Putin explains Russia’s goals to EU envoy

The poor state of Russia’s relationship with the EU is Brussels’ fault, but Moscow hopes for an eventual improvement, President Vladimir Putin told the bloc’s recently appointed envoy in the country on Wednesday.

French diplomat Roland Galharague, who was appointed as the EU ambassador to Russia last September, was among the foreign dignitaries at the Kremlin to formally present their credentials to the Russian president.

Putin briefly described the present state of his nation’s relations with the governments represented by the guests. He said Galharague would probably agree that ties between Brussels and Moscow had “seriously degraded” in recent years.

“We perceive as the cause the fact that the EU has discarded its original mission of developing economic cooperation and integration on the European continent and initiated a geopolitical confrontation with Russia,” Putin said.

Moscow hopes that “all the actions that damage our relations would be left in the past,” arguing that turning the page would benefit “both Russia and the economies of this organization’s member states.”

We hope that the logic of mutual cooperation will prevail in time.

The EU sided with the US in its campaign to punish Russia for launching a military campaign against Ukraine, which Western nations claimed to be an unprovoked act of aggression.

Moscow said its hand was forced by NATO’s creeping expansion on its borders and Kiev’s continued attacks against the people of Donbass. It considers the conflict to be part of a US proxy war against Russia.

Senior Russian officials believe the EU is now subservient to geopolitical goals of the US and is prepared to hurt the citizens of its own member states in order to pursue these aims. Brussels’ anti-Russian sanctions and the decision to decouple the EU from trade with Russia contributed to the high inflation and worsening business conditions in the bloc, Moscow has pointed out.