After talks on February 6 with the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has called on Russia to offer more “reliability” in international relations. The top-level talks were the first between the European Union and Russia since the crisis in January which saw Moscow cut gas supplies to Ukraine. Russia must do everything to restore Europe’s confidence, Barroso said. The EU and Russia are attempting to agree a long-delayed Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). Moscow and Brussels have been back and forth on a new PCA to govern their relations for over two years now - allowing the old pact to expire last year.

In Strasbourg on February 3, the European Parliaments plenary session approved by a single vote a report by MEP Angelika Niebler and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy on the renewal of the agreement between the European Communities and Russia on cooperation in science and technology. In Moscow on February 6, Medvedev urged Barroso to develop new ways of preventing energy conflicts such as that with Ukraine in January. “The existing mechanisms have failed - by which I mean the Energy Charter,” the Russian president said. Barroso agreed it was necessary to create conditions under which such crises are not repeated. Partly in a response to rows such as Moscow’s blockade of gas exports through Ukraine, some European states are planning the Nabucco gas pipeline, which bypasses Russia.

Putin hailed the visit as a good opportunity to discuss important issues. “We are ready to compromise and engage with our partners,” he said. “We understand and respect their interests, but also require that the interests of Russia are respected.” Putin criticised the fact that Russian gas experts no longer have access to Ukrainian gas storage and control stations. Both Barroso and Putin agreed on the use of international observers, which would go towards “reliability and credibility”, according to Barroso. The EU is dependent on Russia for over a quarter of its gas and oil supplies. The sam e day that the EU Commissioners were holding talks in Moscow, Russian gas monopoly Gazpromannounced on February 6 it was to reduce gas prices to Europe.

This year the average price paid by European energy firms will go from USD 409 to USD 280 per 1,000 cubic metres, according to Interfax, citing a company official. Gas prices are closely tied to the oil price, which since last summer has plummeted by almost three-quarters to around USD 40 a barrel. Gazprom also said it will reduce its exports to Europe by around five percent to 179 billion cubic metres due to an anticipated decline in demand. Gazprom will also this year reduce its gas extraction by around seven percent to an anticipated 510 billion cubic metres.

Meanwhile, Barroso welcomed Russia’s initiative to put forward concrete proposals to curb the current global financial crisis at the forthcoming G20 summit in London in April. But he warned Moscow not to fall into protectionism in its own domestic markets, however great the temptation. The EU has said it would continue to back Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, which it views as a rung on the ladder towards normalising trade relations with its largest neighbour. The EU is by far Russia’s largest trading partner.

But the talks in Moscow were also overshadowed by a row over Moscow’s record on human rights. Barroso pressed Russia to respect human rights and the constitution, after the murders on a Moscow street of a journalist and human rights lawyer last month. Putin bristled visibly after criticism of Russia’s human rights record, accusing Brussels of having its own shortcomings in this field, citing problems with migration, the state of some European prisons and the plight of Russian minorities in the Balkans. “We don’t act as if we’re prefect,” Barroso said.

The talks in Moscow, with a delegation of nine EU commissioners that included EU Enterprise and Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, had been originally scheduled for last August but postponed after the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

A day earlier, the EU warned Russia not to go ahead with its plans to build up a military presence in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, saying they would jeopardise stability and security. “The EU would consider the implementation of such plans to be a serious violation of the principle of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, to which the EU is strongly committed,” the Czech presidency of the EU said in a statement issued on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states.

“Any military build-up in Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be in contradiction with the spirit of the August and September 2008 ceasefire agreements and jeopardise stability and security in the region by further increasing tensions,” the statement said. Russia tightened its grip on the two separatist regions during the August war with Georgia, which sparked condemnation from both the EU and NATO. While Moscow views the regions as independent states, the EU says they should remain part of Georgia. Under the terms of an EU-brokered ceasefire, Russia can keep some troops in the two regions, with EU observers deployed to Georgia proper.

According to Russian reports, Moscow now wants to set up naval and land bases and re-build the Soviet-era Bombory air base in what it calls the “Republic of Abkhazia“. On February 4, NATO spokesman James Appathurai also expressed concern at Russian plans to build a naval base in the Black Sea port of Ochamchira.