European Forum

Barroso clashes with Putin over human rights abuses in Russia

On Friday 6 February at a high-level EU-Russia meeting in Moscow that was intended to improve post-gas crisis ties that were strained since last January, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso clashed with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin over human rights issues in Russia. Barroso said the recent killings of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and newspaper reporter Anastasiya Baburova, who investigated state killings and torture in North Caucasus, raised concerns in the EU. He stressed that "human rights and rule of law are much more important than diplomacy between two states".

Putin than irritably accused the EU of human rights abuses within its own territory, referring to the mistreatment by EU states of migrants and prisoners, and to the rights of the Russian ethnic minority in the Baltic states. He remarked that "the full range of problems should be discussed in order to solve them". Barroso’s reaction was that although things are not perfect in Europe, at least criticism is accepted. He also stressed the fact that the Baltic states - EU members - are democracies that respect the rule of law.

Prior to the meeting, Barroso talked to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, about the realisation of a new EU-Russia framework agreement. He said the nine commissioners who accompanied him on his visit, intended to discuss the many issues in order to deepen EU-Russia relations. One of the main issues Barroso highlighted was the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which caused severe gas shortages in several EU states after Russia halted supplies. He stressed the importance to create new conditions so that this kind of crisis will not occur in the future. According to Mr Medvedev a "fully-fledged international legal system" is needed to prevent a similar situation.

Russia's plan to build military bases in the two breakaway regions of Georgia also raised tensions during the meeting. A day before the summit, EU presidency the Czech Republic, said it was "seriously concerned" by the moves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, over which Russia and Georgia went to war last August. It said the EU considers the implementation of such plans “a serious violation of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity". In the end, the visit seemed to have highlighted tensions rather than to strengthen ties.