(CNN) -- Europe's Eastern policy, if there ever really was one, is in tatters. It has unraveled at breakneck speed, as Russia moved against Ukraine, effectively annexed part of its territory, and put its smaller neighbor on the brink of war. Moving from disbelief to dismay to horror, Europeans lost whatever hopes and illusions they may have harbored that Russia was a predictable and cooperative partner. Instead, images are being invoked of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and in Hungary in 1956, and a new Cold War seems fully possible now. However far-fetched they may seem, these comparisons reflect a frantic search among Western politicians and experts for the underlying causes, rationales and consequences of Russia's actions in Ukraine. And it slowly dawns on Europe that it is witness to a sea change in Russian foreign policy that shakes the very foundations of the European order that emerged after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
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Changing Russian foreign policy is shaking the European order, says Joerg Forbrig
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He says Moscow seems resolved to interfere with any of its post-Soviet neighbors
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Russia's interventionist strategy has been in the making for a decade, Forbrig says
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Moscow's quest has become an ideological mission to fight the West, he says
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European
It should hardly surprising, then, that @placeholder responses to Russia's increasingly aggressive behavior have been muffled at best.
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Opposition to this policy within @placeholder is effectively non-existent, as decisions are taken by a small circle of hardliners, parliament serves to rubber-stamp them, and civil society and independent media have been silenced.
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Ukraine
@placeholder have given a powerful example of resistance, through the courage of hundreds of thousands of protesters and the remarkable moderation of their new government in the face of Russian provocations.
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@placeholder's first immediate response, as is becoming clear even to its most reluctant leaders, must be a range of sanctions against Russia.
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@placeholder must now roll out travel bans and asset freezes against those in the Russian leadership who are directly responsible for this escalation, followed by a swift extension to include the 300 or so influentials, and their families, who control much of the country's politics and business today.
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This is an enormous agenda, comparable only to the challenge of reuniting @placeholder after the end of the Cold War.