Russia denies strained relations with France

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been criticised for the conflict in Chechnya.

MOSCOW, Russia -- Moscow has used the eve of a visit by Russian Presiden Vladimir Putin to Paris to deny that official relations with France are strained.

However, officials did admit that there has been a "pause" in relations.

Russia's once cordial ties with France cooled in the wake of harsh French criticism of Moscow's military campaign in Chechnya.

They were not improved when Paris froze some Russian assets in a commercial litigation.

"The absence of contacts on a political level cannot be interpreted as evidence of a quarrel," Itar-Tass news agency quoted a senior official in the Foreign Ministry as saying on Saturday.

The official, said to be giving Moscow's formal position, said attempts to portray bilateral relations as "going into deep freeze" were groundless.

"(Putin's visit) has never been postponed or moved in his agenda," he said.

Putin is to visit Paris on October 30 to attend a Russia-EU summit.

He will have talks with French President Jacques Chirac and other senior officials in Paris.

Relations between the two leaders have been awkward at best since Putin's rise to power in the Kremlin.

At a summit of seven industrialised nations and Russia in Okinawa in July, Putin met Chirac briefly during session meetings but made a point of avoiding a tete-a-tete meeting despite holding separate talks with all other participants.

Dented by French pressure to stop alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya, relations with Moscow nosedived earlier this year when a French court impounded a Russian tall ship and froze some assets in a commercial dispute with a Swiss company.

The incidents were soon resolved but Moscow did not hide its anger over what it saw as "blatant" anti-Russian attacks.

Echoing the lingering uneasiness, a group of almost 250 intellectuals, politicians and actors published a petition in a leading French daily on Saturday condemning Putin and the "dirty, cruel" war in Chechnya.

Officials in Putin's administration described to Tass the current state of relations as a "pause," but said Moscow expected the summit in Paris to help them move up a gear, especially as far as the economy was concerned.

The officials said the two leaders were not scheduled to sign any documents or make statements at the end of their meeting, which they said was expected to be a "normal conversation."

Tass said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was due to arrive in Paris in mid-December for detailed economic talks while Putin's task was to discuss strategic areas of cooperation.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Chechnya: Welcome to post-modern warfare
October 25, 2000
Five killed in clashes on Chechen anniversary
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Russian Government
French Government

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