Andrey Melnichenko, a Russian billionaire under EU sanctions, has called for a new model of coexistence between Russia and the West, saying the emerging world order will be shaped less by ideological blocs than by states seeking to protect their sovereignty and economic independence.
Melnichenko was speaking to Dimitri Simes, former publisher of the US magazine The National Interest, in a recent interview on Russian state-owned television. Channel One. Relations between Russia and the West, Melnichenko said, would eventually have to be rebuilt on the recognition that national interests compete, rather than on either side seeking to impose its political or economic model on the other.
Melnichenko, who founded EuroChem, one of the world’s largest fertiliser producers, described the standoff with the West as one part of a broader shift in the global economy.
He said Russia had withstood external pressure but now needed to create the conditions for its further development: “In this sense, security has been ensured. But the next question is how to ensure the security of development.”
“The key concept will be sovereignty,” he said. More and more governments, in his view, want to make sure that decisions affecting their economies, technology and security cannot be dictated from abroad. He defined sovereignty as “the ability to make decisions in one’s own interests” and added: “It means giving citizens a planning horizon and a certain degree of predictability.”
That does not mean full economic self-sufficiency, Melnichenko said. Countries should keep critical capabilities under domestic control and diversify their suppliers wherever they continue to depend on trade.
In his view, political fragmentation does not mean that the economic globalisation that prevailed after the Cold War has come to an end. States are seeking greater security, but their economies remain interconnected.
That fragmentation is already making trade more expensive, according to Melnichenko. Companies now need alternative suppliers, larger inventories and more complicated supply chains to guard against sanctions, export restrictions and geopolitical shocks.
For all the current hostility, Melnichenko said Russia and Europe would ultimately have to find a way to coexist and trade.
He drew a distinction between a deal, in which each side seeks its own advantage; negotiations, which are aimed at compromise; and a project, which is built around a shared problem.
“Negotiations take place when you sit on opposite sides of the table and address your own issues by comparing positions,” he explained. He added: “A project, by contrast, means that you sit on the same side of the table, with the problem on the other side.”
That puts him at odds with the European Union’s policy towards Moscow. The EU has adopted round after round of sanctions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the stated aim of weakening Russia’s ability to finance and sustain the war.
It also bears directly on his own business. Since July 1, 2025, fertilisers from Russia and Belarus have faced an EU duty of 6.5 per cent plus €40 to €45 a tonne, rising to €315 and €430 a tonne by 2028 — levels intended to price the trade out of the European market. Russia supplied more than a quarter of the bloc’s fertiliser imports in 2023.
Melnichenko has been under EU restrictive measures since March 2022. The EU lists him as a Russian industrialist belonging to an influential circle of business figures connected to the Russian government. He has challenged his listing.
His wife, Croatian national Aleksandra Melnichenko, is also under EU sanctions.
Both have contested the EU’s reasoning in court. In December 2025, the EU General Court rejected their challenges to their continued inclusion on the sanctions lists.
EuroChem itself is not on the EU sanctions list.
The group still runs a large operation in Belgium. Its fertiliser complex at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges includes NPK and ammonium nitrate/calcium ammonium nitrate units, a nitrophosphoric acid plant and logistics infrastructure.
Melnichenko criticised Europe’s response, saying Western governments shared responsibility for the breakdown in relations and would eventually have to accept that Russia cannot simply be cut off from the global economy.
He also suggested that European governments were using Russia as an external threat to rally political support at home.
The EU’s stated position is different. Brussels says its sanctions and support for Ukraine are a response to Russia’s invasion and to actions undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.
Melnichenko linked ideas about leadership to the condition of society: “To a certain extent, the archetype of the leader reflects the state of society at a particular moment.”
“There is a historical mission, and the leader must correspond to it,” he said. He explained: “That is why, in the Russian consciousness, the way the leader is viewed is also a way of viewing the mission.”
This interpretation helps explain why criticism of a leader can be perceived as criticism of the national mission, although Melnichenko himself did not explicitly equate the two. He contrasted the Russian tradition with Western democracies, which he described as less personalised and more fragmented.
Still, Melnichenko said the confrontation should not be seen as a permanent division of the world.
He described it as a transition towards a system in which major powers and regional blocs accept that other states will defend their own political and economic interests.
As he put it, the question is not whether Russia and the West will have relations again, but what rules will govern them.
That is a difficult debate for the EU, which is trying simultaneously to strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy, reduce its exposure to geopolitical rivals and maintain access to global markets and critical commodities.
What Andrey Melnichenko proposes amounts to coexistence without political convergence: states continue to compete, but recognise each other’s sovereignty and trade where their interests overlap.
