Milanovic says Russia's conduct worse than unacceptable

What Russia has done in Ukraine is worse than unacceptable and the EU's response to its conduct is good, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said after an EU summit in Brussels on Friday.

In response to Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, EU leaders have added 12 more Russian nationals to a list of persons whose property has been blocked, they have launched preparations for economic sanctions against Russia if it continues to spread its influence over Ukraine, and they have severed contacts with Russia at the highest level.

"What the EU has done is enough. Depending on how you read the conclusions, but this is not the end of all contacts, but of contacts at the highest level, which at this moment is both the minimum and the maximum," Milanovic said after the summit.

"Russia should be sent a clear message that what it has done is worse than unacceptable, it is an act of aggression and occupation of one part of a country. Relations between Russia and Europe, especially one group of EU countries, are complex, intertwined and mutual. Just as some countries depend on Russian gas, so does Russia depend on income from it," Milanovic said.

Asked how possible economic sanctions against Russia would reflect on Croatia, Milanovic said the EC had been entrusted with the task of making an estimate of such measures, but that Croatia would make its own estimate.

"But I don't believe that there will be economic sanctions."

Today, on the second day of the EU summit, EU leaders also discussed ways of reducing the EU's energy dependence on Russia.

That Europe depends to a certain extent on Russia in terms of energy is more a problem for Russia than for Europe, said Milanovic.

"That is Russia's biggest problem, it has turned into an economic monoculture. A country that once was the first to send a human into space, that ruled and still rules some technologies, now unfortunately bases its economy on several raw materials. In the long and medium term it burdens Russia more than it burdens Europe, which will find a way to be secure," Milanovic said.

As for energy supplies, Croatia can be relatively peaceful, one of the ways to protect itself is to build a liquefied natural gas terminal, according to the PM.

"We have now opened the Adriatic to exploration, we are expecting results. Croatia cannot be careless, but it can be relatively peaceful," said Milanovic.

(Hina)



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