MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The EU member states should "build bridges" between representatives of religious communities and try to reach arrangements in connection with mass influx of refugees to Europe, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday.
"Now [the EU member states] should try building bridges, calm down the situation and try to arrange with representatives of communities. I understand how uneasy it is, I understand that many of them do not want to negotiate at all and part of them… receive education and are born in the European countries and then make terrorist attacks there. This is the reality and there is no easy way out from here," Medvedev said in an interview with Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper ahead of his Munich visit.
According to Medvedev, Russia has gained experience of coexistence of Christian and Muslim communities for centuries, although this coexistence is sometimes problematic.
According to Medvedev, the European Union has made a number of strategic mistakes, which have led to uncontrolled shifts of religious balance in Europe.
The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people leaving conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa for Europe. Over 1.83 million illegal border crossings were detected by the EU border agency Frontex in 2015.
The migrant crisis has raised security concerns across Europe, prompting the governments to review their open-border policy.
