BRUSSELS, February 1. /TASS/. The European Union as many Russians remember it from past years has ceased to exist, Kirill Logvinov, Russia's acting permanent representative to the EU, said.

"The analysis of the trends and specific features of the EU's foreign policy, which is taking shape in Brussels today, leads to the realization that the former European Union, as everyone knew it and got accustomed to it, no longer exists and will never exist again," he wrote in an expert column published on the TASS website.

The diplomat emphasized that the so-called "Russian threat" today serves the ideological needs of the EU bureaucracy, which adheres strictly to a globalist worldview. In his opinion, this thesis is being used to redistribute power in favor of Brussels and to weaken the national sovereignty of the member states of the community as much as possible.