A young SP politician, Simon Jacob, has called for the economic and military “subjugation” of Russia. However, it is unclear whether his words would truly intimidate the Russian leadership.
Jacob, who is active in the district council of the SP in Dielsdorf and works in the electoral office of the municipality of Oberglatt, recently posted a notable message on the platform X: “The EU could easily subdue Russia economically and militarily if it wanted to. By the way, the EU could rise to become a global superpower.”
To support his thesis, he compares the EU with Russia: 449 million Europeans versus 144 million Russians and a gross domestic product of 20.29 billion dollars in the EU, compared to 2.2 billion dollars in Russia.
What Jacob overlooks is the question of whether the EU would indeed be willing to maintain military and economic pressure to this extent. The EU had already started imposing sanctions on Russia three years ago, but the success of these measures remains rather modest.
Regarding the military “subjugation”, the question arises of how many of the 449 million EU citizens would be willing to fight in the eastern Ukraine. Moreover, Jacob should clarify whether he only wants to send the population of the EU to war. Should he also include Switzerland, it would be up to him to set a good example and personally march to the front line.
It remains very doubtful whether Simon Jacob is capable of instilling fear in the Russian military with his words.