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Brexit will inevitably increase the likelihood of individual European countries normalising relations with Russia (on a bilateral basis). In 2014, when the West organised economic sanctions against Russia over Crimea and events in southeast Ukraine, it was London that took the harshest and most radical position in the EU. David Cameron called on his EU partners to implement punitive measures against Russia like blocking transactions made by Russian banks via SWIFT and even freezing Russia’s international reserves.
I don’t think the author of this piece had any reason to fabricate London’s enthusiasm for sanctions against Russia given that London colluded with Washington to fix the facts for promoting war against Iraq, a war that any truly independent international criminal court would consider a crime. Collusion is not quite the same as cooperation, though you won’t hear Washington or Number 10 make that distinction when speaking of their relations. I think the Brexit highlights this distinction.
Let me turn to the one dictionary* at my disposal, a pretty old moldy edition of le Petit Larousse Illustré. Collusion: (from the Latin colludere, to agree with someone to the detriment of another). A secret agreement between two or several persons in order to deceive someone or cause him prejudice. Now consider Cooperation: An economic action undertaken whereby common interests constitute an enterprise in which the rights of each are equal and in which the profits are divided between members according to their activity.
I think the difference is pretty clear.
Because the agreements between the US and the UK were pretty much secret, we have no way of knowing the nature of the pressure brought to bear by either party. But given that we now know that all the wars in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) were promoted by, and based on lies, we can pretty much conclude that they came about by colluding rather than cooperating. I’ll admit that they had to cooperate to promulgate their various fictions, but I think that kind of Newspeak cooperation is understood.
I’d like to think that the Brexiteers understood those differences, and decided they’d had enough of collusion and preferred cooperation. Even though the UK is not entirely part of the EU (it has always enjoyed, to a certain extent, the wiggle room its own currency allows), the European Commission meets behind closed doors and issues vanilla, official sounding statements to the press only after everyone has agreed how to best cover their asses. A majority of the UK said Enough! They understood that the EU and NATO are US proxies and had had enough of two of the most undemocratic institutions on the planet.
Rather than collusion, let there be cooperation!
Once. Again. 