EU leaders played up the positives of a 30th summit with Russia Friday but a combative Russian President Vladimir Putin took them bluntly to task over energy and human rights. EU President Herman Van Rompuy, highlighting the depth of their trade ties, said it had been a "positive and constructive summit", preparing the way for new and enhanced co-operation with Moscow.
---- Says Russia does not want to see 'chaos' in Syria
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso echoed that sentiment but then insisted at length that Russian complaints about the bloc's energy policy were unjustified. Russia supplies some 30 percent of EU energy needs and its companies were welcome in the bloc but they had to respect EU rules, especially on pricing, he said in a veiled reference to Gazprom, currently facing an EU probe. Putin would have none of this.
"My good old friend Barroso spoke at such great length because he knows that he is wrong," he said. Barroso and journalists should read the relevant parts of the EU-Russia co-operation accord, he said, repeating: "Read it, read it!" On human rights too, Putin was determined to have his say. Noting that the issue had been discussed as usual at such summits, he said Russia had its own concerns, notably "the outrageous violation of the rights of Russian-speaking people" in Europe.
This was "intolerable", he said, pointing to unnamed Baltic states. Putin has previously made clear he has little time for Western charges of human rights abuses in Russia, seeing this as interference in internal matters. The two parties also exchanged views on a proposed visa-free regime, touted as complementing trade ties. Moscow was ready for progress but it was "up to our EU partners... to take the political decision," Putin said, adding that he understood that it was difficult to get agreement among all 27 EU members.
Barroso emphasised that the EU was making the current system work better, issuing more visas. "Our goal is a visa-free regime," he said. On Syria, the two sides were more guarded, although again recognising a measure of difference over how to resolve a bloody conflict which has now taken more than 44,000 lives, according to monitors. Van Rompuy said the aim had to be a peaceful solution for a transition from President Bashar al-Assad to a democratic, inclusive Syria, while Putin stressed the need to avoid chaos.
Russia wants to "see order restored in Syria. We want to see it become a democratic regime... because this is all very close to our borders," Putin said.
"We really would not like to see any potential changes in Syria to lead to the chaos we are witnessing in other countries of the region," he said, adding it was in everyone's interest that there be "an end to the bloodshed". A separate joint statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton stressed the importance of getting the Middle East peace process back on track. Israel and the Palestinians "must engage in direct and substantial negotiations without preconditions," they said, adding they had noted with dismay Israel's recent decision to expand settlements on the West Bank.
The EU leaders and their guests also said they had exchanged views on the current economic situation, with Moscow closely following the debt crisis and offering support for Brussels's efforts to stabilise the economy. Putin said bilateral trade would be worth 400 billion euros ($530 billion) this year and the EU-Russia partnership was a positive factor "that stimulates the economy." Russia was ready to boost such ties too, he said, with the two becoming ever more inter-dependent, a view Van Rompuy and Barroso both said they shared. Security was tight at EU headquarters for the summit but a small group of pro-democracy activists from Ukrainian feminist group Femen staged a brief topless protest, shouting "Putin go to hell" before being rounded up by police.