Riga, Oct 7 (LETA) - The Baltic states and Poland also in 2021 stressed that Russia does not want dialogue with a united Europe and will try to divide its position, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said at a press conference at the Riga Castle on Tuesday, when asked to comment on former German chancellor Angela Merkel's remarks that before the war of aggression in Ukraine Poland and the Baltic states blocked direct talks with Russia.

Rinkevics pointed out that the possibility of direct negotiations with Russia had been discussed both at the European Council and at the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union. In 2021, he said, it was very clear that the Minsk agreement was not being implemented and that Russia was not going to do so.

"Even then, the position of the Baltic states and Poland was that if new formats for negotiations were to be sought at all, the whole EU should be involved. Russia understands only a united and strong position," said Rinkevics, who at the time was Latvia's foreign minister.

He reminded that in the spring of 2021, the first concentration of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border took place and the Baltic foreign ministers travelled to Kyiv to discuss ways of supporting Ukraine. The president admitted that in today's information noise it has been forgotten how turbulent the year 2021 was.

Rinkevics acknowledged that even today there are different views among EU member states, including on the sanctions policy or the use of Russia's frozen assets to support Ukraine. He pointed out that the closer an EU or NATO member state is to Russia, the better it understands the risks and threats, while if countries are further away, the position on Russia also differs.

Rinkevics stressed that the position of the Baltic states and Poland had been consistent - to advocate a strong and united European policy towards Russia.

"After February 2022, many in the West admitted that they had not listened to us. Were we right then? We were. Are we right today? I believe we are," the president said.

He also added that Russia would have been ready for talks in 2021 only if its ultimatums, which affected Ukraine, NATO and the security order in Europe, were met. Rinkevics pointed out that at that time there were quite a lot of such ultimatums.

As reported, Germany's former Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed Poland and the Baltic states for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Merkel, who led the country from 2005 to 2021, made the explosive claim in an interview with Hungarian outlet Partizan. She said she blamed Poland and the Baltic states for the severance of diplomatic ties between Russia and the European Union, which she said led to the invasion just a few months later. In her telling of history, Poland's refusal to support the Minsk Agreements, a pair of key international agreements between Russia and the EU, emboldened Putin to properly invade Ukraine in 2022.