Russia feels chill wind blowing from Europe

Death knell

Agence France-Presse said the expulsions come as Russia's ties with the West have deteriorated to Cold War levels.

Samorukov said that combined with the different attitudes toward imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, the diplomatic conflicts are likely to prompt European countries to significantly reduce cooperation with Russia on a wide range of issues, while existing projects will come under considerable pressure.

A new wave of sanctions and condemnation will not only sound the death knell for the prospect of selling the Russian vaccine to Europe, it will also likely affect areas in which cooperation has so far managed to continue, particularly the energy sector.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament is pushing a draft resolution demanding Moscow be excluded from SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. The Parliament's members also insist on halting the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and slapping sanctions on Russian oligarchs for corruption.

Samorukov said, "It's hard to imagine in the current circumstances how the Nord Stream 2 pipeline－even if completed－could become fully operational. Russia's involvement in the construction of nuclear power plants in Bulgaria and Hungary will also run into new and possibly insurmountable difficulties."

However, Russian political analyst Alexander Rahr does not agree. "Regarding Nord Stream 2, I'm sure that nothing can stop this project. Europe is unlikely to sever ties with Moscow over Navalny," he said.

"This will continue to be an irritating factor because, for Europe, human rights remain one of the key issues. However, heavyweight European politicians understand that it's absurd to change historic relations over just one person," Rahr said.

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Federation Council's (Russian upper house) Foreign Affairs Committee, said that in its relations with the EU, Russia relies on steps taken by Brussels, rather than calls made by the European Parliament.

Ivan Timofeev, program director at the Russian International Affairs Council, said, "Cutting Russia off from SWIFT will lead to very serious fluctuations on financial markets. The initiators won't achieve any political goals, but the damage will be huge－first of all for Russian-EU relations with their significant trade turnover.

"If they got away with such sanctions against Iran, they'd better not repeat this ploy with Russia, because the subsequent damage and political consequences will be much more serious than in the case with Teheran."

Russia, for its part, will dig deep in areas where it has the most influence, reacting even more harshly to any signs of what it considers to be Western interference, Timofeev said.

The latest allegations of a planned coup in Belarus show how hard it will be for that country to return to even a limited form of a multi-pronged foreign policy.

Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of Russia's Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, said the dialogue between Moscow and the EU is far from over.

"Of course, no new Iron Curtain between Russia and the EU will fall from the sky. Their mutual humanitarian and economic relations remain very strong, despite some damage from sanctions, and cultural, and even political ties, remain intact," he said.

Lukyanov added that Russia and Europe are evolving into coolly polite neighbors that have no real interest in each other, but who are forced to interact simply because they coexist in close proximity.