Russian EU ambassador urges support not sanctions for Ukraine

Speaking at a press conference on 22 November in Brussels, ahead of the EU-Russia summit on 28 January, Russia's Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov (pictured) said that the EU should "stop speaking to Ukraine in the language of sanctions and use the language of support and political dialogue".

Following the deaths of three more protestors in Kyiv earlier, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkjavicus had tweeted: "Unrolling brutal scenario...calls for united reaction from EU. Calls for dialogue ineffective, time for targeted sanctions."

Ambassador Chizhov, however, refused to be drawn on the latest deaths, saying that it was not appropriate for him to comment "until all the facts were known".

Chizhov stressed that Ukraine was not on the  summit agenda: "This summit is about EU-Russia relations not about Ukraine. We are not planning to take decisions on Ukraine," he said.

And the Russian ambassador clarified that there are no "stark differences in basic approaches" between the EU and Russia on Syria.

"We are all in favour of putting an end to hostilities, of reaching a political solution, a solution that should be worked out and owned by the Syrians with international support," he said.

"What we may disagree are on certain tactical elements," Chizhov added.

In addition, Russia does not consider itself bound by the restrictions on oil trade with Iran, Chizhov added. The summit will also discuss the Iranian issue: “Unlike the United States, the EU has so far not commented in any way on the possibility of Russia’s bartering Russian goods for Iranian oil,” Chizhov said.

“I’m sure that if this issue is raised, a clear and unambiguous answer that the oil embargo had been imposed (by the EU and United States) unilaterally, and not by a decision of the UN Security Council, therefore Russia has never been bound by it and in no way it violates the UN Security Council resolution, will be given to it."

He also added that the EU Council on 20 January had already made a decision on partial lifting of the European sanctions on Iran for a period of six months - for the time of the negotiations. Thus “the European Union has fulfilled its part of the package agreement with Iran”.

According to Russia's ambassador, on 20 January: “A new phase of agreements between the six mediator countries (P5+1) and Iran began.”

“Although the EU formally is not included in the ‘sextet,’ nevertheless it de facto plays a co-ordination role in the negotiations with the consent of the sextet members. And the noticeable progress in negotiations with Iran is our common with the EU success and we give credit to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton for her efforts in this sphere,” Chizhov added.

According to Chizhov, the forthcoming summit would also pay considerable attention to the situation in Syria  “irrespective of the results of the discussion at Montreux”, where a second peace conference on Syria (Geneva II) opened on 22 January.

Concerning the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, Hungary‘s Olympic Committee (MOB) said on 22 January that it had received a terror threat email two weeks ahead of the Sochi Winter Games, but that the warning was later dismissed as a hoax.

The MOB made the mail, which also went to other National Olympic Committees (NOCs), public to the nation‘s MTI news agency before being reassured by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Russian organizers.

"The IOC takes security very seriously and passes on any credible information to the relevant security services. However, in this case it seems like the email sent to a number of NOCs contains no threat and appears to be a random message from a member of the public," the MOB quoted the IOC as saying.

Russia has a huge security operation in place to safeguard the first Winter Olympics in the country.

Militant Islamists in the unruly Caucasus region have threatened attacks on the Sochi Games. Last month, 34 people were killed in two suicide bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd, some 700 kilometres north of Sochi.

But Chizhov said: "Sochi is the safest city in Russia."

"I can assure you that all possible measures have already been taken to provide safety for all those coming to Sochi," the ambassador added.

Share this article: