The Russian Foreign Ministry has renamed its Department of European Cooperation amid deteriorating ties with the EU
The Russian Foreign Ministry has rebranded its Department of European Cooperation (DEC) to the Department of European Problems (DEP), according to its website.
The changes to the ministry’s website were made earlier this week and reported by Russian media on Saturday.
Despite the change in name, the DEP will continue its existing functions, which include dealing with “issues of international European organizations” such as the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), the Council of Europe, the EU and NATO.
The name change only applies to the Russian version of the website. It is still called the ‘Department of European Cooperation’ in the English, French and German versions.
Moscow’s relations with European organizations have been strained since 2014, when Crimea voted to reunite with Russia. Relations further deteriorated after the escalation of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022, in which the EU has been supporting Ukraine with weapons and funds.
Moscow declared in August that the OSCE is in “a crisis situation” due to the inability of its member-states to reach consensus on basic issues. Last year, Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe, claiming that the organization had been influenced by the West to promote its interests. Russia also views EU nations as “unfriendly” countries and NATO as a hostile military bloc.
During his meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in July, Russian President Vladimir Putin described relations between Moscow and the EU as being “at their lowest point.”
Last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “the EU ‘lost’ Russia. But it is its own fault. After all, it is the EU member states and the leaders of the bloc, who openly declare the need to inflict, as they say, a strategic defeat on Russia.”
EU nations are currently unwilling to engage in dialogue with Moscow, Lavrov said. Cooperation with the bloc can only resume if it happens on an equal footing and takes Russian interests into account, he added.