Lavrov Accused the EU of Destroying the "Basis" of Relations with Russia

Despite this, Moscow intends to further develop relations with individual European countries Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed the EU for relations with Russia deterioration anв stated that the bloc is systematically destroying cooperation mechanisms. In talks with the Finnish Foreign Minister, Lavrov said that Brussels was responsible for the poor state of relations. “Relations are consistently broken by the European Union,” Lavrov said. “The basis of this relationship was deliberately destroyed at the initiative of Brussels,” he added. “The European Union has consistently and without exception destroyed all the mechanisms that existed on the basis of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement,” the head of Russian diplomacy said. However, according to him, this does not mean that Russia will abandon relations with individual EU countries. “Don't confuse the European Union with Europe. We are not leaving Europe anywhere,” Lavrov said. "We have many friends in Europe." The statement was made after the EU authorities spoke about preparing a new package of restrictions against Russia after the opposition politician Alexei Navalny poisoning. The preparation of sanctions was announced at a session of the European Parliament after a visit to Moscow and a meeting with Lavrov, by the head of the European Union's foreign policy, Josep Borrell. At the meeting, the deputies harshly criticized him for the EU's soft attitude to Russian politics. The diplomat said that during the trip he made sure that Moscow did not plan to improve relations with Brussels. He said that Russia did not live up to Europe's expectations for a democratic course and did not plan to move towards the rule of law. The day before, Reuters, citing sources, reported that after the decision of the Russian court to send Navalny to a colony, new EU sanctions may affect the circle of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The assets of people close to him may be frozen, they may be banned from traveling to the EU. This is exactly what Navalny's associates are seeking from Western diplomats.