EU split on Russia vote after Sarkozy calls Putin

By Paul Taylor, European Affairs Editor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union was in disarray on Tuesday over Russia's widely criticized parliamentary election after French President Nicolas Sarkozy telephoned President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him.

The French leader's gesture put him at odds with close ally Germany which flatly called the election "neither free, fair nor democratic" by Western standards, and most other EU governments voiced concern at reports of voting irregularities.

It also appeared to run counter to criticism by Sarkozy's own foreign ministry of the conduct of the poll.

The differing European responses to the vote, in which Putin's United Russia party won a landslide victory, highlighted the EU's problems in speaking with a single voice towards Russia, its major energy supplier.

"The president called Vladimir Putin to congratulate him," Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon told reporters on Monday evening during an official visit to Algeria.

After two days of wrangling over the wording, the EU's Portuguese presidency issued a mild rebuke over the conduct of the election.

"The EU regrets ... that there were many reports and allegations of media restrictions as well as harassment of opposition parties and NGOs in the run-up to the elections and on election day, and that procedures during the electoral campaign did not meet international standards and commitments voluntarily assumed by Moscow," it said.

"The EU hopes that investigations will clarify the accuracy of these allegations."

Diplomats said the presidency had had difficulty finding consensus in national capitals on a text.

"Some people want one thing, others want another," a Portuguese diplomat said in Lisbon.

The EU regretted the election monitoring office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had not been able to do long-term observation before the election, removing a reliable basis for assessing the vote.

DISMAY

Since he took office in May, Sarkozy has adopted a more critical tone with Moscow on human rights than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, who cultivated a special relationship with Putin partly to balance U.S. global power.

Opposition politicians have nevertheless accused Sarkozy of putting economic interests above rights.

French European Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet defended Paris's stance on Tuesday, "There's no contradiction between making France's voice on the defence of human rights heard everywhere and assuring our economic development, safeguarding our jobs," he told parliament.