Europe's Anti-Kremlin Roll Call Was Weak

There's a fundamental flaw in the Russian propaganda narrative about the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the U.K. earlier this month: It assumes that Western nations want to gang up on Russia and punish it regardless of whether there's any evidence linking it to the assassination attempt. In reality, the Western response to the incident shows how reluctant European nations are to escalate tensions with Russia.

The diplomat expulsions announced on Monday were essentially a roll call of Russia's adversaries, a rare insight into how European leaders' discussions of punishing Russia go behind closed doors. Usually, only terse statements emerge from these discussions, and leaks don't provide a complete picture of who hesitated to support the latest round of sanctions and who came along easily. Now, there's a full picture; one could even draw a rather realistic Russia hostility scale if one divides the number of diplomats each EU country expelled by its trade turnover with Russia.