New EU Members Hinder Relations With Russia
Mary Dejevsky, The Independent | September 2, 2008
EU efforts to reach a friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with Russia are thwarted by the new eastern and central European EU members. ++ These countries, in contrast to old members, failed to leave past enmities at the door when joining the Union and can only view Russia through the prism of their bitter historic experience.++ Jacque Chirac's warnings about EU enlargement now appear well-founded: the expansion in 2004 proved premature, and the east of the EU is now "more of a block than a bridge” in relations with Russia.
