VLADIMIR Putin has hit out at the rampant federalism of the European Union, saying many countries within the bloc feel uninvolved in key sovereign decisions.
While claiming it was “up to Europeans” to decide what was best for them, he claimed the European Union had stricter control on member states than the Soviet Union’s supreme council.
It comes after the Russian president was accused of plotting the downfall of the bloc, with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev accusing the nation of dividing Europe to conquer it.
Mr Putin said: “They have have sovereign nations with a small superstructure or they have a quasi-federalist state. These are the two concepts for Europe.
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“They have more decisions made in Brussels than the Supreme Council in the Soviet Union did so its a high level of federalisation.
“I don’t know if its good or bad for Europe – it is up to Europeans themselves to decide about that.
“There are certain countries in Europe who object to the current migrant policy and they want to be involved in the decisions more.
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“They think those decisions are unacceptable.”
Mr Putin spoke out on the European union during his annual news conference, revealing that while he wanted the union to “speak with one voice” it was just as easy for Moscow to reach out to individual countries.
The Russian strongman’s willingness to engage with individual states could serve as comfort for countries who want to work with Russia despite the union’s economic sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine.
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Mr Putin added: “Of course we want Europe to speak with one voice, we want to have a partner we can talk to
“This is what matters to us but if we don’t have such a partner we will just talk bilaterally with each of the European nations separately.
“It’s up to Europeans to decide what they do internally.”
