By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Germany said on Thursday the political atmosphere inside Russia was growing more and more uncertain but urged the EU to seize its "window of opportunity" to bring Russia closer to Europe before it is too late.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler made these comments in an interview with Reuters before Russian President Vladimir Putin meets European Union leaders on Friday in Finland.

"The words of Vladimir Putin ... and the social reality in Russia do not always point in the same direction. This has to do with the NGOs as well as the domestic political climate, which is marked by increasing uncertainty after the recent murders," Erler said.

He was referring to the murder of one of Russia's top investigative journalists earlier this month and Moscow's crackdown on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which had until Wednesday to register under a new law that they complain allows the Kremlin to intrude on their work.

Visas for employees of several German NGOs expired on Wednesday and they were not granted extensions, meaning they would have to leave Russia, Erler said.

Putin had assured Germany and the other European Union countries that the heavily criticised NGO law would not undermine civil society in Russia.

The Russian president, who speaks German and spent many years in the country as an agent for the KGB, the former Soviet Union's secret police, has made economic and political relations with Europe's largest economy a top priority.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country takes over the European Union's rotating presidency from Finland in January, will have to begin work next year on renegotiating Russia's "Partnership and Cooperation Agreement" with the EU.

This will not be an easy task and there is no guarantee of success, Erler warned.

Getting consensus on a new agreement with Russia inside an enlarged 27-nation EU will not be easy, especially with a large number of former communist eastern European states which are deeply suspicious of Russia, he said.

CO-DEPENDENCY

Ultimately Germany and the EU should find a way of creating a network of irrevocable interdependencies with Russia that would make Russia and Europe too dependent on each other to let the relationship descend into conflict, Erler said.

"We need a situation in which Russia is just as dependent on Europe as Europe is on Russia," he said.

Above all this would have to do with Russia's position as a top world supplier of oil and gas and Europe's position as a major energy consumer and transit hub.

Given Putin's clear pro-European stance, there is a historic opportunity to bring Russia closer to Europe, he said. It is all the more pressing since no one knows what Russia will be like after Putin departs from Russian politics, he warned.

"We have until 2008. That is our 'window of opportunity'. We trust that Putin will be in control of the process of getting his replacement.

"But whether that means continuity of Russian foreign policy or if the forces pushing for a more Asian oriented foreign policy would be strengthened -- we just don't know," he said.

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