The UDI of Kosovo has Triggered More Separatist Moves in Europe According to the Russian Foreign Ministry

The recognition of the UDI by Kosovo has triggered more separatist moves in Europe. This opinion was voiced by Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov in an interview with the Greek newspaper Kathimerini on Saturday. In the words of Mr Titov, the independence moves by Pristina are clearly illegal and are fraught with an escalation of tension and inter-ethnic violence in the province and can provoke a new conflict in the Balkan region. Russia, he said, is calling for early talks to settle the issue. Moscow will also be working towards a diplomatic solution to the conflicts between Georgia and the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

6 April 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=25282&cid=45&p=06.04.2008

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Presidents Putin and Bush Agree to a Strategic Framework for Future Relations between Russia and the US

Presidents Vladimir Putin and George Bush

Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush agreed on a strategic framework to guide future relations, but, remain divided on US plans for a missile defence system in Central Europe. Speaking at a news conference closing their meeting in Sochi on Sunday, President Putin said that even though the declaration offered no breakthrough solutions to existing problems, it still summed up all the good things done in the past few years in the fields of security, non-proliferation, and on bilateral initiatives combating terror and promoting business cooperation between the two nations.

“The declaration reflects also what we differ on, above all on military and political issues… The good sign here is, however, our shared willingness to keep working on to tie up all the loose ends between us. This is our strategic choice for promoting constructive relations, relations that would go far beyond the mutual containment model we had before The declaration we signed today looks to the future and gives a more accurate assessment of our present partnership than is normally done when people base on hackneyed notions that die so hard…”

Russia reiterated its opposition to the deployment of Washington’s proposed missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic and repeated the alternative bilateral and multilateral missile defence initiative it put forward last year. During a separate meeting with President Bush later in the day, President-elect Dmitri Medvedev told him that maintaining good relations between the countries was a key factor in maintaining international security. Mr Medvedev, who assumes office on 7 May, said that Presidents Putin and Bush worked comprehensively over the past eight years to develop Russian-US relations in a positive direction, establishing a tradition of confidential, honest, and openhearted relationships between the two nations.

6 April 2008

Aleksei Dyakonov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=25291&cid=56&p=06.04.2008

Presidents Putin and Bush to Meet in Sochi

Presidents Vladimir Putin and George Bush

Russia and the United States shall sum up the results of their partnership and outline future cooperation in a document Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush are expected to sign when they meet in Sochi later in the day. The two leaders will agree to some sort of a bilateral roadmap to go by in the next few years. Russia would hate to see the document gloss over the two sides’ glaring differences, above all, over plans for Washington’s planned missile shield in Europe and NATO extension to the east.

During Friday’s meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Bucharest, President Putin said again that equitable cooperation, not NATO expansion, is the key to global peace and security. In Sochi, we are likely to hear Moscow’s response to the set of confidence-boosting measures offered by Washington to allay Russian concerns about the American missile defence plans for Europe. The two leaders shall also discuss such troublesome issues as the situation in the Middle East and Kosovo.

However, even with such contentious issues on their hands, Russia and the United States should still be working hard to remain friends. During their visit to Moscow last month, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates handed President Putin a draft agreement on strategic cooperation and the Russian government hopes that it shall result in a fair and well-balanced bilateral accord. There are many defence and political issues Russia and America are in agreement on, such as our joint effort against terrorism, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the peaceful exploitation of nuclear energy.

5 April 2008

Vyacheslav Kiselyov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=25262&cid=56&p=05.04.2008