The US and Russia are sitting down for some grand strategy global chess. Serious moves are being made.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio even said after this week's meeting in Saudi Arabia with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that both countries were exploring ways to cooperate geopolitically and economically. And, oh yeah, wrap up this fiasco in Ukraine. And the EU states? They’re sitting there, arms crossed and red-faced because nobody asked them to play.

Well, technically, they are represented – through Washington. That’s been the role they’ve insisted on adopting all along, and now the backup dancer thinks they’re actually the headliner. If they wanted a say, they could’ve taken the lead on peace talks anytime over the last two years. Instead, every time a leader even hinted at engaging with Russia, he was browbeaten and marginalized by those who kept insisting that Ukraine was winning, and Russia’s economy was collapsing. They seemed so totally hammered from drinking their own bathwater that you have to wonder if they soak exclusively in Moët & Chandon.

Not only weren’t they sticking it to Russia like they figured, but their strategy was backfiring onto their own people. When their cheap Russian gas lifeline, Nord Stream, went kaboom, they just shrugged. Then they sanctioned the rest of their Russian energy supply to oblivion – only to end up secretly importing it at a markup through middlemen.

It wasn’t until Trump administration officials came over to Europe recently for some conferences and told European leaders what disconnected morons they all were from the interests of their own citizens on everything from free speech to migration, that the EU started telling Washington off.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck even clapped back at Washington. Not, you know, when their pipeline got obliterated. But on a podcast. After some mere words were said that he didn’t like. Meanwhile, the Munich Security Conference’s chief organizer had a full-blown public meltdown on the global stage, like a kid at a school play when he spotted mommy frowning in the audience.

So yeah, no wonder Russia and the US didn’t invite them to the grown-up table.

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