Following the meeting on 15 April between the Greek Presidency of the EU, the High Representative for the CFSP and the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Presidency of the Union welcomed "positive signs in Chechnya", stating in particular that for the Union "the widespread participation in the constitutional referendum on 23 March was a positive sign". At the end of the meeting it was also decided not to include a "Chechnya" item on the agenda of the EU-Russia summit that will take place in St. Petersburg on 31 May.

Question for May question time from Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament, to the Council

"Is the Council aware of the numerous reports in the international media pointing to the extremely serious irregularities that characterised both the lead-up to the so-called referendum and the so-called referendum itself? In particular, is the Council aware of the existence of "additional electoral rolls" that enabled the authorities to further swell the electoral rolls, already swollen by the presence of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, to the point that even foreign journalists managed to take part in the "vote"? Moreover, has the Council read the report by the pro-Russian Chechen administration of Mr Kadyrov, with regard in particular to the number of Chechen civilians who fall victim each month to summary execution, the number of mass graves and bodies already discovered, and the number of murders committed every day by the Russian military and paramilitary forces?"