Poles and Balts seek tough EU stance on Russia

By Gareth Jones

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland and the ex-Soviet Baltic states hope to stiffen the EU's backbone in its stance on Russia at an emergency summit next week, but fear Europe's heavy reliance on Russian energy will dilute the bloc's message.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, an outspoken critic of Moscow's assault on Georgia, flew to Estonia on Thursday to try to hammer out a joint position with the three Baltic republics ahead of next Monday's summit in Brussels.

"Today it is essential that the EU speaks with one voice that is strong and firm (on Georgia)," said Slawomir Novak, a senior aide to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Estonia's President Toomas Ilves called for a review of the whole relationship with Russia, saying a partnership and cooperation accord now under negotiation should be shelved.

"The hope that this crisis will simply pass and that we can go back to business as usual is very naive," he said in Berlin this week.

"It is utopian to think of a partnership agreement with Russia now. If Georgia's territorial integrity is not guaranteed, then we're thrown back 40 years," he said.

EU heavyweights France and Germany, have also upbraided Moscow over its military actions, its failure to recall all its troops from Georgia after a French-brokered ceasefire and its recognition of the independence of two rebel Georgian provinces.

But Paris, Berlin and Italy too have also stressed the need to maintain strong ties with Moscow, Europe's top energy supplier, sparking fears among ex-communist states that the EU will manage only tough rhetoric that lets Moscow off the hook.

At a Brussels news conference on Thursday, Russia's envoy to the EU said he doubted the bloc would impose sanctions. "I highly doubt it might ever happen. It (imposing sanctions) would be more to the detriment of the EU than to Russia," Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, said.

Even some other ex-communist states such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, which both experienced Soviet invasions in the communist era, are wary about over-reacting in a crisis that has again underlined EU divisions on how best to handle Russia.

Prague, in particular, does not want to provoke a major confrontation with Moscow that could harm its six-month presidency of the European Union, due to start in January.

SANCTIONS

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France, current EU president, said on Thursday the option of economic sanctions against Moscow was on the table, but he gave no details and many analysts say such a move would be counter-productive.

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said dialogue must precede sanctions but said they should not be ruled out.

"I am not a fan of sanctions. Now is the time for talks but we should have concrete moves in our pocket," he told Reuters in an interview, adding that Russian business might lobby the Kremlin to be more pragmatic if its interests were put at stake.