Europe must remain firm on sanctions against Russia

2016/7/24 1:12:23

It is extraordinary how quickly many European countries have forgotten what Russia has done to Ukraine and how they could be next. As Winston Churchill once said: "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." 

 

Photo: Anti-Putin demonstrators manifest their anger during President Vladimir Putin's visit to Paris [Getty]

 


By Luke Coffey* for AlJazeera

 

Many European countries depend on economic trade and close energy links with Russia. This makes agreeing European sanctions against Moscow difficult and makes it even harder to keep these sanctions in place for any extended period of time.

 

Broadly speaking, there are two sets of economic sanctions against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine. First, there are sanctions linked to Russia's 2014 illegal invasion and occupation of the Crimean peninsula.

 

Secondly, there are sanctions linked to the Russian-backed war in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

 
It is the latter that support across Europe is starting to erode.

 

Lowest common denominator

 

The current debate around maintaining these economic sanctions against Russia is indicative of the shortcomings of EU foreign policy making.

 

Due to the consensus-based and lowest common denominator approach required by the EU, all it takes is for one member in the organisation to slow, water down or veto sanctions altogether.

 

Russia knows this and uses a divide-and-conquer technique to take advantage of this flaw in EU foreign policy making. This explains why Moscow maintains close links to EU countries such as Cyprus and Greece, for example. The Kremlin is hoping to have a sympathetic voice inside the EU arguing against sanctions

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The lowest common denominator approach taken by Brussels is another reason why Britain will probably be more assertive on the world stage once it finally leaves the EU.

 

The UK, the world's fifth largest economy and permanent member of the UN Security Council, will no longer be constrained by the national interests of the other 27 EU members and will be free to act independently.

 

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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opin ... ssia-160710065419257.html

 

Luke Coffey is a research fellow specialising in transatlantic and Eurasian security at a Washington DC-based think-tank. He previously served as a special adviser to the British defence secretary and was a commissioned officer in the United States Army.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policies.

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