EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell jets to Russia amid Alexei Navalny controversy

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell jets to Moscow on February 4 amid jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and crackdown against protesters. According to Moscow Times, Borrell’s visit marks first to Russia by a tip EU envoy since 2017. His trip, however, has drawn criticism from some European capitals worried Moscow will spin it as evidence Brussels is keen to return to business as rmal. 

But Borrell has insisted that he will deliver “clear mess” to Kremlin despite it blanking Western calls to release Russian President Vlimir Putin’s domestic opponent Navalny, who was on Tuesday given a jail term of almost three years. Apart from Navalny’s detention, top EU envoy will also be discussing cooperation on issues including enlisting Russia’s help in reviving Iran nuclear deal and tackling climate change. Russia, on or hand, also hopes that relation with 27-bloc nation could become warmer following Borrell’s visit. 

Vlimir Chizhov, Russia’s permanent representative to EU, has said that Borrell’s visit, which is scheduled for Feb 4-6, could pave way for similar meetings in future. Asked if it could also “unfreeze” relations between two, Chizhov clarified Russia’s mutual relation with EU wasn’t “deeply frozen” in first place.  

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EU-Russia relations 

While both European Union and Russian Federation share several contracts on tre, politics, personal data protection and implementation of JCPOA, ir ties have been severed since 2014. Primary causes include Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, support for rebel groups in eastern Ukraine, policies in neighbourhood, disinformation campaigns and negative internal developments. Putin ministration’s intervention in Syria, Libya and sub-Saharan Africa have also irked bloc promoting it renew several sanctions against Moscow.

Federica Mogherini, who served as EU’s High Representative of Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy from 2014 till 2019, previously visited Russia in 2017. Since n, re have been several telephonic discussions and virtual conferences, but in-person meeting has been conducted. " latest visit to Russia was paid by Federica Mogherini, Josep Borrell's predecessor in post, back in April 2017. Of course, re have been both phone conversations and meetings on sidelines of different events, but full-scale visits have been paid since," Chizhov recalled speaking to Sputnik.

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