Thus Der Spiegel today. “The president of Ukraine is talking up the idea of a national referendum to join NATO, an idea that the military alliance’s chief has openly supported,” explains the newspaper. “But such a debate is dangerous—because it divides member states and provides Putin with powerful ammunition.” This is like playing with fire, the argument goes, for Vladimir Putin has always seen the membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a red line. Poor Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. And poor NATO officers who openly sympathize with Poroshenko’s entreaties. But the article ends rather abruptly by pointing out that the question of Ukrainian membership is not even on NATO’s agenda. So, why the article? At best, it provides Putin with ammunition. As for the new cold war, it is here already. Even if Poroshenko mentioned NATO membership never again, this would have negligible effect on the relationship between Europe and Russia. But I wonder why am I still going on and on about NATO membership for Ukraine. Alas, I am only providing Putin with ammunition…