Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis called the initiative of Germany and France to hold a summit of the EU with Russian President Vladimir Putin “irresponsible”
Earlier, the Financial Times cited diplomatic sources as saying that German and French leaders Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron wanted the EU to consider inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the summit. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that the initiative to hold a summit between Russia and the EU belongs to Merkel, is supported by Macron and should be discussed by the EU, while it is important to understand whether all EU members agree to a meeting between Russia and the EU.
The Lithuanian minister said in an interview with the Financial Times that resuming meetings with Russia when Moscow is “closest to the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union… is irresponsible”.
“Falling into the trap once or twice can be considered bad luck, but to continue to do so decade after decade is like historical myopia”, – the newspaper quoted the foreign minister as saying.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitriy Peskov earlier said that the Kremlin positively assessed the initiative to hold a Russia-EU summit; both Moscow and Brussels need this dialogue.