The population of the E.U. is 512 million.
The population of Russia is 145 million.
That's a 3 to 1 advantage... PLUS the GDP advantage...if they can't fend off a paper tiger like Russia... They're not trying hard enough.
I mean look at that advantage...without us...
Why are we underwriting their security while they buy natural gas and oil from Russia???
Hell...I could make the argument that us pulling out of NATO would quell Putin's fears and make him less aggressive and more stable.
Right now the balance if power that keeps Russia a first world power is reliance of Western Europe on Russian fuel...and what have we been doing the last 20 years? Destabilizing Iraq, Libya and Syria in an attempt to run pipelines to Europe that bypass Russia and it's proxies.
en.m.wikipedia.org
en.m.wikipedia.org
Then we meddled in Ukraine...instigating a coop against a democratically elected president of Ukraine...in order to keep that president from establishing closer ties with Russia...
This will document that the ‘new Cold War’ between the U.S. and Russia did not start, as the Western myth has it, with Russia’s involvement in the breakaway of Crimea and Donbass from Ukraine, after Ukraine — next door to Russia — had suddenly turned rabidly hostile toward Russia in February...
moderndiplomacy.eu
Our "helping" is only making things worse IMO.