Controversy after EU High Representative Borrell's trip to Moscow

• EU, tomorrow Borrell in Moscow to ask for Navalny's release

• Italy-Russia, Di Maio meets Lavrov: to prevent the divide with the EU from deepening

• Pro Navalny protests.

  Russia expels German, Polish and Swedish diplomats

• The doctor who cured Navalny of poisoning died

• Khodorkovsky on the Navalny case: "a gang of mafia" in the Kremlin

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06 February 2021 The visit of the EU High Representative

to Russia

has ended

.

Before leaving Moscow, the head of diplomacy of the European Union paid tribute to

, a leading figure in the opposition assassinated six years ago in the heart of the city, by going to the scene of the murder.

This was announced in a press release from the European External Action Service. 

But this was not enough to appease the controversy that arose after the meeting between him and the Russian Foreign Minister

meeting in which Borrell appeared too soft on the question of the condemnation of the

and on respect for human rights by the Russian government.

He is accused of failing to react during the joint press conference with Lavrov to the attacks launched by the Russian minister on the EU and the US.

And it seems that there is already a letter addressed to the president of the EU Commission

, in which the Estonian MEP Riho Terras, from the EPP group, asks for the resignation of the High Representative.

In the letter, in which Terras expresses himself in the plural, suggesting that there are other signatories, the MEP says he is "extremely concerned by the humiliating developments" of Borrell's visit to Moscow, which "severely damaged the reputation of the European Union" .

A visit, it is claimed, which was undertaken by Borrell "on his own initiative" and in which he showed "indifference to the crimes committed by the Putin regime against political opponents".

In emphasizing Borrell's "lack of judgment" and his "inability to defend the interests and values" of the EU, Terras and the other possible signatories ask Von der Leyen to "act" if Borrell "does not resign of his own volition" .

"A disaster of European diplomacy", a "mockery" by Russia, which shows that Moscow "does not take Brussels seriously as a global player".

This was said by

, an expert at the

, following the trip to Moscow of the representative of European foreign policy Josep Borrell, during which the expulsion of accused German, Swedish and Polish diplomats was announced to have participated in the demonstration in support of the opponent Alexey Navalny. 

Borrell wanted to go to Moscow on the basis of the "selective engagement" strategy, launched at the time of

according to which, despite the distances, "there are necessarily areas in which to collaborate".

But one of the points of this strategy, Mikhelidze recalls, was to strengthen relations between Europe and Russian civil society.

"To save face, Borrell had to meet the real civil society, the real NGOs, not the government ones. If he couldn't visit Navalny in prison, at least he could see the activists of his foundation", remarks the expert.

Lavrov, notes Mikhelidze, could have shown himself "grateful" to the European representative, "who did not listen to the EU countries hostile to Russia, did not cancel the visit, showed that he wanted to give importance to dialogue with Moscow, brought a soft message , did not go on the attack. "

But, "instead of emphasizing how important it is also for Russia to normalize relations with Brussels", Lavrov has chosen "mockery" to show that he does not want to take the EU into account.

This, the expert remarks, "had already become clear" after the election of US President

when Kremlin leader

said he wanted to normalize relations with Washington, while "he never said, we Russians do not we look forward to normalizing relations with Brussels ".

Moscow, Mikhelidze concludes, does not consider the EU as a single interlocutor, it wants to improve relations with Germany and France, "the rest does not count, the foreign ministry, the Kremlin, do not take Brussels seriously as a global player".