No place for democracy in new EU-Russia pact

ANDREW RETTMAN

16.10.2006 @ 17:43 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU foreign policy in post-Soviet states should focus on pragmatic interests and steer clear of promoting democracy, Russia's EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told EUobserver, as Brussels and Moscow gear up to talk about the "essence" of their post-2007 relations in Finland at the end of this week.

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"I've always been a pragmatically-minded person. I believe that any cooperation including foreign policy cooperation between different countries and organisations is primarily based on interests," Mr Chizhov stated. "Promotion of democracy is more part of the agenda on the other side of the Atlantic."

The Lahti meeting will see EU leaders and Russia's Vladimir Putin debate how to manage EU-Russia energy "interdependency" and how to pursue common goals in the Middle East, Central Asia and South Caucasus, before starting in November formal negotiations on a new post-2007 EU-Russia pact.

At the same time, Berlin is working on policy guidelines for future east-west relations, with the new "Ostpolitik" set to stress Russia's importance as an EU strategic partner, propose extending the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) to Central Asia and suggest boosting EU security engagement in South Caucasus.

One of the key objectives of the ENP - an EU political integration package for nearby countries - is "to advance freedom and democracy," with the European Commission already channelling funds to pro-democracy NGOs in Central Asia and other ex-Soviet states such as Belarus.

What is 'democracy' anyway?

But the EU's vision of a modern "democracy" - based on free elections, free press, respect for human rights and market economy values - differs from Russia's more relativist understanding of the much-disputed term, which first appeared in classical-era Greece.

"Democracy if properly translated from the Greek…is 'rule of the people,'" Mr Chizhov explained. "The specific forms of democracy are quite different. Take Britain for example, a democratic country - is the existence of a hereditary House of Lords part of European democratic standards?"

"There is no single banner of democracy. And of course, any attempt to make a mechanical shift of democratic patterns from one country to another is detrimental to the notion of democracy," he added.

Comparing life in Sweden and in Turkmenistan, for example, the ambassador said "They [Swedish people] might seem to be more free to an outsider. But if you ask them how they feel, the people in Turkmenistan might say that they are more happy."

Turkmenistan is described by western NGOs, MEPs and EU diplomats - speaking off the record - as one of the worst dictatorships in the world, while Brussels sees neighbouring Kazakhstan as a potential leader in political reform in the energy-rich Caspian Sea region.

Democracy scorecards 'unhelpful'

But Mr Chizhov warned that "it's important for the EU not to try and draw dividing lines between those countries: this country is better, and this country is worse, this is a more democratic regime, this is less democratic. It would not be helpful."

The future EU-Russia pact is likely to contain commitments on promoting human rights in Russia and inside the EU, the ambassador said, with Moscow often complaining the EU should put its own house in order by helping the Russian ethnic minority in Estonia.

But Mr Chizhov's suggestion the EU can learn from Russia's approach to interethnic tensions might surprise some EU diplomats, who see Russia's recent expulsions of ethnic-Georgians or anti-Chechen riots as signs of an "extremely worrying" slide toward "xenophobia" in Russian society.

"Of course we have problems," Mr Chizhov stated. "But these shouldn't be exaggerated. Overall, Russia as a country with over 100 nationalities has, I would say, one of the best records in history on interethnic relations."