EU to pressure Russia on human rights record
European Union officials today said they would press the issues of democratic freedoms and human rights with Russian officials at talks next week.
Thie follows the clampdown on demonstrators against Russian President Vladimir Putin last weekend.
EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said the European Commission "is very concerned about the events involving the Russian police" against protesters in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
"Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are very important values to which Russia has signed up as a signatory, to the United Nations ... and to the Council of Europe," Hohmann told reporters.
"Respect for those principles is very important in the pre-election phase in Russia and the Commission continues to raise these matters in regular political meetings."
She said EU foreign ministers were expected to raise the issue at talks with their Russian counterpart in Luxembourg next week.
The EU stopped short of condemning the clashes between police and anti-Kremlin protesters, which led to the detention of more than 100 people yesterday in St Petersburg.
Police detained around 170 at a Moscow rally on Saturday, including former world chess champion and opposition leader Garry Kasparov.
Critics say the Kremlin has tightened control over Russia's political landscape to engineer a smooth transfer of power to a hand-picked successor to Putin, who is approaching the end of his second and final term.
