... themselves to events that they could not control. The seriousness of the crisis that arose — a military clash between Russia and the United States over Ukraine—no longer left any room for foreign policy manoeuvring on the scale that was available to Europeans during the Cold War of 1949–1991.
Moreover, the Ukrainian crisis itself was, to a certain extent, the result of the fact that the continental Europe has lost all ability to be strategically independent. This, as we saw above, occurred as part of a gradual process that combined the consequences of the ...
... to Reduce Risks in the Euro-Atlantic Region
Reactions in Russia to the processes that have been taking place in Europe over the past few years have been fuelled more by emotions than pragmatism. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the response to Europe’s condemnation of Russia’s actions with regard to the Ukrainian crisis. The initial resentment turned into a blistering campaign to convince everyone that European values, and indeed everything related to Europe, is organically alien to Russia, which represents an independent civilization and should mark ...
After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, many policymakers in Europe concluded that it had been a mistake to let Russia get away with the 2008 Georgian war. “We were not clear enough on Georgia, that’s why they moved to Ukraine,” was the gloomy conclusion. In all likelihood, similar conversations ...
... early October, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel visited Sochi to meet with President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in the capacity of a leading international political figure because his small country is presiding over the European Union and can wield more influence in the EU agenda.
The Luxembourg Embassy and Russian International Affairs Council
gathered several European ambassadors
and experts together in a meeting behind closed doors to mull over the ways out of the ...