[AntEater]

This "Putin takes power" is simply BS, as far as I can see. Medvedev is certainly not playing bad cop like he does to give up the playing field prematurely. He just tries to assert himself as the tough guy. Hardly a move if you plan on leaving office in a year.
Maybe Putin will run after Medvedev's term is over, who knows?

So even IF Russia is totalitarian and whatnot, what do you think it wants from western Europe?
Annex territory? Certainly not. The most extreme thing imaginable would be to restore the soviet border, but even that would mean neither Poland nor the CR or anyone else except the Baltics would be annexed. But the baltic states are in NATO so it would be pretty suicidal anyway.
Belarus wants to be annexed but Russia doesn't want to at the moment.
The eastern half of Ukraine wouldn't mind either. The western half would mind, though.
Not even Vladimir Zhirinovsky wants to march on Warsaw, much less on Berlin or Prague.
"Regime change"? Unlikely, but it could be possible that Moscow tries to meddle in our affairs the same way the US does now for ages: By cultivating politicians, who act as some kind of proxies for US interests. Russians could do the same, sure, but even the influence of those US trojan donkeys is somewhat limited.
Economic blackmail? As many have posted, the relationship is mutual. In pure monetary terms, Germany exports more to Russia than Russia exports to Germany.
Its mostly industrial goods versus natural resources.
Russia needs an industrial base and western Europe can provide that with expertise and industrial manufacturing. I've worked for companies in russian business and I can tell you, they're tough, but they are not as terribly arrogant as the Chinese and they won't screw you over by reverse engineering your stuff overnight like the Chinese.
Doing industrial construction in Russia is a sound long term strategy, while doing the same in China is economic suicide.
If russia turns of the gas, Europe can't provide Russia with the industry it needs to provide Russians with a higher standard of living. And THAT is the benchmark by which the russian voter (yes, the Russians actually still voted for Putin and Medvedev) makes his decisions.
Those two are so popular because they raised the living standard for the average russian. If they fail on doing that, they will lose power.

Problem is, Politicians and media talk like this is the cold war, while in reality, Russia kind of belongs to the same economic circle as Europe. In fact, Poland and the Baltics would be pretty screwed if not for the Russian trade.

Btw, with the immigrant problem, I agree with you, it was a shortsighted policy by european leaders and something needs to be done about it. On the other hand, birthrate both in muslim countries and in immigrant communities is declining as well, so the time window of "outbreeding" might be shorter than the jihadis hope for.


- Still feeling like casting pearls before swine. I think some posters here are simply unable to comprehend anything more complicated that "Russia baaaaad, 'Murka goooood".-