In the sphere of influence: how the US and the EU intend to build a policy towards Russia

The United States and the European Union will act as a "united transatlantic front" as part of their policy towards Russia.

This was stated during a telephone conversation by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

As reported in the release of the EU Foreign Service, the conversation between the diplomats was devoted to the latest developments around Ukraine.

"High Representative Borrell and Secretary Blinken rejected the Russian initiative to restore spheres of influence in Europe and stressed their determination to continue intensive consultations between the US and the EU on this and other issues, presenting a strong, clearly defined and united transatlantic front," the statement said.

As emphasized in the Foreign Ministry, coordination between Washington and Brussels on the Russian-Ukrainian issue continues at the highest level.

At the same time, as the statement says, “The EU and the US remain open for dialogue with Russia, but in no way to the detriment of the freedom, sovereignty and independence of members of the transatlantic community and their partners and not to the detriment of following fundamental values ​​and relevant international obligations."

A short press release about the conversation between Blinken and Borrell was also published by the State Department.

It said that the heads of diplomacy discussed "the ongoing actions of Russia to build up its military presence in Ukraine and near Ukraine."

"Secretary Blinken confirmed that further Russian aggression against Ukraine is fraught with swift, severe and coordinated consequences," the State Department said.

Information pressure

For several months now, the leadership of a number of Western countries and the media have been consistently aggravating the situation around Ukraine, announcing the “aggression” that Russia is allegedly planning against it and for the implementation of which it is pulling troops to the border.

In their materials, Western newspapers and TV channels rely on statements from anonymous sources and some intelligence, according to which the “invasion” should take place in January or February 2022.

Some media, such as the German newspaper Bild and the American The Washington Post, even published maps with diagrams of the alleged attack.

• EU diplomat Josep Borrell and US Secretary of State Etoni Blinken

• AP

• © Jonathan Ernst

Moscow has repeatedly denied that Russia has such plans.

Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation Sergey Naryshkin at the end of November 2021 said that the main source of the information campaign about the “invasion” is the US State Department.

“The State Department is pumping these fakes, these lies, and their allies, and the leaders of the media, and the leaders of the political science centers of the United States of America so that they multiply these lies, multiply and multiply.

And they inflated a rather large bubble around this, ”said the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Against the backdrop of this information campaign, talks between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden took place in early December.

Then the Kremlin noted that the president drew the attention of his American colleague to the fact that "the responsibility should not be shifted onto the shoulders of Russia, since it is NATO that is making dangerous attempts to develop Ukrainian territory and build up its military potential" near the borders of the Russian Federation.

In this regard, Putin stressed that Moscow is "seriously interested in obtaining reliable, legally fixed guarantees that exclude the expansion of NATO in an easterly direction and the deployment of strike offensive weapons systems in states adjacent to Russia."

Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry presented two draft documents on such guarantees - for the US and for NATO.

Negotiations on these proposals were held on January 10 in Geneva with representatives of Washington, on January 12 in Brussels with a delegation of the North Atlantic Alliance, and on January 13 consultations on security within the OSCE were held in Vienna.

European politics

Following this series of talks, the EU foreign and defense ministers gathered for an informal meeting in Brest, France, on 14 January.

According to the German publication Deutsche Welle, the meeting participants agreed on a unified approach towards Russia, based on ten points, including the development of new EU sanctions against Moscow, which should be carried out with the participation of the United States.

At the same time, after the meeting, some European foreign ministers separately voiced their position in relation to the Russian Federation.

For example, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who currently presides over the EU, said: “Our task is to contain Russia.

We share a common resolve to act.”

• European Commission building in Brussels

• Legion Media

• © Marcin Rogozinski

According to Alexander Kamkin, a leading researcher at the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the collective West is acting against Russia with an increasingly united front.

“The very raising of the issue of a threat to members of the transatlantic community from the Russian Federation looks at least ridiculous.

The talk that Russian tanks will break into these countries tomorrow are remnants of the Cold War, which, unfortunately, are again taken out of boxes and used to contain and squeeze Russia out of the sphere of influence, in particular from the sphere of energy and security policy, ”- the interlocutor of RT emphasized.

At the same time, the issue of a certain threat to Ukraine, which allegedly worries European politicians, is just a pretext for pursuing a policy of containment of the Russian Federation, Kamkin added.

“The context is much broader than the same Ukraine, because we are talking about a confrontation at the global level, which is characterized by an extreme degree of rejection of Russia's position on the part of European, and especially American partners.

Against the backdrop of negotiations in Geneva, the conversation between Blinken and Borrell suggests that they are comparing watches and preparing a joint response to Russia, ”the political scientist believes.

In turn, Sergey Ermakov, an expert at the RISS Research Coordination Center, noted that the United States has long been concerned that partners in the EU are trying to play their own game, often in isolation from the American strategic course.

Now Washington has managed to create a pretext under which Europe will be returned to this course, the expert explained in an RT commentary.

“Now the meaning is this: the Europeans must adhere to the strategic course of the United States.

Washington declares a geopolitical rivalry with Russia and China, in which the Europeans must support them.

In this regard, the partnership between NATO and the EU is developing.

And since it is the North Atlantic Alliance that dominates in the field of security and defense, Josep Borrell has already stated that in defense projects the EU will follow a special partnership with NATO - in fact, with the United States, ”said Yermakov.

In addition, now the EU is not able to pursue an independent foreign policy due to changes in the largest countries of the union, the analyst added.

“There is an intra-European struggle for leadership, mainly between Germany and France.

At the same time, the internal political situation in France is now complicated on the eve of the elections, and in Germany it became more complicated after the elections due to the distribution of serious political powers in the country.

This, of course, complicates the development of a common policy in Europe,” Yermakov explained.

Europe is not in a position to reject the imposed US leadership, and talk of "transatlanticism" is a kind of compromise on this issue, the expert added.

“There are different views on how Europe should build a policy towards Russia, but it will be conducted in the Washington-Brussels-Moscow triangle.

Moreover, Brussels will always look back at Washington and try to assure him that even the European search for any solutions in relations with Moscow will not threaten US policy, ”RT’s interlocutor concluded.