In his latest dinner speeches in Davos, George Soros has in turn identified Putin, Xi Jinping and Facebook as dangerous threats to democracy. The last time he appeared, two years ago, he talked mostly about the climate crisis.
Now he was back at Putin, and the invasion of Ukraine, which he believed could lead to a third world war.
– The Russian invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally shaken Europe. The EU was created to prevent this from happening. Not even when the fighting ends, as they eventually have to, will the situation be as it was before. The invasion may mean the beginning of the Third World War and our civilization may not survive it.
The Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, 91, is a regular feature of the annual Davos summit. He often strikes wildly around him, and a recurring target for his criticism is “the two dictators”, that is, Putin and Xi Jinping.
Soros regards Russia and China as the greatest threats to open and democratic societies. For Xi, he has a particularly good eye: He believes that China’s zero vision policy for covid has catastrophic consequences, and could cause China’s economy to fall into free fall.
– Omikron has forced the people of Shanghai to quarantine, and has driven the city to the brink of open revolt. Why? Because Xi has a secret. He has never said that the vaccine they have given does not help with omicron, but was designed for the Wuhan variant. And he hopes to be named China’s leader for life in 2022.
On top of that, Soros believes, the real estate crisis will affect the global economy. With broken supply chains and inflation, it could turn into a global depression.
This year had Soros appointed a new scapegoat: Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel, and he attacked her relationship with Russia.
– Merkel has a big debt to make Europe so dependent on Russia’s fossil energy. She made a special deal with Russia for gas supplies, and she made China Germany’s largest export market. We have to pay a high price for that. Germany’s economy needs to be reoriented, but it will take a long time.
Soros claimed that it is not Russian oil but natural gas that the world should impose an embargo on. This is where Russia is most sensitive. This is because Europe is Putin’s only gas market. If he does not deliver to Europe, he will have to shut down gas sources in Siberia.
– Putin’s war operation has not succeeded, and Ukraine’s resistance has inflicted severe damage on Russia’s army. And the United States and the European Union have come together to support Ukraine, unity has been greater than ever before, and Ukraine has succeeded in resisting and defeating the larger Russian army.
Soros praised Ukraine for doing the country “us in the open societies” a huge service through its freedom struggle.
– But while the war is raging, the fight against climate change comes in second place. According to some experts, climate change is becoming irreversible. It may mean the end of our civilization.