June 7, 2022
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president of Brazil who is leading in the polls in this year’s election, came out strongly, again, against the U.S. intervention in Ukraine.
Lula, who is enjoying a 21-point lead over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, questioned the U.S.’s judgment after Washington poured $40 billion in weapons into Ukraine while the country is dealing with record-high inflation. He also mentioned the baby formula shortage.
“Biden, who has never made a speech to give $1 to those who are starving in Africa, finances $40 billion to help Ukraine buy weapons,” he said. “This can’t be!”
As we reported in the Trends Journal last month, the former leader, who was jailed in 2018 on corruption charges only to have them overturned, said that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky shared blame for the war.
“I see the president of Ukraine, speaking on television, being applauded, getting a standing ovation by all the parliamentarians. This guy is as responsible as Putin for the war,” he said.
Lula said Zelensky should have ignored Western officials and acknowledged Russia’s security concerns when it came to NATO expansion and that “We should be having a serious conversation. OK, you were a nice comedian. But let us not make war for you to show up on TV.”
He noted that the U.S. had the political clout to avoid the war, but instead incited it. (See “BRAZIL’S LULA SAYS UKRAINE’S COMEDIAN SHARES BLAME FOR WAR.”)
“Biden could have taken a plane to Moscow to talk to Putin. This is the kind of attitude you expect from a leader,” he said.
He continued, “In the same way the Americans persuaded the Russians not to put missiles in Cuba in 1961, Biden could have said, ‘We’re going to speak a bit more. We don’t want Ukraine in NATO, full stop.’ That’s not a concession.”
Lula, the leader of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, brought up Zelensky’s desire to be on camera and said it seems as though “he’s part of the spectacle.”
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