Responding To Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin is adamant on this issue: Ukraine alone is responsible for the shooting down of a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile. The missile may have come from Russia, and the ethnic Russian rebels can only have been able to operate it with the assistance of Russian specialists, but because Ukraine insists that the disputed eastern Ukraine geography is that of Ukraine, not a Russian possession, Kyiv is responsible for the atrocity.

Dmitry Lovetski-AP photo

This is the logic of a tyrant infused with the burning desire to return his country to power and influence, even if the influence is that of a feared dictator. Mr. Putin presents his diplomatic credentials to grieving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, mourning the mass murder of 189 of his citizens by informing him that the conflict between the government of Ukraine and Russian-proxied separatists should be peacefully resolved, the sooner the better.

Russians with solid connections to Moscow's intelligence and nationalist groups have moved from Russian-annexed Crimea to areas where connivance between the Russian imports and the ethnic Russian squatters in Ukraine, along with a criminal element happy to engage in a conflict have named themselves a Russian enclave in the Peoples Republic of Donetsk, their military and political leaders Russian-belligerent imports.

NATO's General Philip Breedlove, along with American officials, have long warned that Moscow has been gradually moving its own army and air force into position at border areas, sending insurgents a supply of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and allied weaponry including shoulder-fired SAMs, the better to threaten the Ukrainian government troops with, while continuing to demand that the Ukrainian government and army diffuse the situation.

Europe and the United States have their own counter-weapon ready at hand, they simply require the resolve to apply it meaningfully and in a manner that will extract the best possible result. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Paris to consider cancelling its sale of two state-of-the-art assault ships to the Russian navy, whose possession is certain to alter the regional balance of power.

Their usefulness to Russia can be assessed by recalling the remarks of a senior Russian officer who stated that if his forces had possession of precisely that scale of attack platform in its war against Georgia several years back, the conflict would have been settled in a matter of minutes. Britain could, as well, take steps to prevent Russian money of questionable provenance from accessing the priciest properties in Mayfair and Chelsea.

The European Union should cooperate with Canada and the United States to drastically cut down their Russian oil and gas dependence, and together find ways to help the European economies that stand to most suffer from the effects of robust imposition of sanctions against Russia. Unless and until Europe is prepared to embark on measures that deliver the message to Vladimir Putin that he can no longer ride roughshod over his neighbours' security and sovereignty, the current course Moscow threatens is set to expand.