Text tabled : RC-B7-0052/2012

  Diogo Feio (PPE), in writing. – (PT) In What does Russia think?, Ivan Krastev, Mark Leonard and Andrew Wilson are particularly clear as to one of the problems facing Europe when it tries to interact with Russia: ‘If we want to influence and deal with Russia, we need to understand it. But if we want to understand Russia, we should be interested in it’. The fact is that there does not seem to be a genuine European interest in Russia, or only an interest in terms of reacting to it or comparing the country to our own standards. Despite the importance of such standards, they should not make us forget the geostrategic importance of the largest country in the world. Russia is at a crossroads between liberal democracy and state capitalism, and has recently shown signs of leaning towards the latter model, as seen in its recent veto in relation to Syria in the United National Security Council. Reports on the freedom and fairness of the electoral process lead us to fear that the next presidential elections may also breach international standards. Russia would benefit if it adopted Western standards of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and the West would benefit if, in its turn, it became more interested in the real Russia, in order to better understand and influence it.