Putin Rips Cheney's Verbal "Hunting Shot"

Putin Rips Cheney's Verbal 'Hunting Shot'

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By JIM HEINTZ , 07.12.2006, 10:08 AM

President Vladimir Putin lashed out at Vice President Dick Cheney ahead of this weekend's G-8 summit, calling his recent criticisms of Russia "an unsuccessful hunting shot," according to a television interview broadcast Wednesday.

The remark, from an interview with NBC, referred to the shotgun blast by Cheney on a hunting trip that accidentally wounded a companion.

Cheney, in a May speech in the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania, accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and of using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."

Asked about Cheney's remarks, Putin said, "I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot."

Both Cheney's criticism and Putin's caustic response underline the tensions that exist between the United States and Russia as both countries prepare for the Group of Eight summit, beginning Saturday in St. Petersburg.

Western leaders are expected to raise concerns at the summit about Russian moves that are seen as antidemocratic, including a new law placing restrictions on non-governmental organizations, tightening state control of news media, and making the upper chamber of parliament an appointed body instead of an elected one.

Russia, in setting the agenda for the G-8 summit, has made energy security one of the top issues. However, Russia this year unsettled Europe when a dispute with Ukraine over natural gas prices resulted in a temporary reduction of Russian natural gas deliveries to Europe. Most of Russia's Europe-bound gas goes through Ukraine.

Despite his sharp comments on Cheney's statement, Putin said Russia welcomed criticism.

"I am glad that we have critics. It would be worse if there were one voice, as it was in the time of the Soviet Union at meetings of the Communist Party. If we hear both critical and positive observations, it means that we have the possibility of better orienting ourselves toward what we're doing," Putin said.

In a separate interview with Canadian broadcaster CTV, Putin said that Western officials' attendance at a pre-summit conference organized by opposition forces amounted to interference in Russia's internal affairs.

The opposition "is doing this (conference) in the run-up to State Duma elections at the end of 2007. And if officials of other countries support this undertaking, it simply means they are trying to influence the internal political arrangement of Russia a little bit," he said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Opposition movements and civic groups participating in the "Other Russia" meeting appealed to G-8 leaders Wednesday to pressure Putin to end what they called systematic political repression. Participants said numerous activists had been forcibly prevented from attending the conference - as well as beaten, detained and otherwise abused.

Participants stepped up their criticism of the Kremlin at the conference, which is intended to counter the image of a democratic Russia that Russian officials will be presenting at the G-8 summit.

"In Russia today, there are two sides, two countries. One is a country of bureaucracy, the disregard of law, a country of lawlessness, of backwardness and non-freedom. The authorities are on that side and they are terrorizing the other country, the country of citizens," said Andrei Illarionov, Putin's former economic adviser.

Western officials, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, also attended the forum. Edward McMillan-Scott, a European Parliament member from Britain, said Russia represented "a threat to Europe's stability and security."

"It is a country led by a regime that is selfish, corrupt and which is unreliable," he told the forum.

The G-8 summit starts Saturday when the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States gather for a glittering dinner in St. Petersburg, the former czarist capital founded 300 years ago by Peter the Great.

In the more than three decades that the world's major countries have staged these get-togethers, foreign policy crises often have intervened to take time away from the economic issues, and this year is no exception.

A search for ways to deal with North Korea's test firing of missiles and Iran's nuclear program are expected to take up much of the discussion time.

Russian support is seen as critical in defusing both situations, and for that reason President Bush and the other leaders are expected to soften any criticism of Putin's backsliding on democratic reforms.