In Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale, two tailors promise to make an emperor a suit that is invisible to unwise people. When the emperor greets his subjects in his new clothes, only a boy has the good sense to cry out: “But, he isn’t wearing anything at all!” Such plain-spoken truth is urgently needed to dispel a myth that hobbles European strategic thinking: that Europe is too dependent on Russian natural gas to risk a serious row with Russia over its escalating war against Ukraine.
在安徒生(Hans Christian Andersen Award)的经典童话里,两个裁缝承诺为皇帝做一件不聪明的人就看不见的衣服。当皇帝穿着新衣巡视他的子民时,只有一个明智的小男孩叫了出来:“可是,他什么也没穿啊!”欧洲迫切需要这样直言不讳的坦率,来破除阻碍欧洲战略思维的错误观念:欧洲太依赖俄罗斯的天然气,因此不能因为俄罗斯和乌克兰之间逐渐升级的战争与俄罗斯发生严重争端。