Russian pundits comment on outcome of EU summit on Georgia
Interfax
Moscow, 1 September: The European Union's position on suspending the process of talks on a new partnership agreement between Russia and the EU is of no crucial significance for the Russian Federation, political scientist Vyacheslav Nikonov thinks.
"There are no practical consequences for Russia here", Nikonov told Interfax on Monday (1 September).
According to the expert's opinion, the results of the EU summit in Brussels testify that the European Union is not going to enter into confrontation with Russia because of the situation in South Ossetia.
"Certainly, this summit has shown that the EU will not enter into confrontation with Russia. I think that the results of the summit are positive both for Russia and for the future of Russian-European relations on the whole", Vyacheslav Nikonov said.
According to the agency's interlocutor, at the summit the European Union adopted the softest expected position, there is no question of economic sanctions against Russia.
"In any case, the results of the summit are much more positive than many expected", the political scientist said.
Touching on the EU's position on Russia's recognition of Abkhazia's and South Ossetia's independence, Vyacheslav Nikonov stressed that it would be hard to expect Brussels to support Russia on this issue.
On his part, Gleb Pavlovskiy, president of the Effective Policy Fund, thinks that the results of the summit have demonstrated that the EU remains "Russia's responsible partner with respect to security issues", although Pavlovskiy described some decisions of the European leaders as upsetting.
He noted that the EU did not adopt harsh measures against Russia after all, thereby leaving the door open for interaction with Russia.
At the same time, Pavlovskiy stressed that Brussels is undoubtedly proud of the role that the EU played in the settlement of the conflict through its current chair, French President Nicholas Sarkozy.
"There are certain concessions to Georgia in the EU decisions, but, at the same time, the European Union clearly showed to Tbilisi that the creation of a big crisis is not a ticket for early accession to the EU", Pavlovskiy said, recalling that, for example, Serbia, as well as Kosovo, which has been recognized by some states, are aspiring to join the EU in the same manner.
"The suspension of talks on a new Russia-EU partnership and cooperation agreement is an upsetting fact", Pavlovskiy admitted, adding that the conditions for resuming the talks "is a matter of discussion".
He stressed that Russian troops could not simply withdraw from the buffer zone in the conflict region and leave it as a field of action for "the disintegrated and practically unmanageable Georgian army".
Gleb Pavlovskiy noted that the solution to the problem would not materialize in a week and that until the settlement of the crisis the European Union might undertake some restrictive measures, in particular unpublicized actions to limit cooperation agreements through official channels.
"Russia has lost any trust in the USA (with respect to issues of this conflict), which has extremely strengthened the significance of negotiations with the EU", Pavlovskiy said.