MOSOCW, June 30. /TASS/. Moscow is not inclined to gloat over the political fermentation that the European Union has been going through, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Primakov Readings conference of Friday.
"We are not inclined to gloat over all this, we have not been enjoying it, but we understand that it is not in our power to influence the processes taking place in the European Union," Lavrov said. "This political fermentation should calm down somehow," he added.
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The Russian top diplomat pointed out that the talk about the possible collapse of the EU had been initiated by its member states. "It seems to me that these statements were made by a number of the EU member states’ leaders," he noted. "Some politicians even came up with initiatives to follow the British example and hold a referendum," he said.
Lavrov stressed that Russia had always wanted the EU to be "united, strong and speak in one voice."
"Unfortunately, the European Union has recently been voicing a unified position based on the lowest common denominator imposed by a minority group that hates Russia," Lavrov noted. "At the same time, people who have a constructive view on relations with Russia and understand that the current situation is counterproductive, just made helpless gestures and say that ‘we have the principle of solidarity, a consensus.’ But a consensus means that the parties should meet each other halfway, while the European Union’s policy towards Russia has not been based on this principle, but on extremist anti-Russian views of a small group of countries," the Russian foreign minister noted.
He called on the European Union to build relations with its partners taking into consideration the interests of all member states. "We would like the European Union’s policy towards us and their other partners to be based on a balance of interests of the member countries rather than on a position imposed by a minority group," Lavrov concluded.