DISINFO: Russia-EU relations were destroyed by Brussels declaring Russia an aggressor
SUMMARY
The whole architecture of the Russia-EU relations, which was unprecedentedly developed in its time, was destroyed by Brussels.
The EU, contrary to its obligations, supported and encouraged the unconstitutional coup d'etat in Ukraine.
The entire chain of decisions began when the EU, trying to gloss over its helplessness in front of the radicals who seized power in Kyiv, tried to shift the blame on others.
The EU decided to declare Russia an aggressor absolutely illegitimately and without any convincing grounds and impose sanctions.
The way of resorting to unilateral restrictions bypassing the UN Security Council is becoming contagious, the US introduced this fashion, and the EU willingly picked it up. The EU thinks that everything is allowed for it. When it begins to threaten with new sanctions, along with the feeling of permissiveness and infallibility, the EU is beginning to be overwhelmed by another mania - complete impunity, which is a dead-end path. The aggressive Russophobic lobby in the EU is doing its job.
Russia cannot but respond to this hostility.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative attempting to put the responsibility for the state of EU-Russian relations on Brussels, alleging that the EU is destroying them and ignoring the reasons behind the sanctions. The message is also consistent with the disinformation claim about the alleged anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine in 2014.
There was no coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan protests.
The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction from several segments of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, after pressure from Russia.
The myth of Ukraine ruled by radicals has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. Far-right groups enjoyed a very limited presence during the Euromaidan itself and had poor results in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections.
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. A number of additional issues affect bilateral relations, including Russia’s actions in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood, Syria, Libya and elsewhere, and repeated malign activities including disinformation campaigns.
The EU has also strongly condemned the assassination attempt using chemical weapons on Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny and sanctioned 6 individuals and 1 entity as a result. There is unequivocal evidence that Navalny was poisoned using a Novichok-type nerve agent.
The EU, its member states and most of the world community demand that Russia fulfils its obligations as a member of the UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and other international organisations, as well as Russia's own legislation.
At the same time, 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. Moreover, the West is trying to keep channels of communications and cooperation open with Russia.