Titled “On Russia, the case of Alexei Navalny, the military build-up on Ukraine’s border and the Russian attack in the Czech Republic”, the resolution was passed by 569 votes to 67, with 46 abstentions.
The resolution says that “the Russian Federation poses not only an external threat to European security, but is also waging an internal war on its own people in the form of the systematic oppression of the opposition and arrests on the streets”.
Parliamentarians expressed their support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders and reiterated their strong support for the EU’s policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol.
“The European Parliament regrets the current state of EU-Russia relations caused by Russia’s aggression and continued destabilisation of Ukraine, hostile behaviour towards and outright attacks on EU Member States and societies manifested through interference in election processes, the use of disinformation, deep fakes, malicious cyber attacks, sabotage and chemical weapons”, the resolution says.
Deputies of the European Parliament strongly condemned the hostile behaviour of Russia in Europe and called on its government to put an end to such activities which violate international principles and norms as well as threaten stability in Europe.
European deputies remain highly concerned over the large Russian military build-up at the border with Ukraine and call on Russia to return its troops from Ukraine’s border to their permanent bases.
The resolution of the European Parliament underscores that “if such a military build-up were in the future to be transformed into an invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the EU must make clear that the price for such a violation of international law and norms would be severe… in such circumstances imports of oil and gas from Russia to the EU be immediately stopped, while Russia should be excluded from the SWIFT payment system, and all assets in the EU of oligarchs close to the Russian authorities and their families in the EU need to be frozen and their visas cancelled”.
Besides, the deputies of the European Parliament call for the release of Alexei Navalny who is currently in a prison hospital. They demand to stop the construction of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline and cooperation with the company “RosAtom” in order to reduce the dependence of the European Union on Russian energy supplies.
The resolution points to the fact that perpetrators from the Russian intelligence services caused the explosion of the arms depot in Vrbětice in the Czech Republic. The European parliamentarians condemned this incident as an unacceptable act of hostility. In this regard, the European Parliament calls on the EU member-states to proceed with a coordinated expulsion of Russian diplomats.
Although the decisions of the European Parliament are presented in the form of recommendations to the executive bodies of the European Council, analysts believe that the official Brussels will hardly be able to ignore the decisions of its own parliamentarians. The point is that the adoption of such a resolution has been initiated by the European People’s Party, the largest faction in the European Parliament. Unlike previous decisions of this European institution, the decisive tone of its current resolution is “obvious for the first time”.
In commenting on the resolution of European parliamentarians, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was quoted as saying, “Thankful to the European Parliament for its clear response to the threat to European security from the Russian Federation. Russia must stop aggression against Ukraine. The illegal navigation blockade in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov must be immediately lifted. It’s these very signals that Ukraine has been calling for. To show the Russian Federation that the price for a new wave of aggression will be an oil and gas embargo, the exclusion from the SWIFT payment system, the blocking of European assets of Russian oligarchs. Ukraine welcomes the call to stop the completion of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline and energy projects of RosAtom in Europe”.
Reference: The European Parliament is a legislative and representative body of the European Union. Directly elected by citizens of the EU member-states, the European Parliament is regarded as one of the most influential legislative institutions of the world.
The newspaper Voice of Ukraine
