A Lithuanian member of the European Parliament has urged the EU Council to consider Russia's undemocratic behavior in negotiating the new EU-Russia cooperation agreement and not to make any concessions to this country, BNS reported on May 3.
"The use of power at the recent demonstrations in Russia, the killings of journalists, the economical blockade of Estonia and the attempts to run things in an independent state as if it were home, the reinforcement of the Russian fleet at the Baltic sea -- is it not the beginning of a new cold war?" MEP Danute Budreikaite asked.
In her words, having perceived the political and economical power of energy as a weapon, Russia has long ceased to heed the opinion of the international community and its signals of human rights violations in the country.
The MEP has noted that speaking at the EP, members of the Russian Duma say they profess the same values as the EU, yet "the actual life shows a totally different face on Russia."
"The mopping of the peaceful demonstrations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod points to the Russian authorities' intolerance and fear of those who think different, especially with the 2008 presidential elections approaching," reads the declaration by the member of the EP Liberal and Democrat Alliance for Europe, which was published on Thursday.
She allows that Russia's recent propaganda attack against Estonia is "a bubble that is being blown intentionally, with the future Nord Stream gas pipeline in mind."
In Budreikaite's words, builders of the pipeline Russia and Germany have not inspected the bottom of the Baltic Sea and have no intelligence of what the military ammunition dump holds, but already they say it is better to build the pipeline closer to Estonia's shore, in Estonia's economic zone.
Besides, the MEP has noted, Kremlin is preparing to authorize gas company Gazprom to set up its own well-equipped army that, in association with the Baltic navy will protect the construction of the gas pipeline to Germany on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
"Media has reported that such military formations will have a right to search individuals and vehicles and to use arms in protecting properties and territories. We can see both Russia's intentions to strengthen its Baltic fleet and the increasing opportunities for the Russian intelligence in the pipeline's neighborhood," the MEP says in her declaration.
"Although in its activities and cooperation with other countries the EU follows its fundamental values, of which the key ones are democracy, human rights and freedoms, in the meantime EU bureaucrats are keeping a blind eye to the actions on the part of Russia, a strategic partner of the EU, and for some reason apply dual standards in the energy sector, quite different from other countries," the Lithuanian MEP states.
