Anna-Sophie Maass, Australian Institute for International Affairs:
In 1999 the High Representative of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana characterised EU-Russia relations as a “strategic partnership,” which he went on to say provided “the greatest opportunity to affect the [course] of world affairs for the better.” Heads of governments of EU member states, such as the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, considered Vladimir Putin’s appointment as Russian President in March 2000 as a moment of nurturing the EU’s and Russia’s interdependence in energy policy. However, since 1999, the EU’s stance toward Russia has been marked by increasing internal divergence. Leaders of the Baltic States and Poland, for instance, were much more critical toward continuing business as usual with Russia while it continued human rights violations during the second Chechen War.
