Bangladesh, May 30 -- Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev remarks earlier this month are still causing some controversy. He warned that Europes current militarization risks recreating the conditions that led to June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. Writing on the eve of Victory Day, Medvedev accused Berlin of reviving “revanchist” tendencies and warned that Moscow “must not allow a repeat” of such a scenario.

Many Western commentators, predictably enough, have been quick to dismiss the remarks as hyperbole. The broader geopolitical context, however, makes such rhetoric difficult to ignore. Europe is, as a matter of fact, undergoing its most si...