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Rice urges Russia to improve democracy record
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice renewed criticism of Russia's democratic record on Wednesday ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin and said the Kremlin leader should not have so much personal power. Rice, on her first visit to Moscow as Washington's top diplomat, also said the United States would be watching the outcome of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky's trial "to see what (it) says about the rule of law in Russia". A Moscow court is to hand down a verdict in Khodorkovsky's fraud trial on April 27. Speaking in an interview on the radio station Ekho Moskvy, Rice renewed charges that Russia had some distance to go in developing its democracy, including allowing the growth of an independent media free from Kremlin pressure. And though she couched her criticism in diplomatic tones, she singled out the powers that Putin had accumulated since taking over in the Kremlin in 2000. "All that we are saying is that for the US-Russia relationship to really deepen and for Russia to gain its full potential there needs to be democratic development. "There should not be so much concentration of power just in the presidency, there needs to be an independent media ... so that the Russian people can debate and decide together the democratic future of Russia," she said in reply to questions from the public sent in to the radio station via the Internet. Russia is considered a test case of President George W. Bush's vow to make democracy crucial to all Washington's bilateral relations. Rice, a former Soviet specialist who interspersed her interview with a few phrases of Russian, was scheduled to see Putin later on Wednesday before heading off to Lithuania. She was due to hold talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the two were expected to briefly take questions from journalists before her meeting with the Kremlin chief. Rice set the tone for her visit on Tuesday by criticising the Kremlin's grip on power and the media as she flew in for talks and urging Putin not to try to cling on to power after his present mandate -- which under the constitution should be his last -- expires in 2008. She balanced her comments by saying she did not want Russia to be isolated over democracy concerns and would support its efforts to join the World Trade Organisation. WASHINGTON TOO TOLERANT? Rights activists complain Washington has been too tolerant of Russia's backsliding on democracy, for fear of losing Putin's cooperation on Bush's top priority, the war on terrorism. They accuse Putin of restricting democracy by abolishing the election of regional governors, pursuing a vendetta against the YUKOS oil company and tightening Kremlin control of the media. Though Bush enjoys a warm friendship with Putin and has agreed to attend 60th anniversary celebrations of the Allied victory in World War Two in Moscow on May 9 Russian commentators have voiced fears relations could be heading for rougher water. Bringing up the YUKOS case in which Khodorkovsky would face up to 10 years in jail if convicted, Rice told Ekho Moskvy: "Everyone will be watching to see what the YUKOS case says about the rule of law in Russia. "I know that there will soon be a verdict and we and investors and the rest of the international community will hope that it is a process that inspires confidence, that the rule of law obtains in Russia." State-controlled Russian TV channels continued to play down her visit without broadcasting her critical comments. Russian officials bristle at US criticism and often complain that the United States misunderstands how a largely centralised democracy works in a vast country and that the media allows varied political viewpoints. |
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