EU leaders rebuff German-French push for Putin summit

EU leaders said on June 25 the bloc had rejected a push by Germany and France to relaunch meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin after fierce resistance from member states worried about Moscow's aggressions.

Berlin and Paris blindsided EU counterparts by putting forward a last-minute proposal for the bloc to resume meetings with Putin in the wake of U.S. President Joe Biden's sit-down with him in Geneva last week.

But there was opposition from numerous EU member states -especially in eastern Europe -which remain deeply wary of rewarding the Kremlin with talks before it changes course.

"It was not possible to agree today that we should meet immediately at the top level," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after hours of wrangling between the bloc's leaders in Brussels.

The German leader -attending what could be her last EU summit ahead of elections to choose her successor in September -said that leaders had agreed to maintain and develop a "dialogue format" with Russia.

"I would have liked to see a bolder step here, but it is also good this way and we will continue to work on it," she said.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that, to his satisfaction, "there will be no meetings at the European Union leaders' level with Russia".

"We see that the situation of our relations with Russia is deteriorating and we see new aggressive forms in behavior of Russia," he said.

Moscow said on June 24 that Putin was a "supporter" of the summit proposal, which would have potentially revived a regular fixture that was frozen after the takeover of Crimea by Russia sent ties spiralling.

The last summit between EU chiefs and Putin took place in early 2014, and the Kremlin strongman has since dealt...