MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called on the European Union’s leadership to elaborate the principles of its new course towards Russia.
According to the Russian top diplomat, NATO’s and European Union’s position towards Russia is determined by the "quite aggressive and noisy Russophobic minority."
"When countries that understand that the situation in relations between Moscow and the West is abnormal say, as part of bilateral dialogue, that the current stage is explained by the rule of consensus that they are against the sanctions but are obliged to join the consensus, I usually tell them in a friendly manner that consensus implies the lack of objections and that just one objection will be enough to break the consensus, if these organizations - NATO and the European Union - are really guided by the rule of consensus (and this is so indeed)," he said in an interview with the Bolshaya Igra (Big Game) program on Russia’s television Channel One on Sunday.
He noted that quite unsmooth processes are unfolding within the European Union and many understand that such a policy towards Russia cannot be continued. "I think one of the priorities of the agenda for the new people in the European Union’s steering bodies will be elaborating this position," he said.
Currently, in his words, the European Union’s course towards Russia rests on "five principles invented several years ago." "There a quite notorious thing among them: Russia must implement the Minsk agreement to have the sanctions lifted. Meanwhile, the European Union will continue to work with our civil society and our neighbors under the European Partnership program and will extend it to Central Asia," the minister noted.
"Clearly, these five principles will lead to nowhere," he stressed.