Eyal: Appeasement is a Failed Policy

Jonathan Eyal, the director of international security studies at London’s Royal United Services Institute, has published an op/ed in the FT titled “European appeasement will worsen Russian aggression,” arguing that “at every stage, the Union has given the indication that it is prepared to compromise over the interests of its new members in order to maintain good links with Moscow.” I wholeheartedly agree – this is something that has been already been proven in the energy sector.

Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin today in Samara

Eyal writes:

It is time to own up to the bankruptcy of this approach. By conducting a weak, confused policy that often consisted of nothing but the appeasement of Russia, the EU has ended up with the worst of both worlds: it has encouraged further Russian obstruction and alarmed the central Europeans at the same time.