This is the whole point--you can't bank on 'economic entanglement' with a dictatorship because the dictator may or may not care about the economy (beyond its ab

This is the whole point--you can't bank on 'economic entanglement' with a dictatorship because the dictator may or may not care about the economy (beyond its ability to finance his war, anyway). Moreover, Europe continued to increase its economic exposure to Russia while Russia was publicly decreasing its exposure to the west (this has been Russian policy since the west sanctioned Russia for invading and annexing Crimea almost a decade ago). Even if you believe in "economic entanglement" (and I doubt it was as potent as NATO, etc), surely it only works if the dependency is mutual.