Commission to EU leaders: We know that you went to Russia

Brussels kept track of everyone’s itineraries, from the French president to a ‘political director’ of the government of Malta.

The European Commission has a handy comeback ready for anyone complaining too loudly about President Jean-Claude Juncker’s trip to Russia this week: a list of EU leaders (and their subalterns) who’ve also ventured east in the past year.

The compilation, obtained by POLITICO, aims to rebut criticism of Juncker’s planned appearance at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, which riled some Baltic and East European leaders.

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“Meetings for the sake of meetings as such do not bring added value to EU-Russia relations,” Linas Linkevičius, the Lithuanian foreign minister, said in May.

Turns out, eight EU heads of state or government have beat Juncker to Russia since sanctions were imposed in March 2014. The Commission’s list includes the presidents of France, Finland, Greece, and Austria, who kept up the dialogue with their Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin or his team, as well as the prime ministers of Luxembourg, Hungary, Germany, Italy and, again, Finland.

But the Commission’s diligence doesn’t stop there. Trips by politicians and officials of lower ranks didn’t go unnoticed either, such as the premiers of the German states of Bavaria and Thuringia, a Hungarian deputy minister, or even a “political director” of the government of Malta.