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Top EU Diplomat Accused of Falling Into Russian Propaganda Trap

Jamie Dettmer

   EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell came under scathing criticism
   Saturday for his visit to Moscow, which several of the bloc's member
   states had urged him to cancel, fearing the Kremlin would manipulate
   the three-day trip to its advantage.

   His critics, including former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt,
   along with Western diplomats, say their worst fears were realized
   during Borrell's Friday joint press conference with Russian Foreign
   Minister Sergey Lavrov, in which Borrell said no EU member state had
   yet to propose new sanctions over the recent imprisonment of President
   Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic, Alexey Navalny.

   Just moments before the press conference, Kremlin officials announced
   their decision to expel three EU diplomats -- from Germany, Poland and
   Sweden -- for allegedly taking part in the unsanctioned Navalny
   rallies, a move possibly timed to humiliate Borrell.

   Critics say that the propaganda trap is likely to embolden Russian
   authorities to persist in their brutal paramilitary-style crackdown on
   internal dissent and civil society activists who've rallied for
   Navalny's release.

   Time to resign?

   "Borrell has to think about resigning," tweeted EU lawmaker Rasa
   JukneviÄienÄ, a former Lithuanian defense minister, condemning the
   overall tenor of Borrell's message that the EU and Russia "can
   cooperate despite misunderstandings."

   Although it was clear before Borrell's arrival in Moscow that the
   Kremlin would "mock him," JukneviÄienÄ tweeted, the whole of the EU has
   instead been ridiculed.

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