RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin has hit out at the rampant federalism of the European Union, saying many countries within the bloc feel uninvolved in key sovereign decisions. While claiming it was “up to Europeans” to decide what was best for them, he claimed the European Union had stricter control on member states than the Soviet Union’s supreme council. It comes after the Russian president was accused of plotting the downfall of the bloc, with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev accusing the nation of dividing Europe to conquer it. “They have more decisions made in Brussels than the Supreme Council in the Soviet Union did so its a high level of federalisation.”