“I think that for a long time Europe was moving with a great innocence towards Russia, but Europe’s reaction after the invasion of Ukraine makes me proud to be European,” said Development and Investment Minister Adonis Georgiadis speaking at the 7th Economic Delphi Forum.
“I think for a long time Europe was moving with a great deal of innocence towards Russia and the word innocence I use is a mild expression. “Putin turned out to be Mr Putin, a ruthless man who does not count on international law and commits the crimes we now see in Ukraine. I think there is a very critical moment where Europe has made a mistake,” he said. Georgiadis continued: “And now I am sure that President Putin would never have decided to invade Ukraine if he did not feel strong, because of this dependence of Europe on Russian gas in principle.
“So yes, Europe was in shock, because if anyone really believed that this could happen, they would have taken action very, very early on.”
Asked when Europe should change its stance on Russia, he said: “I imagine that after Crimea, European policy should have been completely overhauled. It was Georgia before Crimea, Putin had already shown his dispositions. So somewhere there, Europe should have started a very big turn, it did not start it, on the contrary, it was more attached to Russia, although Europe had been warned many times by the United States and others about how dangerous it was. to depend almost exclusively on Russian gas. ”
But on Europe’s reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Georgiadis said: “Europe’s reaction after the invasion makes me proud to be European. Because I’m sure President Putin did not expect Europe He believed that sanctions against Russia, because of its dependence, would have a huge impact on the European economies and their governments – and let ‘s not be fooled that rising inflation hurts all governments politically. “Europe and ours – he believed that we would not do anything in the end. That Europe acted with such determination is a matter of pride.”
Asked if Europe would need to take further action against Russia, he said he thought Europe might need to take tougher decisions in the future. Boutsa and today at the train station, you get to a point where doing any kind of business with Russia would be morally unbearable, I understand the interests of the states, I am Minister of Development, but if civilians are killed there is a point You can not continue to do business with these people, and I think Europe will probably have to make tougher decisions in the future. values ​​there is no Europe “.
Asked if there would be political repercussions in Europe from the developments after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Georgiadis replied that he was not afraid of either the elections in France or what would happen in Greece.
“Those who support the law – and the law is now the Ukrainian people defending themselves against the illegal invasion, the law is the innocent people being killed, the law is the defense of democracy and the right of states to decide freely in which alliance they want to be. “This will ultimately be supported by the European people in the elections as well. We will have a difficult time. No one is happy. I will run with more political pressure and more political cost, but to defend democracy I am very willing to take it on.”
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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