Legendary investor George Soros said the war in Ukraine must be brought to an early end because it’s diverting attention from climate change, and therefore threatening civilization.
“While the war rages, the fight against climate change has to take second place. Yet the experts tell us that we have already fallen far behind, and climate change is on the verge of becoming irreversible,” Soros said.
Speaking at his annual presentation before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the 91-year-old focused his criticism on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying they threaten open society.
“What do the two dictators, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, have to show for themselves? They are tied together in an alliance that has no limits,” said the founder of the Open Society Foundations. They both rule by intimidation, and as a result make “mind-boggling mistakes.”
He said Xi’s focus on zero COVID policies has had disastrous economic consequences —- which, Soros says, he will never do because he can’t admit a mistake. He said, coming on top of China’s real estate crisis, the damage threatens the global economy by disrupting global supply chains.
Soros also called out former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for making special deals with Russia for natural gas while making China Germany’s top export market. Merkel’s successor, Olaf Scholz, “always seems to do the right thing — in the end,” he added.