"We are glad that we are moving forwards in relations with the European Union," said deputy chairman of the State Duma (lower chamber of Russia's parliament) information policy committee Boris Reznik.
One confirmation is the signing at the Russia-EU summit of the roadmap agreements in the four common spaces. "If we are to give a political assessment to this document, is has more things unsaid than absolute agreement. But these problems cannot be resolved at one go," Reznik said.
Overall, "the assessment given to the summit is fair: it is a serious move towards rapprochement between Russia and the European Union."
Editor-in-chief of the magazine Politichesky Klass (Political Class) Vitaly Tretyakov said Russia was not seeking the EU as a threat. However, "it is also clear that the European Union is enlarging, while Russia has all these 15 to twenty past years been leaving its geopolitical positions."
As regards the perspective for Russian-European contacts, Tretyakov said: "In five to ten years to come the gradually improving Russia-EU relations will not assume a radically new nature."
"A new quality is only possible when the main three subjects of the Euroatlantic civilization - classic West Europe, the younger Russia and the United States - do not compete between each other or be at daggers drawn but share their historic responsibility on the canonical territory of the Euroatlantic civilization," Tretyakov said.
He is sure that "Russia is not just a European country but a key player on the European space."
Russian and British journalists, politicians and experts have taken part in the round table conference.
