The European Union and Russia are poised to launch a thorough reexamination of a political and economic relationship that has been soured by disagreements over issues ranging from energy and security to human rights.
A summit meeting in a Siberian oil boomtown Thursday and Friday will give the EU a chance to sound out Russia's new president, Dmitry Medvedev, as the sides try to rebuild a relationship that deteriorated under Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Pavlov, a spokesman for Medvedev, said the president "considers the mutual recognition of interdependence the most important thing."
"Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev) will try to make maximum use of this relationship," Pavlov said. Putin, who has retained huge influence in his new post as prime minister, is not expected to attend.
While Putin rolled back many post-Soviet democratic reforms, Medvedev made promises on the supremacy of law, free media and human rights during his inauguration speech in May.
Although EU officials are eager to verify Medvedev's democratic credentials, some say privately that the remoteness of the summit venue _ Khanty-Mansiisk, a town of barely 60,000, some 2,000 kilometers east of Moscow _ reflects Russia's frosty attitude to its Western neighbors. Russia says the city is a symbol of its sparkling new wealth: Khanty-Mansiisk is the heart of its oil industry.
The EU will be represented by Javier Solana, its foreign affairs head; European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Janez Jansa, the prime minister of Slovenia, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.
The talks will lay the groundwork for negotiations to start on July 4 on a wide-ranging cooperation agreement regulating the way the two sides do business and, the EU hopes, set in stone Russia's security and human rights obligations.
The goal is to have a new "strategic partnership" in force by July 2009, EU officials said.
Energy security tops the priority list. The EU wants Moscow to open its vast energy sector to investors. European Union officials also want to broaden cooperation in fighting corruption, in criminal investigations and in efforts to stem human and drugs trafficking.
The EU also wants Russia to commit to bolstering democratic reforms and better preserve human rights as part of the deal.
European Union officials say Russia should permit the same free access to its energy resources that the EU gives Russian businesses seeking to do business in EU countries. With freer trade, the organization argues, both sides win.
Experts say Russia badly needs Western capital and expertise to develop new energy fields and upgrade the country's aging pipeline grids.
EU officials complain that Russia restricts the exploration and other operations of foreign energy companies. The Russians say their aim is to replace excessively generous concessions granted to Western interests by Boris Yeltsin with more equitable agreements.
Russia, for its part, will press for better access to European markets and call for an EU observer mission in Kosovo, with the approval the United Nations, said Vladimir Chizhov, its EU envoy.
"We are not opposed to the European Union taking on part of the responsibility for what is happening in Kosovo," Chizhov said via video link from Brussels to journalists in Moscow on Monday. Chizhov acknowledged finding common ground would be difficult.
"On many issues our policies don't coincide and are not are even close," Chizhov said.
Russia will also make its case to abolish visa requirements, he said.
Other topics for discussion include the so-called frozen conflict in Georgia; Iran, the Middle East and Afghanistan; and trade disputes centered on Russian tariffs on wood exports.
EU officials said the Khanty-Mansiisk talks will produce only two joint declarations, one at the start of the strategic partnership talks and a second on cross-border cooperation.
Russia's relations with the EU were cordial after the demise of communism, when then Russian president Boris Yeltsin craved recognition from Europe. But as Russia's wealth and power grew, due to high oil prices, the Kremlin grew more critical of the West.
The EU has a population three and a half times that of Russia, spends ten times as much on the military and enjoys an economy 15 times larger. Still, the EU has never been in the driver's seat in its relations with the Kremlin. "The main reason for the present ill-defined, even ghostly relationship between Europe and Russia is the lack of unity among the Europeans themselves," according to Jacques Andréani, a French diplomat and former ambassador to the United States.
He says EU nations have different views on how to deal with Russia, a key provider of oil and gas. Also, EU newcomers that used to be part of the Soviet bloc _ the Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary _ fear a revitalized Russia.
Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said last month he expected talks for a new EU-Russia partnership to be long and difficult due to the complex and sensitive nature of the issues involved. Poland and others want Russia to treat energy as a simple commodity and "not as a tool of geopolitics."
Lithuania initially blocked the start of the talks, demanding Russia improve ties with Georgia and Moldova. Poland initially vetoed the negotiations over a meat dispute with Moscow.
___
Associated Press Writer Robert Wielaard in Brussels contributed to this story.
