The more concessions Russia gets, the more aggressive it becomes - Lithuanian ex-FM

05.12.201411:57

The idea of building a free-trade zone between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union – ‘from Vancouver to Vladivostok’ – really haunts the corridors of Brussels, Audronius Ažubalis, a Lithuanian MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, warns on euobserver.com.

According to the politician, giving Russia a European free-trade zone and a visa-free regime in return for it ceasing to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and other post-Soviet countries will hardly put an end to the Kremlin’s aggression.

“We will only mislead our Eastern Partners by creating the impression that their best way to Europe is through Moscow and with Moscow. It has to encourage and speed up the reforms without denying EU membership perspectives to any of these six states. Otherwise, we will leave a geopolitical vacuum to be soon filled by a system which is fundamentally hostile to the European project,” he stresses.

The Western alliance has overwhelming superiority over Russia in military and economic terms, but it lacks backbone, Mr Ažubalis notes. In his opinion, Putin is waiting for being invited back to the negotiating table and being given concessions in return for putting his fangs back in his mouth.

“We already have a strategy, but there are too many EU members which don’t to follow it,” says the Lithuanian MP referring to some MEPs’ calls to offer a new strategy in EU-Russia relations. “The only means to force the Kremlin to wake up is strong and united pressure through sanctions valid until the very moment when the invader packs his bags and leaves Ukraine”.