Sorry to be serious a sec here Mick, but...

This is a DEEPLY disingenuous article by The Guardian, who as I recall have heavily been complicit in brexit, by riding both horses just as its parent labor party. 
All the pressure points mentioned are true enough, but as usual with the left leaning punditry there are no solutions whatsoever in sight - just bitching and moaning and blaming anybody but themselves. 

Make no mistake, the Germans (and Merkel in particular) hates Putin with a passion, but they are currently trapped by the natural gas pipelines conundrum - This will ease, as we slowly, but surely converts to green energy - It might take 10 years, but it will happen. Also, there is a red line beyond the Crimea peninsula - EU/Nato is aware that Crimea is an important strategic zone for Russia, but a move beyond a safe-zone around that is a no-go. Also, it might seem insignificant, the sanctions against Putin, his cronies and the oligarchs do work to a certain degree. They are forced to either stay at home or at the most corrupt parts of the middle east and can't spend their fortunes on anything fun ;-) .  

As for EU's moral waffling regarding immigration and around the borders, we have De-facto accepted a HARD border in Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Hungary etc. My little Denmark has sent is entire supply of barbed-wire fence to Lithuania and Latvia. The EU does not want a repeat of 2015.