Vitriol as EU renews sanctions

Moscow accused the European Union of crumbling under ‘‘Russophobic’’ pressure by extending sanctions for another six months as the United States defence secretary warned against Russia’s attempts to restore its ‘‘Soviet-era sphere of influence’’.

In remarks to a Berlin think tank at the start of a European tour designed to support nervous Nato allies, Ash Carter said that the US did ‘‘not seek a cold, let alone a hot war with Russia’’.

However, Washington would not let Moscow’s actions in Ukraine ‘‘drag us back to the past’’. Instead ‘‘we will stand up to Russia’s actions and their attempts to re-establish a Soviet-era sphere of influence’’.

His comments are unlikely to have reassured one of President Vladimir Putin’s closest advisers, who said in an interview published on Tuesday that the US would rather Russia did not exist.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, said: ‘‘They very much wish that Russia did not exist at all. As a country.’’

There is an entrenched belief in Moscow that the US fomented the revolution in Ukraine to hasten regime change in Russia.

The Defence Ministry has just announced that it is funding a study into ‘‘colour revolutions’’ – pro-Western uprisings in the former Soviet Union.

Patrushev claimed that the US State Department spent US$5 billion (NZ$7.2b) on funding the protests that led to the toppling of Ukraine’s Moscow-aligned president last year, even though ‘‘they have absolutely no interest in Ukraine. They are interested in Russia’’.

He said European countries were railroaded into imposing sanctions by the US. The restrictions on Russia’s energy, defence and financial sectors were originally imposed last July for one year. The renewal on Tuesday was a qualified victory for the UK, Germany and eastern European EU members.

This was provisionally agreed at the G7 summit in Bavaria this month and confirmed on Tuesday when an EU statement said foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg had agreed the rollover without debate in response to ‘‘Russia’s destabilising role in eastern Ukraine’’.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said: ‘‘We are very disappointed that the opinion of the Russophobic lobby has again prevailed.’’

It said it was ‘‘especially cynical’’ to take the decision on June 22, the day Russia commemorates the German invasion of the USSR in 1941.