Signals that Russia’s interests need to be taken into account are being heard more often in Europe: Alexey Gromyko

Alexey Gromyko a political scientist and Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), spoke to Alpha News about the prospects for change in Russia–EU relations and possible preconditions for resuming dialogue. He commented on the sidelines of the plenary session of the International Forum on Ensuring Collective Security. In the expert’s view, signals that approaches to relations with Russia need to be reconsidered are being heard more and more often in Europe.

“Right now, things are not all moving in one direction; there may also be moves the other way. But from Europe, we are seeing more and more signals from interested parties who believe that there really is fatigue with the conflict, that there are internal problems, and who also understand how resilient our country has proved to be under stress. All of this is certainly pushing toward taking Russia’s interests into account and settling them. But the European Union is 27 countries, so some will advocate such a rapprochement, while others opposed the EU building a strategic partnership with Russia even in the best of times. So there is movement, but it is a fairly long process, multi-speed and rather chaotic,” the political scientist noted.

According to the expert, the process of changing the EU’s position will be long and uneven.

“We should not expect that the current leaders will necessarily be replaced by others and the situation will change immediately. Perhaps no further steps will follow, or perhaps these politicians will still prove themselves. So in politics, there is no point in betting that new people will come, everything will sort itself out and things will get easier. You have to work with those who are in power and on whom things depend,” Gromyko said.