Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: russofobi a brussels

Inviting Russia’s Putin to EU Summit Seen As Mistake in Brussels
Created: 16.10.2006 09:15 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 09:15 MSK, 5 hours 27
minutes ago
MosNews
Inviting Vladimir Putin to a European Union summit this week was a
diplomatic blunder that could hand the Russian president a high-profile
stage on which to exploit EU divisions, diplomats in Brussels are warning,
The Financial Times reports. 
Putin’s visit is expected to dominate the Lahti summit in Finland and has
left some European leaders fearing the event could become a toe-curling
exhibition of EU disunity in its relations with Moscow.
The Finnish EU presidency hopes Putin’s visit will help to prepare the
ground for next month’s EU-Russia summit, which will herald the start of
talks on a new “strategic partnership” between the two neighbors,
particularly in the energy field.
But some diplomats fear the Friday night dinner will see Europe’s 25
leaders promoting their own national interests, giving Putin first-hand
proof that the EU cannot act as a single powerful negotiating partner.
“You can easily imagine him saying with a smile at the end of the dinner
that he has heard lots of different voices around the table,” said one EU
diplomat. “That would be a disaster for the EU.”
Russia has proved adept at exploiting European divisions in the past,
striking bilateral gas deals with several countries including Germany, and
building warm relations with Paris. New member states such as Poland favor
a much tougher relationship with Moscow. 
The EU has many issues to raise, including the recent clash between Moscow
and Royal Dutch Shell over the oil company’s alleged environmental
breaches in the Sakhalin field and the decision of Gazprom, Russia’s gas
monopoly, to reject foreign partners in the Shtokman project.
Matti Vanhanen, Finland’s prime minister, is also likely to raise concerns
about tensions between Russia and Georgia and over the murder of the
Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
“The timing of this is awful,” admitted another diplomat. “We are making
Putin the guest of honor and giving him a platform to give us a lecture on
Gazprom and environmental policy.”
Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the EU, said he hoped the meeting
would be positive and pave the way for talks on a new partnership across
the board.
But he told the Financial Times Putin would not take criticisms of Russia
lying down, and claimed the EU should stop trying to turn countries such
as Ukraine away from Moscow by presenting them with an “artificial
dilemma”. “It’s either forwards with the EU or backwards with Russia,” he
said. “It’s an artificial choice: it is false and it is dangerous.” He
said European interference in Ukraine could provoke “centrifugal elements
in the country”.
He suggested that Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, should have
intervened to stop political unrest on the streets of Budapest, the
Hungarian capital, last month, in the way he traveled to the Ukraine in
the midst of the “Orange revolution”.
Chizhov added that Putin would not take lectures on human rights while
ethnic Russians in Estonia and Latvia, two new EU members, were treated as
“non-citizens”.
He also claimed that Estonia was being turned into “an SS hall of fame”,
with memorials being erected to local soldiers who fought with the Germans
against Soviet forces in the second world war. An Estonian government
spokeswoman denied the allegation.
“The EU is doing nothing,” Chizhov said. “We supported the accession of
these countries to the EU and we hoped the ’big brothers’ inside the EU
would provide them with a certain calming — even educational — influence,”
he said. “So far this hasn’t produced the changes we were hoping for.”
Chizhov admitted the murder of Anna Politkovskaya had harmed Russia’s
image, and said the criminals involved should be tracked down. But he
said: “The Russian authorities may have some deficiencies but they are not
crazy people who get involved in murdering journalists.”
European leaders will also discuss EU innovation policy and measures to
tackle illegal migration during the informal one-day meeting in Lahti.
-- 
visitate 
http://www.comunisti-italiani.it/frames/index.htm
http://cubainforma.interfree.it/
i film sul 9/11 : 
http://www.loosechange911.com/
 e 
http://www.reopen911.org/
 
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--
visitate 
http://www.associazioneperlaterzanarice.it
L'associazione che respira l'aria del Kremlino!

  
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-- 
visitate 
http://www.comunisti-italiani.it/frames/index.htm
http://cubainforma.interfree.it/
i film sul 9/11 : 
http://www.loosechange911.com/
 e 
http://www.reopen911.org/
 
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Berlin.jpg
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
