Learn Chinese online - Putin attacks West ahead of G-8 summit

WORLD / Europe

Putin attacks West ahead of G-8 summit

(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-05 08:46

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin called himself the world's only
"absolute and pure democrat" in an interview published Monday, and
launched scathing attacks on the US and Europe ahead of this week's Group
of Eight summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a Cabinet meeting in the
Moscow Kremlin, Monday, June 4, 2007. [AP]

At the same time, the 54-year-old Putin hinted that he may not be ready
to leave the public stage after all when his second term expires next
year. "I am far from pension age and it would be absurd just to sit at
home doing nothing," he told a group of reporters invited to dinner over
the weekend.

Despite Russia's agreement last month to tone down the rhetoric, Putin's
statements exposed vast gaps between Russia and the West ahead of this
week's Group of Eight summit. He called Britain's decision to demand the
extradition of the man suspected of killing former KGB agent Alexander
Litvinenko with a radioactive poison an act of "stupidity."

The interview touched on much that the rest of the world finds disturbing
about Putin's Russia: the backsliding on democracy, the increasing
assertion of military power, the general perception of a leader who feels
immune to international criticism.

To the many Westerners who say he has rolled back Russia's democratic
reforms, Putin responded with the assertion that he is the world's one
true champion of democracy.

"I am an absolute and pure democrat," Putin said. "But you know what the
misfortune is? Not even a misfortune but a real tragedy? It's that I am
alone, there simply aren't others like this in the world."

The transcript noted that Putin laughed when making that comment,
suggesting he was joking. A few moments later he added: "After the death
of Mahatma Gandhi, there's nobody to talk to."

Sandwiched between his acid criticisms and ironic assertions was a brief
criticism of the West.

"We look at what has been created in North America - horror: torture,
homelessness, Guantanamo, detention without courts or investigation," he
said.

"You see what's going on in Europe: harsh treatment of demonstrators, the
use of rubber bullets, tear gas in one capital, the killing of
demonstrators in the streets in another," he added, in an apparent
reference to the death of an ethnic Russian in the Estonian capital
during protests over the removal of a Soviet-era war memorial.

Rather than try to soothe nerves before the G-8 summit in Germany, Putin
repeated, and even amplified, recent Kremlin criticism of the United
States - including his allegation in February that the United States was
engaging in a "hyper-use of power," and Russian officials' denunciation
of purported Western attempts to destabilize Russia by funding
pro-democracy groups.

The Russian president's comments came despite last month's agreement
between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice to tone down the rhetoric on both sides.

Much of the toughest talk from the Kremlin has focused on US plans to
build a missile-defense system in Europe, which Washington insists is
aimed at preventing attacks by rogue states such as Iran and North Korea
rather than Russia.

Putin renewed the verbal offensive in his weekend interview, in chilling
comments that evoked the balance-of-terror language of the Cold War.

"We are being told the anti-missile defense system is targeted against
something that does not exist. Doesn't it seem funny to you, to say the
least?" a clearly irritated Putin said.

"If a part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States
appears in Europe and, in the opinion of our military specialists will
threaten us, then we will have to take appropriate steps in response,"
Putin said. "What kind of steps? We will have to have new targets in
Europe."

These could be targeted with "ballistic or cruise missiles or maybe a
completely new system."

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, asked aboard Air Force One
about Putin's comments on the missile shield, said there has been "some
escalation in the rhetoric."

"We think that that is not helpful. We would like to have a constructive
dialogue with Russia on this issue. We have had it in the past," Hadley
said.

Russia's relations with the West also are troubled by its refusal to turn
over Andrei Lugovoi, the man whom Britain says it has enough evidence to
charge in last year's fatal poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander
Litvinenko.

Russia refuses to turn over Lugovoi, saying its constitution forbids
extradition of Russian citizens to face prosecution abroad. Putin called
Britain's demand "stupidity."

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