>This is a tough one. Yes, but at same time there was and still is a long term benefit to normalizing Russia’s identity as a “Western” power. That’s a long haul

>This is a tough one. Yes, but at same time there was and still is a long term benefit to normalizing Russia’s identity as a “Western” power. That’s a long haul project and Germany/EU wasn’t wrong to engage economically with them, mutually, to that end. Engaging economically is one thing, dependence on Russian energy is another. It was absolutely insane post-2014 to have an energy strategy with such a profound dependency on Russia. One US President warned Europe and Germany of such a dependence, and they quite literally laughed at him to his face. At minimum Germany and the EU could have taken measures to ensure optionality in the event that Russia did as Russia has historically done. >Given the history of Germany/Russia in particular, this mutual dependence is arguably working exactly as it was intended - cooling impulses. It does not appear (to me) that Russia has cooled their impulses at all.