The EU must make its voice heard vis-à-vis Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President Joe Biden in Geneva on June 16, 2020
Image: dpa
Europe will only become an audible voice in the talks between Russia and America if it understands that Moscow is about more than just Ukraine.
E.t may be about war and peace in Europe when talks between the United States and Russia begin on Monday in Geneva. But Europe is not at the table. If it were up to the Russian leadership, then they would enclose with the Americans over the heads of the Europeans over a new security order for the whole continent.
The threatening backdrop that the Kremlin created with the deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine should move Washington to talk. By publishing confidential correspondence and at the same time on the undiplomatic tour, Moscow has given the Europeans to understand that they are no longer interested in further discussions with them about the war in Ukraine.
Now Berlin, Paris and Brussels are trying hectic diplomatic initiatives to get a foot in the door again. That’s right: there are only chances of success if such initiatives are based on a realistic perception of the Russian regime. The Kremlin is interested in more than Ukraine. For him, SHE is the scene of a larger-scale confrontation with the West. It is now not about mediating a conflict somewhere in Eastern Europe, but about the self-assertion of the EU against an aggressive dictatorship.