Brexit part of EU ‘erosion,’ says Russia’s State Duma chairman

The British exit from the European Union is part of the “erosion” gripping the bloc, says the chairman of the lower house of the Russian parliament.

Sergei Naryshkin talked about Brexit in an interview with Russian media on Tuesday.

The State Duma chairman speculated that Brexit ramifications would hurt stability in Europe.

"Surely, the referendum's outcomes are in a certain way a factor destabilizing the European Union's structure," he told the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel, calling Brexit "an element of the European Union's erosion."

Britons remained deeply divided last Thursday, when 52 percent voted to leave EU and 48 percent voted to remain in the bloc, marking a narrow win for the Out campaign.

Naryshkin said he did not find the outcome of the vote unexpected, "but it's obvious that it has produced a kind of explosion."

The Russian politician maintained that after Brexit, Moscow is still "interested in seeing the United Kingdom as a reliable partner in our bilateral relations.”

Ties between Europe and Russia have been in tatters over a crisis in eastern Ukraine, blamed by the West on Russia.

Tensions that ensued hampered routine negotiations between Moscow and Brussels, which led to imposition sanctions on Russia.

Some argue that Brexit could be used as an opportunity to bury the hatchet and open the EU doors to Russia, a scenario dubbed “Rentry” or “Russ-in.”

According to multinational business magazine Fortune, “Tempting Russia with EU membership would do far more to elicit better behavior from Moscow than the weak economic sanctions the EU currently imposes on it.”

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