BRUSSELS — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was preparing to hold his first talks in Brussels on Friday since his re-election earlier this year. Energy, trade, and Syria were on the agenda and the discussions were expected to be tense.
Russia is the main external energy supplier to the 27-nation European Union and Mr. Putin is to meet senior officials from the bloc in the 30th summit to take place between the two sides.
In recent years, relations have been soured by disputes over gas pipelines, trade issues and human rights, and there are sharp differences with the E.U. over Moscow’s support for President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011.
European leaders have criticized Russia over the jailing of members of the female punk band Pussy Riot and new pressure on opposition figures since Mr. Putin was re-elected.
For his part, Mr. Putin gave a number of combative performances when he appeared at summits in his previous terms as Russian president, often taking a tough line in private with fellow leaders and sometimes in public with the media.
In an angry outburst at a news conference after a summit in Brussels 10 years ago, Mr. Putin told a French reporter that those who criticized Russia’s campaign in Chechnya should join the Islamist holy war, suggesting that they first travel to Moscow to be circumcised.
In 2008, when Mr. Putin became prime minister and Dmitri A. Medvedev succeeded him as president, the tone at European summits improved, though the regular meetings rarely produced significant breakthroughs.
After he returned to the presidency, Mr. Putin hosted a relatively harmonious meeting in St. Petersburg in June.
“We want to deepen our cooperation at a global level: on challenges such as global economic governance, climate change or cooperation at the United Nations,” said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Commission, in a statement ahead of the meeting. “Together the E.U. and Russia can make a decisive contribution to global governance and regional conflict resolution.”
A key issue at the summit is expected to be energy since the European Union nations buy about 20 percent of their natural gas from Russia.
The E.U. is investigating whether Gazprom, the Russian gas export monopoly, violated European antitrust laws by restricting European buyers’ right to sell gas to one another and by linking gas prices to oil prices.
The E.U. authorities can fine companies found in breach of antitrust laws 10 percent of their global annual sales, and they can order companies to change their business practices so they comply with European standards.
Gazprom has strongly contested those claims and has insisted that its pricing practices are in line with the rest of the industry.
The Europeans also have continued to push for development of the Nabucco pipeline, which would deliver natural gas to Europe from the Caspian region, bypassing Russia.
The European Commission stepped up its support for rival pipeline projects after 2006, when Russia turned off the flow to Ukraine, an important transshipment country, in the dead of winter during a pricing dispute.
Russia is backing a competing project called South Stream, a pipeline that would run underneath the Black Sea and deliver huge amounts of Russian gas to the European Union, bypassing Ukraine. South Stream could go into operation in the second half of this decade.
Again, a key concern for Russia is European law on fair competition.
Russian government officials have hinted they want the E.U. to exempt South Stream from some of those rules, which include sharing the pipeline with competitors, so that it can more easily move forward with such a hugely expensive project.
But E.U. officials have expressed doubt about the viability of South Stream, suggesting it could be a strategic bluff by the Russians to put pressure on Ukraine.
Putin in Brussels for Talks With European Union
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Putin in Brussels for Talks With European Union
