Reuters - 09.15.2004

Russia rejects U.S. criticism of reform

By Raushan Nurshayeva

ASTANA (Reuters) - Russia has curtly told the United States to stay out of its business after U.S. criticism, echoed by the European Union, of President Vladimir Putin's plans for radical change that will boost Kremlin power.

Putin, citing the need for the reforms to beat terrorism, has said he will nominate regional governors himself in the future and called for changes to the electoral system that will effectively stop the rise of a strong parliamentary opposition.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with Reuters, backed liberal criticism in Russia by saying the changes were "pulling back on some of the democratic reforms". He pledged to raise his concerns with the Russian leadership.

But Russia's foreign minister, speaking in Kazakhstan on the sidelines of a meeting of ex-Soviet states that on Thursday will discuss a joint approach to fighting terrorism, said Washington had no right to impose its model of democracy on others.

"First of all, the processes that are under way in Russia are our internal affair," Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"And it is at least strange that, while talking about a certain 'pulling back', as he (Powell) put it, on some of the democratic reforms in the Russian Federation, he tried to assert yet one more time the thought that democracy can only be copied from someone's model," Lavrov said.

"We, for our part, do not comment on the U.S. system of presidential elections, for instance." The United States itself had been forced to take tough and controversial security steps after the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets, he said.

Powell expressed sympathy for the Kremlin drive against terrorism after this month's Beslan school attack by Chechen rebels in which more than 320 people were killed, half of them children. But he called for "a proper balance" to keep democratic reforms on course.

EU CONCERN

Powell's criticism swiftly found an echo from the 25-nation EU, Russia's biggest single trading partner.

EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said a resolution to the Chechen conflict lay in "far-sighted, humane and resolute" policies rather than moves limiting democracy.

"I hope they (the solutions) are forthcoming and that the government of the Russian Federation will not conclude that the only answer to terrorism is to increase the power of the Kremlin," Patten told the European Parliament.

The school siege was the climax of a wave of attacks in Russia, apparently by Chechen separatists.

These included the downing of two passenger planes on August 24 in which 90 people died -- confirmed by authorities on Wednesday as being caused by explosions on board. A week later, a suicide bomb attack killed 10 in central Moscow.

Putin has proposed an end to direct election of Russia's regional governors and said candidates should instead be put forward by the president and approved by local assemblies.

He has also called for ending the election of parliamentary deputies in constituencies, a common means for opposition politicians to win seats in the State Duma legislature.

Critics say the changes violate the constitution and that he is exploiting the Beslan bloodshed to roll back democratic gains.

In Prague, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage expressed concern at signs that Moscow had become "a little bit more secretive" about its strategy for fighting terrorism.

But he also backed the Kremlin's view that there were no shades of grey between terrorist groups.

"Terrorism from our point of view and I think from the Russian Federation's point of view -- you cannot pick and choose among terrorist groups. A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist," Armitage told reporters.