Mr Cameron goes to Moscow – finally and forlornly

European Voice

The UK prime minister’s visit to Moscow also reveals much about the EU’s relationship with Russia.
David Cameron makes his first visit to Russia to meet his opposite number, Vladimir Putin, on 12 September.

While Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to Moscow when they arrived in power, the British prime minister has waited 16 months, preferring to travel to China, India, Turkey, the US and any number of EU capitals before going to Moscow. In fact, the closest Cameron has got to Russia was in 2008, when, as leader of the opposition, he went to Tbilisi just after the Russian invasion of Georgia to show solidarity with the Georgian people.

He arrives in Moscow with a long list of difficulties in UK-Russia relations. This may seem odd as Russia and the UK have no obvious geopolitical rivalries. London is home to Russian oligarchs who own Chelsea football club as well as two of the UK’s most important newspapers, the Independent and the Evening Standard. British private schools are full of the children of rich Russians who help keep the high-end London housing market flourishing.

Yet the Moscow-London ‘reset’ button seems stuck, and pressing on it continues to yield little result.

In London, there is frustration at endless Russian foot-dragging at the UN. Britain would like Russia to help unfreeze conflicts such as Transdniester and South Ossetia, a tiny region of Georgia occupied by Russian soldiers. Russian backing has reinforced Serbia’s refusal to accept a final peace settlement in Kosovo, obliging NATO to maintain its costly mission in Kosovo. However, as long as Britain remains bogged down in Afghanistan and remains anxious about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the need to keep open relations with Moscow will trump concerns about Russia’s refusal to co-operate at the United Nations.

On the economic front, there is frustration at continuing attacks on BP, a UK oil firm, including a heavy-handed raid by special forces on BP offices in Moscow on 31 August.

In November it will be five years since the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London. The picture of his face fading from life as a result of polonium poisoning is one of the era’s iconic images. Now there is a major UK parliamentary and press campaign over the death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer of US-born British citizen William Browder. British MPs from all parties want Cameron to follow the US example and impose a travel ban and asset freeze on 60 Russian officials allegedly connected to Magnitsky’s death in prison in 2009 – and, preferably, to do so before he visits the Kremlin. The European Parliament has voted for such a ban, as has the Dutch parliament.

It is hard not to feel sorry for Cameron as he arrives in Moscow with so many problems and demands. That challenge would be eased if the EU could adopt a common policy on Russia, whether on oil or on co-operation in inquiries into the murders of Litvinenko and Magnitsky. But as long as Sarkozy and Merkel remain indifferent to a common EU Russia policy on Russia, Cameron will have little room for manoeuvre.

Still, on one level, this is a meeting of minds. The Kremlin privileges bilateral relations and looks with open disdain at dealing with the EU as a power in its own right. This coincides with British government ideology. So two Eurosceptic prime ministers will meet in what is likely to be a formal and functional few hours. Cameron will try to show that his stand-offish approach to Russia is not damaging British interests; Russia will resist all pressure.

At the end, the reset button on one of the biggest and most difficult relationships in Europe will remain stuck. Russia will have made no progress in pushing forward its ambitions for EU visa liberalisation and EU know-how to widen its mono-economy. And Europe’s inability to forge a united policy toward Russia will again be on display. The EU’s reset button with Russia is as badly stuck as the UK’s.

Denis MacShane is a member of the UK’s national parliament and was the UK’s minister for Europe in 2002-10. быстрые займы онлайн онлайн займы zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php unshaven girls