Federica Mogherini, the foreign minister of Italy elected as the new EU Foreign Policy Chief on Saturday (becoming incumbent on November 1), said that Russia was no longer a strategic partner of Europe and emphasized that Ukraine had the right to choose the European course, RIA Novosti reports.
She blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for ending the partnership. Putin had spoken for the formation of a common economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok earlier.
According to Mogherini, Moscow has never respected its obligations taken in Geneva, Normandy and Berlin, and never valued the opportunity to change the situation, such as influencing separatists in the light of the Malaysian plane crash.
The Italian minister stressed that there was no alternative to a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
