Britain's power begins to wane

Forecast: “Upcoming events in the political arena, starting in August” (published on August 7, 2025, link).

S. Dragan:

… the power of Great Britain and everything connected with it in the context of influence on world events is beginning to fade…

… Perhaps we will be able to observe a powerful confirmation of this scenario, with particular emphasis on the current destruction of the former world system of power, in the second half of February 2026—the beginning of March 2026. But the signal will be given as early as September 2025 and, most likely, inevitably…

From the second half of 2025 to the present, information has begun appearing in various sources about signs of Great Britain’s loss of its former greatness and the decline of its power as a global colonial empire.

We will quote only some of them.

Moscow, November 3, 2025. Great Britain may lose not only its monarchical system but also Scotland, according to Alexei Pushkov, a member of the Federation Council’s Constitutional Committee.

“Great Britain may lose not only the monarchy but also Scotland. From Brussels, Scottish people are being urged to secede from the United Kingdom by Euro-maniacs such as former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. He said that he supports any path that would allow Scotland to return to the European Union,” Pushkov wrote on his Telegram channel.

The senator noted that Verhofstadt called Scotland “the most pro-EU part of Britain” and said that its future lies in Europe.

“What is this if not a call for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom, that is, an attempt on Britain’s territorial integrity? These are the people Britons should fear—puppet masters and schemers from Brussels, not Russia,” the politician stated.

Moscow, January 20, 2026. Britain should properly be called precisely that, since in the case of Great Britain it is the only example of a country calling itself great, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

At a press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2025, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, yielding the floor to a Sky News journalist, noted that when colonialism and the issues of island states are mentioned, representatives of the British media should be given the floor. Lavrov drew attention to the fact that this is the correct name for the state.

“I believe Britain should be called Britain, because Great Britain is the only example when a country calls itself great. Another example was the Libyan Jamahiriya, but it no longer exists,” the foreign minister said.

The Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, also called the Great Jamahiriya, existed from 1977. In 2011, after the death of its leader Muammar Gaddafi, the state ceased to exist, and in 2013 it was renamed the State of Libya.

The war in Iran dealt a painful blow to London and exposed an old problem, writes New Statesman, criticizing the current economic policy of the British leadership quite frankly.

For decades, the country lived beyond its means, selling off assets and accumulating debt. The conflict in the Middle East accelerated a crisis that brought Britain new problems.

The war with Iran is a shock fraught with an economic explosion. The country is struggling with the consequences of the war in the Middle East, which led to a sharp rise in inflation and fuel disruptions. Political figures anxiously watch economic charts. Whitehall (a street in central London whose name has become a common designation for the British government—InoSMI’s note), Parliament, and newspapers—all of them repeat two words over and over. No, not “cost of living,” but “balance of payments.”

In spring 2026, London recalled 1976. That was when the famous phrase about an “outstretched hand” was heard.

The pound crisis and IMF loan of 1976 are perhaps the most misunderstood economic events in Great Britain’s modern history. But in many respects, the current crisis is even worse than in 1976.

The reason is quite simple. Britain lives beyond its means. It produces too little of what it wants itself or what the rest of the world needs, and as a result it lacks money for what the country does not produce. Add the global economic crisis—particularly the American-Iranian war—and Britain’s economy will soon go into a tailspin. The world is already competing for fuel, food, fertilizer, plastics, and other essential raw materials, while we cannot establish our own supplies. And even if Britons somehow manage this, they will have to sell off businesses and property, thereby depriving themselves of future tax revenue, simply to pay the bills.

Britain brought itself to this because it forgot the iron law of international economics: everyone pays their bills, including countries. This was the goal of politicians such as Prime Minister Jim Callaghan and Healey himself. This is what maintaining the balance of payments comes down to. This is the whole essence of combating the “cost of living.” Yet today’s politicians have forgotten about it.

As an example of the dire state of the economy of Foggy Albion, the situation in agriculture is cited, in particular chicken egg production. This is, of course, a “detail,” but a rather telling one.

As of April 2026, The Economist notes that because of rising prices, Britain has become dependent on imports of chicken eggs from Ukraine.

Egg prices in Britain soared by 36%, while demand increased, The Economist writes. Imports from Ukraine save the country from shortages. However, not everyone is happy: local farmers complain that cheap Ukrainian products are pushing them out of the market.

Cheap imports have ruffled British farmers’ feathers. Poultry farming in Great Britain cannot keep up with growing demand. Over the past year, the average Briton ate 209 eggs—45 more than in 2005. Some blame the widespread enthusiasm for home baking that began during the lockdown era, while others blame the recent fashion for brunches.

Meanwhile, supply disruptions only worsened the shortage. First, bird flu broke out. Since 2021, the population of laying hens in England has fallen by 10% because of deaths. Second, Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine drove up prices for chicken feed and electricity needed to keep poultry farms warm and lit. Eggs rose in price by 36% in real terms.

To patch this gap, Great Britain began importing eggs from abroad. Since 2021, egg imports have doubled. Today, almost every ninth egg on British shelves comes from abroad, compared with every thirtieth in 2022. Last year, most imported eggs came from Ukraine.

With the start of Russia’s special military operation, Great Britain and the EU abolished tariffs and duties on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine. This show of solidarity led to fierce protests by farmers, and last year the EU restored customs barriers. Great Britain alone retained duty-free trade in eggs through 2028, and a record 200 million eggs arrived from Ukraine last year. Whether this trend will continue given Kyiv’s problems with maritime transport remains a major question.

At the beginning of summer 2026, a sharp surge in acute intestinal infections was recorded in the United Kingdom. According to analysis based on Health Security Agency data, the number of confirmed diagnoses of “salmonellosis” reached 259 cases.

According to The Telegraph, Ukraine is the largest supplier of eggs, accounting for nearly one-third of imports.

British authorities believe that the salmonellosis outbreak in the country is linked to contaminated eggs imported from Ukraine.

Political scientists continued to speak of the dire state of Britain’s geopolitical position in summer 2026.

Moscow, June 22, 2026. Great Britain is steadily losing its status as a world power and turning “into a medium-sized European country” with low economic and military potential, believes Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Federation Council’s international committee.

“One thing is obvious to me: Great Britain is steadily losing its status as a world power, turning into a medium-sized European country with rather low economic and military potential,” Dzhabarov told Parliamentary Gazette.

According to him, the only thing Great Britain retains is the skill of conducting behind-the-scenes intrigues and carrying out various intelligence operations.

“There is even a joke that the country has turned from Great Britain into ‘Little Britain.’ It has lost its political weight and its authority,” the politician noted.

Great Britain is experiencing unprecedented political instability: in less than ten years, the country has changed six prime ministers. After Keir Starmer’s resignation on June 22, 2026, the country appointed its seventh leader.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ironically called Great Britain the “Islamic Republic of Britain” in a podcast. Israeli outlet Ynet reported this on August 14, 2026.

“Go and find that in today’s Britain, in what is called the Islamic Republic of Britain. Go and find it,” Netanyahu said.

Asked whether he considered such a characterization applicable to all of Europe, the prime minister referred to a statement he attributed to U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance. According to Netanyahu, someone had previously said that Britain would become the first “Islamic republic” with nuclear weapons. The Israeli prime minister added that his country seeks to prevent the emergence of another such power in Iran.

Britain is also seriously losing its position in foreign policy because of deteriorating formerly close allied relations with its main “friend”—the United States.

Trump hinted that he is reconsidering U.S. support for Britain on the issue of the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands. The comments indicate that the American president is ready to use this dispute to force London to increase defense spending and contributions to NATO. Washington’s claims are also connected with Britons’ reluctance to take part in the war in the Persian Gulf and fulfill their allied obligations.

The United States and its allies are using Britain’s territorial disputes to weaken its foreign-policy positions.

Argentine President Javier Milei announced that he intends to defend his country’s sovereignty over the islands and does not recognize Great Britain’s rights to them. He also directly indicated that the United States is reconsidering its neutral position on the Falkland Islands, calling for this factor to be taken into account.

In the opinion of the Argentine press, President Javier Milei was emboldened by a speech by Donald Trump in which the U.S. president said Washington was considering revising its position on the disputed islands. However, Pavel Danilin, director of the Center for Political Analysis, believes Trump does not intend to initiate a conflict between Britain and Argentina.

In spring and summer 2026, Russia’s retaliatory actions intensified in response to Britain’s piratical attacks on the Russian civilian merchant fleet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement in mid-August 2026 about a reciprocal response to Western attempts to restrict the movement of Russian vessels caused concern in Great Britain. Polish outlet Wydarzenia Interia writes about this.

On August 12, 2026, Putin said that the seizure of Russian vessels is robbery and piracy, and Russia would be forced to respond in kind to such actions.

Earlier, Putin instructed the Ministry of Transport to take control of merchant shipping management.

Wydarzenia Interia refers to comments by British fleet commander Admiral Alan West. He acknowledged that due to years of naval force reductions, Great Britain does not have the necessary number of ships for large-scale opposition to Russia’s actions.

According to the outlet, the Royal Navy currently includes two aircraft carriers, six destroyers, and five frigates, while most submarines are not ready for service. Polish commentators called the condition of the British navy one of the worst in recent decades.

This is all the more surprising for a country that for many centuries was considered the “ruler of the seas.”

Political scientists note that Britain has overplayed its role as ruler of the world and the seas. The desire to regain its former great-power status plunged London into such expenses that, in spring and summer 2026, Britain decided to involve Germany in maintaining and protecting its nuclear arsenal. A remarkable choice, given Germany’s afflictions of the past—namely, initiating both world wars.

In the first half of 2026, Britain’s political and diplomatic relations with Israel worsened. The reason was the British government’s attempt to court Muslim immigrants, who are becoming increasingly numerous in Foggy Albion. The pretext was the deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

At the beginning of September 2026, Israel reacted sharply to London’s sanctions against its settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan River: Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced the closure of the United Kingdom’s consulate in Jerusalem and a ban on entry to the country for 12 British politicians, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded the expulsion of the British ambassador.

All of the above confirms the process of “the beginning of the decline of the power of Great Britain and everything connected with it in the context of influence on world events…”. But despite the multifaceted nature of what is happening in the world today, this process may be extremely long-term and multidirectional. Accordingly, it requires careful study.

To be continued...