EU ministers sceptisch over hervormingsplannen Medvedev (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign ministers have voiced scepticism about the reform credentials of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ahead of the Russia summit.
"There was a striking convergence of views: the words of Medvedev are promising but should be matched with deeds. [Russian Prime Minister] Putin spoke similarly on corruption, economic diversification and even on creating a free society in 2000, but instead there has been regression," one senior EU diplomat told EUobserver following a foreign ministers debate about Russia in Brussels on Tuesday (17 November).
"[French minister]Bernard Koucher i said 'We are no longer naive about Russia'," another EU diplomatic source told this website.
Mr Medvedev has made a series of eye-catching remarks about modernisation since coming to office in mid-2008.
In a TV address on 12 November he said Russia should invest in new technologies instead or relying on oil and gas income from state-run monopolies. In a video blog the same week he criticised attempts to romanticise the memory of Joseph Stalin. Last year, he promised to stamp out "legal nihilism" and to curb state influence on the courts.
The liberal rhetoric has painted the young president as an alternative to Mr Putin, an ex-spy who likes to pose topless in combat trousers and uses crude language when referring to his opponents.
Mr Medvedev is yet to challenge Mr Putin on any concrete policy, however.
When the prime minister opted to pull Russia out of World Trade Organisation talks by saying the country will join in a bloc with Belarus and Kazakhstan instead, the president did nothing.
When EU delegates meet Mr Medvedev for the summit in Stockholm on Wednesday, they do not expect him to reduce protectionist tariffs on products such as timber or to give any extra commitments on fighting climate change.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to move backwards in judicial terms.
The eve of the summit saw the death in prison of Serguei Magnizky, a 37-year-old lawyer working on behalf of a US-owned company in Russia which fell foul of authorities by launching an anti-corruption campaign.
Mr Magnizky had been held without trial in a window-less room for 11 months and said that guards withheld his medication in order to pressure him to give false evidence. The Kremlin made no statement on his death.
Reeling off the names of human rights campaigners murdered in Russia this year, an open letter signed by over 130 MEPs on Tuesday urged Mr Medvedev to make good on his words.
"We will continue to look for real signals and real progress demonstrating that Russia is a place where human rights flourish, property rights are secure, and corruption in government does not go unchecked," the letter said.
The EU-Russia summit began with informal meetings between Mr Medvedev i, Swedish Prime Minister and EU chairman-in-office Fredrik Reinfeldt i and Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on Tuesday evening.
It will conclude with a brief working session and lunch on Wednesday at which the two sides plan to announce two mini-deals about early warnings on gas export cut-offs and on how share classified texts.