MOSCOW, Nov 12: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advice to a Western reporter at a Russia-EU summit urging him to come to Moscow and get “circumcised” raised eyebrows at home and drew a reprimand abroad on Tuesday.

In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Jonathan Faull said Putin’s choice of words was “regrettable” and his intervention “entirely inappropriate.”

He said European Commission president Romano Prodi was “rather pleased that he didn’t hear it..”

While refraining from overt criticism, Russian media headlined with the remarks that raised eyebrows among numerous commentators and were reproved as “regrettable” by a European Commission spokesman.

The impromptu invitation followed a question by a French reporter at the closing press conference of Monday’s summit in Brussels asking why Russia was using mine warfare in the North Caucasus republic and “exterminating” Chechen civilians.

Clearly irritated, Putin launched into a vigorous defence of his uncompromising Chechnya policy, describing Chechen fighters as radical Islamists who believe that all non-Muslims deserve to die.

Then, still speaking in Russian, Putin told the reporter: “If you are prepared to become a radical Islamist and undergo circumcision, I invite you to Moscow. We have specialists who can deal with this problem. I suggest that you have an operation so radical that nothing grows out of you again.”

The remarks were broadcast on Russian TVS television and reported in detail by several major Moscow newspapers and Internet sites.

The prominent coverage appeared at odds with the Russian media’s generally compliant attitude to the official line on Chechnya.

“Invitation to a circumcision,” the daily Vremya Novostei headlined, echoed by the daily Gazeta’s which headline “Putin suggests Europe get circumcised.”—AFP