EU and Russia on the brink of WAR as Kremlin official blames Brussels for ‘VISA GENOCIDE’

Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014

 

TENSIONS between the EU and Putin are at breaking point as a Kremlin official labelled the Brussels ban on issuing visas to Russians living in the Crimea as “visa genocide”.

Putin’s deputy foreign minister has slammed Eurocrats for making ordinary Russians hostages to a Western political agenda and claimed the move is a violation of human rights.

Aleksey Meshkov said: “Today, I raised the question about the visa genocide of Crimean residents, and I raised it in a very harsh way.

New EU policy document calls Russia “strategic challenge”

The document, which is set to be endorsed at a June 28 summit of leaders, was produced by the bloc’s diplomatic corps after EU heads of state last year tasked EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini with providing a strategic assessment to “guide the European Union’s global actions in the future,” according to RFE/RL.

EU global strategy: ‘We must be ready to go beyond NATO’

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the Commission Federica Mogherini | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

 

Federica Mogherini set to propose stronger new role for the bloc on the world stage.

Europe must be able to develop its own military autonomy by going beyond NATO, says a new foreign policy and security proposal to be presented Tuesday to European leaders.

“When it comes to collective defense, NATO remains the primary framework for most member states” but “as Europeans we must take greater responsibility for our security,” states the Global Strategy, a document from EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.