UzLand
10-19-2006, 08:47 PM
RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin’s quip about rape charges facing the Israeli president has threatened to overshadow a meeting with Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert.
The talks largely focused on Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah, but comments by Mr Putin when he thought the microphones were off almost stole the show.
Russian website Kommersant reported that, as the press were ushered out before the meeting proper began, Mr Putin said: “Say hi to your president. He turned out to be quite a powerful person. He raped 10 women. We’re all amazed. We all envy him.”
The Russian media have been quick to try and defend their nation’s president, speculating that Mr Putin simply wanted to express support for Mr Olmert, who has been put in a difficult position by the Israeli president’s actions.
The news emerged the day before Mr Putin was due to meet EU leaders in what senior diplomats are calling an effort to establish relations between two equal partners.
Russia’s supply of oil and gas to Europe is a major issue, while Europeans remain divided about their attitude towards Russia.
So the lunch in Finland today will be spent with the 25 leaders trying to get their act together.
The Finns have perhaps managed the Russians better than any other EU member in the past and it was their idea to invite Mr Putin to the informal summit.
They left a lot of free time between lunch and dinner to ensure maximum pressure on everyone to sing from the same hymn-sheet. At all costs they want to avoid Mr Putin being able to say, as he was in the past, that he had heard a variety of voices around the table.
At issue is the EU’s dependency on Russia for a quarter of its oil and gas, rising to 90% in the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Ideally they want Russia to ratify the entire Energy Charter Treaty, a legally binding treaty agreeing rules on access to pipelines and opening up investment in new markets. But Russia has refused so far and their ambassador in Brussels this week said they would not change their mind.
There is something of a mutual dependency between the two, with Russia needing to look after its best customer. Everyone knows pipelines cannot be built or diverted to other customers such as China overnight.
Realising that Russia may not become more democratic than it is, the EU has developed a more pragmatic approach.
As a result they have allowed Mr Putin refer to the situation in Chechnya as part of his country’s battle against terrorism and have largely ignored the murders of dozens of journalists and opposition politicians.
The EU is under pressure to raise the issue of Moscow’s interference in Georgian affairs, and of the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
As they concentrate on trying to forge a relationship based on their mutual interest of oil and gas, observers expect they will leave these issues to their foreign ministers.
The talks largely focused on Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah, but comments by Mr Putin when he thought the microphones were off almost stole the show.
Russian website Kommersant reported that, as the press were ushered out before the meeting proper began, Mr Putin said: “Say hi to your president. He turned out to be quite a powerful person. He raped 10 women. We’re all amazed. We all envy him.”
The Russian media have been quick to try and defend their nation’s president, speculating that Mr Putin simply wanted to express support for Mr Olmert, who has been put in a difficult position by the Israeli president’s actions.
The news emerged the day before Mr Putin was due to meet EU leaders in what senior diplomats are calling an effort to establish relations between two equal partners.
Russia’s supply of oil and gas to Europe is a major issue, while Europeans remain divided about their attitude towards Russia.
So the lunch in Finland today will be spent with the 25 leaders trying to get their act together.
The Finns have perhaps managed the Russians better than any other EU member in the past and it was their idea to invite Mr Putin to the informal summit.
They left a lot of free time between lunch and dinner to ensure maximum pressure on everyone to sing from the same hymn-sheet. At all costs they want to avoid Mr Putin being able to say, as he was in the past, that he had heard a variety of voices around the table.
At issue is the EU’s dependency on Russia for a quarter of its oil and gas, rising to 90% in the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Ideally they want Russia to ratify the entire Energy Charter Treaty, a legally binding treaty agreeing rules on access to pipelines and opening up investment in new markets. But Russia has refused so far and their ambassador in Brussels this week said they would not change their mind.
There is something of a mutual dependency between the two, with Russia needing to look after its best customer. Everyone knows pipelines cannot be built or diverted to other customers such as China overnight.
Realising that Russia may not become more democratic than it is, the EU has developed a more pragmatic approach.
As a result they have allowed Mr Putin refer to the situation in Chechnya as part of his country’s battle against terrorism and have largely ignored the murders of dozens of journalists and opposition politicians.
The EU is under pressure to raise the issue of Moscow’s interference in Georgian affairs, and of the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
As they concentrate on trying to forge a relationship based on their mutual interest of oil and gas, observers expect they will leave these issues to their foreign ministers.