Eastern Europe’s toxic relationship with Russia has left the EU divided

Joe Biden’s fatalistic statement this week that suggested a ‘minor incursion’ by Russia into Ukraine might be tolerated by the United States was only the latest indictment of the West’s failings when it comes to holding off Vladimir Putin.

Less remarked on was Emmanuel Macron’s futile call in the European Parliament the same day for Europeans to ‘collectively make our own demands and put ourselves in a position to enforce them.’ The French President’s vision for the EU as a ‘power of the future’ hinges on member states holding a common position when it comes to international threats. But reports this week about the EU’s conflicted attitudes towards Russia are now demonstrating the impossibility of the bloc ever becoming a foreign policy force to be reckoned with.

This debate is at its fiercest, and most toxic, in the three eastern European member states who joined Nato in 1999. In Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, relations with Russia are both fraught with historical baggage and lingering dependency on Moscow.