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A week ago, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov hinted on Vladimir Solovyov’s propaganda program that the country was willing to end relations with the EU if it continued the sanctions policy.
When asked if Russia is moving towards severing relations with the EU, Lavrov said the country is ready to do so if sanctions are imposed on those business areas or the economy that would endanger the Russian economy.
“We do not want to isolate ourselves from global life, but we must be prepared for that. If you want peace, prepare for war,” he added.
The Russian President’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later said that “S. Lavrov’s comment was interpreted by the media without context. However, he later added that despite “Russia’s desire to develop relations with Brussels, we must be prepared for the worst.”
He accused the media of “tabloid headlines without context,” despite the fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry first published the passage without context on its website, writes DW.
Izvestia later published an interview with Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s representative to the EU, who said that the Russia-EU communication was continuing and that Borrell’s visit to Moscow “was a positive sign of the desire to maintain relations.”
“I shoot at your feet”
The German Foreign Ministry described Lavrov’s words as “disturbing and incomprehensible”. Several diplomats and politicians in the country have said that such a leap by a Russian colleague seems incomprehensible, especially at a time when they are trying to establish contacts with Russia.
Foreign policy expert Gernot Erler DW said Lavrov’s statement “was apparently a threatening gesture.”
Moscow hopes to avoid a new package of sanctions that could be announced at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the second half of February. A Russian expert has expressed the hope that ministers will try to reduce the situation in some way.
However, according to German MEP Michael Gahler, Lavrov’s intimidation is nothing more than a “shooting that will be of no interest to anyone”.
“I think Russia would shoot itself in the foot if it unilaterally cut off relations with the EU. That would certainly not be in Russia’s interests,” he said.
Lavrov’s statement is sparked not only by the EU’s position on the Navaln issue, but also by the “more concentrated effect” of pressure on Western sanctions on Russia, says Maximilian Hess, an expert at the Institute for Policy Research Outside the United States (FSRA). “In my opinion, Lavrov’s statement is a testament to the real consequences of Western sanctions on Russia for the first developing foreign policy,” RBK said.
Janis Kluge, an expert at the Berlin Science and Policy Foundation, also noted that Russia was not ready to cut ties with Europe “at least in the near future.” “Here we are not even talking about the import of specific products, but about Russia’s dependence on Western financial markets and technologies. Recent years have shown that it is difficult for Russia to achieve diversification in all China-based economic spheres, he said. to RBK: “If we talk about a period of ten years, I do not think that the Russian economy can completely break economic relations with the West.”
Borrell: the Kremlin sees an existential threat in a democracy
The Kremlin’s comments came in the immediate aftermath of the trip by EU chief of diplomacy Joseph Borrell. An EU diplomat who came to Moscow during the Navaln imprisonment scandal has been harshly criticized for using Kremlin propaganda to achieve his goals. Borrell was soon forced to explain, and was heavily criticized by Moscow. According to the diplomat, Russia wants to separate from Europe and divide the West.
“The Russian government is taking a worrying authoritarian path,” Borrell said last week. “It seems that there is practically no room for democratic alternatives … they are ruthless in suppressing these attempts.”
According to EU diplomatic sources, new economic sanctions for Russia should be announced on Monday. It is stated that the sanction lists (entry ban and invoices
Warnig, 65, doesn’t like publicity. When asked how often he meets with Putin, Putin’s friend and former Stasi agent replied that the Russian president did not have a mobile phone, but added: “If I need to see it, we will arrange it.”
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