Czech-Russian Escalation as a Case of Deeper EU-Russia Crisis: Time for a United and Credible Action
Czech-Russian Escalation as a Case of Deeper EU-Russia Crisis: Time for a United and Credible Action

Author(s): Pavel Havlíček
Subject(s): Political Sciences, International relations/trade, Security and defense, History of Communism, Geopolitics, Russian Aggression against Ukraine
Published by: EUROPEUM - Institut pro evropskou politiku
Keywords: Czech-Russian conflict; EU-Russia relations; Vrbětice affair; strategic importance; energy security; Russian opposition; civil society; diplomatic pressure; international law; cyber attacks;
Summary/Abstract: It is essential to see the Czech-Russian crisis not as an isolated incident (or accident) but rather as a part of a wider series of crises between the West and Russia, of which this is just the most vivid example of how far things might go. Similar escalations have recently appeared in bilateral ties of Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Spain, Lithuania or Ukraine and other countries too. They are a part of a deeper and more structural issue, which does not necessarily have anything in common with behaviour of individual European states, but rather Russia’s revisionist perception of the world. This fact is also connected to the Russian appetite to confront the West in order to regain its great power status for which an effort to undermine and divide the West is an obvious tactic.

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