MOSCOW: Russia accused the European Union yesterday of seeking to create a “sphere of influence” on its borders by pressing Ukraine to choose closer ties with the Western bloc at the expense of relations with Moscow.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sharpened Russian allegations of Western interference in its neighbour’s turbulent affairs at a joint news conference after talks with his visiting German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Russia and the EU have exchanged recriminations since Kiev’s decision in November to shelve plans for a trade agreement with Brussels and to seek closer links with Russia instead, a move that sparked mass unrest in Ukraine claiming at least six lives.
Steinmeier told journalists that “no one should have an interest in lighting the fuse on the powder keg” and Ukraine must not become a “geopolitical chess game”. It was up to the conflicting parties in Kiev to find a solution, he said.
“I fully agree with Frank-Walter that there should be no spheres of influence. But dragging Ukraine to one side, telling it that it needs to choose ‘either or’, either with the EU or with Russia, (the European Union) is in fact trying to create such a sphere of influence,” the Russian minister said.
“That is obvious and no nice words can change that.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who knows Steinmeier well from his previous stint as German foreign minister, appeared to have conveyed a softer message in their meeting. A German source said Putin told Steinmeier that Russia welcomed steps towards economic convergence between Ukraine and the European Union.
Moscow says it does not oppose strong Ukraine-EU ties but believes the EU was trying to pressure Ukraine into signing the deal and choosing between the EU and Russia
In many respects, the showdown over Ukraine is about reordering power and influence in Europe following the 1991 collapse of the Communist Soviet Union. The EU’s enlargement process of the past decade has drawn in several former Soviet republics and former East European satellites of Moscow.
Russia has pushed back and is trying to set up a Eurasian customs union to rival the EU, preferably with Ukraine, which has 46 million people with shared historical and cultural roots.
Reuters
