President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized European Union "bureaucrats"
Published:
12 October 2003 y., Sunday
President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized European Union "bureaucrats" Thursday for pressing Russia to raise domestic energy prices as a condition for joining the World Trade Organization and asked visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to support him in the dispute.
"EU bureaucrats either don't understand it or deliberately put unacceptable conditions for Russia to join the WTO," Putin said at a meeting with Russian and German businessmen that was part of bilateral consultations in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg.
"We cannot move to world energy prices in a single day. It will ruin the country's economy. Eurobureaucrats either do not understand this or are trying to impose conditions which are unacceptable for Russia's entry into the WTO," Putin said.
"Such a tough position towards Russia is unjustified and dishonest. It's an attempt to twist our arms, but Russia's arms are getting stronger and the EU won't succeed in twisting them," Putin said.
In Brussels, the European Commission responded to Putin's criticism by saying it is not asking for unreasonable concessions from Russia.
Šaltinis:
themoscowtimes.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
At the fall meetings of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on 8 October in Palermo, Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Ambassador Renatas Norkus will deliver a speech about the strengthening of ties between the OSCE and the Mediterranean partners.
more »
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov thanked Lithuania for helping Russia to fight forest fires.
more »
Lithuania will encourage the governments of the OSCE participating states to take more pro-active measures to ensure the safety journalists and to put more effort into investigating cases of violence against journalists, and will emphasize the importance of media self-regulation.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite presented letters of credence to Dainius Junevičius as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to the Arab Republic of Egypt.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė presented letters of credence to Loreta Zakarevičienė as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Poland.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė extended congratulations to President Christian Wulff of Germany on Unity Day.
more »
At a meeting of a group of Moldova’s friends on 30 September in Chisinau, attended by eight foreign ministers, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis stressed EU assistance in support of Moldova’s efforts to consolidate democracy in the country.
more »
Dalia Grybauskaitė congratulated Demetris Christofias, President of the Republic of Cyprus, on the 50th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Cyprus.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė received the President of the Parliament of Luxembourg, Laurent Mosar.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė attended the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Resolution adopted in 1960 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "On the situation in the Baltic States on the twentieth anniversary of their forcible incorporation into the Soviet Union", in the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.
more »