Moscow not expecting talks with Europe: Brussels has not settled on a format

Talks between Russia and Europe will not take place in the near future — Brussels has still not decided whether it needs such contacts at all.

This was stated to Gazeta.Ru by international lawyer and director of the European Information Center Nikolai Topornin.

“At this stage, nothing has changed fundamentally, in my view. There are no talks. There will be no talks in the near future. Is there still some small window or opening for them to begin at some point? We remember that in the spring they started thinking that they should appoint some kind of representative-moderator, some names began to be mentioned, then they said that perhaps it would not be one person but several, a notional trio. Then, when Antonio Costa, the head of the European Council, started making some contacts with [presidential aide Yuri] Ushakov’s secretariat, he was immediately subjected to criticism,” the political analyst said.

According to Topornin, the entire process of selecting a politician within the European Union to be appointed as a negotiator with Russia indicates that Brussels has not yet made up its mind on the question of talks with Moscow.

“If we are talking about engagement with Russia, there is absolutely no engagement whatsoever,” he stressed.

European Union member states have been unable to reach an agreement on a format for dialogue with Russia, Izvestia reported, citing diplomatic sources. According to the publication’s source, the EU is open to dialogue with Russia, but no specific format for engagement has been agreed upon.

Earlier, the Kremlin said it had seen a positive signal from the EU.