President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the West of using double standards to pressure Russia's allies in other former Soviet republics and foment velvet revolutions there, saying he wondered whether Western countries are trying to isolate Russia.
Putin spent most of a 3 1/2-hour news conference answering questions about domestic policies, but he reserved his strongest language for foreign policy issues, blistering at what he described as an attempt by the West to put pressure on Russia over its policies in the so-called near-abroad.
The president took a total of 51 questions, ranging from his plans beyond the second and final term of his presidency to the future of his two daughters. Putin reiterated his position that he would not seek a third term and will step down as required by the Constitution in 2008.
As usual, he appeared to have done his homework for the annual news conference, readily churning out numbers to outline macroeconomic trends in Russia, bilateral trade balances and even the rate of unemployment in Poland.
While more or less at ease with questions on domestic policies, he turned more emotional and blistering when defining Russia's foreign policy. In his criticism of the West, Putin mostly focused on the European Union and particularly Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who said in a recent newspaper interview that "Russia without Ukraine is better than Russia with Ukraine" for the United States.
"If we interpret this [statement by Kwasniewski] as striving to limit Russia's ability to develop relations with its neighbors, then it means a desire to isolate the Russian Federation," Putin said.
"If that is the case, then the [Western] policy toward Chechnya becomes more understandable ... [as] a policy aimed at establishing elements that would destabilize the Russian Federation," he said.
Putin said Kwasniewski's assertion may mean that the Polish leader is looking beyond his presidency for a new job and said he will use a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in Slovakia in February to find out whether Washington is seeking to isolate Russia. Putin said he hopes the Bush administration does not have that intention.
The disputed election in Ukraine has emerged as a divisive issue in Russia's relations with the United States and the EU. Putin has backed outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's once-chosen successor, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, while the West offered tacit support for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. Hard-liners in Russia have accused Kwasniewski -- who helped mediate talks between Yushchenko and Yanukovych -- of being Washington's proxy in a covert battle being fought over Ukraine. The two candidates square off in a repeat vote Sunday.
Kwasniewski told reporters in Warsaw that Putin's criticism was unfair and a "price that Poland and I must pay for our involvement in solving the political crisis in Ukraine."
Putin denounced "dangerous attempts to solve political issues through nonlegitimate means," in a reference to Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution -- the well-organized opposition street protests that helped lead to the repeat vote -- and the Rose Revolution in Georgia last year that brought a U.S.-trained lawyer to power.
The president said revolutions in those former Soviet republics had been planned "in other places" and noted that U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros is now bankrolling the salaries of senior officials in the Georgian government.
Putin said the refusal of OSCE observers to recognize the results of Ukraine's runoff on Nov. 21, combined with their willingness to endorse elections in Afghanistan and Kosovo, show that the West is pursuing a policy of double standards. Those double standards are also applied to human rights issues, he said, pointing out that the EU has pressured Macedonia to set aside a quota for ethnic Albanians in the legislative and executive branches of power but spurned Moscow's requests for a similar quota for the sizable Russian diaspora in the Latvian capital, Riga.
While critical of the EU, Putin was careful not to antagonize the United States and Bush. Putin described the United States as one of Russia's most important economic partners and an ally in the struggle against terror. He praised the Bush administration for being guided by national interests rather than "momentous, semi-scandalous ... tactical issues" in its policy vis-a-vis Russia, and said the Kremlin reciprocates in the approach.
Putin called Bush "a consequential and decent man" who keeps his word and whom he "fully trusts," even though the two sometimes differ in their positions and assessments.
He asserted Russia's right to pursue policies to bring neighboring countries closer to Moscow and said the Kremlin will continue to push forward on a pact to create a common economic space between Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
He also made it clear that Moscow will continue to maintain contacts with separatist regimes in neighboring countries. Asked by a Georgian TV reporter whether trips by Russian officials to mediate talks between rival presidential candidates in separatist Abkhazia was also a case of double standards, Putin said Russia supports Georgia's territorial integrity, but only if Tbilisi accommodates the wishes of ethnic groups.
Between his forays into foreign policy issues, Putin vowed to press ahead with domestic priorities such as the consolidation of power by the federal government, administrative reform and wage hikes.
Most of Putin's domestic policy answers, however, were a reiteration of what he has said before, including his assertion that the elimination of gubernatorial elections will not turn Russia into a unitary state and that there is no crackdown under way on media freedoms. "A decent girl must resist, while a true man must keep insisting," he said, resorting to a phrase he has used before to explain why the authorities keep insisting that some restrictions must be placed on the media.
He repeated earlier statements that media outlets can be independent but only if they are profitable and that their economic independence should be guaranteed by law.
As earlier, Putin said a program to convert Soviet-era social benefits for the disabled, veterans and retirees to cash payments next year will help eradicate the corruption that has consumed money earmarked by the state for the needy but failed to reach them. Using similar arguments, the president defended the reform of the utilities sector, which will see the state stop subsidizing electricity and gas and shift the burden to consumers.
Interestingly, not a single question was asked about Chechnya at the news conference, even though Putin mentioned the volatile North Caucasus republic in his comments.
Weak applause greeted Putin when he arrived in the Kremlin Grand Palace Round Hall for the news conference, which was scheduled to last 90 minutes.
Putin, wearing a dark suit and a red tie, spoke for several minutes about the country's economic advances in 2004, using notes and firing out figures, before putting his papers away and inviting questions from the 500 gathered journalists.
Answering the first question about how he assessed the year's political developments, Putin made his only mention of the Beslan terrorist attack. His voice trembled as he promised to remember the tragedy but then gained in strength as he turned to the issue of the accountability of regional leaders.
As reporters were asking questions, Putin interrupted them several times and cracked jokes. He declined an invitation to visit the northern Nenets autonomous district, saying it was now too cold for him there.
The audience cheered only once, after a Japanese journalist asked about an offer last month by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to pass over to Japan two of the four disputed Kuril Islands. "Lavrov has not offered any islands," Putin said to loud applause, and then asked why everyone had clapped.
The time allotted for the news conference expired after 27 questions, and Putin spokesman Alexei Gromov, who had been mediating, started wrapping up the event. But Putin himself then began calling on journalists.
Most of the tough questions about Russia's foreign policy, the scrapping of gubernatorial elections and the acquisition of Yukos' prize asset, Yuganskneftegaz, by state-owned Rosneft were asked in the first half of the news conference. Provincial journalists dominated the second part, quizzing the president about social problems and -- almost without exclusion -- inviting him to visit their regions. When a BBC reporter asked the 50th question, Putin said the last one should come from a Russian journalist.
Putin spent most of a 3 1/2-hour news conference answering questions about domestic policies, but he reserved his strongest language for foreign policy issues, blistering at what he described as an attempt by the West to put pressure on Russia over its policies in the so-called near-abroad.
The president took a total of 51 questions, ranging from his plans beyond the second and final term of his presidency to the future of his two daughters. Putin reiterated his position that he would not seek a third term and will step down as required by the Constitution in 2008.
As usual, he appeared to have done his homework for the annual news conference, readily churning out numbers to outline macroeconomic trends in Russia, bilateral trade balances and even the rate of unemployment in Poland.
While more or less at ease with questions on domestic policies, he turned more emotional and blistering when defining Russia's foreign policy. In his criticism of the West, Putin mostly focused on the European Union and particularly Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who said in a recent newspaper interview that "Russia without Ukraine is better than Russia with Ukraine" for the United States.
"If we interpret this [statement by Kwasniewski] as striving to limit Russia's ability to develop relations with its neighbors, then it means a desire to isolate the Russian Federation," Putin said.
"If that is the case, then the [Western] policy toward Chechnya becomes more understandable ... [as] a policy aimed at establishing elements that would destabilize the Russian Federation," he said.
Putin said Kwasniewski's assertion may mean that the Polish leader is looking beyond his presidency for a new job and said he will use a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in Slovakia in February to find out whether Washington is seeking to isolate Russia. Putin said he hopes the Bush administration does not have that intention.
The disputed election in Ukraine has emerged as a divisive issue in Russia's relations with the United States and the EU. Putin has backed outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's once-chosen successor, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, while the West offered tacit support for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. Hard-liners in Russia have accused Kwasniewski -- who helped mediate talks between Yushchenko and Yanukovych -- of being Washington's proxy in a covert battle being fought over Ukraine. The two candidates square off in a repeat vote Sunday.
Kwasniewski told reporters in Warsaw that Putin's criticism was unfair and a "price that Poland and I must pay for our involvement in solving the political crisis in Ukraine."
Putin denounced "dangerous attempts to solve political issues through nonlegitimate means," in a reference to Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution -- the well-organized opposition street protests that helped lead to the repeat vote -- and the Rose Revolution in Georgia last year that brought a U.S.-trained lawyer to power.
The president said revolutions in those former Soviet republics had been planned "in other places" and noted that U.S. billionaire philanthropist George Soros is now bankrolling the salaries of senior officials in the Georgian government.
Putin said the refusal of OSCE observers to recognize the results of Ukraine's runoff on Nov. 21, combined with their willingness to endorse elections in Afghanistan and Kosovo, show that the West is pursuing a policy of double standards. Those double standards are also applied to human rights issues, he said, pointing out that the EU has pressured Macedonia to set aside a quota for ethnic Albanians in the legislative and executive branches of power but spurned Moscow's requests for a similar quota for the sizable Russian diaspora in the Latvian capital, Riga.
While critical of the EU, Putin was careful not to antagonize the United States and Bush. Putin described the United States as one of Russia's most important economic partners and an ally in the struggle against terror. He praised the Bush administration for being guided by national interests rather than "momentous, semi-scandalous ... tactical issues" in its policy vis-a-vis Russia, and said the Kremlin reciprocates in the approach.
Putin called Bush "a consequential and decent man" who keeps his word and whom he "fully trusts," even though the two sometimes differ in their positions and assessments.
He asserted Russia's right to pursue policies to bring neighboring countries closer to Moscow and said the Kremlin will continue to push forward on a pact to create a common economic space between Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
He also made it clear that Moscow will continue to maintain contacts with separatist regimes in neighboring countries. Asked by a Georgian TV reporter whether trips by Russian officials to mediate talks between rival presidential candidates in separatist Abkhazia was also a case of double standards, Putin said Russia supports Georgia's territorial integrity, but only if Tbilisi accommodates the wishes of ethnic groups.
Between his forays into foreign policy issues, Putin vowed to press ahead with domestic priorities such as the consolidation of power by the federal government, administrative reform and wage hikes.
Most of Putin's domestic policy answers, however, were a reiteration of what he has said before, including his assertion that the elimination of gubernatorial elections will not turn Russia into a unitary state and that there is no crackdown under way on media freedoms. "A decent girl must resist, while a true man must keep insisting," he said, resorting to a phrase he has used before to explain why the authorities keep insisting that some restrictions must be placed on the media.
He repeated earlier statements that media outlets can be independent but only if they are profitable and that their economic independence should be guaranteed by law.
As earlier, Putin said a program to convert Soviet-era social benefits for the disabled, veterans and retirees to cash payments next year will help eradicate the corruption that has consumed money earmarked by the state for the needy but failed to reach them. Using similar arguments, the president defended the reform of the utilities sector, which will see the state stop subsidizing electricity and gas and shift the burden to consumers.
Interestingly, not a single question was asked about Chechnya at the news conference, even though Putin mentioned the volatile North Caucasus republic in his comments.
Weak applause greeted Putin when he arrived in the Kremlin Grand Palace Round Hall for the news conference, which was scheduled to last 90 minutes.
Putin, wearing a dark suit and a red tie, spoke for several minutes about the country's economic advances in 2004, using notes and firing out figures, before putting his papers away and inviting questions from the 500 gathered journalists.
Answering the first question about how he assessed the year's political developments, Putin made his only mention of the Beslan terrorist attack. His voice trembled as he promised to remember the tragedy but then gained in strength as he turned to the issue of the accountability of regional leaders.
As reporters were asking questions, Putin interrupted them several times and cracked jokes. He declined an invitation to visit the northern Nenets autonomous district, saying it was now too cold for him there.
The audience cheered only once, after a Japanese journalist asked about an offer last month by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to pass over to Japan two of the four disputed Kuril Islands. "Lavrov has not offered any islands," Putin said to loud applause, and then asked why everyone had clapped.
The time allotted for the news conference expired after 27 questions, and Putin spokesman Alexei Gromov, who had been mediating, started wrapping up the event. But Putin himself then began calling on journalists.
Most of the tough questions about Russia's foreign policy, the scrapping of gubernatorial elections and the acquisition of Yukos' prize asset, Yuganskneftegaz, by state-owned Rosneft were asked in the first half of the news conference. Provincial journalists dominated the second part, quizzing the president about social problems and -- almost without exclusion -- inviting him to visit their regions. When a BBC reporter asked the 50th question, Putin said the last one should come from a Russian journalist.
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