Brussels doubles down on defence of controversial trip to Moscow

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell listens during the catastrophic press conference in Moscow. 

Credit: Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service 

Brussels on Monday defended the EU’s foreign affairs chief after a disastrous visit to Moscow, which ended with the expulsion of three European diplomats. 

Josep Borrell said the EU should turn to Russia and its Sputnik vaccine to make up the shortfall in its supplies during the Friday trip, which was intended to heap pressure on the Kremlin to release jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 

“Of course he has no regrets. He is a diplomat and diplomacy is about engaging,” Mr Borrell’s spokesman said in Brussels on Monday.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, “fully supported” Mr Borrell’s decision to go to Moscow, despite the misgivings of some member states, her spokesman said. 

During the visit, Russia expelled diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden for attending protests calling for Mr Navalny, who survived a chemical weapons assassination attempt in August, to be freed. Mr Borrell learned of the expulsions on social media.

Meanwhile, Mr Navalny was back in court on separate charges of defaming a Second World War veteran, which could see him jailed for an additional two years on top of the nearly three year sentence he was handed last Tuesday. 

Mr Borrell was criticised by MEPs, British MPs , US officials and EU diplomats for being underprepared and being “played” by Russia. One Estonian MEP, a former military commander, has called for Mr Borrell to be sacked and is collecting signatures for a letter to Mrs von der Leyen demanding the Spanish politician’s head. 

“A trip is not a success or a failure based on what happens in just one part of that trip but the whole trip, and also on the lessons that can be learned from the trip, and our relationship with Russia,” the European Commission’s chief spokesman said. 

On Sunday, Mr Borrell published a blog defending the reasons for the trip, stressing he had been vocal in demanding Mr Navalny’s release and accusing Russia of “progressively disconnecting itself from Europe.”

He wrote, “An aggressively-staged press conference and the expulsion of three EU diplomats during my visit indicate that the Russian authorities did not want to seize this opportunity to have a more constructive dialogue with the EU.”

Poland’s diplomatic mission in Brussels hosted a virtual meeting with close associates of Mr Navlany on Monday. The meeting was also attended by ambassadors from the UK, US, Ukraine and Canada, as well as the 27 EU member states. 

The state of EU-Russia relations and possible sanctions against Moscow were discussed at the meeting, which was also attended by representatives from the EU’s foreign affairs service.