NATO's infatuation: Russia, Russia, Russia!

Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, put it this way in a piece produced by Carnegie Europe: “Russia is a threat to Europe only because Europe allows it to be. Vladimir Putin has been very adept at maximizing the effectiveness of the tools he has, keeping the West off-balance and leaving its leaders with a feeling of impotence.”

As he put it, “threats are a function of relative power, in which Europe is far superior to Russia, and relative will, in which it is lacking.”