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Russia for closer ties with E.U.

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW MAY 31. Russia and the European Union agreed to step up efforts to introduce visa-free travel and build closer ties between them.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made ample use of the grandiose celebrations of St. Petersburg's 300th birth anniversary to win the European leaders commitment to lower barriers to free travel between Russia and the West. A Russia-E.U. summit held on Saturday as part of festivities in Mr. Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg adopted a joint communique that called for Russia's integration into a united Europe for all Europeans and for creating conditions for visa-free movement between Russia and Europe.

The E.U. is Russia's largest trading partner and foreign investor, but the European Union is reluctant to lift travel barriers with Russia for fear of a flood of refugees from the economically depressed regions of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Putin pressed the E.U. leaders to work out a time-frame for rescinding visas for Russians travelling to Europe by the next Russia-E.U. summit scheduled for November. "We understand that a visa-free system won't be established tomorrow," the Russian leader said. "But the citizens of greater Europe should know when, how and at what price freedom of movement, one of the most significant rights of every person, will be achieved."

Mr. Putin said progress had been made in easing travel restrictions for residents of Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave separated from mainland Russia by would-be E.U. members, Lithuania and Poland. Russia and the E.U. decided to set up a permanent Partnership Council to speed up mutual Over 40 heads of state and government have gathered in St. Petersburg over the weekend for the tri-centennial celebrations of Russia's Venice of the North, founded by Czar Peter the Great as Russia's gateway to Europe.

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