Literally leasing a very important port city (Sevastopol) to the Russian navy counts for nothing?
That's so much more cooperation than talking with NATO or "aiming to get closer ties with the EU". Not to say that Russia had tons of trade deals with the EU, so does Morocco and everyone who wants something in that region.
That's the wrong way of looking at an å.
It's not just an a with decoration. It actually has different pronunciation and is typically replaced with aa if no å is available. (I'm neither Swedish nor Norwegian, so not 100% sure, but it's what happened to Erling Haaland).
Similarly, you would replace a German ä with ae. So if my name was Bäcker, it would be wrong to spell it Backer on a ticket. Baecker would be the way.