The EU-Russia summit ends with harsh words

German Chancellor and current EU President Angela Merkel clashed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the subject of human rights at the EU-Russia summit which took place on May 17-18 in Samara. Although the summit was not very productive, Leopold Unger welcomes the fact that the EU adopted a hard line against Russia: "In Samara [Putin] was forced to hear what he should have been told very clearly long ago: that the EU will not submit to blackmail. Not only because - as with the three musketeers - solidarity is one of the pillars on which the EU is founded, in matters both great and small, but above all because Russia's blackmail tactics would just go on and on, as recent European history has shown... As [former Polish Foreign Minister] Rotfeld pointed out, Europe needs Russia, but Russia needs Europe even more. Now we must convince Russia of this. It's a question of time and of unity within Europe - true unity."

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