Everybody says Europe is too soft on Russia, which is why it might be about to get tough

"This completely phony referendum is just so absurd that it makes it more difficult for the Russians to make their case to the rest of Europe," says Ian Bond, director of foreign policy at the CER. As a result, "the referendum increases the chance that the EU will go further" than the conventional wisdom expects, he tells Quartz.  

... In London, photographers snapped embarrassing pictures of a senior advisor to prime minister David Cameron carrying a memo that, playing to type, suggested the government would "not support, for now, trade sanctions…or close London’s financial centre to Russians.” Says Bond: “In an odd sort of way, this may have put some pressure on the prime minister to be tougher than he otherwise would have been."