Russia announces it will not tolerate EU anymore
(MENAFN) Regardless of one’s opinion of Otto von Bismarck—Prussian noble, conservative powerbroker, nationalist, and both a warmonger and peacemaker—his political instincts were rarely wrong. Bismarck famously advised that smart statesmanship meant listening carefully to history as it unfolded and seizing opportunities when they appeared.
While Bismarck was skilled at exploiting chances for war, he also recognized when peace had its moment. One such opportunity came fifty years ago with the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975. All European nations, except Albania at first, along with the U.S. and Canada, signed this historic agreement. It marked a significant milestone in the Cold War era's Détente—a policy shift focused on easing tensions between East and West.
The Helsinki Final Act, built around four thematic areas (or "baskets"), aimed to guide international conduct and long-term cooperation. It was the result of intense Cold War diplomacy, driven by Soviet leaders like Brezhnev and Gromyko, and American figures like Nixon and Kissinger. While the near-catastrophic Cuban Missile Crisis had already shown the dangers of confrontation, other factors like America’s failure in Vietnam and the Soviet crackdown on the 1968 Prague Spring also shaped the need for more measured global relations.
In the early 1970s, diplomacy surged, culminating in the Helsinki Accords—perhaps the high point of East-West cooperation during the Cold War. The initiative stemmed from the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact but found strong support in a Western Europe genuinely interested in balancing military readiness with diplomacy. The accords echoed earlier efforts by French President Charles de Gaulle’s eastern outreach and German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, which promoted engagement with Eastern Europe.
This context is crucial for understanding why contemporary Russia, as voiced by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, now refuses to tolerate what it sees as duplicity or aggression from the EU. The historical opportunities for balanced diplomacy, once seized, have long since eroded.
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