Russia Alarmed Over New EU Pact

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned the European Union not to turn a proposed partnership with former Soviet countries against Russia.

He was speaking at the end of a Russia-EU summit held against a background of deep divisions over security, trade and energy supplies. A BBC correspondent in Moscow says the biggest concern at the summit was over Russian gas supplies to Europe. Deliveries were halted in January due to Moscow's price dispute with Ukraine.

Russia's war with Georgia last year was also high on the agenda of the summit in the Russian far eastern city of Khabarovsk. 'Anti-Russian bent'
"We would not want the Eastern Partnership to turn into partnership against Russia. There are various examples," Mr Mevedev told a news conference at the end of the summit. "I would simply not want this partnership to consolidate certain individual states, which are of an anti-Russian bent, with other European states," he said.

Moscow has accused the 27-member bloc of creating new dividing lines in Europe by offering closer ties to six former Soviet republics.The EU last week launched the plan to forge close political and economic ties with the six countries in exchange for democratic reforms.

The Eastern Partnership Initiative is intended to bolster stability in the region, but without the prospect of eventual EU membership. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have signed up to the initiative.

Worsening ties

President Medvedev said earlier that Khabarovsk - 6,000km (3,700 miles) from Moscow but just 30km from the Chinese border - had been chosen as the venue for the talks to allow the visitors to "appreciate Russia's greatness".

A year ago - when Mr Medvedev became Russia's new leader - there was hope that relations with the EU might gradually improve, the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says.

Instead, he says, they have got steadily worse. Relations plummeted after last year's brief war between Russia and Georgia.

Since then there has been another gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine which led to gas supplies to many European countries being cut off for two weeks in mid-winter.

There is also a growing battle over energy pipelines as the EU tries to find alternatives to its growing dependency on Russian gas.