Russia shifts priorities from U.S. to Europe

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, APRIL 8. The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, is hosting the German Chancellor, Mr. Gerhard Schroeder, in St.Petersburg on Monday in what is seen as Moscow's new policy of prioritising Europe over the United States.

The Russian-German informal summit comes just over two weeks after Mr. Putin received a very warm reception at a European Union summit in Stockholm and a week after the EU foreign policy and security chief, Mr. Javier Solana, visited Moscow to declare that the European Union and Russia are ``strategic partners'' and would cooperate on security and defence issues. In his state-of- the-union address last week the Russian President described ``integration with Europe'' as ``one of the main directions'' of Russian foreign policy and called for strengthening ``partnership relations with the European Union''. Significantly, Mr. Putin made no reference to the United States in his speech.

Russia's emphasis on building closer ties with Europe comes at a time when relations between Moscow and Washington are at the lowest ebb since the Cold War. Even though Moscow has declared that the U. S. is no longer a top priority for Russia, it is nevertheless willing to accept Germany's mediation to help normalise its relations with U.S.

Mr. Schroeder, who met the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, in Washington on March 29, is expected to offer his ``good offices'' between the U.S. and Russia when he meets Mr. Putin on Monday. Germany would like to encourage a ``close dialogue'' between Washington and Moscow on the National Missile Defence (NMD), a German official told the press on the eve of the meeting in St.Petersburg.

The Putin-Schroeder summit, timed to coincide with the ``St.Petersburg dialogue'' forum of Russian and German business chiefs, will be dominated by economic issues, notably Russia's $24-billion debt to Germany. Russia has proposed swapping part of its debt for stakes in attractive Russian enterprises and the St.Petersburg meeting is likely to set in motion the first of such deals.

The German Chancellor also counts on Mr. Putin's support for the Kyoto protocol against global-warming carbon dioxide emissions, which the Bush Administration wants to back out of.

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Section  : International
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