Czecks are Warming-Up Relations with Russia

• 03.19.2015, 17:20
•  Europe,  World

Prime Minister of the Czeck Republic Bohuslav Sobotka called the EU not to hurry with strengthening the sanctions on Russia. He offered to ease the sanctions in case if "one is mindful of the Minsk consensus", Bloomberg reports.

While giving an interview to a local TV the PM announced that the audit of the implementation of Minsk agreements may be done during this year. If the agreements are being implemented, the sanctions should be eased.

Meanwhile, in case if the agreements are violated, the EU may consider strengthening the sanctions.   The PM thinks that after the Minsk agreements, the situation in Ukraine has started to reconcile, and the future development of the situation will be clear after the Donetsk elections.

This together with the recent news that the Czeck president is visiting Moscow on the Victory day, signifies that although the parliament and the population may not agree with this position, the Czeck Republic has opened its’ doors for Russia. The country is refusing sanctions against Russia and what is even more, it is warming up relations. Today Czeck Republic and Hungary are the leading actors in the EU, in terms of easing the sanctions against Russia.  These countries are first in the list to suffer from sanctions on Russia, as the economic relations with Russia comprise a comparatively big amount of their trade. At the same time, these two have special interest in relations with Russia in the field of energy.

On the other hand, this tendency of the key European countries’ leaders visiting Moscow is a call for Brussels to stop viewing its relations with the partners on the EU level and start considering also the interests of individual countries.