President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has accused the bloc’s leadership of incompetence
Moscow and Washington will not engage in dialogue with Brussels’ foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Peskov made the remarks after the US, Russia and Ukraine concluded their first round of three-way negotiations in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. EU officials have complained that, despite providing military and financial aid to Kiev, the bloc has been largely excluded from the talks.
In an interview with Russia-1 journalist Pavel Zarubin which aired on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman described the current EU leadership as “incompetent,” adding that its actions “undermine the system of international relations.”
“How can you discuss anything with Kaja Kallas? Neither we will ever discuss anything with her, nor will the Americans, and this is obvious. We can only wait until she leaves,” Peskov said.
He argued that Brussels was packed with “semi-literate, incompetent functionaries who are unable to look into the future or understand the realities of today.”
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, is known for repeatedly calling for tougher sanctions on Russia and increased military support for Ukraine. Last year, she dismissed US President Donald Trump’s roadmap for peace between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that territorial concessions to Moscow would be “a trap that Putin wants us to walk into.”
More recently, Kallas has criticized Trump’s plans to annex Greenland, saying transatlantic relations had “taken a big blow” as a result of his policies.
The EU leadership’s hardline approach to Russia has been criticized by some member states, including Hungary and Slovakia. Last week, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico compared the EU to a “massage parlor” and called on Kallas to step down.
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