The break in relations between Russia and Europe

Russia and most European states barely speak to each other. Embassies have been cut to a minimum, hundreds of diplomats expelled on each side, consulates closed, flights and most visas ended, each side's media banned in the other. What remains is a daily exchange of statements, in which Moscow's spokesmen and the European Union's foreign policy chief describe each other as the cause of the war.

The wider confrontation, its history and each side's full account: Russia and Europe.

Where it stands · September 2026

Russia expelled a Romanian diplomat in August. The Kremlin's spokesman said there were no grounds for improved relations with the European Union for now, and that Germany was on a path of escalation, while calling a full break with Berlin irrational. Russia recalled its ambassador from Armenia in May over that country's turn toward the Union. Moscow talks to Washington; it does not talk to Brussels.

What the dispute is about

Whether there is anything to talk about. The European governments hold that normal relations with a state waging a war of conquest next door would reward it, and that Moscow uses every channel to divide them. Russia holds that Europe has chosen to be a party to the war and has therefore no seat at the table where it ends. Since the United States began dealing with Moscow directly in 2025, the Europeans face a choice they have not resolved: keep refusing and be bypassed, or talk and break their own line.

How each side explains it

Moscow's account

Russia never closed the door; Europe did. It expelled Russian diplomats by the hundred, banned Russian journalists, artists and athletes, closed its skies and its borders to ordinary Russians, and let people who hate Russia set its policy. European leaders who once came to Moscow for gas and contracts now compete in insults. Russia will deal with those who show respect, and for now that means Washington, Budapest, Bratislava and the countries of the wider world.

In our coverage

NATO encirclement/provocation is the aggressor; Russia responds defensively →220 headlines
Covered by:Lenta.ru · TASS · Gazeta.ru · TASS (EN) · Izvestia · RIA Novosti

The account of Brussels and the European capitals

Russia's embassies were staffed with intelligence officers who poisoned, bombed and bribed on European soil. Its state media are instruments of the war. Its spokesmen threaten European capitals with missiles by name. Dialogue was tried for twenty years, up to the last calls and visits of February 2022, and was answered with an invasion. Channels exist for prisoner exchanges and for avoiding accidents; more than that must wait for a change in Russia's conduct.

In our coverage

What each account leaves out

Moscow's leaves out the killings and explosions its officers were expelled for, that it banned European media and organisations first or in step, and the tone of its own officials.

The European capitals' leaves out that they have no plan for how the break ends, that refusing to talk has left the talking to Washington, and that the bans fall hardest on the Russians who left Russia because they opposed the war.

The ledger

Russia

Wanted: to be treated as a great power whose interests Europe must weigh.
Gained: Washington's ear.
Paid: its presence in Europe, from embassies to concert halls, and the Europeans who once argued its case.

The European states

Wanted: to isolate Russia until it changes course.
Gained: unity of message.
Paid: any influence over what Moscow and Washington may agree between themselves.

What changed the course

2018.
After the poisoning of a former Russian agent in England, Western states expel some 150 Russian diplomats; Russia answers in kind.

Words in dispute

Names and terms the sides do not share. This page keeps them out of its own voice.

Russophobia
isolation / cancel culture
dialogue / appeasement
unfriendly states, Russia's legal term for most of Europe
war party
persona non grata

Events per week

Per-week distribution of events. Click a bar to see that week's top events.

Click a week bar to select. Light blue = active week.

Week of Sep 14, 2026(10)

Nestle's Russian assets transferred to temporary management

3 sourcesSep 17, 2026

Kremlin comments on temporary takeover of Auchan and Nestle assets in Russia

3 sourcesSep 17, 2026

Russia criticizes Lithuania over nuclear weapons plans

2 sourcesSep 15, 2026

Zakharova responds to Kallas call on EU not recognizing Russian elections

2 sourcesSep 19, 2026

Putin Claims Russia Seeks Cooperation, Denies Hostility to Europe

2 sourcesSep 19, 2026

Russia says it has not received a request to withdraw its military base in Armenia

2 sourcesSep 15, 2026

Dmitriev reacts sharply to BBC article on imminent war

1 sourcesSep 19, 2026

Zakharova comments on Armenia's plans to join EU

1 sourcesSep 15, 2026

Dmitriev jokes about Merz

1 sourcesSep 15, 2026

Dmitriev calls Munich Security Conference a NATO domain

1 sourcesSep 14, 2026