Russia hopes to revive full-format summits with EU - Kremlin official
MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities hope to revive the practice of holding full-format summits with the European Union and plan to hold such a summit in Russia in the first half of 2014, the Russian president's aide Yury Ushakov said.
"Our position is that after this meeting [in Brussels on January 28], we will return to the normal practice of full-format summits," Ushakov said, when answering a question from Interfax.
Moscow "would like to host such a summit in the first half of the year and hold [another summit] in Brussels at the end of the year," he said.
The upcoming Russia-EU summit, which will have an abridged format at the EU's request, "is the Europeans' debt for last year," Ushakov saod.
Traditionally, Russia-EU summits are held twice a year - Russia hosts them in spring and Brussels in December, he said. However, last year's December summit was rescheduled for January at the EU's request, he added.