EDITORIAL: Putin’s poison a deadly power play

An inquiry in Britain last week concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “morally responsible” for a “reckless display of power” that led to the 2018 death of a woman in a small U.K. town.

Dawn Sturgess touched the fake perfume bottle in which Russian assassins had smuggled the nerve agent Novichok, one of the deadliest poisons on the planet, into the U.K. and she died almost immediately. The intended victim, a Russian double-agent and his daughter were found slumped on a nearby park bench. They both recovered, as did a police officer who was contaminated by the poison.

The inquiry concluded that Sturgess’ death was authorized by Putin, demonstrating the lengths to which the Russian president is prepared to go to assert his power over the rest of the world. Many observers view this attack by Russian operatives on British soil as a war crime. This conclusion comes at a critical time as the war in Ukraine drags on into its fourth winter.

Putin has played the West all along. For all the peace overtures that U.S. President Donald Trump has made, the Russian president remains intransigent and unrelenting in his quest to restore his country to the former boundaries of its imperial past.

Trump now seems to have retreated from the talks as his main negotiator, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, returned from Moscow without a deal after five hours of discussions last week.

Putin is unprepared to budge an inch from his demands that Ukraine give up major chunks of its country, limit the size of its armed forces and be banned from joining NATO. The West yawned and acquiesced when Russia rolled into Crimea in 2014. That emboldened Putin to invade the rest of Ukraine.

What’s missing from the equation is Europe. Countries of the European Union have the most to lose from capitulation to Russia. The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, once part of the former USSR, are vulnerable, as are Finland, Sweden and Poland. Russian drones continue to harass major European airports.

European nations must do some soul-searching and step up in a meaningful way. If they’re not part of the negotiation, they can’t be part of the solution.