Brussels, 15 April: Russia's permanent representative at the EU Vladimir Chizhov has assured that Moscow's political line towards the European Union will not change after President-elect Dmitriy Medvedev's inauguration.

"The basic line of Russia's approach to partnership relations with the European Union will continue", Chizhov told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday (as received, should be Tuesday 15 April).

Answering a question on who will determine Russia's foreign policy, the new president or the new prime minister, Chizhov said that according to the Russian constitution the head of state determines foreign policy while the government is involved in its implementation and preparation of proposals on foreign policy issues. "I do not expect any collision of responsibilities", the envoy stressed.

Commenting on the situation around a new basic agreement between Russia and the EU, Chizhov said that the Russian side was not hurrying Europeans and was not in a hurry to sign the agreement. "We need the agreement to the same extent as the European Union does", the diplomat noted. (Passage omitted: background)

Chizhov stressed that he would not want to see Russian-EU relations becoming hostage to individual EU members. In this connection, the envoy noted that some EU countries were trying to "erode" the agreement with various protocols and attachments reflecting their national interests.

He said that the situation around the new agreement would be discussed at Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's meeting with his counterparts from the EU states in Luxembourg on 29 April.

In general, the Russian envoy expects that the future bilateral agreement will be a framework document that will define principles of building relations and four areas of Russia-EU cooperation. In addition, Chizhov expects that the document will introduce a "new mechanism of cooperation".