Speaking at a Baltic Sea environmental summit in Finland to persuade Finland to approve the Nord Stream project, Vladimir Putin promised that Russia would curtail sewage dumping and that the Nord Stream pipeline would not cause any damage to the sea; and offered the bargaining chip of extending low timber duties on Russian exports.  A clean-up of the sea is expected to be announced also, in order to remove toxic sediment on the seabed originating from a sewage treatment plant in Kaliningrad that failed ‘due to lack of political leadership and local corruption‘.  Russians offer their thoughts on the lengthy and complicated visa process for EU travel.  Russia is happy to accept economic and technological initiatives from Europe, according to Russia’s EU ambassador, but does not take kindly to being lectured on ‘European values‘.  NATO apparently does not object to the sale of a French warship to Russia.