Putin has obviously deceived everyone. These were the words of Manuela Schwesig, First Minister of the German state Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania, after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She was trying to explain why her federal government had been so closely implicated in Russias controversial completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Why have other German, Austrian and European politicians and commentators so often got it so very wrong in their assessments of Moscow policy? Why has the EU been so slow to recognise the danger posed to its liberal values by nationalist autocrats such as Viktor Orbn of Hungary? And why have lessons from past blunders in Western policyparticularly in the Balkansand the example of GermanOstpolitikgone ignored, until it was too late?Paul Lendvai, a veteran reporter on the continents centre and east, exposes the role of double standards embraced, blind eyes turned and human and political weakness overlooked in policies of appeasement towards Europes authoritarian regimes, past and present. Combining analysis of new developments with decades of personal experience as a correspondent, he provides fascinating political profiles in deceit, sketching both the victims and the perpetrators of political fraud in Central and Eastern Europe.
