Russia is not responsible for the deterioration of relations with the EU, which went to the peak in early 2014, said the head of the international Department of the state Duma, Alexei Pushkov.

"Geopolitical considerations, the desire to make wider area of influence of the EU, the desire to provide economic and political expansion of the EU in Eastern Europe - they took precedence over considerations of the need to maintain partnership relations with Russia ", - said the gun at the parliamentary hearings on strategic partnership between Russia and the EU.

"How do you view the Genesis of this downfall, in my opinion, Russia is not responsible for the degradation of relationships that we observed in relations with the EU," said the people's Deputy also added that Moscow has not questioned this Strategic partnership.

"The strategic partnership with Russia because of the EU went into a dive somewhere in the beginning of 2014, and after the coup in Ukraine (in February 2014), we beheld, As the European Union began to dismantle these relations of strategic partnership," said the gun.

sections: Politics