Analysis: Putin looks West

Closer: Robertson and Putin find common ground

By Russian affairs analyst Stephen Dalziel

Vladimir Putin's visit to Brussels has made clear that Russia's relations with the West have become closer.

Nato Secretary-General Lord Robertson described Russia as "a special and major partner" of Nato - something which even a year ago would have been unlikely, as relations between the Kremlin and the Alliance were decidedly frosty.

But Mr Putin is keen to show that, as far as Russia is concerned, the world really has changed following the attacks on the US on 11 September.

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Despite criticism from the Russian press that Moscow has gained little from the President's visit to Brussels, Mr Putin himself seems content that he has definitely shifted Russia's relations onto a better footing with Nato and the EU.

Judging by their public pronouncements, the Alliance and the European Union seem to agree.

Thorny issues

But differences are still obvious - and there are still thorny issues to be sorted out.

Mr Putin was scathing about the value of Nato's expansion to the east.

As he put it - ask any citizen of, say, Berlin if he feels that in the current international circumstances he will feel any safer knowing that Nato is going to gain more members.

And he sarcastically suggested that the World Trade Organisation was putting more obstacles in the way of Russia's membership than it had for any other country.

There does seem to be a feeling, though, that Mr Putin has achieved a major concession regarding Russia's military operation in Chechnya.

It is likely that the West will be less ready to criticise Russia for what is going on in its breakaway republic - and that his oft-heard argument that at its root it is a struggle with international terrorism, now has some sympathy in the West.