RUSSIA CONCERNED AT EU OVERTURES TO FORMER SOVIET STATES

15_4/28/2009_1
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

LUXENBOURG (Combined Sources)–After meeting with his EU counterparts
in Luxembourg, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin
wasn’t exactly thrilled at the bloc’s Eastern European policies.

Lavrov was visiting Luxembourg for a meeting of the Russia-EU
"permanent partnership council."

In particular, Russia isn’t happy with the EU’s Eastern Partnership
scheme, which seeks to tighten the bloc’s connections with Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova.

The EU says the initiative is aimed at stabilizing and modernizing
those six countries by encouraging free-market and pro-democracy
reforms in return for EU aid. But Moscow is viewing the partnership
with a wary eye.

"I have to say that some of the comments we have heard about this
initiative from the European Union do worry us," Lavrov told reporters
in a press conference.

Still Lavrov’s remarks fell far short of comments he made in March, in
which he accused the EU of trying to build up a "sphere of influence"
among former Soviet republics.

The EU is scheduled to hold the inaugural meeting of its Eastern
Partnership scheme in Prague on May 7.