On Shady Backgrounds of Some EU Members and Putin's Eyes of a Killer

A  WikiLeaks dumped U.S. cable from Brussells fills us in on the thoughts of Chris Patten, former member of the British Parliament, former cabinet minister and former Governor of Hong Kong. In 1999, he was appointed as one of the United Kingdom's two members to the European Commission. Patten was in Moscow in April 2004, and had concluded EU-Russia ministerial consultations in Brussels.

This  cable report by "SCHNABEL" in the U.S. embassy contains :

Summary: Over rubbery fish at an Adenauer Stiftung affair on April 27, External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten touched briefly on why the EU will never be a real power,❠the dubious backgrounds of some of the leaders of the EUs new members..., the differences between a union and an alliance, and Russian President Putins killer's eyes..Summary...

...The next steps for the Commission are figuring out how to spend money in Northern Cyprus. Patten expects the EC to open an office to oversee their assistance. While there will be legal hurdles to managing the process, he was confident the Commission would find a way. Patten doubted the Greek Cypriots would openly oppose any efforts, noting that they were on their heels diplomatically after their blatant efforts to stifle opposing views on the referendum. This incident, Patten said, was a sad reflection on the realities of EU enlargement: Some of the new members were people you would only want to dine with if you have a very long spoon. Not that the EU should have been surprised by Papadopolou's behavior, Patten said, since they knew well who they were dealing with: Milosevic's lawyer...

Patten said Putin has done a good job for Russia mainly due to high world energy prices, but he had serious doubts about the man's character. Cautioning that I'm not saying that genes are determinant, Patten then reviewed Putin family history: grandfather part of Lenin's special protection team, father a communist party apparatchik, and Putin himself decided at a young age to pursue a career in the KGB. He seems a completely reasonable man when discussing the Middle East or energy policy, but when the conversation shifts to Chechnya or Islamic extremism, Putins eyes turn to those of a killer.