Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2008

MOSCOW, September 22, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Chirac is due to host bilateral talks and a dinner with Putin at the Elysee Palace late today.

Moscow hopes the talks will result in France increasing its investment in Russia beyond the $905 million it invested in 2005.

On September 23, Chirac and Putin will join Merkel at the Compiegne Chateau, north of Paris, for three-way talks.

Tehran's nuclear program, in which all three countries play a key role, is one of the key items to be discussed.

World powers agreed on September 19 to hand Iran a new early October deadline to give up uranium enrichment before they seek sanctions under a United Nations resolution.

Seeking To Invest

Economic issues are also expected to take up much of the talks.

Yevgeny Volk, the director of the Heritage Foundation think tank in Moscow, says Russia appears determined to use its surging oil and gas revenues to gain a foothold in some of Europe's strategic industries.

Moscow's economic ambitions reach beyond energy into key industrial sectors -- a development that has met with anxiety abroad.

"Russia is using its huge resources, and the dependence of Western and Eastern Europe on its energy resources, as a lever to put political and economic influence on its neighbors," Volk says. "I think that this issue will top the agenda."

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom has long expressed interest in expanding its operations to Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Putin and Merkel on Saturday are due to discuss a planned 1,200-kilometer pipeline that would pump Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The plan has drawn fierce criticism from Poland and the three Baltic states. They say the pipeline would deprive them of transit fees, and that it poses an environmental and security threat as well.

Grand Ambitions

Moscow's economic ambitions, however, reach beyond energy into key industrial sectors -- a development that has met with anxiety abroad.

Earlier this year, the Russian steel group Severstal attempted to purchase Europe's steel giant Arcelor. Severstal, however, lost out to a bid by India's Mittal Steel.

And this month, the Russian state-owned bank Vneshtorgbank acquired a 5-percent stake in the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, or EADS.

EADS, however, rejected Russia's proposal to raise its stake to a blocking minority of 25 percent.

Observers say Putin is likely to push for a seat on the EADS board at the September 23 summit.

But Aleksandr Velovich, a former aircraft designer with the Mikoyan Design Bureau, does not predict any breakthrough in Russia's favor.

"I think that Russian officials are deluding themselves. Russia's ambition to obtain a controlling stake is not backed by the capacity of the Russian market and by the current abilities of the Russian aviation industry," Velovich says. "Despite Europe's definite desire to cooperate with Russia's aviation industry, the price that Russia is asking for this cooperation is too high."

The rebuff by EADS is likely to have irritated Moscow, which recently sold a 10-percent stake in Russian aerospace giant Irkut to EADS.

Russia is also purchasing 22 jets from Airbus and another 22 aircraft from its U.S. rival Boeing.

Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, says Russia is waiting for Paris and Berlin to give "a signal to create equal conditions for investing in their economies."

Russia, he complains, is alone in "playing the game."

Russia: Spotlight On Iran, Investment As Putin Heads To Paris