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You'd be mad not to at least be seen to negotiate with Russia though, at least to make your own hand look stronger.

Putin is slaughtering European civilians wholesale and has racked up thousands of dead in Ukraine and is under EU sanctions for it. Any deal with him under the guise of 'saving Europe' is tasteless at best, and treasonous at worst. Not to mention, he doesn't have this kind of money. Greece is 300+bn euros in the hole as of today. Russia's economy is shrinking at 2-4% per quarter right now and burning through its reserve trying to keep things running.

> Russia's economy is shrinking at 2-4% per quarter right now and burning through its reserve trying to keep things running.

Nice try. Have you seen their GDP numbers? Their worst quarter was just over 1% contraction, their GDP is around 2% off their all-time high.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp

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