The Baltic countries — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — in particular were “furious” about the Russia outreach, according to a European diplomat working on the issue. Several leaders learned about the calls only after they appeared in media reports and were angry about it, a further three diplomats said. The all spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The Costa team did inform Germany, France and the U.K. — known as the E3 — and the European Commission before the calls took place, one of the diplomats said. Two other diplomats, however, said Berlin had not been pre-warned.
Justification
Portuguese Lourtie, who has a reputation in Brussels as something of a dealmaker, addressed ambassadors from the EU’s 27 governments on Wednesday when news of the calls, first reported by Bloomberg, became public. While complaining that they had been leaked to the media, he justified them by saying they followed a direct request by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Europe to get involved in the peace negotiations, according to another EU diplomat with knowledge of the meeting.
Lourtie didn’t confirm whether any further calls will take place but pledged to inform ambassadors if so, the diplomat said.
The calls were with Putin’s national security adviser, Lourtie told the ambassadors, according to three of the diplomats.
Russia doesn’t have a national security adviser, though Sergei Shoigu serves as the secretary of the Security Council, Yuri Ushakov is President Vladimir Putin’s chief foreign-policy aide and Nikolai Patrushev serves as his senior strategic adviser with significant influence over security policy.