Brussels, my love? Is Turkey the best mediator in the Ukraine war?

This week we were joined by Dr. Ian Lesser, Vice President of the US think tank, the German Marshall Fund, Sandra Pasaric, from the centre-right political think tank, the Wilfried Martens Centre and Petros Fassoulas, the secretary general of the European Movement International campaign group.

Panelists chewed over the big geopolitical stories of the week from the Sochi summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could supply arms to the Putin regime.

Pasaric called Putin’s decision not to renew the Black Sea grain deal “cynical and criminal”.

“He’s condemning Ukraine for not doing enough, not using this one-year grain deal to support (developing countries), whereas Ukraine has done everything… What can the European Union do? First of all, stop believing that there is going to be any deal with Russia,” she said.

“Neither Putin nor Erdogan care so much about the well-being of the developing world. They see this as a power play to advance their own agendas and the people who end up suffering are those that need this the most,” added Fassoulas from the European Movement International.

The panel also reacted to the vote this week in the European parliament that aims to bring about more transparency after a major corruption scandal rocked the institution last winter. 

Watch Brussels, my love? in the player above.