Robert Amsterdam

Last week during the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso raised the issues of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Anna Politkovskaya with President Vladimir Putin.

Here is the report from European Parliament News:

On human rights, the EU had expressed concern about the situation in Chechnya and stressed the importance of thoroughly investigating all human rights offences and bringing the perpetrators to justice. The EU had also raised the issues of the rule of law and media independence in Russia, including the investigations of journalist Anna Politkovskaya's murder. ...

The issue of human rights in Russia had also been raised, she said, notably including the killing of Anna Politkovskaya. Mr Barroso had said that the perception of a lack of due process was a problem, and he raised the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in this regard. Mr Putin had defended Russia's approach to such matters.