Haggling with a backsliding democracy

The list of questions over which Russia and the EU disagree appears to be getting longer by the week. Russian backsliding on democracy, most recently exhibited in its parliamentary elections in early December, from which Western observers were in effect barred, its suspension of compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, its intransigent position on an independent Kosovo and various diplomatic tussles such as its expulsion of the British Council, a UK government-funded cultural organisation, all kept the bilateral temperature below freezing point.