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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Alexander Clarkson and Kirill Shamiev

The EU should start planning now for Russia after Putin

Vladimir Putin speaks at the Victory Day parade in the Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2023.
Vladimir Putin speaks at the Victory Day parade in the Red Square in Moscow on 9 May 2023. Photograph: EyePress News/Shutterstock

Twenty-seven years before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in what now seems a very distant past, the European Union considered sanctioning Russia.

In 1995, following Russia’s military intervention in Chechnya, EU leaders suspended the ratification of a planned partnership and cooperation agreement and threatened Moscow with even greater consequences if its war crimes, including the indiscriminate bombing of Chechen civilians, did not stop.

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