DICK CHENEY, the US Vice-President, accused Russia yesterday of eroding a decade of democratic reform and blackmailing Europe with its energy reserves, in America’s sharpest rebuke to President Putin. Speaking at a summit of eight former Eastern bloc countries that have turned against Moscow, Mr Cheney said that the Kremlin should embrace democracy or risk harming relations with more countries.
“America and Europe want to see Russia in the category of healthy democracies, and yet opponents of democracy in Russia are seeking to reverse the progress of the past decade,” he said. “In many areas of civil society — from religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties — the Government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people.”
The speech caused outrage in Russia, with some senior figures accusing Mr Cheney of trying to undermine Mr Putin before the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s deputy spokesman, said that the speech was incomprehensible and “full of a subjective evaluation of us and of the processes that are going on in Russia”.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, said: “Cheney’s speech looks like a provocation and interference in Russia’s internal affairs in terms of its content, form and place.”
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Mr Cheney’s remarks will infuriate the Kremlin just when the US needs Russia’s support against Iran. Vyacheslav Nikonov, of the Politika Fund think-tank, told The Times that Mr Cheney’s speech could lead Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, to reject Chevron and Conoco-Phillips, the US oil companies, when it chooses partners to develop the huge Shtokman gasfield. “There’ll be a tough reaction,” he said. “If you enter the path of escalation, it can lead any place, even to a new Cold War.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2165502,00.html
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