Should Europe unite against Russia?
Secretary-general of the EU-Russia Centre in Brussels believes the EU should revise its position on Russia, and “unite around a policy designed to match Moscow’s realpolitik”
“The EU should review its perception of what Russian outward-looking economic policies stand for,” Maria Ordzhonikidze, secretary-general of the EU-Russia Centre, argues in a January publication, Euractiv.com reports.
Ordzhonikidze claims the Russian elite “retain a vision of their country as a dominant regional superpower and counter European values with what they call Russian distinctiveness”. As a result, Russia finds it “logical to utilise economic advantages as political leverage”. The current EU-Russia relationship is “now seen as a softer version of the military face-off of the nineties,” she adds.
She calls on Europe to speak to Russia with one voice. “Europe has never talked to Russia with one firm voice,” but “if it were to do so it could have a staggering effect,” she believes in the comment published at the EU-Russia Centre website.
