The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barrozu seems to have been the first among western leaders to congratulate Dmitry Medvedev on Monday. And at the noon briefing the chair’s press secretaries were assaulted with questions about “inconceivable haste” of such an action.   

Extracts from the official documents and statements by the superiors were given in response, out of which one can conclude: Whatever president were elect in Russia and whatever way it were done, the EU will deal with him, as non-cooperation with Russia is just impossible. Spokesperson for European Commission Christiana Homan promised that Brussels will be always reminding to the Kremlin of its shortcomings in the field of democracy. But first of all the EU is interested in promptest talks about new basic EU-Russia agreement which has been failing to be concluded for two years. “In our view dialogue is always better than shutting the door”  she stated at the end.   

Not wanting to slam the door and even holding it after Mr. Barroso other western leaders congratulated the new Russian president with different extent of reserve. Chancellor Angela Merkel reminded to Medvedev that he “has set a goal of modernizing Russia”. She assured that Germany would be a reliable partner and agreed at once to celebrate 8 March Women’s Day in company with the two Russian presidents. Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated Medvedev cordially “with convincing victory” and invited him to visit Paris. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown did not invite the victor to London, but he congratulated him and expressed the hope for bettering relationships between Great Britain and Russia. George Bush declared the willingness by the US to work with the newly elect Russian president and noted he “had read with interest his opinions about individual liberties, independent media, authority of law and combat against corruption”.       

Changing of leadership is a good occasion for turning over a new leaf. European leaders seem to reckon that it wouldn’t be worse anyway and maybe it would be even better. Their counterpart in Russia has been defined at least for four next years and it even looks nicer than his predecessor. And some of the guests at a round table, broadcast by a French TV station, almost tried to justify the “special” character of elections in Russia saying that Russians have learnt recently to choose foodstuffs in the markets and to choose the color of the car and, hopingly, they would have learnt to elect presidents by the end of the Medvedev’s term of office.

P.S. The European Union on Tuesday sent Dmitry Medvedev barbed congratulations on being elected Russia's president, saying the poll had been smoothly carried out, but had not been truly competitive. “The EU also regrets that the electoral process did not allow for truly competitive elections," a statement said.