East Europe has a symbiotic relation with Russia that West Europe threatens to destroy, and the East won’t let it happen

The geopolitics of Eastern Europe has for a long time been threaded with Russia being a constant part of it. While Eastern Europe has been symbolic vis a vis Russia, the latest inclination of Germany and France to hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin, threatens to destroy this long-held relationship. Realising the fatality of it, the proposal for an EU-Putin summit which was pushed by Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron has been squarely rejected by the Eastern European states and they have even threatened to use the veto if their concerns are not addressed.

Angela Merkel suffered a rare public loss at what could be her final EU summit as chancellor when European Union leaders rejected a request from Germany and France to undertake formal talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Merkel said as she left the summit venue in Brussels that the suggestion was omitted from the final communique following deliberations that lasted until the early hours of Friday morning. Due to the severity of their resistance, EU diplomats had previously stated that certain nations in Eastern Europe were prepared to veto the idea.

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Earlier, the US was able to spread panic and fear in the region. First, it was able to instil a sense of fear in Kyiv and, therefore, Ukraine started making nuclear threats and engaged in diplomatic tussles with Russia. Other countries like Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic were being made to believe that Russia was coming for them, just like how it was weighing down Ukraine.

The US was successfully encouraging diplomatic aggression against Russia. Eastern European nations were trading diplomatic expulsions, allegations and a serious threat of escalation with Moscow. However, with Russia bringing back its troops, the US can no longer play up the fear psychosis in Eastern Europe. Biden was extremely desperate when it came to destabilising Eastern Europe, but Putin has clearly checked him.

The EU hasn’t held summit talks with Putin since the annexation of Crimea but Merkel argued that the EU can’t just outsource its relationship with Russia to the White House as Biden looks to establish contact. Her proposal, which was endorsed by President Emmanuel Macron of France, alarmed many other leaders who felt they’d been blindsided. Merkel and Macron want to engage with the Russian president while containing his ambitions, and they are seeking to prevent individual member states from stepping out of line when it comes to Russian policy, an EU official said on condition of anonymity.

Now Western European powers are trying to employ a similar strategy. West Europe has always neglected its Eastern counterparts, and even during the pandemic, this apathy was aptly visible. These Eastern European countries had to make their own deals with Russia for the sputnik and we have written how these states do have ties to their former Soviet overlord. If the EU were to reinstate the relations with Russia, then these smaller countries would again be rounded up and would have to look towards the Western European states for benefits from Russia.

Moreover, this would also give Putin more leverage over these states as if they’d want to continue whatever personal relations they have with Russia in even more secrecy. So realising the gravity of this development, eastern European countries have created a clear red line.