DISINFO: EU has been consistently and deliberately breaking relations with Russia
SUMMARY
The gap between the Russian Federation and the EU has been going on for many years, and the EU has been consistently breaking relations. And although Moscow and Brussels are discussing some issues, this is not part of the relations between the Russian Federation and the EU. The framework of these relations was deliberately destroyed at the initiative of Brussels. Moscow is ready to establish a dialogue with the EU, but Brussels itself is not going to do this.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the EU, an attempt to put the responsibility for EU-Russian relations on Brussels, alleging that the EU is destroying them.
The EU has imposed restrictive measures, including sectoral sanctions, as a result of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia's destabilising actions in eastern Ukraine. Formats such as regular high-level dialogues remain suspended in the absence of the full implementation of the Minsk agreements by Russia. These events have seriously affected bilateral relations. As a result, some of the policy dialogues and mechanisms of cooperation are temporarily frozen, and sanctions directed at promoting a change in Russia's actions in Ukraine have been adopted.
The EU has strongly condemned the assassination attempt of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny and sanctioned 6 individuals and 1 entity involved in the assassination attempt using chemical weapons. There is unequivocal evidence that Navalny was poisoned using a Novichok-type nerve agent. To obfuscate responsibility for the poisoning, the pro-Kremlin media has drawn numerous parallels between Navalny and Skripal poisonings.
However, Russia remains a natural partner for the EU and a strategic player combating the regional and global challenges. The EU’s approach to Russia is guided by five principles agreed in 2016 and reaffirmed, most recently, by EU Foreign Ministers in October 2020. Read more about the EU-Russia relations here.