Articles

At EU summit, Putin offers soothing words, but rifts remain

By Stephen Castle
The International Herald Tribune

October 26, 2007

At his last scheduled summit meeting with the European Union leaders as Russian president, Vladimir Putin lowered the temperature Friday in a range of disputes with Europe but offered no concessions. Facing international pressure over human rights problems and restrictions of free speech in Russia, Putin challenged the Europeans to set up a new joint human rights institute to improve dialogue… more