“…This year marked the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea, the shooting down of MH17, and the intensification of Russian hybrid warfare against the West, ranging from increasingly dangerous military-aviation stunts to the unleashing of unparalleled propaganda blasts. Inside Russia, the last remnants of independent life were bullied, squeezed and silenced. It was the year when the world as we had known it for decades ceased to exist – but for the most part we did not realize it.
“True, the West began to respond. …
“But the big story is inaction and ignorance… The public, in most countries (Poland and the Baltic states are the exceptions) does not accept that staying safe and free sometimes involves accepting pain, risk and mental stress. Financiers and businessmen are still happy to get their hands dirty in Russia, and howl mightily if obstructed – even though they would be furious if their home countries were run on similar lines.
“… Oddly, it is much easier for high-minded liberals to blame NATO for breaking promises that it never made than to accept that Russia is waging a colonial war in Ukraine – of a kind that no one would tolerate from an imperial power in Africa.
“…The biggest failure is among foreign-policy experts. …They hanker for a simple, cynical solution: sacrifice Ukraine’s European aspirations and then wait for Russia to see reason. …”
– Edward Lucas, writing in the European Voice, December 18, 2014, in his article titled “A year that changed our world.”