MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Russia has requested the office of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell to submit a transcript of his words where he may have called the Russian Federation ‘fascist,’ yet the text has not yet been provided, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and top diplomat Don Pramudwinai in Moscow on Tuesday.
On Monday, during the European Parliament’s inter-parliamentary conference in Prague, Borrell, while responding to EU lawmakers who were demanding "concrete actions against Russia" from him, switched to his native Spanish, and, according to the official translation into English, he uttered a phrase about the absence of a "concrete plan to defeat the fascist Russian regime."
"Mr. Borrell’s office has immediately refuted these reports saying that he was speaking Spanish and there was an inaccuracy in the English translation. We asked the office of Mr. Borrell for a transcript of his address in Spanish but they are not giving it to us," the Russian top diplomat said.
"If what was reported in all media outlets worldwide (that Borrell called Russia "fascist" - TASS) is confirmed, then, of course, we will have major questions about how to continue handling matters with these people," Lavrov noted.
According to him, Moscow would also like to know what would be the policy of the EU’s new permanent representative in Russia, given these statements.
"Mr. Borrell, as I said, is, after all, the person who appoints EU representatives abroad. A week ago, a new head of the EU’s mission to the Russian Federation arrived in our country. And if Mr. Borrell so instinctively thinks it natural to fight, as he put it, with the ‘fascist regime’, then I would like to know what instructions and directives he issued to his representative in Moscow, and what policy this representative is going to pursue," the Russian foreign minister stressed.