Tatiana Zhdanok
MEP from Latvia Tatyana Zhdanok explained her decision to vote against a resolution of the European Parliament urging the EU governments to cancel the Nord Stream 2 project, adopt a “democratization strategy” for Russia and demand that Moscow cancel the amendments to the Constitution. She wrote about this in her Facebook account.
Zhdanok stressed that, in principle, she opposes the sanctions mechanism as such, noting that it does not work in interstate relations, “often leading to the opposite results.” “The adopted resolution is one of the purely declarative ones. They are invented and organized by the Foreign Affairs Committee. But at the same time, one should not assume that the European Parliament is generally an empty space, that nothing is being decided there. It is being solved, and quite a lot, but in other directions. In particular, on the budget, on visa policy, on internal affairs, on employment issues, ”she wrote.
The MEP called the resolution on Russia, as well as on Belarus, “a concussion of the air”, adding that “a wave from such a concussion could have consequences.” “The uniqueness of the final version of the resolution we are considering is the proposal to punish people not for the facts of crimes, but only for the fact that they are involved in the investigations of [Alexei] Navalny and Co. And the main hitch here is that they punish citizens of a third country for actions committed in the same country, and not at all on the territory of those states that apply such punishment, ”Zhdanok said.
She noted that she was surprised at the vote of the German deputies: “Almost everyone is in favor.” Zhdanok also said that “all the fuss” began with statements by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, suggesting that “the Americans have very strong compromising evidence against her.” The MEP said that the resolution also shocked her with “unprecedented interference in the internal affairs of Russia.” “Whatever one may say, the topic of Russophobia after such a vote on the resolution cannot be avoided. Russia is now to blame for everything bad that is being done, ”she wrote.
Zhdanok also spoke about “double standards”, recalling the September session of the European Parliament, when the agenda included the issue of violations of the European principles of democracy and the rule of law in Poland: “Nobody considers the opposition, the press is clamped down, the courts are cleared of those disloyal to the authorities. But the same Poles in the European Parliament are preparing resolutions against Russia. “
She summed up, commenting on the situation in Belarus: “The main thing now is to avoid repeating the Ukrainian version in Belarus. And [Alexander] Lukashenko will have to open the windows and freshen the air in the country, and allow serious political competition. No other is given. “
