Russia’s permanent mission to the EU in Brussels has been functioning in quite a complicated atmosphere amid the Russophobic campaign across the West, Russia s Permanent Representative to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said in an interview with Izvestia. He castigated the outrageous and absolutely ungrounded decision by the EU in April to declare a large group of the mission’s employees personae non gratae. In the meantime, its work there hasn’t diminished in any way, so the burden on those who remained has increased, he said.
According to Chizhov, the Russian mission has been making regular attempts to make their position and concerns clear to their European counterparts, while sharing political and so-called moral views on what the European Union has been doing on its Russia policy track.
Asked if the EU could suspend the mission’s work, Chizhov told Izvestia that though the risk did exist, he didn’t think the European Union would ignore its own interests to such an extent.
The bloc would soon appoint a new mission chief to Moscow, Chizhov said, while his and his colleagues’ contacts in Brussels had repeatedly said that the EU would like to keep its communication channels open with Russia.
