"The migration dialogue between Russia and the EU is one the formats that have not been fully frozen. It is more alive than dead, so to say. But there is no notable activity in that direction, unfortunately. Meetings are being held mainly on the expert level and not on the high political one," Chizhov said in an interview with the Russian Izvestia newspaper.
The Russian envoy stressed that due to its geography and history Russia has a lot of experience as a migrant transit country.
Moscow is hosting a major migration conference on September 22-23. The event, "Migration Crisis: International Cooperation and National Strategies," was organized by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) and the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), a nonprofit think-tank.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn countries of origin in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. The majority of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using southern EU nations as transit points.
