BRUSSELS, September 03. /ITAR-TASS/. The European Commission prefers to settle the issue involving the contents of a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and EC chief Jose Manuel Barroso diplomatically, the EC press-service has told ITAR-TASS, when asked if Barroso had any objections to the possibility the Russian presidential staff may disclose the contents of the conversation in full to eliminate confusion.

The EC press-service said it was a major diplomatic issue and steps were being taken to settle it diplomatically, not through the mass media.

The EC added that everything that it had to say about last Friday’s Putin-Barroso conversation was published in the communique.

Over the past several days several media carried rumours the EC head allegedly disclosed some contents of his telephone conversation with the Russian president. Putin was quoted as saying that Russian troops might have taken Kiev within short deadlines, if necessary.

On Tuesday, Russia’s EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov dispatched a message to the head of the European Communities Commission to warn him that the Russian presidential staff had a transcript and audio recording of Putin’s conversation with Barroso and was prepared to make its contents public to eliminate all misunderstandings.

“Over the past few days several mass media, including Italy’s La Repubblica, have published commentaries regarding your telephone conversation last Friday, August 29,” Chizhov said in the message. “According to the publications you shared the contents of the conversation with some EU colleagues and attributed to the Russian president a statement that was obviously taken out of the context.”

“I am certain that publication of confidential conversations of such a level goes far beyond the bounds of the established diplomatic practices,” Chizhov said. “According to my knowledge, the Russian presidential staff has a transcript and audio recording of this telephone conversation and it will be prepared to publish its contents if there are no objections from you within two days.”

Earlier, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin’s remark about the ability “to take Kiev in two weeks” was taken out of the context and had a different meaning. Ushakov said the publication of telephone conversation content was “incorrect and outside the bounds of diplomatic practice.”

‘If that really happened, I believe it was unworthy of a serious political figure,” the Kremlin official said.

“Regardless of whether these words were uttered or not, in my opinion that quote was taken out of the context and had a very different meaning,’ Ushakov added.