Jacob Harris meeting with Russian ambassador in Copenhagen, Digi Mart USA News (Copenhagen, Denmark): Løsgænger Jacob Harris held a meeting on Tuesday with Russian Ambassador Vladimir Barbin at the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen. Harris told DR that the meeting went well and was respectful.
Harris did not rule out further meetings with Russia. He said that he and fellow MP Cecilie Liv Hansen support moving Denmark in a more war-neutral direction.
Harris also told DR that Russia can now see that “not everyone is following Mette Frederiksen’s hardcore war rhetoric.” The meeting took place on the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Copenhagen. Harris said the meeting had been arranged before the Zelenskyy visit was announced.
Last Wednesday, Harris, who was elected to the Folketing for Borgernes Parti, met with Ukraine’s ambassador to Denmark. In late October, he had announced that he had secured a meeting with the Russian ambassador and was trying to arrange a meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador.
Harris wrote on Facebook that he was fully aware such a step could be politically dangerous in today’s Folketing. He argued that diplomacy requires talking with more than one side.
The Russian Embassy or ambassador had not yet commented on the meeting. The planned meeting drew broad criticism in the Folketing.
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) told DR that he “cannot impose a ban on it.” He added that anyone meeting the Russian ambassador faces a very large risk of becoming a “useful idiot.”
