The point is whether there is a fifth parallel: a majority among the elite that is willing to commit treason in that they resolve to not just slow down the march to real democracy, but to turn the tide and eliminate the hope for change.

Where do you see the parallels?

It is not utterly unthinkable that some in the German foreign policy establishment do realize that there is a parallel between Russia and Weimar Germany. What would the correct attitude towards Weimar Germany have been? The EU could ultimately come to conceive of itself as literally being the union of all European states - which would include Russia. Even if it didn´t, reducing the question of the best European strategy towards Russia to an oil-and-gas issue is an absolute non-starter. I would vouch for the majority of German policymakers to have enough of a sense of history to not see Russia as being just another energy exporter like Saudi-Arabia.
Some Anglo-Saxons appear to think that since they won WWII anyway, any thoughts about how it might have been prevented couldn´t possibly result in any useful insights. Germans don´t think in terms of wars they can´t possibly lose any longer. The question of how to keep Russia from crossing the line is not just worth serious consideration - it requires the attention of people with historical imagination. At a first approximation, the best policy toward Russia would be one that abstains from obstructing a government that manages to raise Russians´ living standards and thus creates the sociological base for truly democratic parties to take over at some point in the future. This doesn´t mean that there should be no criticism of human rights violations - it does mean, however, that Russia should be shown a path of convergence. The special status vis-á-vis the EU that many European conservatives wanted to attribute to Turkey would be a possible starting point in the case of Russia.
Should the government decide to follow policies that destroy Russians´ living standards - as the IMF-inspired response to the Russian bond crisis did -, the deal would be off. Progress towards real democracy would be required for any level of cooperation going beyond mainly economic issues like trade, enhancing prospects of WTO membership etc.

This is no mere fantasy. Currently the EU and Russia are working towards establishing a so-called Common Economic Space, which - as an official communique put it - “should contribute to anchor Russia in Europe and to enable it to fully benefit from the recent EU enlargement”.

So is every European country. How does it change relative importance?

How much more blatant lying from German politicians do we have to put up with: “Putin is a democrat”, “Russia is free”, etc.

Who takes this at face value? It simply means: “We want gas, oil, and above all, peace. Democracy is secondary.” Political correctness makes it impossible today to flatly state that democracy is not something to be sought at all costs.

acting as a consumers’ cartel and trying to prevent disaggregation, as well as signing up transit states

That is sensible while negotiating prices and influence. But what when the stuff really is running out, as it will in the forseable future? Exporting gas while people are jobless due to gas shortages is unpopular, while they are cold at home, almost unthinkable.

I don’t want to hear any more lectures on American hypocrisy from Europeans.

This is indeed a reasonable request.

In the face of that I can’t really care much about the history of German-Russian friendship. If the EU doesn’t take a stand now, what’s the point in talking about Europe?

http://salongen.de/notiser/?p=405

The EU policy that is emerging on this is (at least in the short term) one of acting as a consumers’ cartel and trying to prevent disaggregation, as well as signing up transit states (see the energy community agreement in the Balkans) so the Russians cannot play them off against the consumers. The Germans, though, seem to be at one remove from this.

As long as this goes on and French pussy-footing with China continues, I don’t want to hear any more lectures on American hypocrisy from Europeans.