Putin Emboldened on Instability Arc by EU Defense Divide
By Leon Mangasarian May 15, 2014 8:28 AM ET
Confronted by the prospect of a new Iron Curtain in Russia’s borderlands, the European Union’s largest countries are turning the other way.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain are all cutting back on defense just as a swath of countries on the EU’s eastern flank from the Baltic Sea to Romania ramp up arms spending. Estonia, which borders Russia, spent a greater share of its national output on defense than France in 2013 for the second year running, NATO figures show.
Europe’s east-west divergence underscores Vladimir Putin’s leverage against EU leaders who lack the will and the means to face down his efforts to rebuild influence in the buffer area between Russia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states. Left unchecked in Ukraine, Putin is tearing up the post-Cold War order that saw the EU and NATO expand to 10 former Soviet satellites as Russia could only look on, said Jan Techau, head of the Brussels office of the Carnegie Endowment.
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“The old EU paradigm of getting everyone to join a rules-based system has run into a wall because now the Russians won’t play ball,” Techau said in a phone interview. “Europe now needs a new toolbox with more unity, more money, and deepening of ties to non-members in the east.”
As Ukraine spirals toward civil war, the EU is struggling to show the solidarity it’s being called upon to provide. Splits have emerged over sanctions to tackle Russia, while money for defense is in short supply after more than four years of debt crisis in the euro area.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-14/eu-east-west-defense-divide-emboldens-putin-s-arc-of-inst.html
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