Playing perfectly into Russian disinformation games, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, beclowned himself and the EU on Friday.
It occurred during a press conference between Borrell and his Russian counterpart, the masterful disinformation artist Sergey Lavrov. As Lavrov launched into a litany of complaints against the EU and United States, Borrell stood idle like a statue. The timing could not have been worse. Borrell was under pressure to cancel his Moscow visit following the prison sentence imposed on Alexei Navalny this week. Critics of Borrell’s trip to Moscow feared that it would be seen as a signal of weakness by a Russian regime that revels in perceived weakness.
Borrell proved the critics right. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might have known how to handle Lavrov, but Borrell most certainly does not.
Following the two leaders’ opening statements, the Russians jumped straight into their games. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova gave the first question to a reporter from Sputnik, a state media outlet. That “reporter” spent a few minutes explaining how the EU has restricted the rights of Russian journalists on European soil and asked Borrell whether he would address this grievous injustice. The same reporter also asked for Borrell’s attitudes toward U.S. policy on Cuba. The intent here was to distract Borrell and European audiences (Sputnik’s priority focus is on Western audiences) from Navalny’s detention and to exploit U.S.-EU policy differences over Cuba. Borrell played his part well. He condemned U.S. policy toward Cuba and tried to make a joke about a movie that features snow and Cuba. Only Borrell laughed.
Asked about the Russian government’s violence against those peacefully protesting Navalny’s imprisonment, Borrell again danced to the Kremlin’s waltz. When it comes to violent repression, he said, “it’s not only in Russia that it happens.” This pathetic moral equivocation was surely music to Lavrov’s ears. Borrell then condemned police violence in the U.S. Lavrov could not have been happier with the distraction. He joined Borrell’s sentiments with his own exposition on how U.S. police officers like to attack innocent Americans.
Next, Borrell was asked by a European journalist whether the EU was contemplating the imposition of new sanctions on Putin’s inner circle oligarchs, as requested by Navalny’s legal team. Borrell said that he had raised the EU’s “serious concerns” but added that there was “no proposal time at the time being” to introduce new sanctions. It was a textbook example of the EU’s toothless rhetoric.
Borrell’s performance does not lend much credibility to the EU’s new ambition for “strategic autonomy.” Instead, Borrell only reemphasized the EU’s stunning appeasement of Moscow. At a minimum, the EU should be ending Russia’s Nord Stream II energy pipeline. But no. Just as it sucks up to the ethnocidal regime in Beijing, the EU continues to bow to Putin.
