Russia’s Foreign Ministry renames EU relations department as Department of European Problems

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has renamed its Department of Pan-European Cooperation as the Department of European Problems, Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Sunday, citing changes on the ministry’s website.

The Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the state-linked business news outlet RBC that the name change reflected “changes in geopolitical realities” such as “the obvious degradation of multilateral cooperation structures in Europe.”

The department will continue to oversee Russia’s strained relations with various European organisations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, the European Union, and NATO.

Vladislav Maslennikov, who was appointed director of the Department of Pan-European Cooperation on 18 October, will continue to head the new department.

Russia’s relations with Europe have deteriorated significantly since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, spearheaded by the EU’s imposition of a slew of sanctions on the Kremlin and seized Russian assets.

In March 2022 Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe and in July this year suspended its participation in the parliamentary assembly of the OSCE, citing what it described as the organisation’s “discriminatory approaches, double standards and total Russophobia”.

In June Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with Vladimir Putin that Russia’s Foreign Ministry was “prioritising building ties with the countries of the global majority, the Global South and the East,” and was also redistributing material and human resources “to the most in-demand areas in the new geopolitical conditions.”