Russia’s not invincible — just look at Syrian collapse, says EU top diplomat

The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Thursday that Russia is not invincible and that Europe should not sell itself short.

“Syria shows that Russia is not invincible. We should not underestimate our own power,” Kallas told reporters ahead of the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Russia was a key ally of the Syrian Bashar Assad regime, which was toppled on Dec. 8 by rebel groups after a 13-year civil war.

Speaking about the two top items on the EU leaders’ agenda for the meeting  — the EU’s support for Ukraine and the bloc’s role in the world — Kallas stressed that Europe needs to act united to remain “strong and serious on the world stage.”

“Everyone is looking at us in these developments that are going on in the world,” she said.

“We see struggles between forces that want to have a world order where ‘might makes right,’ and then the EU, where we want to have a world that is rules-based and … where those who have the powers cannot just take what they want,” she added.

Kallas and other EU leaders welcomed the collapse of the regime as “a positive development” for Syria. “It also shows the weakness of Assad’s backers, Russia and Iran,” Kallas said.

Following the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, Kallas announced that the EU will consider working with Syria’s new leadership to close Russian military bases in the country.