Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his EU hosts avoided the prickly subjects - human rights, energy - at dinner in a stately home in Brussels on Thursday (20 December).
The event, hosted by EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, took place in the Val Duchesse estate on the outskirts of the EU capital, prior to official talks in the Council building on Friday morning.
An EU source said the VIPs talked about the Arab Spring, Iran, the M...
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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.