China News Service, February 26th, a comprehensive report, on the 25th local time, the European Council decided to declare Venezuela's ambassador to the EU as an "unwelcome person."

And just a day ago, Venezuela had just declared the EU ambassador to the Commission as an "unwelcome person."

　　In addition, the relationship between the EU and Russia has also fallen into a freezing point recently. What happened behind a series of incidents?

Data map: The entrance to the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

List "unwelcome people" each other

The EU and Venezuela are "on the bar"?

　　The root cause of this conflict between the EU and Venezuela has already been planted.

Since November 2017, the EU has been imposing sanctions on Venezuela and has extended the sanction period several times. The current period has been extended to November 14, 2021.

　　After seeing that the US and European sanctions against Venezuela may exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures Alena Dohan visited Venezuela for 12 days and called for relaxation on February 12, 2021. Commission sanctions.

　　However, the European Union did not stop there.

On February 22, the European Union announced that it would include 19 people including Venezuela’s National Electoral Commission Chairman Alfonso and Armed Forces Strategic Operations Command Commander Ceballos on the sanctions list.

　　As a countermeasure, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Arreaza announced on the 24th that according to President Maduro’s decision, EU Ambassador to Venezuela Pedrosa was an “unwelcome person” and asked her to leave the country within 72 hours.

　　And this decision led the European Union to make a "countermeasure against the countermeasure", that is, on the 25th, the Venezuelan ambassador to the EU was declared an "unwelcome person."

Data map: Moscow, the capital of Russia.

The sanctions make it worse

Russia-Europe relations may be difficult to bridge

　　The mutual sanctions between the EU and Venezuela seem to have entered an "endless loop", and the relationship between the EU and Russia is also at a freezing point. The cause is still related to the issue of sanctions.

　　On February 22, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers decided to impose sanctions on Russian personnel related to the Navaline incident.

　　According to media reports, a total of 4 high-ranking Russian officials have been included in the sanctions list. They come from Russian investigative agencies, prison systems, and armed forces. They will be barred from entering the EU and their assets in the EU will also be frozen. .

　　Public opinion generally believes that the visit of the European Union's High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Borelli's visit to Moscow from February 4 to February 6 is a landmark event in the recent deterioration of Russia-Europe relations.

　　During Borelli’s visit to Russia, Russia expelled relevant diplomats from the three countries on the grounds that some members of the diplomatic missions of Sweden, Poland and Germany in Russia participated in an unapproved rally in support of the Russian opposition, Navariny. .

Borrell later said that the EU must formulate a plan for Russia to bear the consequences, and does not rule out additional sanctions.

　　At present, this sanction proposal has entered the approval process and will take effect after it is approved in writing by the European Council.

Borelli said that approval may take about a week.

　　In response to the EU's move, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed "strong criticism" on the 22nd.

Two days later, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said that Russia will not sit idly by and will find appropriate ways to deal with the EU’s new sanctions and may adopt asymmetric measures.

　　Some analysts pointed out that the Navalny incident has become a focus of the game between the West and Russia, and the EU's move has made the already sinking Russia-Europe relations worse.

　　The analysis also stated that Russia-Europe relations are largely affected by U.S.-Europe and U.S.-Russia relations.

In view of the obvious differences between the United States and Russia, the United States and Europe will be more consistent in containing Russia in the future, and the rift between Russia and Europe may be difficult to bridge in a short period of time.