In a bold and unapologetic interview with RT, MEP Fernand Kartheiser from Luxembourg reveals how the European Union's approach to Russia is backfiring 🇪🇺💥. After facing threats of expulsion from the EU Parliament group for visiting Moscow, Kartheiser speaks out against Europe’s diplomatic missteps, flawed sanctions, and the energy crisis affecting millions 🔌🌍.
He argues the EU is not isolating Russia, but rather isolating itself from global influence, losing credibility and economic strength. This eye-opening discussion explores the truth behind EU geopolitics, the growing disconnect between Brussels and reality, and the future of European diplomacy. 🧠⚖️
Watch this powerful and controversial take on the Russia-EU standoff, only on RT 🎙️🕊️
#FernandKartheiser #EUvsRussia #RussiaSanctions #EnergyCrisis #EUIsolation #MEPInterview #EuropeanParliament #Geopolitics #LuxembourgPolitics #MoscowVisit #RTEurope #WesternSanctions #DiplomaticCrisis #EuropeanUnion #TruthToPower #RTNews #RussiaEuropeRelations #EUBackfire #GlobalPolitics #EnergyWar
He argues the EU is not isolating Russia, but rather isolating itself from global influence, losing credibility and economic strength. This eye-opening discussion explores the truth behind EU geopolitics, the growing disconnect between Brussels and reality, and the future of European diplomacy. 🧠⚖️
Watch this powerful and controversial take on the Russia-EU standoff, only on RT 🎙️🕊️
#FernandKartheiser #EUvsRussia #RussiaSanctions #EnergyCrisis #EUIsolation #MEPInterview #EuropeanParliament #Geopolitics #LuxembourgPolitics #MoscowVisit #RTEurope #WesternSanctions #DiplomaticCrisis #EuropeanUnion #TruthToPower #RTNews #RussiaEuropeRelations #EUBackfire #GlobalPolitics #EnergyWar
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NewsTranscript
00:00The co-chairman for the European Conservatives and Reformist Group in the EU Parliament has
00:07said quote by traveling to Putin's Russia Fernand you have crossed a red line for the
00:14group which will take decisive action to terminate your membership as soon as possible. Why are you
00:21being threatened for simply coming here? Let me say that on the way I didn't see
00:26see any red line but well I'm being threatened I think that for the reason
00:33that some people in the European Parliament I see even many people in the
00:37European Parliament have an attitude to Russia that that identifies Russia with
00:43big threat and they think that if we put pressure on Russia and isolate Russia
00:50diplomatically that might help to find solutions maybe in the context of the
00:54conflict in Ukraine. I think that might be one of the explanations I don't know
00:59whether it's the best one but I consider it to be the way to think but my
01:04reaction to this is the following it is not the discussion that we should have
01:09the discussion that we should have is what kind of relationship do we want
01:12with Russia in the future do we have to open the dialogue again with Russia that
01:17is the most important one and it's not about my political future in Asia I wish
01:22I could stay in Asia and I would not be punished to go for Russia but it would
01:25be considered to be normal to have a dialogue with the Russian partners and
01:29to look for solutions together I think that would be the normal attitude. Yeah
01:33diplomacy diplomacy treating people with respect but somehow during the Biden
01:38administration and even before that as well it just seems that you know the
01:42world today is lacking a serious art of diplomacy we're missing this today but
01:48meantime though Fernand you you are here in Moscow you decided to ignore the
01:53threats and and go ahead with your visit but here you're now on RT
01:56International you're not gonna make any friends back home on this channel today
01:59are you? Well no probably not but I don't want to say that I ignore the
02:04threats I don't I don't see to those but I think they are just part of the
02:09picture because it is maybe a regrettable part of the picture as you say what we
02:13need is diplomacy and accepting to have exchanges you know I'm old enough to have
02:18lift through the Cold War and in those days even though we had fundamental
02:23differences with the Soviet Union we had political exchange we had diplomacy we
02:28had cultural exchange we had all kind of contacts with the Soviet Union and in
02:34those days I would argue that the threat was much bigger than with nowadays Russia so
02:39with nowadays Russia it would be easier to find a dialogue but we do not want to
02:44have it I cannot understand yeah yeah yeah is there any chance I mean I keep my
02:49eyes across all the media outlets all across Europe you know I keep my eyes on
02:52the tabloids the yellow papers as well is there any chance that the narrative is
02:58turning a little bit in Europe I mean I hear the European leaders saying Russia bad
03:02Putin bad but the average European taxpayer are they still buying the
03:07narrative the media is selling I can tell you that I get a lot of support from
03:11the normal people so called normal people from the electorate or whatever
03:15you want to call because many people in Europe actually want peace and want to
03:19have normal relations with Russia I want to discuss if the narrative is
03:24changing maybe I see evolutions in both directions I see that some
03:28governments are becoming more aggressive I think that maybe we come later to
03:33those points but I also see that Europe European Commission or says that in some
03:38way they want to re-engage with Russian Federation but why I suppose because they
03:43want to be at the negotiating table when it comes to Ukraine so they are
03:47reengaging in some way I would say that there are tendencies in both
03:52directions and I hope that my visit can be an additional impetus in order to
03:57make things better and not worse yeah it's a fair point I appreciate that but if you look at the European Union
04:02ever since they said no more Russian energy we will not give money to Putin's
04:07war coffers that's what they said a couple of years ago look at the European
04:10economy it is in dire straits right now cheap Russian energy was the backbone of
04:15the industry there your thoughts I think that we are harming ourselves by
04:21pursuing that kind of policy we I agree that we should not be dependent on
04:27just one country for our energy supplies I think it would be wise to have maybe
04:31energy from Russia from the United States to go more into nuclear energy also and
04:35add also maybe some alternative green energies to that so that we have a
04:40diversification of our energy supply but cutting just Russia out is not a wise
04:46economic decision and I think it's also not a wise political decision because we
04:51create new dependencies on other countries American LNG for about four or five
04:56times the price right so Europe is now essentially agreeing to be force-fed
05:01American LNG for a much more expensive price I think that the trade wars that
05:06we had I'm calling the trade was that might be an exaggeration but the tariff
05:09discussions if you prefer that we had during the last weeks should show us that
05:13it is always wise I think to have a diversity of choice and not to be dependent on
05:18just one country because you expose yourself in a in a very maybe unwise way well
05:24meantime you know you talk about diversifying and you mentioned Trump's
05:27trade war I mean look at China look at bricks and all these other countries
05:30that are diversifying away from the dollar I mean you mentioned that Trump's
05:33trade war it's almost it's almost accelerating the diversification among
05:38certainly these other countries developing nations and and so on and so
05:41forth if I can come back just to this missile issue from Chancellor Mertz saying
05:46that Ukraine can use long-range missiles against Russia the Russian foreign
05:50ministry Fernando has said that if Taurus missiles are to be used that would make
05:55Germany a direct party to the conflict do you see it that way and what you
06:00expect Moscow's response well I think that that this is a defendable position I
06:07think it is basically true because it depends on how the missiles are going to
06:11be used I suppose that there will be a participation of German technicians that
06:17also in order to launch the missiles they might be dependent on the German or
06:21even maybe perhaps a US satellite data so I don't think that Ukraine as a country
06:27can manage such operation by its own so if you have foreign interference in
06:33firing missiles into a third country in this case into Russia I think that you can
06:38argue that this is a participation in some direct way in the war so I could not of
06:44course tell you how Russia is going to react to this but I would certainly see
06:48that there is a danger of a further deterioration of international relations
06:52through such acts without being sure that the the use of Taurus missiles will
06:59have an impact on the way the war will end I think that these these weapons will
07:05worsen the international climate but without having a real impact on the
07:09outcome of the conflict interesting comment there if if Russia Russian
07:15delegations and American delegations have been meeting in Istanbul and trying
07:18to find some sort of peaceful resolution in the future for Ukraine means I'm
07:22European officials seem to be trying to derail and disrupt any potential real
07:26peace talks what do you think Brussels is trying to achieve I think that they
07:32want to be part of the game what we have now internationally is that basically
07:38everybody talks to Russia we have even United States coming back and having high
07:43level contacts President Trump and President Putin might meet in person in the
07:48near future so we see that the BRICS countries are there that Russia has a
07:52little white net of contacts across the world we see that in the United Nations
07:58General Assembly the anti-Russia stance is diminishing so this policy of
08:03isolation of Russia basically has failed the only ones who are isolated in a way
08:08is the European Union itself yeah the ones yeah and and now I think that they
08:13realize this and if they want to be part of the peace negotiations they know that it
08:18can only happen if they have some kind of relationship with Russia again they are
08:23thinking about it I don't know what the outcome will be but if they want to be
08:28taken seriously as an actor in international relations they have to
08:33define a strategy that goes beyond isolation yeah you talk about an actor
08:37in international relations a lot of people say that Trump and Putin are
08:40rational actors but in Kiev there is one very irrational actor but for an and I
08:45wanted to ask you here we go for more sanctions against Russia the European Union
08:49approving now adopting the 17th not the 9th or 10th or 11th 17th package of
08:56sanctions on Russia meantime Russia in terms of PPP GDP is the fourth strongest
09:02economy in the world if you look at the list of top 10 economies in the world it
09:07used to be the G7 in the top 5 they've all dropped out now nearly all of them in
09:11the bottom of the top 10 and now you've got India China Russia and these other
09:15multi-polarity countries really coming into the fold the 17th package of
09:20sanctions on Russia do you think it's gonna work this time I don't think so you
09:24know we have an international theory we have only one case that we really know
09:28where sanctions have worked and that was the case of apartheid in South Africa and
09:33it worked because the whole world without any exceptions was condemning
09:38apartheid policy and in South Africa itself apartheid policy made no consensus and
09:44their sanctions worked but in all other cases they didn't and especially in the
09:49case of Russia which is such a huge countries with enormous resources and
09:54helped if necessary by other important countries there's no prospect that the
09:59sanctions can achieve their goals so we have a policy of imposing sanctions which
10:03come do not achieve the goal that they have been set up for and this means that we
10:10are having our economies without achieving a political result yeah someone was
10:14commenting the other day if you really want to sanction Russia if you really want
10:18to hurt Russia then allow Russia to join the EU because that's a state of
10:23affairs right now the economy going down the drain I mean what would Russia even
10:27want from either EU or Ukraine it wants its LGBTQ narrative black lives matter
10:33narrative the art you know it's just such a state of affairs meantime Ukraine is
10:38running out of manpower for an and it's trying to lure people into the army
10:42with cash and money it's it's been picking up people off the streets and
10:47throwing them into vans as Putin said like like you pick up stray dogs how much
10:51longer do you think Ukraine with its sponsors can can hold out well it depends
10:57actually on the attitude that we in the West will adopt towards Ukraine because of
11:03course we can continue to to prolong the conflict by weapon deliveries and by
11:11massive financial aid but in the end it depends in the first place I would say on
11:15on the United States because they are the first and most important supplier of
11:20weapons to Ukraine if the United States does not continue with that policy I
11:24think that it could be finished in a few months Europe cannot really replace the
11:28United States if the United States chose to to drop out then it we can do a little
11:34bit as Western Europe to continue supporting Kiev but it will also come to an end
11:39but basically it depends I would say on on the Western countries I deeply regret the
11:45human losses in this conflict it's one of the reasons why I'm so much in favor of a
11:49peace agreement as quickly as possible because I don't want Ukrainians to die I
11:54don't want Russians to die and I I'm happy that President Trump has found this
11:58formula that I find a very good one stop the killing and this is something I fully
12:03approve of it takes the politics out of it doesn't it when he when he simply says
12:06stop the killing it it kind of stops the media certainly in America the media and
12:10political landscape it kind of stops them from politicizing it it's humanity
12:15stop the killing it's you know I think it's a very strong political statement you
12:20know it reminds us of our responsibility as human beings before our
12:24responsibility as politicians so we are we are seeing this conflict we are
12:28prolonging the conflict and actually what we should do all together is to see
12:32how can we stop it so let's have negotiations and let's find a good piece of
12:36agreement that everybody can agree to hopefully and and let's stop the
12:40killing exactly as president Trump says yeah I think you make a very good point
12:43there also when you talk about the sentiment of of America and Europe here
12:48bringing the war to an end somebody commented the other day all Trump needs
12:52to do is unilaterally declare peace and say I'm done we're leaving and that
12:58person said if Trump did that the European contingent would fold in weeks I
13:03don't know your thoughts well you could formulate it like this you know but it
13:07is an oversimplification I think what what we should consider is what kind of
13:13effect does a stop of the war in Ukraine have on the European Union and of NATO
13:18on NATO we have a Western architecture now that has been influenced by the war in
13:24Ukraine in a very very strong way over many years now over several years three
13:29years and maybe even before that during the 2014 to 22 period when there was this
13:35civil war in eastern Ukraine so we have a Western political architecture that has
13:41obeyed a little bit to do to the to the necessities of this situation in Ukraine
13:47when this falls apart now when this is gone I wonder what is happening to the EU as an
13:52organization and to its foreign policy and what is going to happen to NATO knowing
13:56that the United States will focus on the Pacific and not on East Europe exactly I
14:00mean what was it Rubio who said every dollar spent in Ukraine is a dollar not
14:04spent on combating China well I don't know what what Rubio said on in this
14:08respect but I remember that he said that it is a proxy war and I think this is a
14:13very important statement because in the European Union we keep on saying this is a
14:17Russian war of aggression unprovoked unjustified so that is something that we keep on
14:22saying in the European Union whereas the United States who have had a very big
14:27role in the coming of this conflict they say well it's a proxy war and that gives
14:32them a part of the responsibility also for the war because you do not need a
14:37proxy war without an own responsibility I'm glad you brought that up you know it
14:41was actually leaked a couple of years ago that in the Western press particularly in
14:44the UK if anyone mentions Russia and Ukraine they have to say in the article
14:50Russia's full-scale invasion that those few words have to be either in the title or
14:56the opening sentence of the article this is about narratives about selling and
15:01peddling and pushing a certain narrative what did you think Fernanda it was about
15:05four or five days ago I was very surprised when I saw President Putin suggests the
15:10creation of a buffer zone now I saw in the Western press they immediately called it a
15:15land grab but I thought it was interesting that Putin and it was at work a couple days
15:19after he had the phone call with Trump that went on for two and a half hours and
15:22Trump said it was an excellent phone call but this buffer zone would seem to
15:25suggest that Russia does not want to continue any further west and would in a
15:31sense put its stakes where it is now and then create a hundred kilometer buffer
15:35zone just when you heard that how did you interpret that well you know that I
15:40don't want to interpret the word buffer zone what I'm telling everybody and I
15:46think that what we should also say here tonight is that an important issue for
15:51Russia is its security on the western border that that is the point maybe
15:55buffer zone is a way to achieve this maybe a non membership of NATO for Ukraine a
16:01neutral status for Ukraine is a way to achieve this that's up to negotiations but
16:06what is important for Russia to reach at the outcome of this conflict is a
16:10security system that guarantees the security of its Western border and we
16:15have to take that into account we have also as Western Europeans our security
16:19interests we have to I think we have to avoid an arms race for instance which would
16:25cost enormously and it's not necessary we have had that in the Cold War and we
16:29came finally to treat the system with conventional forces in Europe with
16:34confidence building measures we should think in that way and we should also then find
16:38arrangements for the for the Russian security and of course for the Ukrainian
16:43security that's good point there Fernand I and you mentioned the Western
16:46border regions of Russia Kursk for example there is this great achievement
16:51recently a thousand POWs exchange between Moscow and Kiev but as I understand a
16:56number of the POWs that were swapped from the Ukrainian side weren't soldiers at
17:01all they were residents there were civilians from Kursk who had been abducted and then
17:07they were used in a swap for true POWs true soldier POWs why do you think Kiev had
17:15Russian civilians on their side of the swap well you know the point that I would
17:22like to make I met myself a military man I was for a long time and what is very
17:27important in every armed conflict as to lead it in a way that is as humane as
17:32possible in a very inhumane situation we have international rules on this we have
17:39the Geneva conventions that govern the way to lead a war and actually that are
17:45also designed to protect the civilian population you cannot take civilian
17:50hostages you can of course not murder civilians they are non-combatants and we
17:54have to make sure that every part every every war-faring nation or making any armed
18:01conflict has to abide by the Geneva conventions this is valid for Russia of
18:06course but it is also valid for Ukraine and we have had a discussion during my
18:11stay here I raised it several times also on war crimes I know that in Russia and
18:16and and my interlocutors have reassured me that this very seriously dealt with and
18:21they have investigation committees here in Russia to see whether the Russian armed
18:24forces are behaving correctly or not but we we have to to take into account that this
18:30has also to be made on the Ukrainian side I think it is a matter for the
18:35international community and indeed for every human being to make sure that the
18:39aid there should not be any war crimes and be if there are any they have to be
18:43fully investigated and people responsible for those have to be brought to try yes I
18:47understand our Russia has requested a very soon to happen meeting at the UN
18:52Security Council in New York I think this is one of the issues they're raising up
18:55about civilian casualties civilian infrastructure and civilians being
18:59abducted as well Fernanda I wanted to ask you and it's so good to have you here
19:03thank you so much for joining me by the way I'm very happy that you're so good to
19:06have your commentary there was a story leaked to the New York Times some weeks
19:11ago that Donald Trump was maybe considering withdrawing a certain number of
19:15American troops out of Eastern Europe out of these NATO bases and back to
19:19America that story was leaked it was published and then it kind of went quiet
19:24what are your thoughts on an idea like that would it help would it is it
19:29something that Putin would like to see happen do you think America pulling
19:33soldiers out of these old NATO bases in Eastern Europe well I cannot talk about
19:39President Putin's views on this but I can tell you that we as Western Europeans we
19:44have to expect this because the new American administration has made very clear
19:48that their priorities Asia Pacific they perceive China maybe as a threat more
19:53than Russia obviously so we Europeans have to realize and that also relates to
20:00what I said earlier we are not sure about the future of NATO how NATO will
20:03evolve in the future because this withdrawal of American troops from Europe is I
20:09think certain to come do you really you're convinced it will happen I think so
20:13because you know the size of the US army is of course much bigger than than what we
20:20Western Europeans normally are used to but of course it's it's not a size that would
20:25allow the United States to envisage now a conflict simultaneously with China and
20:30Russia so we have to expect that they have to concentrate on one theater and this
20:35also explains why they expect us Western Europeans to spend much more on defense because they say well you have to take a part of the
20:43responsibility my answer to this is if it's if it is like this and if we Western
20:48Europeans expected to take a larger responsibility for our own security well
20:54one way to assure this is by negotiating an agreement with Russia ensuring at the
21:01same time our security as Western Europeans and guaranteeing the security of
21:06Russia's Western border so negotiation and diplomacy before rearmament and arms race I see I see
21:12you are out on a limb I think fair to say for an end by not just coming to Russia and upsetting some of
21:19your colleagues back in Europe your political colleagues but here you are as
21:23well on RT International of course we've been blocked in many Western countries the
21:27governments there do not want the taxpayers knowing what we're saying here on
21:31Russian television but some people are saying we are witnessing a slow change in
21:37the tide of narratives I don't know but you know I see you coming here for an end are you
21:42alone in your sentiment among your European Parliament members is the anti-Russia sentiment
21:47still rampantly strong or is there any shift among your political colleagues well let me say
21:53first about the censorship and I'm very much opposed to censorship I just wanted to remind you of the
21:59Istanbul declaration of 1999 that we we took that in the OSCE and there was very one very important
22:06in paragraph 23 26 I don't remember exactly on the freedom of media actually we promised that we
22:12would allow each other free access to our media I can't tell you now exactly the wording I don't
22:19remember but I just wanted to raise this I stick by this I think it's very important that everybody can
22:23be informed fully on on the other side's views that helps now in the European Parliament I know that there are many
22:32colleagues we are 720 I can't I can't tell you how many if it is 50 or maybe 100 I don't know who have
22:41a different perspective and maybe there are more who are thinking about it but I deeply regret that the
22:48general mood there in the European Parliament is still very much oriented towards a kind of confrontation
22:56against Russia and it is put in a way that we are standing by Ukraine but you can stand by Ukraine and
23:03Ukraine's people and negotiate a peace agreement and support them economically for instance and on
23:09humanitarian ways without necessarily going against Russia I think that there are always ways in order to
23:18find reasonable approaches to a conflict and this is something that I would like to work on well it's
23:24something that I think a lot of us would like to see happen but meantime when you have someone like
23:28the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer who comes out saying we will support and defend Ukraine for the
23:33next 100 years how many billions a year that's going to cost how many pensioners are going to pass away
23:40in the in the British cold winters you know that no one's got any money anymore and yet there's no money
23:45for to rebuild the bridges there's no money to protect the pensioners but there's always money for war
23:50Fernand I just want to say on a personal level I really respect the fact that a you're here in Russia
23:55be you're clearly aware of which is the right side of history to be on and see you've graced us with
24:02your presence here at RT International here in Moscow and it's so good to hear you addressing both sides of
24:08today's top issues Fernand Kartheiser joining us here on RT International it's absolute pleasure a member of the European
24:15parliament from Luxembourg I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and thank you for
24:19your time thank you Rory for this interview and the interest in my modest person it's been lovely
24:24really a real pleasure thank you so much thank you