BRUSSELS, August 30 (RIA Novosti) – The European Union is not interested in confrontation with Russia, just as Russia is not interested in confrontation with the European Union, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Saturday after the talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Brussels.
“Sanctions or restrictive measures are just ways, means or instruments to show the Russian leadership that the current situation is not acceptable and that we urge them to reason, to work constructively. We have certainly no interest in the European Union in confrontation with Russia and I believe Russia should have no interest in confrontation with the European Union,” Barroso said.
“If we think strategically, it makes no sense to have this kind of conflict, or a kind of new Cold War,” Barroso said adding that this kind of conflict is detrimental for Ukrainian people suffering from violence, but also for Europe.
The crisis in Ukraine, where Kiev launched a military operation to suppress independence supporters in the southeast of the country, has soured the relations between Russia and the West. The West has repeatedly accused Russia of building up forces on its border with eastern Ukraine and supplying independence supporters with weapons, a claim Moscow has rejected.
The West has imposed several rounds of sanctions against Moscow, including against individuals, companies and penalties on whole sectors of the Russian economy.
In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order on economic measures to protect the country's security, banning for a year imports of agricultural and food products from countries that imposed sanctions on Russia.
