Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev was a key panel speaker at the 24th St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Deputy Speaker
of the Federation Council Konstantin
Kosachev was one of the main panel speakers at the 24th St Petersburg
International Economic Forum.
The senator
delivered reports titled “Russian-European Relations: Responding to the Challenges
of the Times” (3 June) and “Russian-German Relations after the Pandemic: Together
or Apart?”(4 June).
The Deputy
Speaker pointed out a fairly wide range of fields for potential interaction between
Russia and its partners in Europe, urging that Russia should not be separated from
Europe since Russia is a natural part, geographically, culturally, mentally and economically of it.
In Konstantin Kosachev’s opinion, their
cooperation is being hindered by a short-sighted policy of politically
motivated unilateral sanctions imposed, in part, by EU countries.
The Deputy
Speaker placed special emphasis on the huge German potential both in Europe generally
and in a global context and regretted that Federal Germany’s foreign policy was
more or less melting away in the common EU and NATO course toward Russia over
recent years.
“Germany managed to do much more before and hence our relations made better progress when Germany was assuming the burden of leadership,” stressed the senator.