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Russia seeks to avoid EU wrath ahead of bloc's summit today

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  • Russia seeks to avoid EU wrath ahead of bloc's summit today

    Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
    Aug 31 2008

    Russia seeks to avoid EU wrath ahead of bloc's summit today

    Agencies
    Published: August 31, 2008, 23:30


    Moscow: Russia on Sunday sought to ease tensions with the West ahead
    of an EU emergency summit on the Georgia conflict as Britain pushed
    for a "root and branch" review of the bloc's relations with Moscow.

    President Dmitry Medvedev spoke by phone with Italian Prime Minister
    Silvio Berlusconi, who has taken a more lenient stance than other
    European countries on Russia's actions in Georgia.

    British Prime Minister Gordon Brown argued that Russia's military
    surge into Georgia and recognition of Georgian rebel regions left EU
    leaders with little choice but to change course with Moscow.

    "In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review - root and
    branch - our relationship with Russia," he wrote in a commentary
    published in London's Observer newspaper.


    The prime minister said he had warned Medvedev in a telephone call on
    Saturday "to expect a determined European response" to the situation
    in Georgia at the Brussels summit today.

    The Kremlin press service said Medvedev had "discussed the situation
    in South Ossetia and Abkhazia" with Berlusconi, who is a close
    personal friend of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

    The leaders also touched on "post-crisis developments", the press
    service said, without elaborating.

    Turkey has proposed forming a regional cooperation group to stabilise
    the Caucasus region in the aftermath of the war between Russia and
    Georgia. Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan says the proposed group
    would include Turkey and four nearby Caucasia nations: Russia,
    Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
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