You're reading: Russia-European Union summit overshadowed by protests

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia, June 1 (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and European Union leaders discussed boosting trade and economic cooperation on Tuesday at a summit overshadowed by a violent crackdown on opposition protests in Russia's main cities.

Police beat protesters and detained dozens demonstrating in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Monday as Medvedev sat down for dinner with EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Medvedev has repeatedly pledged to boost the respect for human rights. The softer tone that he brought to the Kremlin when he replaced Vladimir Putin in 2008 has contributed to a warming of ties with the West in recent months.

Top of the agenda at the two-day summit in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don is the launch of a new Partnership for Modernisation, under which the EU would provide technology, training and investment in return for reforms to boost democratisation and make Russia’s economy more open.

Medvedev, who has made modernisation and innovation watchwords of his presidency, says European technology is needed to wean the economy off its reliance on energy exports, which contributed to a 7.9 percent collapse in GDP last year.

At the start of talks on Tuesday, Van Rompuy suggested that Russia must improve democracy in order to modernize.

"Your choice to base Russia’s modernization in the 21st century on democratic values and building a modern economy implies significant development," Van Rompuy said. Like the EU, "Russia is also at a crossroads," he said.

But neither Van Rompuy or Barroso mentioned the crackdown on protesters in Saint Petersburg and Moscow on Monday in which dozens of people were detained. Opposition group the Left Front said one of its members was detained to prevent him taking part in an anti-Kremlin protest near the summit venue in Rostov.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International urged the EU leaders not to go easy on Moscow during the talks. The United States criticised the crackdown on Monday, saying it violated freedom of expression and assembly.

Russia’s own human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, told Ekho Moskvy radio that police violated the law at the Moscow rally by using force against peaceful protesters.

In a letter published on Monday in The Moscow Times newspaper, prominent figures including former Czech President Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu questioned Kremlin pledges to improve human rights.

"We ask Medvedev and urge the Russian government to protect people in danger and to ensure quick and effective investigations into the murders of human rights activists," they said.

On the financial front, EU leaders hope for assurances that Russia will avoid actions that could undermine confidence in the euro. Russia’s Central Bank chairman said on Thursday that "for now" he saw no need to sell any of the 41 percent of some $450 billion of currency reserves held in euros.

"I want to wish you and your colleagues well … in the difficult coordination of resolving the world financial crisis and the problems that exist in certain countries of the EU," Medvedev said on Tuesday. "We gave this significant attention yesterday."

The EU is also hoping to boost trade with Russia. After rising for nearly a decade, EU exports to Russia fell sharply during the financial crisis, dropping to 66 billion euros last year from 105 billion euros in 2008.

Foreign direct investment in Russia from the EU fell from 25 billion euros in 2008 into negative territory last year.

Human rights and democracy have long been a thorn in ties between Russia and the West, although tensions have easwed somewhat since Medvedev took power in 2008. Relations with the EU and the United States have improved in recent months.

A recently leaked Russian foreign ministry memo called for a more pragmatic policy with the aim of boosting trade and investment. Top of their wish list is a cut to restrictions in Russian investments in strategic firms in the west and an easing of visa restrictions for Russians travelling abroad.

Russian officials, who reacted furiously to European hostility to bids by Russian companies to invest in German carmaker Opel and aerospace group EADS, are hoping the new modernization drive will reduce restrictions.

Ahead of the summit, Russian officials expressed growing impatience at the progress in long-running effort to secure visa-free travel to Europe for Russian citizens, two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The Kremlin has watched in frustration as, despite the post-Soviet economic recovery, Brussels scrapped visas for poorer states such as Bosnia and Albania, but not for Russia.
EU officials, who fear dropping visas could spark a wave of overstayers and a backlash among voters in western Europe, have refused to agree to a time-frame for visa liberalisation with Moscow.