The report, to be presented at the European Parliament‘s Committee on Foreign Affairs, openly calls Russia the instigator of the Ukrainian war, and also says Europe should halt any cooperation with Russia until it complies with its commitments taken under international agreements.
The Landsbergis report once again condemns Russia’s “undeclared war” against Ukraine, the Crimean annexation and previous military actions against Georgia’s territorial integrity in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia is also blamed for other frozen conflicts in Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The document states that through its actions, Russia has violated a number of international agreements and “damaged its relationship with the EU by jeopardizing the basic principles of Europe’s security order.”
Based on these arguments, the document calls on EU member states to review any military, economic or political cooperation with Russia, maintain a united position on the country’s greater isolation if it continues ignoring agreements, strengthen cooperation with NATO and also step up the deconstruction of the Kremlin’s “propaganda within the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries.”
“The EP r reiterates that, in the light of Russia’s direct and indirect involvement in the war in Ukraine, amounting to a deliberate violation of the core of the democratic principles and values sustained by the EU and widely shared internationally, the EU cannot envisage a return to ‘business as usual’; calls for a critical re-assessment by the EU of its relations with Russia, and for the drafting, as promptly as possible, of a soft-power contingency plan to counter the aggressive and divisive policies conducted by Russia against the EU and its partners,” the draft report states.
It pays special attention to Russian propaganda and fight against it. The reports states that Russia’s state-controlled media “have become players in the EU information sphere without keeping to the norms of independent journalism, including the rejection of hate speech.”
“The EP calls on the Commission to earmark without delay adequate funding for concrete projects aimed at countering Russian propaganda within the EU and abroad; calls on the Commission and the Member States to devise as well a mechanism for the collection, monitoring and reporting of financial, political or technical assistance provided by Russia to political parties and other organizations within the EU,” the documents says.
EP members will be able to submit their proposals and suggest amendments to the report by the end of March, with the final vote on the document is scheduled for June.
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