Duma Official Skeptical About Meeting Between Russian President And NATO Chief

A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and NATO Secretary General George Robertson is not likely to be of vital importance, Vladimir Lukin, deputy speaker of the State Duma, announced in a live interview on ORT television yesterday. Lukin is a member of the Russian delegation that left for Brussels together with Vladimir Putin yesterday. The Duma official stressed that the USA have already started negotiations in view of the recent terrorist action and a meeting between Putin and Robertson will be additional in character. Lukin thinks that negotiations with the EU leadership will be more important because of a new initiative about a common economic zone between Russia and the EU proposed last week.