EU spars with Russia over rights

News Resource BBC

Russia and the EU have traded accusations over human rights abuses, at their first high-level talks since a gas row soured relations last month.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the killings of a human rights lawyer and a journalist in Moscow recently caused the EU concern.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin then angrily accused the EU of human rights abuses within its own territory.

He said "the full range of problems" concerning rights had to be discussed.

The murder of prominent Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and newspaper reporter Anastasiya Baburova in broad daylight in Moscow last month drew international condemnation.

Russia's plan to build military bases in two breakaway regions of Georgia also raised tensions during the discussions, correspondents say.
On Thursday, the Czech Republic, holder of the EU presidency, said it was "seriously concerned" by the moves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, over which Russia and Georgia went to war last August.

"The EU would consider the implementation of such plans to be a serious violation of the principle of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it said.