The EU is coming round to the realisation that Russia will not in the foreseeable future ratify the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) - a major deal on energy market access - with the European Commission set to offer Russia an alternative energy market model in its new pact for EU-Russia relations.
"The Russians are not very keen [on ECT ratification]," an EU official close to the talks told EUobserver on Tuesday (17 October). "So the main alternative would be to get the most important points...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.