EU caves in to Putin over Chechnya

Date: 04/10/01

By David Cronin

The EU reached a secret accord with President Vladimir Putin that it would soften its criticism of human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya - as the price for his support in the coalition against terrorism.

Top-level sources at the Commission told European Voice that Putin's entourage had objected to a proposed joint statement at the EU-Russia summit, which would have made plain the Union's concerns over the heavy-handed tactics used by Russian forces in Chechnya.

But the statement finally issued yesterday (3 October) was watered down. It only contained a cursory reference to the breakaway republic in the north Caucasus. Both sides, it said, had an exchange of views about the current situation and the EU had expressed its support for the Kremlin's efforts to achieve a political settlement.

One official close to the negotiations explained that the EU delegation was influenced by last week's assertion by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder that there must be "a differentiated evaluation" in world opinion on Chechnya and US President George W Bush's comments about possible Chechen links with the hijackers who attacked New York and Washington on 11 September. "There were competing texts [for the joint statement]," the official added. "How could the EU delegation not be aware of statements by such high-standing international statesmen?"

The weakening of EU criticism was also confirmed yesterday by Putin's envoy to Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov. "We have detected a significant shift in the attitude to our actions in the Chechen Republic," he told Russian channel NTV.

Moscow has claimed that at least four of the hijackers responsible for the atrocities in the US were trained in Chechnya. Putin, who is due to meet UK premier Tony Blair today, said: "It is very obvious to us that those militants who are trying to oppose [Russian forces] in Chechnya are connected with international terrorism."

The European Parliament's delegation to Russia is due to consider the outcome of this week's summit at a meeting this morning. One of its members, UK Green Jean Lambert, said: "If we are going to soft-pedal on Chechnya, then that's certainly distressing. It starts to look like double standards."

The EU reached a secret accord with President Vladimir Putin that it would soften its criticism of human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya - as the price for his support in the coalition against terrorism.