Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-19-Speech-3-153"
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"en.20031119.6.3-153"2
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"Mr President, when Peter the Great wanted to make Russia more Western, he dressed up the Russian aristocracy in Western European clothes and moved the capital of Russia westwards from Moscow to St Petersburg. President Putin's westward-looking government has described the European Union as its 'natural political partner', and until recently Russia has appeared to dress in the clothes of Europe: the clothes of free trade, the clothes of political and civil rights, the clothes of infant democracy.
The ELDR Group welcomed this EU-Russia summit. We are right to look for political and economic spaces where our two societies can work together. Under the right circumstances, we welcome closer economic relations between the European Union and Russia. Easier travel is a necessary and important part of making this work.
Russia and the Union share a common security environment and a high degree of mutual interdependence, so we are right to seek to make our joint borders more secure and our shared hemisphere more safe. We welcome Russia's ambitions to join the WTO and this may be possible, even if it is made more difficult by recent events.
However, Europe is right to rail against Russian repression and governmental meddling in the lives of its neighbours. The issue of Chechnya will not go away, nor will Russia's refusal to ratify Kyoto. It is not enough to wear the clothes of Europe. Closer relations should carry the price of full subscription to modern European values, and at the very least we must continue to be critical and frank.
At this summit, Mr President-in-Office, our position was badly compromised by those charged with representing us. The presidency's ill-considered comments on Chechnya and on the arrest and detention of Mikhail Khodorkovsky were out of line. Mr Berlusconi speaks for Europe and he should choose his words with care. His own presidency drafted a declaration last month that was strongly critical of Russian conduct in Chechnya. However, not only was there no reference to Chechnya in the summit communiqué, but the President of the Council even thought it appropriate to contradict Europe's affirmed position with an improvised display of bluster worthy of a cheap lawyer. In any case, why should we deny the difficulties of the Russian minorities in the Baltic states? They are nothing compared to the persecution of the Chechens.
Internal security may be complementary to justice and human rights, as the President-in-Office said, but as practised in Chechnya it is not. We have condemned Russian action in Chechnya and the attempt to intimidate sources of political opposition in Russia for good reason. Despite their European clothes, it is not clear that Mr Putin's government shares our values of democracy, human rights, the rule of law and freedom of expression. If it does, why is Mr Khodorkovsky in jail?"@en1
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