Putin lashes out at Western powers
Russian president denounces 'interference' in regional elections, oil company sale.
In a bold slap at the United States and other Western powers, Russian president Vladimir Putin said these countries' statements about the election crisis in the Ukraine could be intended to "
destablize his country." The
Guardian reports that Putin made the comments in his annual Christmas news conference before 600 journalists at the Kremlin.
On the one hand, Mr. Putin praised his relationship with US President George Bush and called him "
a decent and consistent person." But when asked by journalists about the Ukraine and Russian actions in Beslan and Chechyna, Putin grew defensive and aggressive.
The Times of London reports that Putin accused the West of "
fomenting permanent revolution in Moscow's backyard" by encouraging political movements like the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia last year and the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine. Putin also said Western countries had double-standards when it endorsed elections in Iraq, but criticized them in Chechyna and the Ukraine.
'Today, according to our estimates, there are nine cities in Iraq where there are hostilities but they still want to carry out elections,' [Putin] said. 'We do not understand how there can be an election in a country under conditions of total occupation . . . It's absurd. It's a farce. Everything is upside down.'
On the other hand, the
Washington Times reports, Putin
welcomed any effort to "normalize" Iraq politically.
Putin also angrily
denouced attempts to use the US bankrupcy court in Houston to
block Wednesday's sale of Yuganskneftegaz, the Yukos oil production unit, by Rosneft, the Russian state oil company.
The
Times of London reported that Rosneft announced it would purchase "Baikal Finance Group, the
mysterious vehicle that emerged on Sunday as the owner of Yugansk, bidding $9.3 billion for the Yukos subsidiary, little more than half its estimated value."
Putin said the
bankruptcy court order was "unacceptable" and that the judge who issued it failed to recognize Russia's sovereignty. "I'm not even sure that she [the judge] knows where Russia is located," he said. Meanwhile, some financial experts say that Russia's purchase of Wednesday of the mysterious Baikal Finance Group completes "one of the greatest corporate thefts in history."
The
San Francisco Chronicle reported on Monday that
Freedom House, a US non-government agency, issued its annual report,
Freedom in the World. It said Russia was the
only country in the world that went from the "Free" to "Not Free" category in 2004.
'Russia's step backward into the 'Not Free' category is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system,' Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said in a statement. 'These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries, such as Ukraine.' Writing in the
New York Post, Adrian Karatnycky, senior scholar at Freedom House and principal analyst for Freedom in the World, said President Bush had been "inconsistent" and "
reluctant to criticize Putin on Russia's drift toward autocracy." He noted that this may change when Condeleezza Rice, an expert on Russia, becomes Secretary of State in 2005.
Russian officials had no comment on the report, although some Russian opposition deputies said Russia had actually been in the "Not Free" category for a decade.
Also...
•
Insurgents operate at will in Mosul, report (
Guardian)
•
Powell advised Bush to add Iraq troops (
Washington Post)
•
Greek police officers 'tortured Afghans' (
Independent)
•
They can only dream of holidays at home (
USA Today)
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