London Drives Wedge Between Russia and Europe

May 15 (EIRNS)--On the eve of the May 17-18 European Union Russia summit in Samara, the governments of Poland and the three Baltic Republics(Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia), manipulated by London, have piled up one obstacle, after another, to trigger Russian retaliation and paralyse the summit, if they cannot prevent it. Nominally, the main focus of this sabotage is to delay talks about a new long-term EU-Russia treaty on cooperation, especially on Russian gas and oil deliveries to Europe; but at the core, the focus is to disrupt a continental cooperation design that would make Europe and Russia equal partners in the development of the Eurasian Landbridge. So far, long-term economic and industrial cooperation agreements exist only on a bilateral level, between Russia, Germany, Italy, France and Austria, and between Russia and some of the eastern EU member states like Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.

The frictions which these provocations have caused inside the European Union, broke into the open at two preparatory meetings for the summit in Brussels, May 11 and 14, which featured clashes between the German diplomats and those of the Baltic states and of Poland, the latter threatening to veto any decision of the summit, if they could not call it off altogether. The Germans called on the other faction to "return to a policy of reason," instead of piling on ever-new demands, but to no avail. The Polish government chose a provocative move instead, announcing in Warsaw on May 14 that official talks with the Bush Administration about stationing missile defense systems close to the Polish-Russian border would begin on May 21. Russia has warned repeatedly that the strategic character of these systems undermines all signed arms control agreements with the USA, and calls for a Russian response.