EU seeks to avoid confrontation

The liberal Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore criticises the EU's wait-and-see attitude in the gas dispute. "The days to come will show how clever this strategy is. In view of the cold wave sweeping over Europe it is unavoidable that the problem between Moscow and Kiev should have people worried. ... The bigger countries have proved successful with their attitude of seeing the trial of strength between Russia and Ukraine for the time being as a trade, and not a political, dispute. The Poles and Lithuanians who want to reprimand Russia remain out in the cold. And the decision of the Czech presidency not to convene a top level EU summit (it was merely the 27 countries' deputy ambassadors who met) underlines the fact that people are trying to view the problem as a technical one, to prevent it from escalating into a political confrontation with Moscow."

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