Russia and the EU

Russia and the EU

Now that the EU’s great minds are mulling over Turkey’s membership, I wonder if they look back at the great opportunity they missed. Back in the early 1990s, the EU had a chance to offer Russia membership on the condition that Russia implement a set of reforms specified in a mutually agreed schedule spanning 10 to 15 years. The Russian populace would have been delighted at the prospect, while the new Russian elites were still too weak to resist.

Russia’s sheer size must have scared Brussels bureaucrats so it never occurred to them how malleable Russians are — if they had managed to adjust to Communism, they’d gladly adjust to Brussel’s soft dictatorship. Turks may be much more obstinate.

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