Europe must now roll out travel bans and asset freezes against those in the Russian leadership who are directly responsible for this escalation, followed by a swift extension to include the 300 or so influentials, and their families, who control much of the countrys politics and business today. In a next step, and depending on Russias response, Europe should impose a range of economic sanctions, halt arms and technology exports to Russia, stop sales of Russian-held real estate in the EU, pause preparations of strategic infrastructure projects such as Russian pipelines to Europe, and subject key Russian business operations to the full scrutiny and regulatory power of the EU. In parallel, Europe must sign the association and free trade agreements with Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia within weeks. A snap summit of EU leaders could be held in Kiev that, ideally, would finally state the long-overdue EU membership perspective for Eastern neighbors, and substantiate this prospect with a comprehensive assistance package to see would-be members through the political, economic and social reforms necessary for European integration. Politically and materially, this would send a strong signal of commitment to Europes East, and one that Russia will find hard to match.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 23:54:01 +0000
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