Vladimir Putin is trying to exploit the growing cultural and economic division between northern and southern Europe by persuading some of the EU’s more disaffected members to independently drop the sanctions that the union has placed on Russia. The LA Times reports:
Since mid-February, though, Putin has met with leaders of four leftist-governed European Union countries and urged them to act independently in their relations with Russia so that their mutually beneficial food trade can resume. [..]
Putin’s first port of call was to his closest friend in a European statehouse, Viktor Orban, who doesn’t even try to hide his affection for …read more
Source: The American Interest