In 1999 Javier Solana, European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, stated that partnership with Russia was ‘the most important, the most urgent and the most challenging task that the European Union (EU) faces’. That is even truer today. Despite the great optimism aroused by the fall of the Iron Curtain, we are now seeing a degree of disenchantment in relations between the EU and Russia. Democracy and human rights, the situation in Chechnya, Moscow’s vehement reaction to the announcement of the deployment of elements of the US anti-missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic, or again the recent Russo-Estonian crisis over the Soviet Second World War memorial, have all illustrated the current high level of tension.

A few weeks after the setback at the Samara summit on 18 May, which failed in its aim of initiating negotiations on the signing of a new agreement between the EU and Russia, and the qualified success of the G8 meeting in Heiligendamm on 7 June, where President Putin surprised everyone with his offer of cooperation on the US anti-missile defence system, it is perhaps time to consider the current state of and future prospects for these relations.

Transeuropean Misunderstandings

Democracy and Human Rights

The question of democracy and human rights is one of the most difficult aspects of EU-Russia relations. The two consecutive mandates for Vladimir Putin as President of the Russian Federation have been characterised by a discernible retreat from democracy, media pluralism and personal freedom. The insistence by the EU on ‘common values’ is, however, viewed with considerable distrust by the Russian government and it meets with relative indifference among the Russian public. According to a recent opinion poll in Russia, more than 40 per cent of those interviewed considered that democracy was inappropriate, even destructive, for Russia. Furthermore, in the run-up to the legislative elections in December 2007 and the presidential elections in March 2008, the popularity of Vladimir Putin (with around a 70 per cent approval rating) is such that the question is increasingly being raised of changing the constitution to enable him to bid for a third term. Rather than endlessly reiterating the human rights and democracy message, it might be more effective for the EU to clearly and firmly raise these questions but in the context of a genuine dialogue with the Russian government.