The visible effects of Ukraine's powerful currency - soft power

Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

Off the back of Professor Joseph Nye’s  insightful analysis of Ukraine’s soft power , here are the already visible effects of that currency:

** First and foremost, Eurovision. Ukraine won the 66th  Eurovision song contest. In the court of European public opinion, voting by telephone, Stefania by Kalush Orchestra won, big time.  That  is soft power.

** Finland and Sweden are throwing in their lot with Nato, which is the very worst outcome possible for Russia because the length of the military alliance’s borders with Russia are doubled. That’s if Turkey eventually agrees to play ball.

** Germany abandoned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, after years of US officials suggesting that course and warning that it would make Europe more dependent on Russian natural gas. As Professor Nye notes, “Atrocities against civilians have made Russia so unattractive to German public opinion that the government suspended the pipeline.”

** Germany has similarly increased its…