mr president we hope that further progress will be made at the summit in nizhny novgorod with regard to a new and comprehensive partnership and cooperation agreement
both the eu and russia must keep in mind that a true partnership can only be a straightforward relationship
on behalf of the alde group i would like to invite the representatives of the eu to address all the concerns raised by the european parliament with their russian counterparts
the european union will face major difficulties in relations with russia unless the two partners rely on the same values and principles
if the kremlin moves even further away from democracy and the rule of law russia will lose all legitimacy as a partner to the eu
for example the kremlin has prevented a number of political parties from registering for the state duma elections on procedural grounds and the list is likely to be extended to include the people's freedom party led by mikhail kasyanov vladimir milov boris nemtsov and vladimir ryzhkov
the surging suppression of the opposition must be brought up at the summit and the opposition parties must be allowed to register
ladies and gentlemen russia is not china
russia is a member of the council of europe and the osce therefore she must uphold her international commitments and obligations
furthermore russia must abide by her own constitution
russia has to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours
we insist that she stops pressuring ukraine as my colleague said just now for example as prime minister putin did yesterday when he met the prime minister of ukraine pressing them to join the customs union with russia belarus and kazakhstan
we cannot accept this
we expect russia to withdraw its troops immediately from georgia to the pre-conflict positions
lastly the alde group is very disappointed that on the eve of the summit russia has imposed a disproportional import ban on vegetables from the eu
