Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has opened the eyes of many EU states, according to Latvia's prime minister Krisjanis Karins, told Latvian news agency Leta on Friday: "The naivety is over."
"Many European countries have lived under the illusion that everything can be negotiated if they find the right words to say to Putin and if they are patient," Karins said, referring to the Baltic states' long-standing admonitions to its EU and NATO partners.
But with a "brutal war" unfolding in Ukraine, Karins said, the same countries now understand that these were only empty hopes. "For a long time, the world did not want to accept the obvious. Now everything has changed. Putin has lost all trust and support within the democratic world," Karins said.
Many countries had now changed their approach to Russia, Karins continued, pointing to the example of Germany: although it was continuing to pursue its restrictive policy on arms deliveries, it had already made a 180-degree turn on sanctions and put the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline on ice.
