Anyone who seeks rapprochement with Russia must be careful, the European Commission warns.
The poisoning of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny “does not stand alone”, but fits in “a pattern,” said President Ursula von der Leyen.
The committee chairman does not see anything in strengthening the ties with the big neighbour, as the French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, regularly suggests.
She points to the pattern of ruthless aggression against Kremlin opponents “in Georgia, Ukraine, Syria and Salisbury” and attempts to “manipulate elections around the world.
This pattern is not changing. And no pipeline will change that,” warned Von der Leyen with reference to the gas pipeline on which Russia works together with European countries.
In order to make a fist on the world stage, the European Union must get rid of the veto on foreign policy for member states, Von der Leyen said in her first State of the Union.
For example, if a significant majority of countries want to take action against Moscow, one member state should no longer be able to thwart it. Nowadays, this often paralyzes European foreign policy.