Why Putin Is Having a European Moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin rarely appeals directly to citizens of the West for acceptance of and friendly cooperation with Russia. Ever since his famous speech at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, his tone has been more defiant than conciliatory. And yet on June 22, the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, Die Zeit, the center-left German newspaper, published an op-ed signed by Putin that, essentially, calls on Europeans to ditch the U.S. as a strategic partner and go with Russia instead.

Putin has been around long enough to understand that this scenario is hardly realistic. And German media reactions to the piece have ranged from contemptuous to angry. But an analysis of Putin’s alleged dream scenario is still a useful mental exercise. There are at least three important questions to answer: Why exactly is it unrealistic, would it be workable without Putin and why Putin chose to air it now, in 2021, when he — and by association Russia -- is increasingly unpopular in the West.

Just four months ago, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top foreign policy official, wrote after a disastrous visit to Moscow that “Europe and Russia are drifting apart. It seems that Russia is progressively disconnecting itself from Europe and looking at democratic values as an existential threat.” But in Die Zeit, Putin suddenly recalls Charles de Gaulle’s idea of one Europe stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals and its extension, beloved of Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin, of a Europe “from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” “It is within that logic — within the logic of constructing a Greater Europe united by common values and interests — that Russia strove to develop its relations with Europeans,” Putin wrote (this translation is from the original Russian).