Translated material
"Natural Family Member"
Vladimir Putin addressed Europeans through the press
Today Vladimir Putin will arrive on a two-day visit to Helsinki, where the next Russia-European Union summit will take place tomorrow. And yesterday, the British newspaper Financial Times and several other European newspapers published an article by the Russian president, written in anticipation of this event. Let us note that this is Putin’s second speech in the world press in the past week. A few days ago, in exactly the same way, the president decided to outline his vision of the prospects for Russia’s cooperation with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. In preparation for the Hanoi APEC summit, Vladimir Putin published an article in the American Washington Times.Now the Russian president goes west to Europe, and, addressing Europeans through the press, urges them “not to be afraid of Russian aspirations.” Mr. Putin reminds, and once again, that “Russia is a natural member of the “European family.” At the same time, he says, “we must respect the historical heterogeneity of European civilization.” “It would be wrong and pointless to try to force artificial “standards” on each other,” the Russian leader believes. The article does not contain the phrase “common European values”. The word “standards” in quotation marks indicates the author’s skeptical attitude towards this concept. The President begins with the “growing momentum” of business, listing all areas of the increasingly “mature” relations between Russia and the EU, and ends with the “cultural aspect”.
The main reason why the article was written is in its last two paragraphs. The head of the Russian state is reflecting on the upcoming “joint work on a new agreement that will replace the existing agreement on partnership and cooperation.” The author foresees difficulties: “future negotiations should not come down to mutual accusations” - and warns of “the threat of new dividing lines in Europe” if Europeans succumb to the influence of those who talk about Europe’s growing dependence on Russia and try to “squeeze relations” between them into the “outdated friend-or-foe scheme.”
Vladimir Putin avoids specifics; the article does not name those who “squeeze” the Old World into “outdated schemes.” It is known where the difficulties for negotiations between Russia and the EU come from - Poland. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Presidential Aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky spoke about this in detail yesterday in Moscow.
If, in the last hours before tomorrow's summit, senior officials from Brussels and Finland's EU presidency cannot convince Warsaw to lift its veto on the EU receiving a mandate to begin negotiations with Russia on a new agreement, then... nothing bad will happen. This is the main message that Yastrzhembsky and Lavrov addressed to the press. They once again confirmed that Moscow does not intend to concede on fundamental positions, the revision of which Poland demands. Russia will not ratify the European Energy Charter (ECT) Treaty in its current form and will not lift the embargo on the import of Polish meat.
“There is no rush to sign the agreement,” says the presidential aide, “and we are not going to influence or put pressure (on Poland. - Ed. ), the problem is just made up and is associated with the insufficient quality of work of Polish veterinary and sanitary control services." As for the refusal to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, according to Yastrzhembsky, “we cannot accept the fact that tariffs for the transit of energy resources for external and internal consumers should be the same, that we are losing our natural advantage as a transit country with a unique extensive pipeline system, which we will actually cease to govern if we ratify the treaty and its protocols in its current form.” He also repeated the position of Moscow, dissatisfied with the way the problem of Russia’s access to European nuclear fuel markets is being resolved.
Moscow hardly hides the fact that the problem of the “Polish veto” is a problem of the European Union, and only it can solve it. And relations between Moscow and Brussels will be based on the existing agreement, which expires in December 2007, but can be extended. Another thing, a high-ranking source in the Kremlin tells Vremya Novostei, is that then Moscow will resolve issues related to the supply of Russian energy resources to EU countries with each of the European partners separately. Is it beneficial for them? - they ask pointedly in the Kremlin.
As for the EU troublemaker herself, yesterday Mr. Yastrzhembsky did not deny himself the pleasure of expressing sympathy for her when one of the journalists told him that the companies that supplied meat to Russia using fake certificates were not Polish. “It’s especially offensive for Poland, which imported meat through its territory,” noted Putin’s aide.
Poland's leaders, the Kaczynski twins, will watch the summit's ups and downs from their home country. However, they were not expected in Helsinki. The format of the summit assumes that Brussels is represented at a meeting with the Russian President by the leading EU troika - the President of the European Commission, the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and the leader of the country currently holding the EU presidency, Finland. On the other hand, the Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, judging by what he said yesterday in Warsaw, is already satisfied with the joy with which he evaluates the “great success of Polish diplomacy”, which forced the “European Union to discuss Polish problems with Russia.”