Ossetia to be latest focus of Russia's uneasy relationship with EU

“The West’s policy towards eastern Europe so far has been one of relatively benign indecision,” Ian Bond* writes in a report for the Centre for European Reform think-tank. “When NATO leaders continue to proclaim that the alliance has an open door, or when the EU says ambiguously that its association agreement with Ukraine ‘does not constitute the final goal in EU-Ukraine co-operation’, they raise hopes in eastern Europe and fears in the Kremlin that are divorced from reality.”