Valdai Club

Russia should steer away from supporting right-wing populists in Europe and instead look at general openness, when it comes to attempting to resolve the current crisis in relations with the EU, according to Richard Sakwa.

While there are fears that a weaker European Union would naturally gravitate toward the United States, the argument does not account for all nuances of bilateral ties, Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics, University of Kent at Canterbury; Associate Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), told valdaiclub.com.

“Countries like Germany and in the old days France, today Italy, other countries, Greece and others who have got traditionally good relations with Russia. So, a stronger EU tends to subsume that into their own foreign policy like a unified energy policy, for example,” Sakwa said.

He added that Russia should not seek to back the rise of right-wing populists in Europe because it is only one of the movements that seek a shift away from mainstream policies, and support for such a force would be seen as a fostering of internal divisions within the EU.

“This is a new constellation which Russia is in danger of missing out of if it puts all its money on right-wing populist anti-immigrant forces. So, I think that in this context the development of European Union is enormously complex, unpredictable, as you say, and the crisis, both economic, sluggish activity, the Eurozone crisis has not gone away yet,” he added

Sakwa added that support of certain movements within the EU is seen as an exploitation of internal divisions. This, according to Sakwa, should not be done, in favour of a policy of being open to dialogue with all sides.

“And in fact it’s very dangerous: if you become the hostage to one force or the other so the only policy, wise policy, is to say, ‘We’re open to cooperation, we’re open to dialogue’, which I think is the policy at the moment. But it’s very hard because everybody at the moment has become very passionate: the language, the ideological conflict, the propaganda wars in all sides and so on,” Sakwa said.

Sakwa also said that Russia should seek to be tolerant, inclusive and open to dialogue, as both are traditions of Russia and Europe.

He noted, however, that the systemic crisis may continue, as the Ukraine crisis was already seen as inevitable, but that another crisis in Russia-EU relations may no longer be manageable, which is why Western policy-makers have begun looking for ways to repair relations.

“There are too many negative factors. There is the Eastern European factor and so on, of course. We know Poland in particular, at the moment, is very tough. But, there is in a sense that after Ukraine everybody understands that the, systemic crisis has to go to a new phase, and we have to work to overcome it - or else the next stage. Because after the Russo-Georgian War the next one will be Ukraine. The next one will be the last one,” Sakwa concluded.