The EU must find the guts to put economic and hard security on top of the bilateral agenda with Moscow.
BRUSSELS — The European Union and Russia are set to meet on January 28 for their biannual summit. These events, usually box-ticking affairs, have rarely served as venues for honest debate about tough issues. But this time frustrations seem to have exceeded courtesies and the planned two-day summit has been cut to a restricted three-hour meeting. While relations between Europe and Russia have matured significantly in technical areas such as trade, energy, tourism, and education, Europeans were never prepared for Russian President Vladimir Putin plunging them into a vicious zero-sum game over the fate of Central and Eastern Europe. Europeans are angered at Russia’s role in dissuading post-Soviet states from seeking a rapprochement with Brussels. Russia’s probing of Europeans’ weaknesses, and Europe’s difficulties in dealing with it, has led to stagnation and much mistrust.
