Posts Tagged ‘Ashton’
Vladimir Putin must find it hilarious that David Cameron won’t back Europe on Russia’s abuses
I’m not sure who will pick up the well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the EU, but it should be the High Representative Cathy Ashton, who will be dining this Sunday with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. Cathy has more steel in her than Corby and Corus put together (albeit wrapped in a paisley shawl), but this will be tough, as the EU is finally beginning to lose patience with Russia.
Successive European leaders used to fly solo to Moscow and do their own little deals with Vladimir Putin, but Russia’s disgraceful intransigence on Syria, together with the departure of Putin’s mate Silvio Berlusconi and arrival of François Hollande in France, has persuaded them that Europe needs to adopt a more united front. All of this puts Cathy firmly in the driving seat in the run-up to the EU-Russia summit later this year.
Sadly, the fly in the ointment is David Cameron, who is trying to play both ends against the middle. British relations with Moscow have been fraught since the murders in Britain of Alexander Litvinenko and in Russia of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who worked for a British firm.
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Statement to the European parliament about Russian Elections by HR Catherine Ashton
Statement to the European parliament on the outcome of Presidential elections in Russia on behalf of HR CatherineAshton delivered by Danish Foreign Minster Villy Søvndal
Strasbourg 14 March
Mr. President, Honourable Members,
It is my pleasure to be here today to discuss with you the outcome of the Presidential elections in
Russia on behalf of High Representative/Vice-President Ashton.
Let me first of all thank Parliament for the strong voice it has consistently been giving to European
citizens’ concerns about democracy, fair elections and human rights in Russia.
Russia is our largest neighbor, an important business partner and indeed a Strategic Partner for many global and regional issues. So it matters to our citizens what the situation with human rights and the rule of law is in Russia.
Parliament has followed both the Russian State Duma elections of 4 December and the Presidential
elections of 4 March very closely.
It has adopted several resolutions expressing the expectations of European citizens for Russia to live
up to her international commitments to ensure free and fair elections. You have also given High Representative/Vice President Ashton several opportunities to address the Plenary on these crucial issues.
In addition, several hearings have taken place since December on these elections and on human rights more generally, organized by the Foreign Affairs Committee, by the Subcommittee on Human Rights, by the Parliamentary Cooperation Committee with Russia, and by individual political groups.
Catherine Ashton has asked me to thank Parliament for all this important work. She also asked me to in particular convey the message that she shares Parliament’s concerns about the case of the arrest and death in pre-trial detention of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky.
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MEPs: protests show Putin has lost respect
EU Observer
Prominent MEPs from Russia’s big neighbours have said the mass anti-Putin protests in Moscow are a wake-up call for EU foreign policy.
Looking ahead to the EU-Russia summit in Brussels on Thursday (15 December), Elmar Brok, a senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU party, said EU officials should urge the Kremlin to hold proper presidential elections in March.
“It should be made clear they have to look for real elections – to give a fair chance to opposition politicians, to let them run and to make sure they have the means to run, and to let the international community monitor the campaign.”
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Murder case puts pressure on EU-Russia diplomacy
EU diplomacy should be guided by basic moral imperatives and open parliamentary politics, not behind-closed-doors strategising, a prominent campaigner has said.
Bill Browder, a US-born British venture capitalist who a few years ago was the biggest foreign investor on the Russian stock market, is targeting the European Parliament and national EU assemblies to make the European Council impose sanctions on Russian officials.
Browder has put together a list of 60 people in the Russian interior ministry, justice system and the secret police, the FSB, who he says tortured and murdered his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, after he exposed their multi-million-euro tax scam.
On Monday (30 May), the Russian general prosecutor in a statement said one of the top men on the list, Oleg Silchenko, committed “no violations of federal law”, in what Browder’s side called an ongoing “whitewash” that “damages the credibility” of the Russian government.
Browder, who has published hard evidence of how the Russian officials scammed the Russian taxpayer, wants the EU to impose an asset freeze and travel ban on the men and women involved.
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Russian Officials Associated with Khodorkovsky’s verdict face Prospect of Sanctions
The latest verdict to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev became one of the central items on the agenda of the first meeting of the EU Subcommittee on Human Rights. In fact, all key statements had been made throughout the West even before the meeting of the structure. President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek called the verdict a “symbol of systematic problems of the judiciary, legal nihilism, and human rights abuses in Russia.” Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called it a “disappointment and a cause for concern.”
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On Human Rights in the World and the EU’s Policy on the Matter
Human rights serve as the guiding principle in the European Union’s (EU’s) external action. Hardly are there other state-actors in the world that would place such an emphasis on the spread and protection of human rights abroad.
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