Tunne Kelam MEP: How Much Will Doing It on the Cheap Cost?

Despite Vladimir Putin’s continuing military expansion to bring former parts of the Soviet Union under Russian control,  Western, and especially European reaction is unconvincing and at least two steps behind the escalating aggression, says Tunne Kelam, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.

The April 14 meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg confirmed this assessment. While the billion Euro aid package for Ukraine is welcome, the adding of a mere four new names to the visa blacklist does not even justify the travel expenses of the ministers. „I am seriously concerned about how some large EU nations tiptoe around the aggressor and seem to be afraid mostly of upsetting mutual relations with Russia. Continuing attempts to get out of the expanding security crisis in our neighborhood as cheaply as possible threatens to result in costs that soon will be tenfold higher. And this will include not only greater economic costs, but also new victims, whose lives cannot be measured in Euros,“ said Kelam, a member of the EPP Group.

In order to make an impression on the Russian leadership, ten or twenty times more names – at least 300 – must be added to the blacklist. And these must include members of the Russian government and the members of the Federation Council who unanimously approved the annexation of Crimea.

„To what extent must Ukraine or its neighbors be dismembered and how many more people have to die before the EU begins to stand up to this aggression realistically? Will half a dozen new names of perpetrators be added to the blacklist each time another Ukrainian oblast is annexed?“  asked Kelam.

Holland’s Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, who said it is still too early for new sanctions, lives in yesterday’s reality, according to the Estonian MEP.

One leader of the Russian opposition, Boris Nemtsov, gave a much more realistic assessment of the situation when he stated that in the last few weeks Putin has begun to make the transition from an authoritarian regime to open dictatorship, added Kelam.

Another necessity is to stop, without delay or conditions, all sales of arms to Russia, including sales of technical equipment with possible military applications. The third phase of economic sanctions should also be implemented now.