Is Russia “Frighteningly Arrogant?”

From Financial Times Deutschland, via Der Spiegel:

The Kremlin has implemented a package of measures that is likely to push the Belarusian economy to the brink of collapse. The country’s scarcely reformed industry is highly dependent on the drip of what had to date been cheap Russian energy supplies. The EU, which has scaled down its contacts with Belarus to the bare minimum, may be pleased; a dictator who brutally suppresses opposition members and journalists in his country is having his oxygen supply turned off. But the Russian move again shows how uncompromisingly hard the Kremlin is in enforcing its economic interests. Riding the wave of high world market prices for oil and gas, the Russian leadership has developed frightening arrogance. For the EU, which still regards Russia as a strategic partner, the warning signs are unmistakeable.