Brussels, 12/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the leader of Russia's Yabloko liberal party, Grigory Yavlinsky, slammed the European Union's lack of strategy with regard to Russia, and also with regard to Ukraine and the other republics of the former USSR. The EU may have agreed with Russia on the establishment of four common spaces, and roadmaps to implement may have been agreed, but apart from these bureaucratic structures the EU has no long-term strategy to ensure Russia is economically, politically and democratically integrated into a European view of the world, said Yavlinsky. The problem with the four common areas, he explained, was that on paper they say that Russia is moving in the right direction, towards approximation with European standards and values, but in reality, Russia is moving in an entirely different direction. Yabloko's leader said there was no genuine political opposition in Russia, no democratic system, no free parliament, no free press, no free class of businessmen, no free elections and no independent control powers. A system like this is in direct contradiction with the EU's fundamental values, but the EU moves forward by making closer ties with Moscow as if everything was fine, protested Yavlinksy, adding that he did not oppose the idea of the four common areas or the intensification of relations between the EU and Russia, but the EU's current strategy was simply not the right answer to the changes currently taking place in Russia in terms of democracy and respect for human rights. What should the EU do? I have no advice to give, said Yavlinsky, telling reporters that perhaps the EU should simply demonstrate greater transparency and honesty in its policy towards Russia, rather than simply focussing on buying oil and gas. The head of the Green/EFA Group at the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, standing next to Yavlinsky at the press conference, said the EU 'should not sell our souls for gas and oil'. Yavlinsky was also accompanied by Finnish national, Ari Vatanen, elected as an MEP in France (EPP-ED), and Tanya Lokshina, a human rights activist in Russia (where she heads the DEMOS research and information centre in Moscow), who explained the difficult nature of non-governmental organisation work in Russia, often proving impossible even. She said that people expressing views that differ from the official line runs the risk of being seen as traitors.