AndyRussian invasion of Ukraine
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Hooray – it’s EU summit time again – this year we’re off to Portugal!
As usual, the summit begins amongst tensions between the two European powerhouses (but, then again, if there were no tensions, there would be no point in holding a summit, I suppose…).
Top of the agenda for the Europeans from the West will be energy security and human rights (not only are rights organisations shouting loudly this week about Russian rights abuses, but Maria Litvinenko has published an article in UK newspaper the Telegraph arguing that EU leaders should refuse to sit down with Putin and that, for good measure, Russia should be kicked out of the G8 as well).
The Europeans from the East, on the other hand, will want to talk about how they can become members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Poland will be a key talking point here – Russia’s relations with Poland are tense and the Kremlin is concerned about the veto that Poland wields within the EU.
Finally, the future status of Kosovo will be on the agenda, but I suspect that both sides will wish it wasn’t.
More later, as we begin to hear what comes out of Portugal. Hopefully there will be at least a modicum of good news – officials on both sides are being described as “cautiously optimistic”.
Poor Marina, always in a state of uniformed darkness… ‘Sasha’ almost never told her of his dealings when he left the house, not that this is all that unusual- most men do not explain their business (especially dealings of the I will just call ‘shady’ type as he was involved in) to their wives preferring to protect them, but even now not one single person has even bothered to tell her that Andrei Lugovoi can not be extradited because it is forbidden by the Russian Constitution, not because Putin just does not feel like it and wants to make Lugovoi a national hero. No wonder she is so bitter- I can almost pity her. Almost…
Ooooops…I guess Sasha neglected to mention this to her also…poor thing…..