BERLIN (Reuters) - They may denounce Vladimir Putin in public but mainstream EU leaders may quietly thank Russia's president for one thing - talk of World War Three over Ukraine could teach voters to stop carping and love the European Union.
Eurosceptic radicals, channeling rage against austerity, Brussels bureacracy and the travails of the euro, will still do well in this month's European Parliament election; but tanks and cruise missiles rumbling across Red Square as armies face off on the bloc's eastern borders may focus voters' minds on the EU's role in defending rights and keeping the peace for six decades.