OREANDA-NEWS. The disunity of the European Union and the lack of a strategy in relations with Moscow lead to the fact that anti-Russian sanctions remain an ineffective tool of pressure on the Kremlin. This opinion was voiced by German professor and political scientist Thomas Jaeger in an article for the «Focus» publication.

He stated the fact, that the EU now has practically no effective tools to influence Russia. This is compounded by the external impact on the European Union, which is exerted by the United States. For example, Poland belongs to the Moscow's actions negatively. At the same time, France is ready to conduct a dialogue with the Kremlin. At the same time, the American president demands some consolidated actions from the EU, the article says.

Germany is trying to comply with the interests of the European Union and at the same time not to quarrel with Russia. However, as the expert noted, in her speech at the Munich Security Conference, Angela Merkel actually recognized the failure of the policy towards Russia for at least the last seven years. Jaeger also added, that the German government is far from a formed position on this issue.

According to the professor, Russia does not intend to change anything in it's model of behavior in the international arena due to external pressure. The political scientist did not ignore the talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. Then the head of the Russian diplomatic department actually reprimanded the visitor and pointed out to Brussels the need to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Russia. Borrell's trip to Moscow in the EU was considered a failure by many.

According to Jaeger, the European Union should distinguish issues on which it considers it necessary to cooperate with Moscow from those that cause disagreements. However, the political scientist did not specify how much the European position should correspond to the vision of the situation by politicians from the United States.