WASHINGTON (AP) — The crisis in Ukraine is giving Russia an opening to drive a wedge between the United States and Europe just as Western powers try to repair a struggling trade deal and decide how to bolster a cash-strapped NATO.

For years, the West has frustrated Moscow by offering former Soviet states membership into economic and military alliances, undercutting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions to build a regional economic powerhouse to rival the European Union and expand his military reach throughout the old Eastern Bloc.