MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's policy toward Ukraine represents a threat to the very existence of the European Union, billionaire investor George Soros said in a Thursday article titled "Wake Up, Europe."
"Europe is facing a challenge from Russia to its very existence. Neither the European leaders nor their citizens are fully aware of this challenge or know how best to deal with it," the 84-year-old magnate said in the text published on the website of the New York Review of Books.
Soros argued that Russian policy, allegedly "based on the use of force that manifests itself in repression at home and aggression abroad, as opposed to the rule of law," may find a broad response among "anti-EU" parties, which had gained many seats in the last European Parliament elections.
Joining the accusations by the Western and Ukrainian leaders, the head of the Soros Fund claimed that Moscow orchestrated the rise of self-proclaimed republics in southeastern Ukraine and later intervened in the country militarily.
He therefore stated that the European Union and NATO will end up repelling assumed Russian aggression on their own soil.
"In the absence of unified resistance it is unrealistic to expect that Putin will stop pushing beyond Ukraine when the division of Europe and its domination by Russia is in sight," Soros said.
He concluded that the United States and European nations should act as countries at war and offer Ukraine all necessary financial and military aid.
Relations between Russia and the West hit the rock bottom following the country's reunification with Crimea in March. Western powers and Ukraine also accused Moscow of helping Ukraine's independence supporters and even of a direct military intervention - claims deemed groundless by Moscow.
