The liberal order’s last stand at Munich: As it happened

15 February 2026

In Moscow, the conference’s theatrics over Western unity and Ukraine are dismissed as predictable posturing.

European leaders revealed through their statements their “growing understanding” that they are “increasingly sidelined from political processes,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on Telegram.

“Only strong politicians admit mistakes,” he added, “while weak ones scramble to justify past decisions with endless excuses.”

Conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger is wrapping up Munich by highlighting the spectrum of views on the state of the international system – from those declaring it already broken, like Merz, to others calling for “renewal and restoration,” as the US secretary of state put it – while noting doubts about shared Western values and cohesion.

When asked whether hypocrisies and double standards in EU policy – like the contrasting responses to the Gaza war versus the Ukraine conflict – undermine the bloc’s credibility, Stoltenberg answers: “Yes.”

No surprise there.

Elsewhere, Jens Stoltenberg, the former NATO chief attending the conference in his new role as Norway’s finance minister, declares that “Ukraine has to prevail” and that spending European taxpayers’ money on this is “so obviously the right thing to do.”

At a roundtable discussion the day prior, Lagarde argued that external pressure forces the EU to integrate faster and stop procrastinating on vital reforms. She warned that the world is moving from “stability to vulnerability” and proposed a three-pronged strategy: onshoring critical technology and supply chains, developing unique European strengths, and reducing reliance on single suppliers to prevent economic paralysis.

She didn’t mention that much of the EU’s economic troubles stem from abandoning Russian energy under sanctions, which once supplied a significant portion of the bloc’s needs. Perhaps she should have, especially as EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen declared that even if a Russia-Ukraine peace deal is reached, the EU won’t resume gas imports. The bloc are yet to reveal any plans to diversify suppliers.

Meanwhile, ECB President Christine Lagarde tries to reassure Europeans that Donald Trump’s policies aren’t all bad, claiming, “Europe grows in times of crisis.”

“The kick in the butt we all received from President Trump’s change of attitude toward Europe… it does bring leaders and policymakers closer together. That needs to continue,” she claimed.

Zelensky again takes a swipe at Viktor Orban in Munich, the second jab in less than 24 hours after he fat-shamed the Hungarian leader on Saturday.

“And I even want to thank Viktor. You all know who I mean, because in his own way, he pushes all of us in Europe to be better. Better, if only so that we never become like him, a man who seems to have forgotten the meaning of the word shame,” Zelensky quipped during the Ewald von Kleist Prize ceremony, an annual award honoring figures deemed to have advanced peace and security.

So much for diplomatic decorum.

Meanwhile, foreign affairs analyst George Szamuely tells RT that “Zelensky does not want peace” with Russia.

“He wants to continue with this war,” he said. “He was encouraged in the stands [at the Munich Security Conference] by the Europeans who were there… the Europeans were saying, yeah, reject all possible negotiations, reject all possible concessions. Keep this war going. We have your back.”

Sounds about right.

The Munich “circus” rolls on with its star act Zelensky, who clasps his hands in a mock-prayer pose and declares, “God bless the president of the United States,” when asked which American negotiator best safeguards Ukrainian interests.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, used the conference to defend her husband, former President Bill Clinton, from the shadow of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s network of associates.

“You know there will be continued release every day that passes,” she said, insisting, “you know that doesn’t mean – as our news commentators say every day in the US – that because someone’s name is there, they committed a crime.”

Bill is mentioned and pictured in the recently released Epstein files, but – predictably – denies any wrongdoing. The Clintons are set to sit for depositions in the case before the US House Oversight Committee later this month.

Elsewhere in Munich, Emmanuel Macron appeared to be the odd man out as Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Britain’s Keir Starmer bonded over photo ops and inside jokes.

“I hope the European flag doesn’t bother you,” Merz quipped to Starmer as the two prepared to pose for cameras alongside Macron – whom both seemed conspicuously keen to ignore.

Something has clearly shifted since the trio sparked online speculation last year over whether they not only share power in Europe, but also, less diplomatically, cocaine. Perhaps Macron simply forgot to bring the refreshments.

Kallas then admits the EU member states “are not ready to give concrete date” on Ukraine’s EU accession.

Her talking points were promptly echoed by Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, who, on the same panel, assured the audience that many other “small countries” are eager to join the EU – apparently ready to queue up for the same bureaucratic embrace.

So much for Zelensky’s hopes.

Kallas herself hails from Estonia, a former Soviet republic that has long sought to cut ties with Russia, a campaign that intensified after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

Despite roughly a quarter of Estonia’s population being ethnically Russian or Russian-speaking, Tallinn has moved to phase out Russian as a language of instruction in schools, a policy Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced as “forced assimilation” and “linguistic genocide” against the ethnic Russian minority. Estonia has also blocked hundreds of Russian news websites and restricted multiple Russian-language media outlets since 2022, and detained several Russian-linked activists and journalists.

Kallas also bristled at Rubio’s criticism of EU free speech, claiming it was “very hard for me to believe these accusations coming from a country that is number two in the press freedom index,” while the US sits “58th on this list.” The remark came from a representative of a bloc that has spent the past two years blacklisting media outlets and criminalizing dissent.

The top EU diplomat also calls for countering “Russia’s maximalist demands” in kind. “If Ukraine’s military is to be limited in size, Russia’s should be too,” she states, then pushes for the return of “Ukrainian deported children” – those whom Russia moved from areas of intense fighting and has been trying to reunite with their families.

Kallas then launches a one-sided argument with Donald Trump.

“Woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” she dubiously claims, referring to the US president’s National Security Strategy, which criticized the bloc’s policy choices.

She also asserts that “over 40% of Canadians have interest in joining the EU” – apparently a nod to Ottawa’s repeated refusals to consider Trump’s idea of making Canada America’s 51st state.

Makes one wonder who’s writing her speeches – and why.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has kicked off the third and final day of the conference by invoking Marvel superheroes in a call to “defend Europe.”

“Europeans, assemble!” she said, using the ‘Avengers’ catchphrase. “Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.”

Now EU leaders are quoting superhero movies. As Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, the EU is “deliberately promoting the inept and uneducated” to top government posts.

14 February 2026

President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to “prevent EU bureaucrats from destroying Western civilization,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said, reacting to a speech by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We believe that Europe must survive,” Rubio told the Munich Security Conference earlier in the day, accusing liberal politicians of making a “conscious policy choice, a decades-long economic undertaking that stripped our nations of their wealth, their productive capacity, and their independence.”

It remains to be seen who will ultimately prevail, Dmitriev noted in a post on X.

“EU bureaucrats are highly focused and skilled at destroying it through false narratives, migration, warmongering, and economic decline. It’s unclear who wins,” he wrote.

The Munich Security Conference – once a serious international event – has turned into a “circus” that puts “performance over substance,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

This year’s conference organizers withdrew invitations for senior Iranian officials following violent riots that gripped the Islamic Republic. Instead, the MSC invited Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s late US-backed Shah, who was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, to speak.

Pahlavi used the occasion to openly call on the West to bring about regime change in Iran, attended a major rally, and gave an interview to Reuters, urging the US to bomb his country instead of holding talks.

“Sad to see the usually serious Munich Security Conference turned into the ‘Munich Circus’ when it comes to Iran,” Araghchi said in a series of posts on X on Saturday. “The EU appears confused, rooted in an inability to understand what is happening inside Iran… An aimless EU has lost all geopolitical weight in our region.”

The MSC’s ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights’ panel is being hosted by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and features openly transgender Delaware Representative Sarah McBride – born Tim – as a panelist discussing women’s rights.

The only biological female on the four-person panel is Binaifer Nowrojee, president of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen wants Ukraine to be given missiles for long-range strikes on Russian territory.

“You cannot win a war with the one hand tied on your back. So we need to give them weapons so they can strike into Russia,” she said. “We have had this discussion for several years. We are still discussing it.” 

Does anyone still doubt that this is a NATO proxy war?

Zelensky says that he discussed the US-brokered trilateral peace talks with Rubio on the sidelines of the MSC.

“It is crucial that the talks planned in Geneva be productive, and I thank the United States for their constructive approach,” he tweeted.

“We also addressed the matter of sequencing steps. It is important to make progress on the issues of security guarantees and economic recovery.”

The next rounds of talks is set to bring together Russian, US, and Ukrainian delegations in Geneva on Tuesday.

Russia is changing the “threat environment” by venturing north towards the Arctic, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand says.

“It is a geostrategic issue in terms of Russian infrastructure moving further north towards the Arctic Circle… there is an economic advantage to ensuring that you have play in the Arctic,” she said.

“This is not just about land acquisition. This is also about… mineral exploration, energy, an economic advantage that can be gained by having propriety in the Arctic.”

Russia possesses more than half of the planet’s Arctic coastline. Why is it a threat to any other nation if it explores its own exclusive economic zone?

The usually serious MSC has instead devolved into the “Munich Circus” when it comes to Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has tweeted.

“The EU appears confused, rooted in an inability to understand what is happening inside Iran,” he wrote. “Strategically, an aimless EU has lost all geopolitical weight in our region.”

The “paralysis and irrelevance” of the EU and the E3 powers – Germany, France and the UK – is obvious in the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, he said. Berlin specifically is well on the way to “wholly surrendering its regional policy to Israel,” the top diplomat said.

This as US war hawk Lindsey Graham flies the flag of the deposed Iranian monarchy during a speech in Munich.

The people of Greenland have never felt threatened until Trump started his push to acquire the island, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen says.

“In terms of the threats in our region and the threats from Russia and China, the paradox is the Greenlandic people has never felt threatened, and the first time they felt unsafe for real, one with an ally talked about acquiring them, buying them and so on,” he says.

“The pressure on us is unacceptable… This is not only about Greenland. Imagine a NATO country acquiring, taking, threatening an ally.”

Trump insists that the resource-rich Arctic island is at imminent risk from Moscow and Beijing, a claim both deny.

Sidelined Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado says that after the US is done with Venezuela, Washington will move on to Cuba and Nicaragua.

“We need to dismantle the presence of foreign regimes, Cuba, Russia, Iran currently infiltrated into Venezuelan institutions, not only economic activity, including the military,” she proclaimed, speaking as the sole panelist at the MSC’s ‘Spotlight on Venezuela: Public Square’.

“Once we dismantle the regime in Venezuela, Cuba will be next. Nicaragua will follow.”

Heralding more regime change operations in Latin America as if it’s the 20th century again.

California Governor Gavin Newsom uses his time at the MSC’s ‘Spotlight on Transatlantic Cooperation from the Bottom Up’ discussion to bash Trump, again.

“I hope you understand, Donald Trump is not only temporary, but he may be among the most un-American presidents to have ever resided at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” he says. “He’s an invasive species.”

Vladimir Zelensky demands that Brussels sets a concrete date to let Ukraine into the EU, insisting that accession is a key security guarantee.

“Technically, Ukraine has to be ready in 2027, but the date of accession depends on all these dialogues with [the] 27 members,” he says. “But we need the date. We are speaking to fix the date in this... document.”

Several EU nations, including Germany and Austria, have already nixed the idea of ‘fast-tracking’ Ukraine’s bid.

“Ukraine’s accession on January 1, 2027, is out of the question. It is not possible,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said late last month, ruling out special treatment for Kiev.

Sikorski calls on European nations to shell out more for Kiev.

“We have given Ukraine €90 billion ($107 billion). That should be enough to sustain them for two years,” he says. “If we gave them €10 or €20 billion more, they could actually get their defense industry up to full capacity.”

In December, the cash-strapped EU pledged to loan Ukraine €90 billion over the next two years, borrowing the money against its own common budget.

How much of this money could go towards buying more golden toilets for the corrupt Ukrainian elites?

“Combined European armies outnumber any other army in the world. We are spending much more on defense than ever before,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says.

“But to be clear and honest, there’s room for more, for much more,” he added, calling for a more “hard-edged” security policy. “I want Europe to be more than a strong economic force. It must develop more military power.”

Russia says it won’t attack. Europe wants “much more” military power. Who is really the dangerous one?

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski again demands a seat at the US-backed Ukraine peace talks.

“We are now paying for this war. The American outlay for the war for last year was close to zero. We are buying American weapons to be delivered to Ukraine,” he says, arguing that this gives Europeans a right to a seat at the table.

Europe ignored Russia for years – now suddenly it wants in?

“Can you put a price on Greenland?” Danish PM Mette Frederiksen is asked.

“Of course not. Can you put a price on a part of Spain, or a part of US, or a part of anywhere else in the world,” she replied. “We have to respect sovereign states… and we have to respect people’s right for self-determination.”

Except if it’s the right of the people of Crimea or the Donbass regions to be part of Russia, according to the UN. The regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in 2014 and 2022, respectively.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen balked at a question about possibly having to defend Greenland against the US.

“If one NATO country attacks another NATO country then NATO ends. It’s game over,” she replied.

President Donald Trump’s ambitions to annex the island have strained the already cracking transatlantic partnership – one that Secretary of State Rubio assured everyone is still very strong in his Munich speech.

What does this say about the state of NATO unity?

Maybe we should not have backed away from the BRICS countries, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in a discussion along with top Indian diplomat S. Jaishankar.

“Some years ago we also, we firstly considered these countries as being members of the BRICS. And that sort of alienated us from them. And that was wrong,” he says. “We have a lot of things in common with countries like India, like Brazil.”

So what exactly changed – was Berlin truly “alienated,” or was it wary of the bloc’s growing economic and geopolitical weight?

The world is heading toward greater multipolarity, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar says.

“There will be many more independent or autonomous centers of decision making... Last year was a very dramatic year… It’s really been building over the last decade, particularly over the last five years… we are seeing the impact of it on the international system.”

And BRICS will be at the helm.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says the only real “security guarantees” Ukraine is being offered is the deployment of European NATO states’ troops to the country.

“I don’t see any alternative to what the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ has put together in close coordination with NATO and with the United States of America,” he says, citing this as a reason that Europeans should be admitted to the trilateral talks.

NATO troops in Ukraine is an absolute red line for Moscow.

Maybe this kind of talk is why Europeans are not at the table?

Back in Munich, NATO chief Mark Rutte has dismissed Russia’s efforts to reach a settlement with Ukraine.

He then talks of meeting Patron the dog, mascot of Ukraine’s emergency services: “I even looked the dog in the eye, and he told me, ‘we will never give in.’”

And they wonder why Europeans have been sidelined from the peace process.

Hungary’s Orban was quick to hit back at Zelensky’s swipe during his address.

“This is precisely why you cannot become a member of the European Union,” he wrote on X, responding to the Ukrainian leader’s attempt to shame him into dropping opposition to Ukraine’s EU bid and further aid. Zelensky had claimed Ukraine is “holding the European front” against the supposed Russian threat and allowing Orban to “grow his belly, not his army.”

He also admits his cluelessness, saying he does not understand what the US and Russia are negotiating about, while lamenting that his European sponsors have been left out of the talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has explained Europe’s exclusion from the settlement process, calling European leaders “the main obstacles to peace” and saying they have been “blinded” by their futile desire to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia” through continued backing of the Kiev regime.

Zelensky returns to blasting Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally – speculating about how long Putin has to live, claiming the end of the Ukraine conflict depends on his lifespan, and comparing the Russian leader directly with Hitler.

“It seems Putin hopes to repeat Munich. Not Munich 2007, but Munich 1938, when the previous Putin began dividing Europe in reality,” he said.

Kiev has repeatedly claimed that Russian domestically-produced Geran-2 drones are actually Iranian-made Shahed drones. Both Moscow and Tehran deny this. Iran has dismissed the allegations as “anti-Iranian propaganda” aimed at extracting more Western military aid for Kiev.

Interestingly, while tightening sanctions on Tehran, Washington last fall blacklisted two Ukrainian firms for allegedly supplying key drone components to Iran’s state-run UAV producer. Curious supply chain.

Zelensky also took a swipe at Iran – despite admitting his country shares no border and has virtually no relations with Tehran – claiming “the Iranian regime has already done and can still do more harm than many other regimes could do in a century.” Without detailing his grievances beyond repeating Kiev’s longstanding claim that Iran supplies Russia with drones, he called for regime change.

“Regimes like the one in Iran must not be given time. When they have time, they only kill more. They must be stopped immediately,” he says.

Zelensky soon shifts from shaming critics to scolding his Western sponsors over the time it takes them to deliver weapons.

“You saw how long we had to push, to push, to push, to be allowed to get stronger and stronger weapons. Months for HIMARS, months for tanks, years for aircraft,” he says, adding – less convincingly – that Kiev is “grateful” for what it has already received, but still needs more.

Meanwhile, Zelensky takes center stage at a panel dedicated to Ukraine and the continued sponsorship of the Kiev regime with EU taxpayers’ money.

The Ukrainian leader is once again fishing for cash to sustain his war effort, insisting that Ukraine is “holding the European front” against the supposed Russian threat. He credits himself with the freedom of the Baltic states and the sovereignty of Moldova and Romania, while taking a swipe at Hungary’s Viktor Orban – who openly opposes further aid to Kiev – claiming Ukraine allows him to “grow his belly, not his army.”

Starmer insists: “my party and my government is completely united on the question of Ukraine and defense and security, and the need for stronger relations with Europe on defense.”

Perhaps that’s why he resurrected the ‘Russia threat’ narrative – common adversaries are always handy when you need to distract from trouble at home.

Asked about his problems at home – specifically whether he thinks he “narrowly just missed being toppled” – Starmer said, “my entire government is united!”

“I ended the week much stronger than I started it,” he claimed, which is remarkable, considering his week began with what could spiral into a party revolt over his government’s failure to properly vet former British envoy to the US Peter Mandelson over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

While some argue that the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) should have handled the vetting rather than Starmer’s government, his top aides have been dropping like dominoes amid the fallout – with chief of staff Morgan McSweeney stepping down, followed by communications director Tim Allan.

Meanwhile, at the same panel, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer parroted the ‘Russia ready to attack NATO by 2030’ claims, which Moscow has long dismissed as “nonsense.”

“Russia is rearming, reconstituting their armed forces, and industrial base… In the event of a peace deal in Ukraine... Russia’s rearmament would only accelerate. The wider danger for Europe would not end there, it would increase,” he claimed, urging Western Europe to “answer this threat in full” by building up military capabilities.

“That is the currency of the age. We must be able to deter aggression,” he declared.

It is curious how these warnings come just as UK officials admit the British army would struggle against a near-peer adversary, with ammunition expected to run out within days in a large-scale conflict. Perhaps he hasn’t heard.

Von der Leyen cited what she called a Ukrainian saying, “change or die,” urging the EU to “adopt this mantra.” The live feed immediately cut to nodding Ukrainian ex-President Pyotr Poroshenko in the audience.

The phrase actually originated in the US, linked to “innovate or die,” a concept often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker in the 1980s that later became a global business mantra.

One of the “changes” Poroshenko implemented while in power in Kiev was banning the import of Russian books. Zelensky continued the trend, stripping the Russian language of protections under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, restricting its public, media, and professional use – even though it remains the first language for many Ukrainians. Russian officials have frequently condemned these measures as erasing shared history.

Von der Leyen insists that a more “independent“ Europe does not contradict its “transatlantic bond” with the US. Perhaps she and Rubio share the same speechwriters.

Elsewhere at the conference, during a panel on “wielding power” and “a world in disarray,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is discussing the threats to the EU’s “democratic” way of life, “from territories to tariffs to tech regulations.”

She calls the emerging multipolar world “fractured” and declares – amid what sounds like staged applause – that the bloc has “no other choice” but to become “more independent.”

In contrast to Rubio – who called on the West to unite against unnamed “adversaries and competitors” – Wang urged the world to “practice true multilateralism.”

“In improving and reforming global governance multilateralism should be always upheld, power monopolization by a few countries is simply unpopular,” he said. “We live in a multipolar world… Global affairs should be discussed by all, the future of the world should be decided by all.”

Wang suggests the international system’s shortcomings stem from “certain” countries “seeking to magnify differences and disagreements, putting themselves above everyone else.”

“To safeguard international cooperation, it is important to seek common ground while shelving differences. There is no reason why countries can’t respect each other and contribute to each other’s success,” he said.

The world is “a diverse place,” he reminded the gathering, “and it is precisely these differences that make dialogue and cooperation necessary.”

China and the EU are partners, not rivals, Wang says.

“This is a very negative thinking and this will do no good. We don’t want to see the amplification of this so-called narrative of systemic rivalry. This will be toxic for the future development of China-EU relations,” he stated. Differences stem from culture, and are not a reason for conflict.

“We should respect each other, admire each and learn from each other and grow together,” he added.

Wang says that reforming and improving global governance should prioritize revitalizing the UN system. Unlike Rubio, he praises the organization while acknowledging it needs change.

“The UN is not perfect in its current form, but it remains the most universal and authoritative international organization,” he states. “In the UN, every country, regardless of size or wealth, has a voice, a sacred vote, and equal rights alongside its obligations.”

Without the UN, Wang warns, the world would “revert to the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi offers a stark contrast to Rubio, saying “pulling together should be the imperative choice” for the world’s future. He highlights Beijing’s Global Governance Initiative, built on five principles: Sovereign equality, the international rule of law, multilateralism, a people-centered approach, and practical action, calling it a foundation for “a more just and equitable global system.”

“It injects new impetus into building a community with a shared future for humanity and provides a compass for the ship of history to navigate storms toward a bright future,” Wang said.

Rubio slams the UN for “having no answers” on crises from Gaza to Ukraine, claiming “it took American leadership” to try to untangle the messes.

He insists that it also took “American bombs” to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon – even though Tehran has long denied have any intentions of doing so. He also praises the US for “liberating Venezuela from a narcoterrorist dictator,” defending the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro as if it were business as usual.

Rubio says Trump aims to “renew and restore” Western civilization after what he called decades of mistakes. The US, he added, could do it alone but prefers to do it with Europe.

“The US and Europe – we belong together,” he said, drawing enthusiastic applause from Europeans who have for months been loudly proclaiming the end of ‘Pax Americana’.

Rubio attacks what he calls the “climate cult” for policies that “impoverish” Western populations, while unnamed “competitors” exploit oil, coal, and “anything else” as economic leverage.

He also criticizes mass migration, warning that it threatens “the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people.”

Rubio opens his address by dismissing the ‘rules-based order’ as an “overused term,” before deriding the post-WWII push for a borderless world as a “foolish idea” that ignores “human nature.”

He criticized the West, including the US, for spending decades “outsourcing our sovereignty,” while “competitors and adversaries” built up their welfare states and wielded hard power, without specifying which countries he meant.

“The EU has made itself irrelevant through constant warmongering,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy and key Ukraine negotiator Kirill Dmitriev wrote on X, suggesting that this is why Rubio skipped Friday’s Ukraine meeting.

He noted that Rubio’s supposed “scheduling conflict” instead involved talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – who he described as “the voice of reason in Europe” – rather than yet another EU-Ukraine meeting.

13 February 2026

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who leads the Washington delegation, skipped a meeting on Ukraine in Munich “at the last minute” earlier on Friday due to alleged “scheduling conflicts,” according to the Financial Times.

The so-called Berlin Format gathering was attended by Kiev’s European backers – including France’s Macron, Germany’s Merz, as well as the heads of the European Commission, the European Council and NATO – who are seeking to incorporate their vision of a “just peace deal” into the US-led negotiation process.

Russia, the US, and Ukraine will hold a new round of peace talks in Switzerland next week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced earlier in the day. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week that a settlement was close following a meeting last year between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, but that Kiev and its European backers have acted to sabotage peace efforts.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made her Munich debut this year, taking part in a discussion on the rise of populism earlier on Friday. She accused Trump of “looking to withdraw the United States from the entire world so that we can turn into an age of authoritarianism,” condemning the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, the planned annexation of Greenland, and Trump’s apparent contentment with letting Putin “bully our allies” in Europe.

Ocasio-Cortez called for a return to a “rules-based order” without the “hypocrisies” of Trump’s foreign policy. In reality, it is unclear if there is any real difference between both systems. In his 2007 speech at Munich, delivered when AOC was still in high school, Putin explained that there has always been “one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making” in the so-called “rules-based order”: the US. 

After declaring Europe’s security architecture obsolete and a relic of “Cold War times,” Macron says he’s been working with Merz and a “few European leaders” on a joint nuclear weapons doctrine. 

He promises more details “in a few weeks’ time.”

Macron defends the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a wide-ranging law regulating social media platforms. He says it’s been instrumental in fighting “foreign interference” online.

However, a report published by the US House Judiciary Committee this month revealed that EU regulators used the DSA to censor political speech ranging from satire to “anti-migrant” posts, and to interfere in elections across the bloc and beyond.

Macron calls for the reopening of diplomatic channels with Moscow, stating that there can be “no peace without the Europeans,” who will have to draw up “the rules of co-existence” with Russia. Like Merz, he adds the caveat that “we must ensure that the settlement protects Ukraine.” 

Among European leaders, Macron has led the charge for dialog with Russia, suggesting in December that the EU appoint a designated envoy – bypassing foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas – to speak to the Kremlin. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed this week that Moscow and Paris have restored technical-level diplomatic contacts, but that no presidential-level talks are planned.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev responds to Merz’ pledge to make the German military “the strongest conventional army in Europe.”

“Easy there, mad dog – the year is 2026, not 1933!”

French President Emmanuel Macron is delivering his keynote address. Like Merz, he’s defending Europe against Vance’s criticisms at last year’s event.

“Europe has been vilified as an aging, slow, fragmented construct, sidelined by history as an over-regulated, lifeless economy that shuns innovation. As a society falling prey to barbaric migration that would corrupt its precious traditions, and… as a repressive continent where speech would not be free, and alternative facts could not claim the same right of place as truth itself.”

He says he wants to present “a completely different view” of Europe, but he’ll have a hard time refuting some of those arguments. Especially after the European Commission recently proposed another expansion of Brussels’ powers to counter the same slow, over-regulated, “lifeless economy” he mentions.

Graham and Blumenthal are finished, but side discussions have been ongoing. Here’s Reza Pahlavi claiming that “we were successful in pushing the [Iranian] regime back.”

“Are we prepared to die for this cause? Of course we are,” he says. “We don’t have a choice but to fight. We don’t have a choice but to liberate ourselves.” 

Pahlavi says “we,” but he hasn’t been in Iran since 1978. He still refers to himself as Iran’s ‘crown prince’, and encourages anti-government riots from his home outside Washington DC.

Zelensky says he and Merz discussed “further military assistance, additional contributions,” and scaling up joint production of drones in a meeting on the sidelines of the conference. 

Zelensky is due to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at some point over the weekend. After Trump’s statement in Washington, it looks like the US is going to press him into accepting a peace deal – at the expense of territory claimed by Ukraine – once again. 

Back in Washington, Trump says that Zelensky “better get moving,” because “Russia wants to make a deal.” If Zelensky doesn’t act fast, “he’s going to miss a great opportunity

At the exact same moment in Munich, Graham suggests that he will obstruct any peace deal that doesn’t heavily favor Ukraine. “Any agreement has to come to the Senate,” he says. “So I’m here to tell you I’m not going to vote for an agreement that I think is deficient…I’m not going to support any deal that Ukraine doesn’t support.”

“Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Blumenthal adds, repeating a line used extensively by the Biden administration in 2022.

Graham and Blumenthal have their eyes on Beijing, with Blumenthal calling China “the toxic element here.”

According to him, China is a country “that is bent on dominance…economically, militarily, and politically throughout the world.”

The two lawmakers want to hit Beijing with up to 500% tariffs for buying Russian oil.

Graham says he wants “tripwire forces” in Ukraine after any peace deal, but “they won’t be American.”

The Europeans on the panel don’t push back against the idea of being used as a suicide squad.

“When we offered Zelensky a ride out on a helicopter, he said ‘don’t send a helicopter, send ammunition

This never happened. The quote was fabricated by US intelligence agents. In the pantheon of pro-Ukraine propaganda, it ranks somewhere between ‘the Ghost of Kiev’ and ‘Russia building missiles from washing machines’.

“Putin’s done more to bring us together in the Senate than anybody in America,” Graham declares. 

He’s got a point: beneath the partisan bickering, Democrats and Republicans rarely disagree on foreign policy matters. Richard Blumenthal makes the point even clearer when he declares “I’m in the John McCain wing of the Democratic party.”

Blumenthal then recycles some classic neocon talking points: negotiating with “murderous thug” Putin would be akin to appeasing Hitler, opposing Russia is a matter of “moral clarity,” and the US and Europe have to cough up “a slew of military aid” for Ukraine.

Lindsey Graham asks for a show of hands: “how many people believe [Putin] wants to take all of Ukraine?”

“And he’s not gonna stop until somebody stops him,” Graham claims, proposing more sanctions and the delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.

Tomahawk cruise missiles require American operators, and their delivery would drag the US to the verge of open war with Russia. Graham has pushed for such escalation since the conflict escalated in 2022, demanding a NATO-enforced “no-fly zone” over Ukraine, Russia’s designation as a terrorist entity, and the assassination of Putin.

In a panel on climate change, California Governor Gavin Newsom goes off on a rant about Trump, reassuring the Europeans that “he’ll be gone in three years.” 

“Never in the history of the United States of America has there been a more destructive president than the current occupant in the White House in Washington DC,” he declares, accusing Trump of “trying to recreate the 19th Century.”

Even when the headline discussions of the conference examine the prospect of an Western order without the US, American partisan politics somehow find a way in.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Defense Minister Johann Wadephul share a very enthusiastic greeting in Munich. 

Flashbacks to the good old days:

Meanwhile, in a smaller session focused on trade, Finnish President Alexander Stubb is asked by a Ukrainian journalist “how to sort Russia out.”

“I think you’re winning this war,” he replies, before citing Kiev’s own inflated Russian casualty figures as proof. “Just keep on doing what you’re doing, and at the end of the day, you will prevail and win this war,” he reiterates.

Reality hasn’t reached everyone in Munich yet.

If you’re just joining us, Merz has already pronounced the “rules-based international order” dead and called for a more centralized and militarized Europe, while Kallas has offered a lightweight defense of the old world order.

It’s worth taking a look back to 2007, when Russian President Vladimir Putin tore apart the lies and contradictions at the heart of the liberal order, and predicted exactly where it would lead.

At the end of the day, Putin warned, the so-called rules-based order “is a world in which there is one master, one sovereign.” It is a world, he argued, that “not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.”

Asked who will hold Israel accountable for 1,500 violations of the Gaza ceasefire, Kallas says “nobody should be above the law,” and that in a system of international rules “if you are breaching these rules, you should be held accountable.”

Another classic piece of feelgood diplomacy from Kallas, with no actual plan to follow through.

Waltz argues for American power as a force for good. He says the US operation to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was celebrated across Latin America, and that Trump sidestepped UN deadlock by bypassing the organization with his Gaza ‘Board of Peace’

Asked whether Trump believes in a system “where there are rules that would constrain the United States,” he deflects. “NATO is stronger because of our leadership,” he says. “The UN will be stronger at the end of this.”

Waltz brought gifts: light blue ‘Make the UN Great Again’ hats. “Otherwise known as MUNGA,” he says as Kallas takes the souvenir.

Back in the conference room, Kallas is arguing with US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz. She says Europe contributes its fair share to the UN and NATO, and “when America goes to wars, then a lot of us go with you and we lose our people on the way.”

Waltz says that “the American people have underwritten” the post-WWII order and spends more money on propping up this system than “more than 180 countries combined.”

“When I go to people in Indiana and Georgia and North Florida that I represented…I have to look at them honestly and say it’s being well spent, and it’s not,” he adds.

Despite all the talk of realpolitik, there’s no better illustration of the Munich Security Conference Foundation’s world view than this: Iranian officials have been banned from attending the conference, while ‘crown prince’ Reza Pahlavi has arrived in Munich to meet with US senators.

Pahlavi is the son of the US-backed Shah, who was deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi has lived outside Washington DC for 40 years, where he encourages regime change in Tehran from the comfort of his home.

His presence in Munich is entirely symbolic. While Pahlavi has declared his readiness to rule Iran in the event of a successful US regime change operation, Trump has publicly said that Iranians likely wouldn’t “accept his leadership.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister is serving up some reality to the Europeans. He says that “many of us” outside the US and Europe “have seen the breakdown” of the “rules-based order” long before it was discussed in Munich.

He says the EU’s attachment to “symbolism, rather than realities on the ground,” has historically made it more difficult to work with the Europeans on resolving conflicts. Now, “the most ardent supporters of the old system” are willing to speak realistically, he adds.

The EU’s Kallas is now taking part in a debate on “big power politics,” as The Economist’s Zanny Minton Beddoes – who is moderating – puts it. 

It’s hard not to overstate how unqualified Kallas is here. The EU’s diplomatic chief famously didn’t know that China and Russia participated in World War II, and insisted that no foreign power has ever attacked Russia “in the last 100 years.”

Merz’ schizophrenic tone continues when the discussion turns to Russia. One one hand “it makes sense to talk” to Moscow, he says, adding that “we are willing to talk.” 

On the other, he says that the war will “only end when Russia is at least economically, and potentially militarily, exhausted,” and attacks Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for visiting Moscow and “achieving nothing.” 

Demanding talks while openly calling for the military and economic defeat of Russia is exactly why – as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month – “reaching an agreement with the current generation of European leaders will most likely be impossible.”

“No-one forced us into this excessive dependency on the United States in which we have found ourselves,” Merz admits, adding: “this dependency was self-inflicted.”

He’s talking about reliance on the US for military protection, but his admission could equally apply to energy. EU leaders have spent four years justifying soaring energy costs and rapid deindustrialization as the price of “freedom” from dependency on Russian gas and oil imports. However, the bloc has simply swapped one dependency for another, and has left itself at the mercy of Washington by switching to American liquefied natural gas.

Merz says the Europeans will “now cast off this state” of dependence “as soon as we can.” If he had listened to his predecessors, as RT reported earlier this month, this entire situation could have been avoided.

US Vice President JD Vance’s speech at last year’s conference is still playing on repeat in Europe. Merz defends the EU censorship policies that Vance targeted last year, saying “the MAGA culture battle in the US” is not Europe’s problem, and “freedom of speech here ends when the words spoken are against human dignity and our basic law.”

Merz’ relationship with the White House is often schizophrenic. The German chancellor has clashed with his American counterparts on trade, climate change, and so-called ‘hate speech’ laws. However, Merz has rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for EU states to prioritize European-made weapons and products in public procurement, and supports continued use of American tech by European governments.

“The international order based on rights and rules is currently being destroyed,” Merz claims. “This order…no longer exists.”

The German chancellor opens with language lifted straight out of Ischinger’s report, and follows its recommendations to the letter: “The most important thing is to turn the switch in our minds” and tap into Europe’s “military potential.” Merz then promises to make the German armed forces “the strongest conventional army in Europe.” 

Turning these words into reality might be a little more complicated. The German economy has flatlined without Russian energy imports, debt-financed defense spending is one of the few mechanisms keeping it out of the red, and Bundeswehr stocks are so depleted from arming Ukraine that Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced yesterday that Berlin can only donate five PAC-3 missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot air defense systems.