Still from CCTV footage of the abduction of Ervin Ibragimov, 25 May 2016, in Bakchisarai, Crimea. Source: Youtube. In a recent interview, France’s former president Francois Hollande described Putin’s foreign strategy as follows: Russia will try to get away with whatever it can, and will only negotiate when it encounters resistance.
This logic is evident not only on the battlefield, but also in the diplomatic arena. This is what makes Russia so different from its European counterparts: while Europe negotiates first and acts second, Russia acts first and only then negotiates.
Militarily and diplomatically, this strategy can be seen in contemporary Eastern Ukraine and Syria — as well as Georgia in 2008 or Moldova in 1992. Less visibly, but crucially, it has also emerged in Russia’s hidden diplomatic games. One of the recent ones is related to the Council of Europe, the continent’s oldest democratic institution.
