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Moscow calls for transparency in EU-Eastern Partnership dialogue

MOSCOW, February 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow wants more transparency in the development of the dialogue between the European Union and the countries of the Eastern Partnership, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with Estonian counterpart Urmas Paet.

“Our attitude towards the Eastern Partnership is not an attitude of fear. We want transparency in the dialogue between the European Union and our neighbours,” Lavrov said. “If the association agreement, planned to be signed with Kiev, should not negatively influence trade relations between Moscow and Kiev, as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton writes (in the Kommersant daily), then why was the agreement prepared in secret and was not made public before being initialled?”

Lavrov asked also why Russia’s journalists were not allowed to Ashton’s news conference in Kiev although they had properly applied for accreditation.