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Spotlight: Juncker's Russia visit expected to herald restoration of dialogue

Xinhua, June 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Russian experts think the European Commission president's upcoming visit to a Russian forum heralds a restart of dialogue between the European Union (EU) and Russia, which has been interrupted since the 2014 Ukraine crisis.

Jean-Claude Juncker will attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, scheduled to kick off in Russia's second largest city St. Petersburg on Thursday.

"Juncker comes to Russia not to make specific proposals, but simply to restore dialogue, because no one benefits if the two sides do not hear each other," Maxim Bratersky with the National Research University Higher School of Economics said in an interview with Xinhua.

"We do not expect the visit to bring a breakthrough, but as a signal or as an episode, it is a good one," Andrei Klimov, deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia's Federation Council, or the upper house of parliament.

The United States may be upset by Juncker's visit, but Bratersky said Juncker is an independent politician who views Europe's interests as being not always identical to those of the United States.

Klimov said Juncker might have foreseen an adjustment of U.S. policy on Ukraine and Russia after the presidential elections, and he wants to stay in history as the one who restores cooperation between the EU and Russia.

There are a number of signals that the EU policy towards Russia is changing, though an immediate U-turn or an immediate lifting of sanctions against Russia is unlikely, Bratersky said.

Klimov said the EU, NATO and the United States have come to realize the ineffectiveness of the sanctions, which actually benefited Russia by prompting the Russian government to work more intensely and to restructure the economy.

On the other hand, the West understands that it is losing the Russian market, as Russian businesses turned to China, Japan, South Korea and other countries, Klimov added.

In any case, Bratersky said, Europe can not afford to lose Russia as a large market for European-made consumer goods and equipment and a supplier of raw materials and hydrocarbons.

Viktor Zubkov, board chairman of Russia's gas giant Gazprom, said that during Juncker's visit, Russia would discuss with him a project to deliver Russian gas to southern Europe via the Black Sea.

Bratersky said that although the EU Commission head would not make any decisions on the issue, he could bring back some proposals to Brussels. Endi