Russia and the EU will meet in Riga

Today the Baltic Sea Summit and a two-day business forum of the Baltic region countries open in Latvia. The key topic of both events will be the energy policy of the EU and Russia, and the business forum will generally be the last negotiating platform before the start of the Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiysk, where the parties will be able to discuss accumulated contradictions in the energy sector. After Vladimir Putin’s refusal to come to Riga, Russia will be represented by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. With details from Riga - Kommersant correspondent ALEXANDER GABUEV.

Incomplete forum

According to the organizers, the seventh summit of the Baltic Sea states, which will be held in Riga today and tomorrow, was supposed to bring together the presidents and heads of government of ten European states: Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Estonia. Another invitee was Russia. However, shortly before the start of the forum, it became clear that all the invitees could not be expected in Riga. The first to “deserte” was German Chancellor Angela Merkel - she politely apologized to the organizers and said that due to her busy schedule she would not be able to come to Riga, but would send State Minister for European Affairs Günther Gloser in her place.

Another politician who refused to come to the Baltic summit was the head of the Russian government, Vladimir Putin, although he was expected in Riga almost more than the other participants. After all, the summit meeting in the Latvian capital will be the last meeting of this level before the Russia-EU summit, which will be held on June 26-27 in Khanty-Mansiysk. It is there that Moscow and Brussels should begin long-awaited negotiations to conclude a new partnership and cooperation agreement. The current meeting, which will bring together representatives of almost half of the EU member states (and precisely the half that has the most problems in relations with Moscow), gave the leaders of the EU and Russia the opportunity to compare notes one last time.

At first, it seemed that Moscow was inclined to accept the Latvian proposal. Back in May, Russian Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov said that the Russian Prime Minister would try to find time in his busy schedule and stop by Riga for at least a few hours. Mr. Putin’s recent trips as prime minister seemed to confirm this possibility; for example, last week he went to Paris and found time to talk with ex-President of France Jacques Chirac, writer Maurice Druon, and also carefully examine the Museum of His Majesty’s Cossack Life Guards Regiment . The Latvian Foreign Ministry reported that it had sent a personal invitation to Vladimir Putin and was now looking forward to a response.

The response of the head of the Russian government to Latvian diplomats was at least surprising - the Russian government apparatus reported that the Russian Prime Minister would not go to Riga due to the lack of a personal invitation from the Latvian side. Hearing this explanation, many in Riga remembered the skirmish that took place at the April NATO summit in Bucharest between Vladimir Putin and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers. The Latvian president then publicly accused the Russian of “Cold War-era thinking,” and in response, Mr. Putin raised the issue of respecting the civil rights of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia.

One way or another, Vladimir Putin decided to send First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov to Latvia instead of himself.

Energy skirmish

However, Mr. Shuvalov will not be the only representative of Russia in Riga. The fact is that simultaneously with the political summit, a business forum of the Baltic region countries will be held in the Latvian capital. For two days, representatives of the business elite of all 11 summit participating countries will gather in the fashionable Riga hotel Reval Latvija and discuss specific business problems, the solution of which should be facilitated by the conclusion of a new agreement between Russia and the EU.

Formally, forum participants must discuss three topics: energy, finance and transport. And although not the last people will come to Riga to discuss transport and financial issues (for example, the head of Alfa Bank Petr Aven and the deputy chairman of Sberbank Alexander Zakharov), no one doubts that the energy topic will be key.

It is no secret that energy issues promise to be the most difficult in the upcoming negotiations between the EU and Russia. This is not the first year that Brussels has been trying to get Moscow to sign the Energy Charter. In particular, the Europeans insist on dividing the production and transport capacities of those Russian companies that supply energy resources to Europe; this demand primarily concerns Gazprom. In addition, the European Commission stubbornly refuses to allow Gazprom and other Russian hydrocarbon suppliers to become final producers in EU countries. Finally, after Russia's recent gas wars with Ukraine and Belarus, Brussels accuses Moscow of using energy supplies as a political weapon, and therefore demands security guarantees.

It is characteristic that the preliminary discussion of energy problems will take place precisely at the forum of the Baltic countries - recently this region has become almost the main irritant in relations between Moscow and Brussels. For example, the veto of Lithuania, which accused Russia of stopping energy supplies through the Druzhba oil pipeline, blocked the start of negotiations on a new agreement between Russia and the EU for several months. The EU was able to convince Vilnius to lift the veto and unblock negotiations with Moscow just a week ago.

In addition, it is in the Baltic region that Moscow intends to implement one of its key projects - the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which will be built along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, bypassing the Baltic countries and Poland. The leaders of these countries are extremely dissatisfied with the Russian project and propose to build a new pipe on the surface instead of a costly, in their opinion, and dangerous for the ecology of the Baltic Sea underwater gas pipeline. However, Russia, which does not want to become dependent on transit countries, is not satisfied with this option.

The Riga forum will begin today with a discussion of energy issues. The topic of the discussion is stated as “East and West - energy in the Baltic Sea region. Security of demand, supply and infrastructure.” The EU's interests will be defended by the European Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs. His potential opponents will be a close-knit group of managers from Gazprom, E.On, BASF (they are co-founders of the Nord Stream project - Kommersant ), as well as representatives of the gas pipeline construction operator - Nord Stream AG. This group will be led by Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Valery Golubev. In addition, the interests of the Russian gas giant will be represented at the forum by the head of Gazprominvestholding, Alisher Usmanov.

Thus, today’s discussion will, in fact, become a prototype of the negotiation battles that Russia and the EU will wage, trying to conclude a new agreement on partnership and cooperation. Judging by the mood of the participants, even the preliminary discussion in Riga will not be simple.

The Baltic will experience a surge of energy