View from Budapest: The status quo might just do
Hungary will certainly oppose additional sanctions, but it is unlikely to veto a prolongation
Wider Europe
View from The Hague: An eternal balancing act
Prime Minister Rutte, needing as much EU support as he can, will be firm on the status quo and extremely careful with everything else
View from Stockholm: Not the time for frailty
Given Russia’s multiple moves to up the ante in recent weeks, Stockholm sees no reason for the EU to change direction
View from Sofia: In the shadow of elections
Bulgaria's Russia policy could go in any direction after 6 November
View from Madrid: The many-faced Janus
Spain is inclined towards conditional accommodation with Russia but tends to refrain from open overtures towards Moscow
View from Rome: Reflection before renewal
Italy sees the European Council as a forum for policy and political discussion, where measures should be debated instead of simply adopted.
View from Paris: The Syrian prism
'Selective engagement' echoes perfectly France's preferred approach to Russia
View from Berlin: Keeping Europe’s cool
Merkel does not want an escalation of Russia-bashing out of fear, as it would only reward the Kremlin’s scaremongering.
Aleppo is paying for Russia’s imagined global threat
Russia's brutality in Aleppo reflects Moscow’s perspective on warfighting, its military capabilities, and its sense of threat.
Threat of instability looms large ahead of Georgia elections
Tuesday's car bomb in Tbilisi could be just the beginning of election-related turmoil in Georgia