US should let EU deal with Crimea crisis
AS Russia’s annexation of Crimea proceeds, the US must step back; the EU must step forward; and the international community must ensure both that Russia pays a steep economic and political price for its actions, and that Russian and Ukrainian nationalists do not lock both sides into a deadly spiral of violence.
Thus far, Western leaders have played their cards about as well as they could have, barring early mis-steps by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who described a calculated assertion of Russia’s regional interests as the behaviour of a leader who was out of touch with reality. Escalation of the crisis by the US at this stage would merely play into Russian president Vladimir Putin’s hands and expose the West as a paper tiger.
