Pastizzi & Power Politics: How Malta Reacts When Empires Cry ‘Legitimate Interests’
Valletta’s Grand Harbour has seen every empire come and go—Phoenicians, Knights, French, British—each claiming “legitimate interests” while the islanders quietly kept fishing. So when Russian diplomats insist their invasion of Ukraine is merely the protection of historic rights, Maltese ears prick up with a familiar mix of scepticism and survival instinct. In cafés from Sliema…