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Europe cannot protect Russia from itself
🇳🇱 Netherlands /Conflict & Security

Europe cannot protect Russia from itself

From NRC Handelsblad · () Dutch

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • The commentary argues that Western governments have long avoided confronting Russia because they fear that resistance could produce an even more dangerous outcome.
  • It says decades of efforts to integrate Russia into Western institutions and relationships failed to change the Kremlin’s conduct.
  • The author argues that continued accommodation has become a dead end as Russia threatens escalation and refuses a peace deal short of Ukraine’s capitulation.

For decades, fear of what might follow Vladimir Putin has helped shield the Kremlin from pressure, according to Radek Sikorski. The argument assumes that Russia could become more dangerous if resisted, leaving Europe to accept its demands as the lesser risk.

The commentary traces that anxiety back to the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Even after one of history’s bloodiest tyrants died, The Economist wrote that the world was healthier but not safer. Seven decades later, Sikorski says the same unease still shapes Western policy, despite the Kremlin’s actions.

The world is a healthier but not a safer place.

— The EconomistThe 1953 observation about Stalin’s death opens the commentary’s argument about Western fears of what could follow.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Western governments repeatedly tried to draw Russia into international institutions. In 1997, Moscow joined the G7, signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act and entered a partnership agreement with the European Union. Successive American administrations pursued treaties and diplomatic resets. Poland also extended gestures, including inviting Putin to ceremonies at Westerplatte in 2009 and introducing a visa-waiver programme for Russians living near the Kaliningrad border.

descend into chaos, brutal autarky or a sullen, dangerous dependency

— Andrey MelnichenkoThe Russian oligarch described possible outcomes if Russia were pushed too hard.

Sikorski also recalls a joint appeal by the Russian Orthodox and Polish Roman Catholic churches for forgiveness, as well as his own willingness to imagine a democratic Russia joining NATO if it met the alliance’s criteria. His conclusion is blunt: these efforts did not bring the expected change.

The commentary says Russia is again using threats of escalation to pursue its goals. It cites warnings to Britain over military assistance to Ukraine and an alleged US attempt to warn Moscow against attacking a NATO member. At the same time, Putin has shown no willingness to accept a peace agreement that stops short of Ukraine’s capitulation. Sikorski argues that Europe must stop treating fear of a worse Russia as a reason to yield to the current one.

forgiveness of wrongs, injustice and every evil committed against each other

— Russian Orthodox and Polish Roman Catholic church leadersThe churches used this phrase in a joint appeal for reconciliation.
About this summary

Originally published by NRC Handelsblad. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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