Blair pessimistic on Russian relations
Friday, 08 Jun 2007 20:52
Blair and Putin: "Perfectly cordial"
Tony Blair believes contentious issues currently setting Russia at odds with the UK are not likely to be resolved "any time soon".
Speaking at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, the prime minister summed up his hour-long bilateral conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin as being "a very frank discussion".
He described the atmosphere between the two as being "perfectly cordial" but added "there are real issues there".
Among these were Russia's use of its energy resources as a political tool, the Russian refusal to extradite Alexander Litvinenko murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi and Russian opposition to the US' missile defence system in eastern Europe.
"I think in the end what will matter is if we're able to start resolving some of the issues that are outstanding because in the end that is a question of actions rather than words," he explained.
"President Putin set out his belief that Russia has not been treated properly by the west or by our allies. I set out our views that people were becoming worried and fearful by… the external policy of Russia," Mr Blair added.
Mr Putin's comments at Heiligendamm focussed on the missile defence issue. He proposed sharing a radar station in Azerbaijan with US forces and suggested the missile shield could instead be installed in Turkey or Iraq.