenparadies, ORF News, 14.11.2023, https://orf.at/stories/3339755/ ↩︎

  29. “Despite its tiny size, the Grand Duchy is among the world’s leading financial centres. The numbers are obscene. By the end of 2025, assets under management in Luxembourg-domiciled funds reached €8.2 trillion. The Grand Duchy manages 58 percent of all global cross-border funds. It is the world’s second-largest fund domicile, trailing only the United States, and Europe’s largest fund hub. Its external financial assets stand at €13 trillion. This is not a country. It is a machine for the extraction of value, a vast financial pump that siphons the world’s wealth into the coffers of the global elite... War is a good business. And Luxembourg intends to be the banker... Luxembourg’s most concrete contribution in Ankara was its support for the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), a multilateral institution that is being planned to channel private capital into defence and security projects. Headquartered in Canada, with Luxembourg playing a key European role, the bank aims to finance not only dual-use technologies but also lethal capabilities. The project so far is backed by representatives from Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The idea was first proposed in 2024 by bankers (surprise surprise) and a group of former NATO security advisers and military officials. JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, and ING, as well as Canada’s largest banks: RBC, BMO, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and TD Bank have since become involved in the project. Rearmament is a profit-making enterprise, a vast transfer of public wealth into private hands, dressed in the language of security. It is a new architecture of profit in the service of war, which benefits both Washington and Wall Street... The tragedy is that Europe’s rearmament is being celebrated as a growth opportunity while the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers still lie unburied in Donbass because Kiev refuses to take them... Luxembourg’s hawkishness is a business model. And like all business models built on the suffering of others, it will eventually consume its creators. But in the meantime, the profits will flow, the dividends will be paid, and the bankers will count their money while Europeans say goodbye to welfare and are told to prepare for war. “ Ruggeri, Laura: from Tax Haven to War Banker: Luxembourg’s Role in Europe’s Military Buildup. Sunstack, 09.07.2026, https://lauraruggeri.substack.com/p/from-tax-haven-to-war-banker-luxembourgs ↩︎

  30. “Luxembourg’s most concrete contribution in Ankara was its support for the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB), a multilateral institution that is being planned to channel private capital into defence and security projects. Headquartered in Canada, with Luxembourg playing a key European role, the bank aims to finance not only dual-use technologies but also lethal capabilities. The project so far is backed by representatives from Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The idea was first proposed in 2024 by bankers (surprise surprise) and a group of former NATO security advisers and military officials. JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, and ING, as well as Canada’s largest banks: RBC, BMO, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and TD Bank have since become involved in the project.” Ruggeri, Laura: from Tax Haven to War Banker: Luxembourg’s Role in Europe’s Military Buildup. Sunstack, 09.07.2026, https://lauraruggeri.substack.com/p/from-tax-haven-to-war-banker-luxembourgs ↩︎

  31. Mattias Forsgren spricht von “Cannibalising the Vassals”: “For decades America played the part of the stronger partner that still deferred to European civilisation... That arrangement is now breaking down. More nationalist, less Europe-romanticising forces have taken control in Washington. The continent is no longer treated as a co-equal partner at the summit of the Rules Based Order, but as a resource to be drawn from: economically drained, politically subordinated, and militarily prepared as the theatre in which the costs of imperial decline will be paid... Europe is now dependent on American energy. Whether through a full-scale war in the Gulf or through a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz (and potentially the Red Sea as well), the effect for Europe would be the same. When the crisis deepens, the Americans will be in a position to say: “Sorry boys, but we need all the energy for ourselves now.” The resulting energy shock would accelerate the Ukrainification of Europe — and likely of Japan, the Philippines and South Korea as well — turning them into more desperate and controllable frontline assets against Russia’s eastern flank and against China. One doesn’t need to be a genius to understand what the blowing up of Nord Stream has to do with this.” ↩︎

  32. European Council: EU solidarity with Ukraine, 15.07.2026, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-solidarity-ukraine/ ↩︎

  33. “From 2022 to early 2026, the EU and its members poured over E200 billion into Ukraine, and once the new loan is counted, Brussel’s total commitment nears E283 billion - money already spent or promised on a single war. Feed in the war economy behind it - record defense budgets of E381 billion in 2025, and a new NATO target that will demand more than E630 billion every year - and the continent is staring at a war-finance pyramid measured not in billions but in trillions... - a dept so vast it can no longer be repaid in peace, only redeemed in war.” Loaded Gun On Brussel’s Wall: Russian Victories Set Europe’s Fuse Burning. Southfront, 16.07.2026, https://southfront.press/loaded-gun-on-brussels-wall-russian-victories-set-europes-fuse-burning/ ↩︎

  34. Katchanovski, Ivan: The Maidan Massacre in Ukraine. Thge Mass Killing that Changed the World. Open Access, Cham 2024, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-67121-0 ↩︎

  35. Paré, Benoit: What I Saw in Ukraine 2015-2022. Diary of an International Monitor. Wroclaw 2025 ↩︎

  36. Kroener, Bernhard R.: Generaloberst Friedrich fromm. Eine Biographie. Paderborn 2005, S. 256ff. ↩︎

  37. Loaded Gun On Brussel’s Wall: Russian Victories Set Europe’s Fuse Burning. Southfront, 16.07.2026, https://southfront.press/loaded-gun-on-brussels-wall-russian-victories-set-europes-fuse-burning/ ↩︎

  38. Gräser, Tilo: Der (un)aufhaltsame Untergang der Ukraine. Apolut, 05.08.2026, https://apolut.net/der-un-aufhaltsame-untergang-der-ukraine-von-tilo-graser/ ↩︎

  39. Diesen, Glenn: The EU has no Plan if Peace Breaks out in Ukraine. Substack, 04.08.2026, https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/the-eu-has-no-plan-if-peace-breaks ↩︎

  40. “So gesehen kann der moderne Totalitarismus definiert werden als die Einsetzung eines legalen Bürgerkrieges, der mittels des Ausnahmezustands die physische Eliminierung nicht nur des politischen Gegners, sondern ganzer Kategorien von Bürgern gestattet... Angesichts der naufhaltsamen Steigerung dessen, was als ‘weltweiter Bürgerkrieg’ bestimmt worden ist, erweist sich der Ausnahmezustand in der Politik der Gegenwart immer mehr als das herrschende Paradigma des Regierens.” Agamben, Giorgio: Ausnahmezustand. Frankfurt a. M. 2020(8), S. 8f. ↩︎

  41. Mearsheimer, John: Ukraine is Landlocked & Donbas Enters Endgame. Glenn Diesen: The Greater Eurasia, 30.07.2026, ↩︎

  42. Exclusif: Corruption, dérive autoritaire: Iuliia Mendel, ex-porte-parole de Zelensky, se confie au JDD. Le Journal du Dimanche, 02.08.2026 ↩︎

  43. Mearsheimer, John: Ukraine is Landlocked & Donbas Enters Endgame. Glenn Diesen: The Greater Eurasia, 30.07.2026, ↩︎

  44. Diesen, Glenn: The EU has no Plan if Peace Breaks out in Ukraine. Substack, 04.08.2026, https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/the-eu-has-no-plan-if-peace-breaks ↩︎

  45. “Mash reports that Ukraine has lost 2.4 million soldiers in the four years of the SMO, more than 400,000 of them in 2026. These figures were obtained by our hackers from the databases of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, TCC centers, Ukrainian medical organizations and morgues. By August 2025, the number of eliminated soldiers reached 1.7 million — by December, the figure exceeded 2 million. In the first six months of 2026, the AFU lost as many soldiers as they did in all of 2023 — approximately 400,000. The highest number of deaths occurred on the Pokrovsk, Konstantinovka, Liman, Zaporozhye, and Kupyansk fronts — each of them averaging 500 AFU militants killed per day. The most deaths occurred in the 72nd and 110th Motor Rifle Brigades, airborne assault brigades, and territorial defense forces. Deaths of foreign mercenaries are no longer recorded among the casualties — they are all attributed to accidents. According to our information, the number of foreigners killed in the Ukrainian Armed Forces is close to five thousand. The figure continues to rise, as the TCC regularly replenishes the ranks of militants with foreigners — 5-6 of whom are recruited by each TCC center in Kiev alone, including many young men (20-23 years of age on average) from Argentina and Brazil. The Ukrainian databases were hacked by PalachPro hackers and the NoName057 group.” ↩︎

  46. Gräser, Thilo: “Irregeleitete” bereiten Krieg vor. Apolut, 15.07.2026, https://apolut.net/irregeleitete-bereiten-krieg-vor-von-tilo-graser/ ↩︎

  47. Hegel schreibt: “ „Kein positives Werk noch Tat kann also die allgemeine Freiheit hervorbringen; es bleibt ihr nur das negative Tun; sie ist nur die Furie des Verschwindens“ Hegel, G. W. F.: Phänomenologie des Geistes, Kap. VI B III: Die absolute Freiheit und der Schrecken. Frankfurt/Main 1986. S. 435f. Hans Magnus Enzensberger greift dies auf: „Was zunächst unmerklich, / dann schnell, rasend schnell fällt [...]; sie allein bleibt, ruhig, / die Furie des Verschwindens.“ ↩︎

  48. Hahn, Barbara: Endlose Nacht. Träume im Jahrhundert der Gewalt. Berlin 2016, S. 180 ↩︎

  49. Freud, Sigmund: Traumdeutung. Frankfurt a. M. 1976, S. 240 ↩︎

  50. Leiris, Michael: Lichte Nächte und mancher dunkle Tag. Frankfurt a. M. 1981, S. 143 ↩︎

  51. Roth, Andrew u. Martin Farrer: Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Digin killed by car bomb in Moscow. The Guardian, 21.08.2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/21/daughter-of-putin-ally-alexander-dugin-killed-in-car-bomb-in-moscow-reports ↩︎

  52. https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000103682084/gudenus-landet-auf-umstrittener-mirotworez ↩︎

  53. Streck, Ralf: Mordversuch mit Ansage an ukrainischem Exil-Journalisten in Spanien. Overton-Magazin, 06.03.2024, https://overton-magazin.de/top-story/mordversuch-mit-ansage-an-ukrainischem-exil-journalisten-in-spanien/ ↩︎

  54. “Die alte Welt liegt im Sterben, die neue ist noch nicht geboren: es ist die Zeit der Monster.” So lautet ein Antonio Gramsci zugeschriebenes Zitat. Genau heißt es in Band 3 der Gefängnishefte: “Die Krise besteht gerade darin, dass das Alte stirbt und das neue nicht zur Welt kommen kann: In diesem Interregnumkommt es zu den unterschiedlichsten Krankheitserscheinungen.” Gramsci, Antonio: Gefängnishefte Bd. 2, Heft 3, §34, Berlin 1992, S. 354f. ↩︎

  55. Das Ende nimmt Motive auf von Carpentier, Alejo: Die Hetzjagd. Frankfurt a. M. 1990 (1955), S. 90f., 109 ↩︎

#patrik baab

Written by

Patrik Baab

Politikwissenschaftler und Publizist

Comments

No comments yet. Start the conversation.