Why the EU Lacks Resolve on Russia
European divisions over relations with Russia are being laid bare by the shooting down of a passenger plane over Ukraine.
Why the EU Lacks Resolve on Russia
Soeren Kern | Gatestone Institute | July 21, 2014
European divisions over relations with Russia are being laid bare by the shooting down of a passenger plane over Ukraine.
The missile attack on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 claimed the lives of 298 passengers, including 230 Europeans, making it the single most deadly act of terror in modern European history.
But despite a growing body of evidence that MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine, the European Union’s 28 member states have still been unable to agree on even a basic unified response to the attack.
Western European countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands—all of which enjoy strong trade relations with Russia—have long been reluctant to antagonize Moscow, based largely on economic and energy supply considerations.
By contrast, eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states, all of which experienced decades of misery under Soviet military domination, favor a far more aggressive EU policy regarding the Kremlin, which they view as posing a potentially existential threat.
