Putin chooses to close doors to diplomacy, dialog with West - Borrell

With his actions, including a speech at the event dedicated to the illegitimate annexation by Russia of the temporarily captured areas of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly declared the West an enemy and closed the door to dialog or diplomacy, as well as to Russia’s participation in the European Political Community.

That’s according to Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission, Ukrinform reports citing the press service of the EU External Action Service.

“The enemy he focused on was no longer a Ukraine with no right to exist and run by Nazis. No, the main target was “the collective West”. (…) Putin’s choices and his speech show to what extent he has closed the door to dialogue, diplomacy and a minimum sense of common humanity. He is only taking his country ever more on the path of war, escalation and isolation. And this is certainly worrisome,” Borrell said.

He recalled that in his address, Putin denounced the “totalitarianism, despotism and apartheid” of today’s West which wanted Russia to “be a colony”. He lambasted the West for many things ranging from the bombing of Dresden to the pillaging of India and even to and “gender reassignment surgery”. He even claimed that in the West “the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism.”

All this shows how over several years Russia has moved away from the rest of Europe and how dangerous and deluded is Putin’s worldview.

“Now we are again in a new phase of history. Russia has launched a brutal assault on the basic tenets of the post-Cold War European and international rules-based security order. For the foreseeable future and probably as long as Putin is in power, it is impossible to conceive of a new security order or ‘peace architecture’ in Europe of which Russia’s Putin would be an integral part, respecting shared principles again. Russia remains a geographical neighbor and a member of the international system – but right now, we have to build a European political community without Putin’s Russia,” the high representative said.

As reported earlier, on September 30, the Kremlin hosted an illegitimate ceremony of “admission into Russia” of puppet entities “DPR” and “LPR,” as well as parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, temporarily captured by the Russian army. The event followed the holding by Russian occupation authorities of sham referenda in the said areas on September 23-27 on their accession to Russia.

The international community has not recognized the outcome of the “referendum” spectacles.

On October 6-7 in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, which presides over the EU, an informal summit of the EU is taking place. On the first day of work, participants are considering an initiative to create a European Political Community. As expected, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will take part in the discussion.

The second day of the summit, which will actually be the meeting of the European Council, will be devoted to the entire range of issues related to Russian aggression toward Ukraine, including continued support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion, ways to overcome the energy crisis in the EU, and response to energy and food price hikes.