Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures speaks during a press conference with the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission on 28 January 2014 after an EU-Russia Summit at EU headquarters in Brussels. ' The EU must + air + with Russia how sharp the Summit about the crisis in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe relations, a senior EU officials said test to clear differences. AFP PHOTO / GEORGES GOBET (photo credit should read GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images). GEORGES GOBET of Getty Images
Athens, Greece (AP) - EU Foreign Ministers insisted on the need to defuse Russia tension, with the Ukraine after a two-day informal meeting Saturday, which ended with leaders that keep all options on the table - including further sanctions.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt stressed the need for a determination in dealing with Moscow, after it annexed the Crimea in March - argue that Russia had deviated from accepted standards. Unity among the 28 Member States was crucial.
"We should very firmly on international law and the rules that must be applied," he said.
Bildt took it a step further and underlines Western discomfort with the Crimean referendum that was called just two weeks after the Russian armed forces, the Ukrainian region had fallen. The vote and rejected the annexation of Ukraine and the West.
Bildt, who served as a mediator in the conflict in the Balkans said that outsiders in the complex interplay of faith and the power of Russia's motives must think.
"We have a profound debate, what the nature in Russia..." I think it's pretty clear that Russia has changed in the last few years, "he told reporters outside the meeting in Greece. "There is a new political mentality, at least from the Kremlin. You intend to ...wenn build an Orthodox bastion against the West."
Referring to a public rally last month, which Russian President Vladimir Putin before a banner read "Crimea is in my heart," said Bildt, said "You have to wonder what's in his heart?"
Speaking shortly before the meeting underway Friday got, calls EU partners British Foreign Secretary William Hague to develop stricter sanctions for possible use against Russia, they should become necessary. So far, the EU has imposed sanctions against individuals.
The informal meeting involved only the 28 Ministers, without the presence of a wizard, the debate in a tradition to ease back until 1974. The Foreign Ministers of the EU accession countries, as well as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament were invited to join on Saturday, the last day of the session.
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