Blair in Moscow for final round of G8 diplomacy

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hoped to secure the backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting today for Britain’s ambitious G8 goals of lifting Africa out of poverty and tackling climate change.

Blair’s agenda for his presidency of the Group of Eight industrialised nations was bolstered over the weekend with an historic agreement to wipe more than $40bn (€33.1bn) worth of debt owed by the world’s poorest nations.

But he faces tough negotiations ahead of the July 6-8 summit of G8 leaders in Gleneagles. Blair is also pushing a plan to double international aid to Africa, wants a scientific consensus on the threat of global warming and an international drive to develop new environmentally-friendly technology.

Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in November and energy will be a priority for his G8 presidency next year. British officials hope that will dovetail with Britain’s climate change priority.

“Russia has an important role in finding a genuine consensus on how we move forward,” said Blair’s official spokesman yesterday, briefing reporters before the flight to Moscow.

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has indicated his country is ready to forgive African debt left over from the Soviet era, but there is no indication Putin is ready to increase aid to the continent.

Relations between Putin and Blair have been strained over the past two years. Russia opposed the US-led war in Iraq and when Blair visited Moscow in 2003, Putin pointedly remarked in a joint news conference that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq.

Further tensions have arisen over Britain granting a haven to Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, an outspoken foe of Putin’s and refugee status to Akhmed Zakayev, the top aide of the late Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Russian authorities accuse Zakayev of murder and kidnapping and have made repeated attempts to have him extradited. Blair’s government has stressed that the decision to block extradition is judicial, not executive.

There are concerns in the West that Putin is backpedalling on democracy and returning Russia to its authoritarian past. Putin’s administration came in for criticism over the trial of former head of the Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was sentenced to nine years in prison following a trial widely denounced as politically motivated.

“We will not stop airing our concerns but we will acknowledge progress where it has been made,” said Blair’s official spokesman, who added Putin needed to reassure investors rattled by the Yukos trial.

On climate change, Blair has said it would be fruitless to urge US President George Bush to sign the Kyoto accord, which the White House insists would damage the US economy.

Instead, he wants to look beyond Kyoto and draw emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil into the dialogue on cutting emissions. Britain has also increased investment in low- and non-carbon technology.

After a joint news conference with Putin, Blair was to fly to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. That meeting, and talks with the leaders of Luxembourg and France tomorrow, are likely to be overshadowed, however, by bitter divisions over the EU’s future spending plans and how to forge ahead with the European constitution, after it was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands.