BRUSSELS: Economic cooperation between Europe and Russia is becoming increasingly difficult, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

"Economic cooperation over time has gotten more and more difficult," she said, adding that "Many attempts on our side over many, many years, almost decades to improve [the] relationship with Russia did not have success they deserved, and therefore  the Russian economy needs to be modernized”

"What we see today is an economy that is lacking an enormous amount of modernization that would be necessary, an economy that is highly depending on energy revenues, but a regime that is not willing to interact in a constructive way with us." Von der Leyen said she is planning new proposals for dealing with Russia, including regarding the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. She said the options would be discussed in a report on relations with Russia at the end of June.

The report will present "the different policy options that will show how we can deal with Russia", she added.

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