What price is Europe paying for Russian energy?

The newspaper's Russia correspondent Klaus Helge Donath writes that Europe must revise its strategy it has adopted toward Russia since the 1990s. "This huge state doesn't want integration; the best the EU can do is to involve it in individual projects... The project of modernising Russia has failed. Putin struck it from the agenda long ago. Instead of following the road of European civilisation, the Kremlin has opted for the beaten path of tradition. Here Russia is an independent civilisation on its own 'special course.' In contrast to the cold and rational West, irrationality has its own status in Russia. Like the 'Russian soul', this concept is a literary fiction, an ideological construct, to which the Orthodox Church continues to give its blessing. But, this model is outdated. Not only has Russia missed its rendez-vous with the West, it now faces the prospect of losing out to China and India."

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