Mr Putin’s enablers include several European governments. Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary since 2010, has been the most obvious. The populist strongman has repeatedly criticised Western support for Ukraine and continued Hungary’s imports of Russian gas. His government also refuses to allow the transit of weapons given to Ukraine by Hungary’s fellow members of nato and the eu. Next-door Austria has, more quietly but equally profitably, largely sat out the struggle, too, citing its non-membership of nato and self-appointed role as a bridge between East and West, offering little aid to Ukraine even as its trade with Russia has surged.
Greece, another eu member, is complying with the eu’s sanctions, but has balked at tightening any further those on shipping Russian oil, perhaps because Greek firms happen to pocket so much from the trade. Only recently and under heavy American pressure did Cyprus, an offshore financial haven, shut down some 4,000 local bank accounts held by Russians. Facing less pressure, non-eu countries such as Turkey and Serbia don’t even bother to disguise the lucrative back-door service they provide to Russia.
Some countries have twisted seemingly noble intentions into policies that warm Mr Putin’s heart. Citing its vaunted neutrality, Switzerland has wielded arcane local laws to block the supply of arms to Ukraine, including 96 mothballed Leopard tanks sitting in Italy that happen to belong to a private Swiss firm. Scoring repeated own-goals with freedom of speech principles, police in Sweden have green-lighted public burnings of the koran. Not only has this hugely irked Muslim-majority Turkey, which wields a veto over Sweden’s bid to join nato. Mr Putin himself gleefully trolled the Swedes. On a trip to Dagestan before the Eid holiday at the end of June, Mr Putin had himself filmed tenderly holding a koran, as he explained that under Russian law it is a crime to desecrate holy things.
