Lahti, 23/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - “All our concerns” were raised, said Commission President José Manuel Barroso after the dinner on Friday evening 20 October of EU heads of state and government and the Russian President Vladimir Putin, which closed the informal European Council. European leaders and Mr Putin had “very frank” discussions on the internal situation in Russia and international issues, said the Finnish Prime Minister and Council President Matti Vanhanen. Comments gleaned here and there show that the differences in points of view between the EU and Moscow, on certain energy issues just as on matters of internal Russian policy, remain great.
Two weeks after the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the EU strongly expressed its “deep concern” on the development of democracy and freedom of expression in Russia. Speking for the EU, Mr Vanhanen told Mr Putin that “this terrible crime (the murder of Ms Politkovskaïa) needs full investigation and those responsible for this crime must be brought to justice”. Repeating that he “like the whole international community had been shocked”, Mr Putin gave his assurances that Moscow would get to the bottom of the murder and that he had “given instructions for investigations to be transparent and full”. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said that the Russian President had told European leaders that an “act of provocation” could not be ruled out.
Having been rebuked by the President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell, and by the Danish and Swedish Prime Ministers, Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Fredrik Reinfeldt on the human rights, press freedom and corruption situation in the country, the Russian President did not appreciate being questioned about any slippage in the authority of his regime. To Mr Borrell, who asked whether Russia "still has a democracy", Mr Putin replied that Spain was not entirely free from corruption, going on to tell Italian Council President Romano Prodi that: "Mafia is an Italian word, not Russian".
The Russian President also remained uncompromising in response to the explanations requested, over dinner, by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, about the commercial embargo against Georgia and the expulsion of Georgian nationals from Russian territory. "It is not Russia which is responsible for the worsening situation" since the arrest of Russian "spies" by the Georgian authorities, but Tbilissi, which he accuses of doing everything possible to "cause a blood bath" to take back control in the Russian enclaves in the Caucasian region. "The reasons for this conflict do not lie in relations between Russia and Georgia, but in relations between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia", Mr Putin told the press. "The initiative to increase tension does not come from Russia", but from Georgia, which intends to re-establish its territorial integrity in both Russian enclaves "by military means", he continued, before going on to state that relations between Tbilissi and Moscow “could be normalised” once Georgia has changed its policy towards South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “Do not accuse us out of principle or for something which we cannot do”, said the Russian President, stressing that Russia could not accept responsibility for all “frozen conflicts” which exist in the countries of the former USSR.
On Saturday, the Georgian President Mikhaïl Saakachvili ruled out a military solution to re-establish the control of the central government over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “It is certain, absolute and categorical that we are not going to undertake military action”, explained Mr Saakachvili, echoing Mr Putin.
Also interrogating the Russian President, over dinner, about the worsening climate of relations between Moscow and Tbilissi, the Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis also called for clarifications from Mr Putin about the situation in Chechnya. In response, the Russia President complained, to the Twenty-Five, about the treatment reserved for the Russian minorities in the Baltic States.
Lastly, the European leaders and their guests discussed international issues. “We already cooperate a great deal on issues of international politics such as Iran, North Korea and the Middle East, but we have nonetheless agreed that there will still be room to increase this cooperation still further”, said Mr Vanhanen, speaking to the press, also welcoming the Nordic Dimension, to be reinforced between the Union, Russia, Norway and Iceland.
In Lahti, discussions with Mr Putin were frank and open, whilst avoiding confrontation. Thus, nobody got angry with the leader of the country which supplies the Union with the most of its gas. Whilst the Estonian Prime Minister, Andrus Ansip, pleaded, earlier in the day, in favour of a “balance between the common values and interests of the Union” in relations with Moscow, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was unprepared to sacrifice her country's energy interests on the altar of human rights, calling on the twenty-Five to “guide Russia towards the path of democracy and the market economy”. “I am pleased that we are talking with Mr Putin rather than about Mr Putin”, she told the press. Just as diplomatically, French President Jacques Chirac pointed out that “human rights and energy are two different things”. “There is no question of linking moral actions to economic actions”, he insisted, stressing that Russia and the Union both have “legitimate interests which we must seek to harmonise”. (eh / hb)