Tag: European Union

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union is planning to use the frozen assets of Russian oligarchs to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine right after the war.

Media outlets announced in March that a Turkey-Israel gas pipeline was being planned behind closed doors as one of Europe's alternatives to Russian energy. Europe essentially wants to replace Russia with Israel for natural gas needs.

This week the European Union is expected to announce a complete import ban on Russian oil. Hungary, in its first real act of defiance, is threatening to veto this; Germany, after some hemming and hawing, has finally decided it can survive such a ban.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar chastised Europe on Tuesday for questioning India's Russia-Ukraine policy, reminding the Europeans that they were not trying to bend over backwards to resolve India's issues when the rules-based order was under risk in Asia or when, as he put it, Afghanistan's civilized society was shoved aside. He put it bluntly, where was Europe when order in Asia was threatened.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that EU has changed its stance toward Russia because of western countries and is now acting as the military arm of NATO.

Russia has set a March 31 ultimatum for "hostile" nations to start paying for natural gas imports in rubles. Countries that placed economic sanctions on the Russia and frozen its foreign currency reserves will be affected by the new currency-switch regulation. This is especially concerning for those EU countries that significantly depend on Russian energy imports.

Putin has claimed that the credibility of dollar and euro has been destroyed as a result of sanctions imposed by the West On Russia.

After a seven-year stalemate over Ukraine's refusal to follow the provisions of the Minsk accords, Russia have launched a special military operation. As the situation develops, EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell has come to the realization that the west have made several mistakes in their relations with Russia.

The EU have established an intelligence center in Spain which might prove to be the first major step toward a more organized European military intervention in Ukraine. The main purpose of the said satellite center is to monitor the Russian troops and their movements.

Eight years ago, a democratically elected president was removed from office by protesters waving European Union flags. Viktor Yanukovych had been elected as president of Ukraine in 2010 to serve a five-year term. His time in office was, however, brought to an abrupt end when he was removed for his refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU.