José Ignacio Torreblanca on Russia's successful Europe policy

Europe has failed to act like a single entity towards Russia and its neighbour to the east is exploiting its divisions, writes political scientist José Ignacio Torreblanca in the left-liberal daily El País: "These internal divisions have allowed Russia to manipulate the Europeans like puppets, rewarding some, ignoring and coercing others while the rest don't lift a finger to help. ... Russia's success is irrefutable: With an economy that is 15 times smaller than the EU's, a defence budget 10 times smaller than that of the 27 states and a population that is three and a half times smaller Russia still manages to interact with the EU on an equal basis and raise serious obstacles to the latter's plans, from Ukraine all the way to Central Asia via Kosovo, Iran and Georgia. A round of applause for Russia's diplomacy, which has implemented the old tenet of 'divide and rule' better than anyone else."

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