The Hindu : International : European leaders seek to court Russia

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Saturday, Mar 19, 2005

International

International

European leaders seek to court Russia

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, MARCH 18. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, arrived in Paris today for talks with the leaders of France, Germany and Spain aimed at improving his country's uneasy ties with Europe. This is the first four-way summit the Russian President is holding with European leaders.

According to a Presidential spokesperson in Paris, the purpose of the informal talks is to "hold out the hand of friendship to President Putin to encourage him down the road of political and economic reforms." The Europeans have been alarmed by Mr. Putin's increasingly authoritarian governing style and would like to remind him that Russia remains a democracy, albeit more in name than in substance under his leadership. The situation in Chechnya with widespread allegations of human rights violations by the Russian army is also on the agenda, although the Europeans are expected to tread gingerly given Moscow's sensitivity on the subject.

Concern in the Baltics

The meeting is likely to cause concern in countries such as Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia where Franco-German efforts to dominate E.U. relations with Russia are both suspected and resented.

The Elysee Palace said other countries — and the European Commission in Brussels — should not take offence, as it was important that every link with Moscow be encouraged.

The pretext for the encounter is to further the three-way alliance between Mr. Putin, the French President, Jacques Chirac and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder that was triggered by their opposition to the Iraq war two years ago. The Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was added to the group at the invitation of Mr. Chirac, who sees the Socialist Premier as a new ally in the European Union.

Europe's courting of Mr. Putin is at sharp variance with the attitude adopted by the U.S. President, George W. Bush, when the two met in Bratislava last month. Mr. Bush was openly critical of Russia's democratic shortcomings, indicating that the U.S.-Russian relationship has entered a period of strain.

The Kremlin says it also wants to move forward on the "common spaces" in Paris, ahead of the E.U.-Russia summit set for May 10 in Moscow.

A spokesman for Mr. Zapatero said the three European leaders could raise the thorny issue of Chechnya with Mr. Putin, in the wake of the killing earlier this month of the rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov by Russian forces.

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