Victoria Ivanova. The Ukrainian crisis marked a milestone in the relations between Russia and Europe, during the next phase we need to free ourselves from the burden of illusions and to begin to evaluate the possibilities of cooperation, said the former head of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, head of the Russian Council on international Affairs (RIAC) Igor Ivanov at the conference " France-Russia-Europe: schism or reconciliation?", which is held on Thursday in the French Senate.

"The Ukrainian crisis marked a watershed moment in relations between Russia and Europe. These Relations will be like what We had imagined before the fall. The Ukrainian crisis lifted the veil from many problems, opened her eyes and for us in Russia, and for the Europeans. We are entering a new, Perhaps prolonged, stage of Russian-European relations, when both parties are obliged to free ourselves from the burden of illusions and fantasies, the recent previous, to put aside emotions and mutual grudges and begin soberly, realistically assess the opportunities for cooperation ", - said Ivanov.

He said that currently the sides need to focus " not on the construction of a new Grand design of a greater Europe - Is to have neither the political resources and mutual trust ", and the decision of More specific tasks.

"More productive would be to build cooperation around specific issues, where our desires coincide. This interaction may not be focused on the development of any new structures, mechanisms and at developing a common European regimes on selected issues ", - noticed the head of the INF.

explaining the range of issues that assumes Russia and Europe to solve it together, He called the battle against international crime and political extremism, the management of migration flows and the issues of immigrants, the preservation and expansion of common European space in the sphere of education, science and innovation, economic issues, standardization and unification of transport and logistics infrastructure in the West and the East of Europe, but said that these problems are not limited to.

"These issues, from my point of view, is the only way to lay the foundations for a common European home," - said Ivanov.

Relations between Russia and the West deteriorated in connection with the situation in Ukraine. At the end of July, the EU and the US from point penalties against certain individuals and organizations have moved to the measures against entire sectors of the Russian economy. In response, Russia restricted imports of food items from States that have entered against her punishment: USA, EU, Canada, Australia and Norway.

sections: Politics