MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow hopes that after the elections in France and Germany in 2017, the situation in the relations between the European Union and Russia will change, Russia's Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said during a video conference in the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.
"I hope it will change, because it cannot continue like that," Chizhov said when asked what the EU would be like after the 2017 elections and whether anything would change in the EU-Russia relations.
The year 2017 will see parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, presidential elections in France and parliamentary elections in Germany.
"We are not imposing any preconditions for the continuation of dialogue with the European Union at various levels, on various issues … Obviously, in order to restore full-scale interaction, we must first unfreeze previously established dialogues and formats," Chizhov said.
The current crisis in Russian-EU relations is an opportunity for both sides to rethink bilateral ties, the envoy to the European Union added.
Russia has been targeted by several rounds of sanctions inflicted by Brussels, Washington and their allies in light of Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014 and on the pretext of Moscow's alleged involvement in the Donbass conflict, a claim that Russia has repeatedly refuted.
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