What will Europe do if the Ukrainians shut the gas off? The pipeline in Ukraine belongs to Ukrainians. Europe has no control over the pipeline, Ukrainian, or the gas, Russian.
If Ukraine shuts off EU gas, Vlad will shut of Ukrainain gas.
The gas is talked about but is moot. That movie has already been shown
That's their fear. So they aren't going to do anything that might anger Putin. They may take some meaningless stands, cancel a few visits, make a few speeches. But Europe will not take any position to force Putin to give up the Ukraine. And if Europe won't take a stand then anything the U.S. does will be meaningless as well. And that would be true if Romney or McCain were in the White House.