MOSCOW, 31 October (BelTA) - The United States, using Ukraine, finally deprived the European Union of its ambitions to become a world center of power, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of MGIMO at the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexey Kuznetsov told a press conference, BelTA has learned.
"Can or may the European Union become a so-called multinational center of power? Unfortunately for it, no. This is the main result of U.S. policy over the past two decades," said Alexey Kuznetsov.
"For the United States, the most inconvenient competitor was the European Union. They could always accuse China and Russia of lack of democracy, wrong values, wrong culture, whatever. Those accusations were often false, but the U.S. public bought into it. It would be difficult to accuse France or Netherlands of being alien to the United States in terms of culture, values and so. Accordingly, the United States had to compete with the European Union honestly, openly. But it couldn't. In its first years the euro was a very successful alternative to the dollar," the expert said.
"Then we witnessed a string of scandals: the refusal to return Germany its gold reserves which were in storage in the United States, the pressure on the euro area in connection with the forced expansion to the east contrary to the theories of optimal currency areas. As a result, the United States did everything to bring the European integration to a grinding halt. The coup d'état in Ukraine in 2014 coupled with the events of 2013 were the final nail in the ambitions of the European Union to become an independent center of power," Alexey Kuznetsov concluded.
