Thus The Wall Street Journal today. “The EU will draw up options for new Russian sanctions, vowing quick action unless Moscow takes steps to scale back its intervention in Ukraine,” explains the newspaper. That is a clever move on the part of the European Union. Very clever. Vladimir Putin has a whole week to ponder his options. If he blunders, he faces serious repercussions. This is exactly how international affairs should be conducted when the going gets tough. Warnings should be sharp and clear, with reasonable time limits. The only trouble with the time limit in this particular case is that the Union will have tough time getting all the member states to agree on the new sanctions. The Slovaks are already refusing to play along. The Germans have not been happy with the sanctions from the start, and they are getting ever less happy as they pile up. In addition, much of Eastern Europe cannot even imagine the winter without Russian natural gas. And so on, and so forth. For it would be quite embarrassing if the week would go past without a clear agreement on the new sanctions across the Union. What is worse, Putin would be laughing all the way to the battlefield.