Der Spiegel: How Vladimir Putin Brought the West Together
10 March 2022
The Ukraine war is uniting the West – politically, militarily, morally. But what will the world's democracies do with this newfound unity? Can they succeed in preventing further escalation?
The small Romanian town of Câmpia Turzii doesn't look like the kind
of place where global political developments take place. The bed of
gravel in front of the town hall is waiting for new asphalt, the "Asia”
market next door has lost its "i," and the hotel on the outskirts of
town bears the simple name A3. The town’s biggest attraction stands at
the city limits. Once you pass the last single-family homes, you
suddenly find yourself in front of a mounted aircraft. A blue,
Soviet-produced MiG-21 fighter jet juts into the sky like a signpost.
Câmpia Turzii has been home to an air base for almost 70 years.
During the Cold War, Warsaw Pact pilots took off and landed here. These
days, though, NATO troops are stationed behind the metal gate.
People
waited for precisely that for more than 50 years, says Laura Ștefan, a
Romanian who works for the Expert Forum, which promotes trans-Atlantic
relations. "The Americans were the salvation," she says. "When the first
U.S. soldiers moved in, people greeted them with flowers."
NATO, the West – synonymous for many with freedom and prosperity back when Romania joined NATO in 2004.
Today,
the country that has for so long stood in the shadow of European
history is a front-line state. "We border Ukraine," Ștefan says. "If it
came to an invasion of Romania, that would be the end. For many of us,
but also for Putin. But I don’t think an invasion of Romania is likely.
Still, we have to be prepared for anything.”
Slowly, we're running out of comparisons for grasping the magnitude of
what is currently happening. Just a week ago, Vladimir Putin’s invasion
of Ukraine brought to mind events like Saddam Hussein’s 1990 attack on
Kuwait – a large scale and ultimately devastating military operation,
but also one whose impact at first seemed limited to the region...
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