Garry Kasparov

Published 04 August 2026

Russia is already at war with the West. That’s what our leaders must realise to avoid having to fight the Kremlin’s troops on our streets

With its latest round of sanctions against Russia, Europe continues to showcase just how out of step its response is to the growing threat from Moscow. The document reads like a series of miserly financial negotiations: an exemption for sable pelts, after requests from Italy and Greece, the two main buyers of the Russian fur, and an exemption for Greece to be able to continue shipping Russian LNG to countries outside the EU, after protests from that corner.

The European bureaucracy is still trying to maximise its profit margins and minimise its threats. This is how a smart company operates to deliver the best quarterly earnings to its shareholders; it is not how countries act when they are at war.

Of course, Europe has still not openly acknowledged that it is engaged in outright war with Russia. While Putin has been fighting no holds barred for years, Europe has largely stuck to its peacetime algorithm, with some weapons shipments and sanctions thrown in here and there, for good measure. Ukraine is paying in blood every day, and the Baltics, Finns, and Poles are actively preparing for an invasion across their borders. Western and southern Europe, meanwhile, continues to measure out costs and benefits carefully.

In the face of this measly response, Putin only continues to escalate. Just a few months back, it was possible to point to some hesitation in the Russian government when it came to the war. As I write this, however, the entire vertical of power has been mobilised for war. There are no holdouts now; the motto top to bottom is war to the bitter end, no matter the cost.

Putin has been signalling a mass mobilisation campaign, of up to 500,000 service members, following parliamentary elections in September. The state propaganda machine is working overtime to lay the groundwork for this extraordinary measure. Unlike Europe, Putin understands that a war effort requires all of society; it takes sacrifice, and pain.

Kazakhstan’s president recently urged Putin to freeze the conflict in Ukraine. Putin’s response was outright dismissal: freezing the conflict is impossible, and the suggestion only shows that Tokayev doesn’t understand the nature of war. There is no finessing, no moderation, in this statement. It reveals an attitude that has only hardened over time; Putin will not take no for an answer. He won’t stop unless he is stopped.

I have been writing for the duration of the war, four and a half long years, about how woefully inadequate the European (and for that matter, the American) response has been to Russia’s aggression. I have outlined, on more than one occasion, possible steps Europe could have taken: recall its ambassadors to Moscow, go after the Russian shadow fleet, suspend Orban’s Hungary from Nato.

But as time goes on, and war inches steadily closer to the capitals of western Europe, the gap between threat and countermeasures has only grown. Now, I can’t help but think of a historical anecdote from the French Revolution when, after the storming of the Bastille in 1789, Louis XVI incredulously asked one of his dukes: “Is this a revolt?” To which the Duke of Rochefoucauld-Liancourt replied: “No, sire, it’s a revolution.” Europe’s leaders have shown themselves to be just as out of touch with reality as the infamously insulated and inept French aristocracy.

At this point, the above measures and others I recommended in the past – some more narrowly targeted toward particular Russian sectors, others more symbolic ways of depriving Russia of international stature – won’t cut it. Had Europe taken them at the time, maybe we would be facing a different situation today. Putin, like all successful dictators, relies on animal instinct, and every concession on the part of Europe’s leaders has been to him an unmistakable whiff of weakness.

Today, the only acceptable response that remains is to strip Russia of all legal mechanisms and economic resources that can be used to defend its own interests. Russia must become an international outlaw, and all of Putin’s henchmen must become pariahs no matter where they go. Currently, Russian oligarchs roam free across Europe and take advantage of all the rights and freedoms granted to European residents. (In an almost unthinkable example, Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s wife just appealed to the European Court of Justice seeking damages of over €2m for losses from sanctions over the war in Ukraine.)

Moreover, these measures can no longer be reactive. Europe must take up its own offensive and present a clear threat to Putin should he go any further. Leaders must agree on a package of measures that will instantly go into effect, according to predetermined mechanisms, if Putin ventures to cross the Nato border. That is the kind of crystal-clear red line that gives a dictator pause, not vague statements and half-hearted sanctions.

Europe cannot continue to express solidarity with Ukraine and pledge to fight Russia while its economic and legal institutions are still propping up the regime. New British PM Andy Burnham wrote after meeting with President Zelensky: “Britain stands with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, always. Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve long lasting and just peace for Ukraine.” I agree with every word.

But I don’t blame Putin for not taking any of this seriously. Until Europe’s actions match its various statements and declarations, the threat, and the response required to counter it, will only continue to mount. The Second World War was also the “Phoney War” to the British and French for its first eight months, until the Western Front itself became a military theatre.

I hope Europe’s leaders will not repeat history’s blunders, and wake up before war lands on their soil and leaves them no other choice.

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Garry Kasparov is a campaigner for democracy in Russia. He is a chess grandmaster who was ranked the world’s number one player for a record 255 months

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/04/putin-doesnt-take-europe-seriously-who-can-blame-him/

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