The Soviet Union spent more than 40 years trying to achieve the goals it had just handed to Vladimir Putin. Throughout the Cold War, the Kremlin’s main goal was to divide the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) by pitting the United States and Europe against each other.
From the Soviet ultimatum to the West in 1958 to the construction of the wall in 1961, every security crisis in West Berlin was designed to create rifts within NATO. As then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said in 1959, “To make the West scream, I attack Berlin.”
His successor Brezhnev deployed a new generation of nuclear missiles, the SS20, in the satellite states of Central Europe precisely to divide the West over how to respond.
All these efforts failed. The United States and Europe knew exactly what the Soviet Union was doing, and despite their differences and arguments, the allies never gave the Kremlin the satisfaction of watching them divide.
Today, thanks to Donald Trump, Putin can revel in the spectacle. He spent 25 years pursuing the old Soviet policy of trying to divide the West. Time and time again, he has denounced NATO’s attempts to “encircle” or “intimidate” Russia, as if the very existence of the Atlantic Alliance posed a threat to world peace, and as if the spectacle of sovereign nations choosing to join its ranks somehow justified his aggression.
Now, the rift Putin had longed for suddenly opened before his eyes.
The US president not only laid claim to the sovereign territory of NATO ally Denmark, but also threatened to use force to achieve his goal. On Saturday, Trump deliberately escalated the confrontation, ordering punitive tariffs on no fewer than eight allies, including Britain, as he set out a common goal: Greenland’s future status is a matter for the island’s residents and the Danish government.
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On Monday, Trump went a step further and sent a threatening message to another ally, Norway. In a leaked letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Storr, Trump said that since he was stripped of the Nobel Peace Prize he “no longer feels[s] Denmark has no “ownership” of Greenland, and the United States’ “complete control” of the island is vital to global security.
Faced with looming US tariffs and ongoing threats, the EU is preparing to retaliate by invoking its “anti-coercion tools” to impose duties on US exports worth €93bn (£80.6bn). This extraordinary measure, which has never been used before, is not directed against China or any other adversary, but against the superpower that has ensured Europe’s security for nearly 80 years.
Sir Keir Starmer has so far refused to impose additional UK tariffs on US exports, but the EU’s promised retaliation shows both sides are now doing everything they can to harm each other.
Starmer condemns Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on US allies – Tolga Akmen/EPA/Shutterstock
Putin can only sit back and enjoy the results. Even if this row is ultimately resolved with some form of accommodation between the United States and Europe over the future of Greenland — which, despite all the sound and fury, remains the most likely outcome — who would trust the United States to live up to its NATO obligations and defend its European allies?
As the British Prime Minister said in Downing Street on Monday: “Alliances endure because they are built on respect and partnership, not pressure. It is simply wrong to impose tariffs on allies.”
By publicly and fiercely pressuring his friends, Trump has fundamentally weakened the Atlantic alliance. Soviet leaders always knew that if they invaded any NATO ally, they would find themselves at war with the United States, a war they could not win. Peace itself depends on this belief. Why would Putin believe it now?
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