How Putin made the EU great again
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
The Russian president’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has united Europe and the transatlantic sphere like nothing since the fall of the Berlin Wall, as even his erstwhile allies on the Continent abandoned him over the weekend.From Sofia to Stockholm, Europe’s internal divisions over how to react to Putin’s aggression have melted away in recent days as the historic dimensions of the invasion — the greatest challenge to the West’s security architecture in decades — sank in. As images of Russian tanks rolling over the Ukrainian border and families huddled in subway stations filled the airwaves, concerns in national capitals about the local impact of tougher measures, such as barring Russian banks from SWIFT (a linchpin of the global interbank payment infrastructure), gave way to a shared resolve to do whatever it takes to halt Putin in his tracks. By Sunday, Europe had not only agreed to impose sweeping financial sanctions on Russia and Putin, but most countries — including neutral ones such as Austria and Sweden — had closed their airspace to Russian planes or were preparing to do so. The EU even decided to ban Russian broadcaster RT, the Kremlin’s main conduit for sending propaganda abroad. The most dramatic shift, however, occurred in Germany, a country whose leaders pursued fruitless “dialogue” with Putin for years, despite loud warnings from allies who insisted he couldn’t be trusted. The most dramatic shift, however, occurred in Germany, a country whose leaders pursued fruitless “dialogue” with Putin for years, despite loud warnings from allies who insisted he couldn’t be trusted. Putin’s war in Ukraine serves as a reality check on other fronts as well. That is especially true of ambitions of so-called “strategic autonomy” for the EU — the idea that Europe could decouple itself from the U.S. on security matters. If anything, the Ukraine crisis will make Europe even more dependent on the U.S. security umbrella, a reality that will also force Washington to reassess its ongoing strategic shift to focus more on threats it sees emanating from China.