Lucinda Creighton: Europe must face reality and stop enabling Putin’s warmongering

The EU’s western states, dependent on Russian gas, have favoured a policy of appeasement towards Vladimir Putin. It has to end now

Vladimir Putin: France and Germany need to begin listening to the countries that have directly experienced the Russian president’s bullying and understand the mentality of the man. He is nothing if not consistent. Picture: Getty/Tass

The need for a coherent EU common security and defence policy has never been so apparent, but perhaps has never been further away. The Ukrainian crisis has exposed the fault lines in Europe’s understanding of Russia and the threat it poses.

It has also laid bare the naivety of believing that economic interests can somehow be compartmentalised or detached from security. In an increasingly globalised and interdependent world, geopolitics is even more infused with ...