Word: russianizing
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...principle ought to be bred in the bone of any European after the carnage of the 20th century: that no act of state bears such ominous consequences as changing a border by force. Plenty of passionate voices said as much after Russian troops rolled into Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia on Aug. 8. On the night of Aug. 12, a day when Russian planes dropped cluster bombs on the town of Gori, the Presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine took the stage in front of the Georgian parliament building beside Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. "Everyone...
...second, riven with discord, convened in the run-up to the Iraq war. This conclave is as unlikely to enter the hit parade of diplomatic history as the first two. The leaders condemned Russia's unilateral recognition of South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia, and called for Russian forces to be withdrawn "to the lines held prior to the outbreak of hostilities." Until that happens, they said, the E.U. would postpone further negotiations on a new trade agreement between itself and Russia. They also committed to deploy as many as 200 civilian observers to monitor the imperfect cease-fire...
...intense memories in the Soviet Union's former vassal states, and the Churchillian traditions and electoral concerns that motivate Brown's tougher line, there are also a few hard truths to factor into a common response to Russia. Most vitally, Europe has a deep dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies. Its citizens, moreover, are concerned that Europe should not contribute to what German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called a "spiral of provocations" that could lead to a conflict far beyond Europe's capacity. And while it's hardly an end in itself, European consensus is essential...
...heavily than in Germany, which buys about a third of its oil and some 40% of its gas supplies from Russia. There's no straight concordance between energy dependency and forbearance toward Russia. Poland and the Baltic states, which pushed for a tougher line against Moscow, would freeze without Russian natural gas and oil - and indeed, Lithuania, Ukraine and the Czech Republic have all seen the spigot closed on deliveries from Russia in recent years. But German politicians, particularly many in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) - the junior member of Christian Democratic (CDU) Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition - have...
...Alexander Rahr, a Russian expert at Germany's Council on Foreign Relations, suggests that the business lobby played a large role in Merkel's "dramatic" climbdown from her outright endorsement of Georgia's NATO membership in Tbilisi last month to her softer stance in Brussels. John Kornblum, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany who is now the chairman of the German unit of investment bank Lazard, says that while he opposes sanctions himself, Germany's tolerant attitude toward Russia goes even deeper. "Germans are very, very ready to take the Russians' side," he says. "This crisis will make the appeasers...