MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - Russia is ready for mutually beneficial cooperation with the European Union; the relationship should not be sacrificed to geopolitical games, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"As far as Russia is concerned, at the talks in Moscow we reiterated our aim to normalize all our relations with the EU, on the basis of not unilateral demands but mutual respect and due regard for each other's interests," Lavrov said told journalists when asked to comment on a recent statement by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell that the two sides were "drifting apart."
The text of Lavrov's answer was published on the ministry's website on Monday.
"With such an approach, we are ready to cooperate in certain areas where our interests overlap. By the way, such areas of enhanced cooperation as healthcare, science and technology, climate change, were agreed upon in Moscow. With the traditional key area - energy - included, you get quite a decent mutually advantageous agenda, unless it is sacrificed to geopolitical games," Lavrov said.
During their recent talks with Borrell in Moscow, Lavrov "spoke precisely about the importance of building the Russia-EU relationship on a systemic basis. I reminded that in 2014 it was the EU who brought down the architecture of wide-ranging ties with our country, which took years to painstakingly create. The foremost reason, I remind, was the EU support for an anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine with a clearly pronounced anti-Russia, anti-Russian hue."
As a result, EU-Russia summits held twice a year and inter-government meetings were suspended, the Permanent Partnership Council was frozen as were about 20 sectoral dialogues, the minister said. "Earlier, long before the Ukrainian coup, upon the insistence of certain EU members, work discontinued on a nearly completed draft of the agreement on short-term visa-free travel between the EU and Russia. The reason: no visa-free travel with Russia until the EU has granted such to Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. So there is outright politicization and anti-Russian subtext here as well," Lavrov said.
Also, since the Baltic states joined the EU "there has been blatant and consistent discrimination of Russian-speakers living there. The attack on Russian media is rising exponentially. Latvia and Estonia have retained the shameful institution of 'non-citizenship' to this day," Lavrov said.
"Hence, a reasonable question: who is drifting away from whom? After all, could it be that the EU itself is moving farther away from Russia, the Russian language and culture?" Lavrov said.