Russia gives von der Leyen, Kallas, Costa the thumbs down

Russia is less than thrilled about the EU’s new top team, the Kremlin’s spokesperson said Friday — not that Brussels will care one bit.

Dmitry Peskov predicted relations between Moscow and Brussels likely wouldn’t improve anytime soon with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa as the EU’s top brass.

“We don’t think that European diplomacy will act in any way to normalize relations,” Peskov said. “The prospects for relations between Moscow and Brussels are bad.”

He singled out Kallas, who will replace Josep Borrell as the EU’s top diplomat, saying she “is well known in our country for her absolutely irreconcilable and sometimes even rabidly Russophobic statements.”

Kallas has been one of the Kremlin’s fiercest critics, ordering the removal of Soviet monuments in her country and offering unwavering support to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s aggression, efforts which have earned her a spot on Moscow’s wanted list. An EU official went so far as to say she “likes to eat Russians for breakfast.”

“Nothing” would shift in Moscow’s frigid relations with the EU with a second von der Leyen term, Peskov added.

EU leaders reached an agreement in the late hours of Thursday to endorse von der Leyen as European Commission president, Kallas as foreign policy chief and Costa as president of the European Council.

Russia sparked a dramatic worsening of relations with the EU in early 2022 when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, triggering waves of sanctions from Brussels.

/www.politico.eu