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Summit ends in disarray, EU warns Russia

Anti-government demonstrators shout slogans and wave flags during a protest in Samara, Russia, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

The summit between the EU and Russia ended in acrimonious disaster on Friday with no new deals signed and a stark warning to Russia that it should not try to divide the EU bloc.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Russian President Vladimir Putin that any action against an individual EU state would be considered action against the entire EU.

His unambiguous comments came amid a bitter dispute between Russia and Estonia -- and claims that Russia had waged an unprecedented cyber-attack on its small Baltic neighbor.

"We had occasion to say to our Russian partners that a difficulty for a member state is a difficulty for the whole European Union," Barroso said. "It is very important if you want to have close cooperation to understand that the EU is based on principles of solidarity."

After a day of talks that showed the widening political chasm between Russia and the bloc, no agreement was reached on a new EU-Russia strategic partnership. Both sides traded barbs on human rights records -- and on democracy. Poland has said it will veto any new EU-Russia partnership deal until Moscow lifts its year-long embargo on Polish meat imports.

Other disagreements on Friday included the future of Kosovo -- with Russia implacably opposed to a UN-drafted plan for independence -- and relations between Russia and its Baltic neighbors. Russia and Estonia have been embroiled in their worst bilateral crisis since Estonia won independence from the Soviet Union, after Estonia moved a monument to Red Army soldiers. Lithuania, meanwhile, is unhappy that Russia has switched off an oil pipeline.

Putin hit back on Friday, accusing some EU states of "economic selfishness that does not always correspond to the EU's interests."

In a clear reference to Poland, he said: "We are aware of the EU position on the need for solidarity. I asked my colleagues, and they did not take offense, are there any limits to this solidarity?"

He said it was unreasonable of the EU to expect Russia not to defend its interests.

Hours earlier on Friday, police prevented former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and other Kremlin critics from attending an opposition rally in Samara.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current EU president, objected at a post-summit news conference to the treatment of Kasparov and other opponents of the Kremlin.

Kasparov said the West's efforts to engage Putin only lends legitimacy to the Kremlin's actions.

"Any time you pretend that Putin is one of you, that Putin belongs to this democratic club, it backfires on us because that is what Kremlin propaganda is using on us, calling us marginals, extremists, radicals," he said.
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