The real mistake was the huge lost opportunity in 1991, although seeing how hard Germany found it to absorb the GDR I've no idea how the EU could have tackled Russia. (After 1991 I shifted my views towards supporting British nuclear disarmament: since 2014 I've gone into screeching reverse on that.)
That's a really good point - I think we were all distracted by other theatres in 1991 and thought Russia was 'done'... by the Crimean 'adventure' we lost the last chance to do anything meaningful. I'm also sympathetic to Tony's timeline, as I never expected that WH meeting to be quite so shameless.
Jan 4, 2026 20:33
