NEWSWATCH CNN/Matthew Rojansky, Michael Kofman: Isolated Russia has little left to lose
Writing for CNN.com, Matthew Rojansky and Michael Kofman address historic shifts in relations between Russia and the West, amidst Western reactions to the Russo-Ukrainian War, the downing of civilian airliner MH-17 and other developments.
… MH17 was a turning point, after which many European leaders abandoned their previously held view that Russia could be successfully integrated into Western-led economic, political, or security frameworks.
This revolution in thinking about Russia has been most significant in Germany, which was the keystone of Russia’s political and economic relations with the EU.
… the relationship that both Germany and Russia once characterized as a ‘strategic partnership’ has come to an end.
… Russia’s war in Ukraine has plunged Russia and the West into a new phase in their relations, effectively ending the post-Cold War period. But while Russia has taken a strategic bite out of Ukraine, it has done so at a cost that was once inconceivably high: the end of the Russian-European economic and political partnership and the emergence of a situation where NATO and Russia once again see direct confrontation as a real possibility.
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And all this raises a worrying question for the future: What can we expect from a Russia that has been so isolated from the West it has very little left to lose?