Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent economics professor and diplomat who advised Eastern European governments after the fall of the Soviet Union, criticized Western leaders for acting immaturely and called on the EU to free itself from US influence and create an independent, realistic foreign policy.
The speech was delivered in the European Parliament during the event “The Geopolitics of Peace” on February 22, 2025.
Sachs said that since the 1990s, the US has pursued a unilateral and aggressive foreign policy, resulting in wars in countries such as Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Ukraine. Europe, he said, has been a mere follower without a voice.
He pointed out that in 1991 the US and Germany promised that NATO would not expand eastwards, but this was broken in 1994 with plans to include Ukraine and Georgia – a provocation to Russia. Sachs called NATO’s “open door policy” hypocritical and compared it to how the US would react if China built bases in Mexico.
According to Sachs, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a consequence of Western actions, not a war of conquest. He argued that Putin wanted to force Ukraine into neutrality, which almost succeeded until the US stopped negotiations.
Sachs also criticized the EU’s Russophobia and dependence on the US, calling on Europe – with 450 million inhabitants and a $20 trillion economy – to become Russia’s partner instead of being led by US interests. He warned that US imperialist tendencies and abandonment of nuclear treaties had created global instability.
Sachs denounced US Middle East policy, which he believes has been driven by Israel and its lobby for 30 years. He predicted that Trump will soon end the war in Ukraine and urged Europe to prepare. The speech, organized by Michael von der Schulenburg of Germany’s BSW, was met with strong reactions, with several MEPs leaving the room.
He argued that the Ukrainian conflict could have been avoided with Western willingness to compromise, but that US expansion and covert regime changes, such as the one against Yanukovych in 2014, triggered the war instead. Sachs stressed that Europe needs to be led by Europeans, not Americans, to shape a policy that understands both Russia and the realities of the region.
Transcript of selected parts of the speech
”So the NATO enlargement, as you know, started in 1999 with Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. And Russia was extremely unhappy about it. But these were countries still far from the border. And Russia protested, but of course to no avail.
Then George Bush Jr. came in. When 9-11 occurred, President Putin pledged all support. And then the U.S. decided, in September 20, 2001, that it would launch seven wars in five years. And you can listen to General Wesley Clark online talk about that.
He was NATO’s supreme commander in 1999. He went to the Pentagon on September 20, 2001. He was handed the paper explaining seven wars. These, by the way, were Netanyahu’s wars. The idea was partly to clean up old Soviet allies and partly to take out supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Because Netanyahu’s idea was, there will be one state, thank you, only one state. It will be Israel. Israel will control all of the territory. And anyone that objects, we will overthrow. Not we, exactly.
Our friend, the United States. That’s U.S. policy until this morning. We don’t know whether it will change. Now, the only wrinkle is that maybe the U.S. will own Gaza instead of Israel owning Gaza. But the idea has been around at least for 25 years.
It actually goes back to a document called Clean Break that Netanyahu and his Americans made. American political team put together in 1996 to end the idea of the two-state solution. You can also find it online.
So these are projects. These are long-term events. These aren’t, is it Clinton, is it Bush, is it Obama? That’s the boring way to look at American politics as the day-to-day game, but that’s not what American politics is.
As you know, Viktor Yanukovych was elected in 2010 on the platform of neutrality. Russia had no territorial interests or designs in Ukraine at all. I know, I was there during these years. What Russia was negotiating was a 25-year lease to 2042 for Sevastopol Naval Base. That’s it. Not for Crimea, not for the Donbas, nothing like that. This idea that Putin is reconstructing the Russian Empire, this is childish propaganda. Excuse me. If anyone knows the day-to-day and year-to-year history, this is childish stuff.
Childer stuff seems to work better than adult stuff. So, no designs at all. The United States decided this man must be overthrown. It’s called a regime change operation. There have been about a hundred of them by the United States, many in your countries, and many all over the world.
That’s what the CIA does for a living. Okay? Please know it. It’s a very unusual kind of foreign policy. But in America, if you don’t like the other side, you don’t negotiate with them, you try to overthrow them.
Preferably, covertly. If it doesn’t work covertly, you do it overtly. You always say it’s not our fault. They’re the aggressor, they’re the other side, they’re Hitler, that comes up every two or three years.
Whether it’s Saddam Hussein, whether it’s Assad, whether it’s Putin, that’s very convenient. That’s the only foreign policy explanation the American people are ever given anywhere. Well, we’re facing Munich 1938.
Well, we’re facing Munich 1938. Can’t talk to the other side. They’re evil, implacable foes. That’s the only model of foreign policy. policy we ever hear from our mass media, and the mass media repeats it entirely because it’s completely suborned by the U.S. Government. I begged the Ukrainians, and I had a track record with the Ukrainians. I advised the Ukrainians, I’m not anti-Ukrainian, pro-Ukrainian, completely. I said save your lives, save your sovereignty, save your territory, be neutral, don’t listen to the Americans.
I repeated to them the famous adage of Henry Kissinger, that to be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal. Okay, so let me repeat that for Europe. To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.
Trump does not want the losing hand. And this is why It is more likely than not this war will end because Trump and President Putin will agree to end the war. If Europe does all its great warmongering, it doesn’t matter.
The war is ending. So get it out of your system. Please tell your colleagues. It’s over. And it’s over because Trump doesn’t want to carry a loser. That’s it. It’s not some great morality. He doesn’t want to carry a loser.
This is a loser. The one that will be saved by the negotiations taking place right now is Ukraine. Second is Europe. Your stock market’s rising in recent days. By the horrible news of negotiations. I know this has been met with the sheer horror in these chambers.
But this is the best news that you could get. Now, I encouraged. They don’t listen to me. But I tried to reach out to some of the European leaders. Most don’t want to hear anything from me at all. But I said, don’t go to Kiev.
Go to Moscow. Discuss with your counterparts. Are you kidding? You’re Europe. You’re 450 million people. You’re a $20 trillion economy. You should be the main economic trading partner of Russia. It’s natural links.
By the way, if anyone would like to discuss how the U.S. blew up Nord Stream, I’d be happy to talk about that. On the Middle East, by the way, the U.S. completely handed over foreign policy to Netanyahu thirty years ago.
The Israel lobby dominates American politics. Just have no doubt about it. I could explain for hours how it works. It’s very dangerous. I’m hoping that Trump will not destroy his administration and worse the Palestinian people because of Netanyahu, who I regard as a war criminal, properly indicted by the ICC.
And that needs to be told no more, that there will be a state of Palestine on the borders of the 4th of June, 1967, according to international law. is the only way for peace. It’s the only way for Europe to have peace on your borders with the Middle East is the two-state solution.
There is only one obstacle to it, by the way, and that is the veto of the United States and the UN Security Council. So if you want to have some influence, tell the United States, drop the veto. You are together with 180 countries in the world.
The only ones that oppose a Palestinian state are the United States, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Mr. Malay, and Paraguay. So this is a place where Europe could have a big influence.
Europe has gone silent about the JCPOA and Iran. Netanyahu’s greatest dream in life is a war between the United States and Iran. He’s not given up, and it’s not impossible that that would come also. And that’s because the U.S. in this regard does not have an independent foreign policy. It is run by Israel. It’s tragic. It’s amazing, by the way. And it could end. Trump may say that he wants foreign policy back, maybe. I’m hoping that it’s the case.
Finally, let me just say, with respect to China, China is not an enemy. China is just a success story. That’s why it is viewed by the United States as an enemy, because China is a bigger economy than the United States.
Russia is not going to invade Europe. This is the fundamental point. It may get up to the deeper river. It’s not going to invade Europe. But there are real issues. The main issue for Russia was the United States.
Because Russia as a major power and the largest nuclear power in the world was profoundly concerned about U.S. unipolarity from the beginning. Now that this is seemingly possibly ending, Europe has to open negotiations directly with Russia as well.
Because the United States will quickly lose interest and you’re going to be living with Russia for the next thousands of years. So what do you want? You want to make sure that the Baltic states are secure.
The best thing for the Baltic states is to stop their rusephobia. This is the most important thing. Estonia has about 25% Russian citizens, or Russian-speaking citizens, ethnic Russians. Latvia the same.
Don’t provoke the neighbor. That’s all. This is not hard. It really isn’t hard. And again, I want to explain my point of view. I have helped these countries, the ones I’m talking about, trying to advise, I’m not their enemy.
I’m not Putin’s puppet. I’m not Putin’s apologist. I worked in Estonia. They gave me… I think it’s the second highest civilian honor that a president of Estonia can bestow on a non-national because I designed their currency system for them in 1992.
So I’m giving them advice. Do not stand there, Estonia, and say, we want to break up Russia. Are you kidding? Don’t. This is not how to survive in this world. You survive with mutual respect, actually.
You survive in negotiation. You survive in discussion. You don’t outlaw the Russian language. Not a good idea when 25% of your population has the first language of Russian. It’s not right even if there weren’t a giant on the border.
It wouldn’t be the right thing to do. You’d have it as an official language. You’d have a language in lower school. You wouldn’t antagonize the Russian Orthodox Church. So basically, we need to behave like grown-ups.”