Relations between Russia and the EU are stuck in a “deep and acute” crisis and are unlikely to improve until President Vladimir Putin leaves office and the conflict in Ukraine is resolved – events that could be many years away, the outgoing EU ambassador to Moscow has said.
Vygaudas Ušackas, who has been in the post since 2013, said the EU must offer Ukraine a path to membership of the bloc if it wants to resist Russian attempts to bring the former Soviet state more firmly back under Moscow’s control.
“As I leave my post, I am pessimistic that we will be able to return to a normal partnership in the near future,” Ušackas wrote in a letter published in the Observer on Sunday. “The differences between us are vast and hinge on principles of European security.”
He detailed growing attacks on “core European values” of democracy, free speech and the rule of law and said the apparatus of the Kremlin apparatus is focused on returning Putin to power in 2018 elections that it can present as “smooth and credible”. – READ MORE
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