Journalist death clouds Putin visit to Germany

DRESDEN, Germany, Oct 10 (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin is likely to face awkward questions about the murder of a leading journalist during a two-day visit to Germany which he hopes will further Russian business interests in Europe.

Mr Putin flies into Dresden, the east German city where he served as a KGB agent in the 1980s, for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel that will include business deals and Berlin's concerns about the reliability of Russian oil and gas supplies.

Ms Merkel, a Russian speaker and the first chancellor from the ex-communist East Germany, is expected to raise western concerns about the contract-style killing at the weekend of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist and prominent Putin critic.

Andreas Schockenhoff, foreign policy expert for Ms Merkel's conservatives in parliament, said Politkovskaya's murder was ''a serious setback for the development of democracy in Russia.'' He urged Russian authorities to do everything in their power to track down the journalist's killers.

''An open and pluralistic civil society is necessary for Russia to achieve its full potential,'' he told ZDF television.

''That also includes an independent and free media.'' Mr Putin is also likely to face tough questions about Politkovskaya when he meets the press at 4.15 pm 1945 ist today, and at a session of the ''Petersburg Dialogue'' forum he set up with Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder in 2001.

Ms Putin has not yet commented publicly on the murder, but he told US President George W Bush yesterday Russia would take every step to investigate the case, the Kremlin said.

ENERGY DEPENDENCY There will be an undertone of German concern at the talks over Berlin's reliance on Russia for supplies of oil and gas, with memories of gas disruptions at the New Year still fresh.

Gazprom is building a gas pipeline with Germany's E.ON and BASF that will carry Siberian gas to Germany from 2010. Dutch Gasunie will take a nine per cent stake.

''It is an enormously important meeting. There is an intensive debate going on in Germany about how to liberate itself from Russian gas,'' said Alexander Rahr, Russia programme director at the German Association for Foreign Policy.

Russia, which has built up a five per cent stake in European aerospace giant EADS is also pushing for a seat on the board.

That is unlikely -- especially given the crisis at EADS's civil aircraft arm Airbus which forced a CEO change yesteday.

''That is only possible if you have a minimum of confidence in each other. This confidence is, I believe, developing but we can't yet take it for granted,'' Gernot Erler, deputy foreign minister and a member of the Social Democrats (SPD), told ZDF.

During Putin's visit, Russia's Vnesheconombank and Germany's Dresdner Bank will sign a deal on public-private partnerships and Germany's export credit agency will open a credit line to the Russian bank to expand an airport terminal in Kaliningrad.

Mr Putin and Ms Merkel will discuss the forthcoming German presidency of both the European Union and the Group of Eight, which Russia chaired for the first time this year.

Kremlin sources said the two leaders would also cover areas of mutual concern including the West Asia Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.

Although Schroeder has been out of office for a year, his friendship with Mr Putin is paying off for Russia. Schroeder has brokered a deal, to be signed today, for Gazprom to sponsor Bundesliga soccer club Schalke four.

REUTERS BDP RK1445