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#26 - JRL 2007-22 - JRL Home
Russia will not sign EU energy charter, Putin's envoy says
Interfax

Moscow, 30 January: Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, Russian presidential aide for relations with the EU, has confirmed that Russia has no plans to ratify the EU Energy Charter.

"Indeed, we do not want to and would not sign the charter in its present form," he told the press in Moscow today. After the informal Russia-EU summit in Lahti, "emotions are cooling down" over Russia's refusal to ratify the Energy Charter in its present form, he said.

"We now hear less and less of those cries and moans about Russia not signing the charter and its transit protocol," he said. "Some of the document's wording is discriminatory to Russia and should be elaborated further," Yastrzhembskiy explained.

He supposed that at the forthcoming talks on the new partnership and cooperation agreement with Russia, the EU would insist that the document pays special attention to energy issues, he said. If Europe wants to gain access to strategic spheres such as Russia's energy sector, Russian companies should be able to have a similar free access to strategic industries in the European market, Yastrzhembskiy said.