This article goes way off base in it's first point. It claims that EU's trade with Russia didn't prevent war, but weakened EU's response to Russian aggression.

This article goes way off base in it's first point. It claims that EU's trade with Russia didn't prevent war, but weakened EU's response to Russian aggression. Except that's exactly wrong. Russia's trade with the EU 100% prevented EU going to war with Russia, and is preventing Russia from being more ambitious. Did it prevent the war in Ukraine? No. But it absolutely did prevent the EU from actually going to war with Russia over their actions in Ukraine. This article is basically making this argument: If Bob and Jane went to the grocery store, why doesn't Sally have food in her fridge? Clearly grocery stores don't sell food!