MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. Russia is ready to continue equal dialogue with the European Union, but it won’t tolerate any preliminary conditions, the more so, threats of unilateral and illegal sanctions against it and warns that such sanctions will be followed by a proportionate response, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday, commenting on the conclusions of the EU summit on Russia-related matters.
"On our part, we reiterate our readiness for the continuation of an equal dialogue with the European Union, including on the topics mentioned in the conclusions, which both sides are interested in. However, such a dialogue, contrary to the hopes some the EU capitals are cherishing, cannot be based on preliminary conditions. The more so, on threats of unilateral and illegal sanctions against our country, which will inevitably be followed by a proportionate response, and Brussels is well aware of that," she stressed.
According to Zakharova, the EU summit’s conclusions of June 25 concerning Russia "demonstrate that the EU still has systemic problems with the elaboration of a clear strategy of relations with Russia."
"Discussions during the summit clearly demonstrated that anti-Russia member nations continue to determine the European Union’s ‘common denominator’ in Russia affairs," she noted. "The European Union is actually in the grip of time-serving interests that run counter to the interests of rank and file Europeans. As a result, the European Union keeps on going round in circles and has once again upheld the ‘Federica Mogherini principles’ agreed as back as 2016, which make future Russia-EU relations dependent on the implementation of the Minsk agreements Kiev have been ignoring for years."
The Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow dismissed the untrue and ungrounded accusations against Russia written in the document as absolutely inadmissible. "It is regrettable that European structures are avoiding a professional dialogue with us on issues of their concern, including information and cybersecurity," she added.
After a marathon discussion of Russia-related topics on Friday, the leaders of 27 EU nations failed to agree to an initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to organize a Russia-EU summit. Instead, according to the summit’s final statement, the EU leaders instructed EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to look at the possibility of arranging dialogue with Russia on separate topics of interest for the European Union and to explore options for further anti-Russian sanctions, including economic restrictions, to contain Russia’s future possible activities deemed by the EU as harmful.