"Of course, communism — like it was under Stalin — is not going to come back. What will return, however, is national socialism. Not Hitler's, but Putin's." Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last Habsburg emperor, said this back in 2002.
At the time, Vladimir Putin had been president of Russia for just two years, establishing cordial relationships with several European leaders.
A few weeks ago, many West Europeans were totally surprised when Putin launched a full-scale war in Ukr...
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Caroline de Gruyter is a columnist and Europe correspondent for the Dutch newspaper NRC. This column is an edited version of one of her pieces in NRC.