Sergei Yastrzhembsky, a top aide to President Vladimir Putin, acknowledged that there are problems between Russia and the European Union, but said they do not constitute a crisis.
"Reports of a crisis in relations between Russia and the European Union are more than exaggerated. I think, on the whole, Russian-EU relations are developing quite well," Yastrzhembsky said at a news conference in Moscow on May 16.
In recent months, Russian-EU relations have been damaged by a series of disputes. Bloc member Poland says it will veto an EU partnership agreement with Russia unless Moscow lifts a ban on Polish meat imports. Relations between Russia and EU member Estonia have deteriorated over the removal of a Soviet-era World War II monument from central Tallinn.
Yastrzhembsky says the problems between Moscow and Brussels are "natural in relations between global players."
Yastrzhembsky made his comments a day after a May 15 meeting between Putin and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country currently holds the EU Presidency.
The Steinmeier-Putin meeting was an attempt to ease tensions prior to an EU-Russia summit scheduled for May 18 in the southern Russian city of Samara.
(Reuters, AFP)
Russia And The EU
A POLICY OF APPEASEMENT? Ralf Fuecks, head of the Heinrich Boell Foundation and a Green Party activist, spoke at RFE/RL's Prague broadcast center about the EU's complex relations with a resurgent Russia. RFE/RL President Jeff Gedmin moderated the discussion.
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