Russia skeptical about EU and CIS countries’ relations

Andrey Nesterenko from the Russian Foreign Ministry thinks the EU is trying to give various beneficial arrangements to certain CIS countries, holding out the prospects of free trade and economic integration with EU. Moscow thinks that EU cooperation with former Soviet countries should not run contrary to the commitments of those countries as CIS members.

Nesterenko says that Russia doubts that the Eastern Partnership Programme will achieve any positive results. He is curious as to why the six countries who are already members of the European Neighbourhood Policy programme (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus) have now been ‘promoted’ to the Eastern Partnership Programme.

Nesterenko says that the EU often suggests to CIS countries that they should choose either the EU or Russia, an awkward choice to make. He cites the example of Belarus, saying that he thinks the EU is putting pressure on Minsk over its ‘independent foreign policy direction,’ a phrase which presumably means the possibility that Belarus might recognize separatist Abkhazia and South Ossetia.