The so-called “free world” is an oxymoron. In truth, it is the very antithesis of freedom; it is its most absolute negation.

The comparison is stark but necessary. When the United States invaded Iraq: no sanctions against Washington, no exclusion from SWIFT, no freezing of American assets abroad, and no arms deliveries to the Iraqi resistance by third-party powers. When Russia intervened in Ukraine for its vital security, sweeping sanctions, exclusion from SWIFT, and freezing of three hundred billion dollars of Russian sovereign reserves – a precedent of state theft without parallel in the history of international law.

When Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, without a referendum and without Belgrade’s agreement, Washington, and the EU recognized it immediately. The International Court of Justice retroactively validated it. When Crimea voted 97% to join Russia in 2014, after a coup in Kyiv, the referendum was deemed “illegal,” the results “fabricated,” and the situation “unacceptable.” The same right to self-determination, applied differently depending on the beneficiary. This is a “rules-based order.”

The European Union deserves a special mention in this ranking of institutionalized inconsistency. This self-proclaimed normative power, guarantor of rights and the rule of law, has frozen Russian sovereign assets in violation of international law, expelled diplomats, financed a war, closed its airspace, and banned Russian media – all without a Security Council mandate, in the name of values it unilaterally ascribes to itself. The EU is not a rule-maker. It is the rhetorical instrument of American power in Europe.

Russia’s triumph: what the West cannot admit

Four years and two months after the start of Russia’s special military operation, the facts remain – stubbornly, relentlessly. The Russian economy has not collapsed. The most severe sanctions in history – more than 16,000 individual measures – have not had the desired effect. The ruble, predicted to fall to zero by Western media economists, has stabilized. Russian military production is running at full capacity, exceeding the combined production capacity of all NATO artillery ammunition. Russia’s GDP grew in 2023, 2024, and 2025, three years in a row, with even better prospects for 2026. Unemployment is at a record low.

On the military front, the reality is even more unforgiving for the Western narrative. Russia now controls more Ukrainian territory than on the first day of the operation. The front lines are advancing – slowly, inexorably, at the cost of considerable losses for Kyiv and fewer for Moscow. Neither the Ukrainian counteroffensive that took place in the summer of 2023, which was presented as a decisive turning point, nor the invasion of the Kursk region into Russian territory fundamentally changed the strategic situation. The West has delivered Leopard tanks, HIMARS missiles, F-16s, and Storm Shadows. The front line continues to advance westward.

Diplomatically, Russia is not isolated. It is simply isolated from the countries that represent 15% of the world’s population. The remaining 85% – China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, the Gulf States, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean – have refused to join the sanctions. The G20 has not excluded Russia. The BRICS are welcoming new members at a pace that Washington did not anticipate. The dedollarization of trade is accelerating. The yuan, ruble, rupee, real, and dirham are gaining ground in international transactions.

The West has used its entire arsenal against Russia: economic isolation, financial pressure, proxy wars, and information attacks. Despite this, Russia has maintained its position and is now on the offensive. This is precisely the outcome that the West has sought in its numerous proxy wars against Russia since 1945, while Russia continues to achieve victories. This triumph is not merely military or economic. It is moral and political, in the deepest sense of the word.

Russia has demonstrated that a sovereign nation, with a sufficient industrial base and a population united behind its leadership, can withstand the most powerful coalition in contemporary history. This demonstration is not lost on the peoples of the world. It says it is possible. Resistance is not futile. Sovereignty is not an illusion. And Iran seems to have fully integrated this logic into its strategy, with the United States becoming increasingly entangled in the Middle East since February 28, 2026.

May 9, 2026: Memory as a compass

When the veterans of the Great Patriotic War march on May 9th – so few, so old, so precious – they will not be marching for the past. They will be marching for what their sacrifice made possible: a nation that learned that survival is earned, that surrender is always more costly than resistance, that powers that preach peace while forging swords always end up revealing their true intentions.

The West celebrates May 8th – the German surrender signed in Reims, in the presence of the Western Allies, at a comfortable headquarters. Russia celebrates May 9th – the ratification in Berlin, wrested from the ruins of a capital that the Red Army had stormed at the cost of three hundred thousand soldiers in two weeks. This difference of one day is not insignificant. It reveals everything about who paid for the victory and who reaped its rewards.

In 2026, the parallel is perfect. The West reaps the dividends – political, narrative, and media-related – of a war it orchestrates for others. Ukraine pays the price. As in the past, others pay for the war while Washington calculates its profits.

But history, once again, cannot be rewritten so easily. On May 9, 1945, Berlin lay in ruins and the Red Army was victorious. On May 9, 2026, Russia stands tall, the Western economy weakened by its own sanctions, and Ukraine emptied of its people and its future. History repeats itself. Those who do not study it are condemned to endure it – and to be surprised, each time, by a Russia that stubbornly refuses to play the role assigned to it.

In short, the “Free World” is nothing but a gilded cage. A system that proclaims itself sovereign in order to better alienate others.

Mohamed Lamine KABA, Expert in the geopolitics of governance and regional integration, Institute of Governance, Human and Social Sciences, Pan-African University. Courtesy

https://journal-neo.su/2026/05/09/may-9-1945-may-9-2026-russia-is-standing-tall-again-part-2-double-standards-the-west-exposed/