Putin slams Washington: 'Russia won?t tolerate external interference'

As the Russian presidential campaign gets under way, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took a another swing at the US, criticising Washington of seeking vassals rather than allies.

?The US wants to control everything, sometimes I get the impression that the US doesn?t need allies, it needs vassals,? Putin told reporters on 25 January in the Siberian town of Tomsk. ?They take decisions unilaterally on key questions.?

Putin, who?s bidding for a new six-year term in the Kremlin in elections to be held on 4 March, said he would not tolerate external interference.

?The leadership in Moscow is much more uncertain about just what?s going to happen politically in terms of the process even if they are sure of the outcome,? James Collins, who was the US ambassador to Russia from 1997 to 2001, told New Europe, referring to the presidential election in March that Putin is heavily favoured to win.

Collins, who is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said late on 26 January by phone from Washington DC that the political season in Moscow is making Russian political leaders particularly sensitive, especially after the December parliamentary elections, the demonstrations and public manifestations of opposition to the current government.

?Until they get through that process I expect - just like in the United States - you?ll see political rhetoric and probably some statements that people will wish were not made, if you are on the other side. But frankly I think in the end of ends we?ll see the process through and then we?ll see what the new government and the new Putin administration later in this year decides it?s going to do with the United States,? Collins said.

Meanwhile, the new US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul rejected as ?nonsense? accusations by a top lawmaker in Putin?s United Russia party, Andrei Isayev that he?s trying to encourage a revolution. In the early days of the administration of US President Barack Obama, McFaul made his mark as the architect of the so-called ?reset? of relations with Russia. Now Obama sent him to Russia to continue this policy of seeking to improve ties.

But when McFaul met with opposition activists earlier in January, within days of taking up his appointment, he annoyed the Kremlin. Those contacts with the Russian opposition are part of official US policy to spread democratic values around the world, Kommersant newspaper quoted McFaul in an interview. ?The point of the reset isn?t to prepare a revolution,? McFaul said. ?That?s not what we are doing.?

McFaul also rejected Isayev?s contention that he?s an expert in Orange Revolutions, referring to popular upheavals in the former Soviet nations of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. ?I?m an academic, a political scientist and a sociologist, not a professional revolutionary,? McFaul said.

One of his predecessors, Collins, dismissed complaints inside the Kremlin that the US is trying to stir up trouble, supporting protests that have eroded Putin's popularity. ?I personally think there is absolutely no justification for all this idea that America is interfering in their political process,? Collins told New Europe.

?The response to Mike McFaul?s first days and other things like these statements are frankly political rhetoric. Any ambassador and any American embassy over decades has met with all dimensions of Russian society and they have done it in political times and non-political times. The idea that somehow it?s not an ambassador?s job to be in touch and engaged with all elements of the political spectrum in the Russian Federation is simply saying he shouldn?t do his job,? Collins said.

?They certainly cannot be surprised that the ambassador to the Russian Federation has contacts with people other than government officials. They?ve been doing it for decades and they will continue to do it so I find all that around Mike McFaul?s arrival to be a bit surprising.?

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters that McFaul should understand that he is working in Russia, not in the US. ?I hope that he [McFaul] will do a good job but of course he needs to realise that he is working in the Russian Federation, not in the United States of America, and that our country has its specifics, just as any ambassador has his mandate,? he said.

Russia-US relations, let alone Medvedev-Obama relations, have not been affected, the Russian president said. ?There?s not been a worsening in our interstate relations or in our personal relations [with Obama],? he said.

Collins said that despite the headline-grabbing political rhetoric the US and Russia want to see the relationship and the ?reset? continue. He noted that he doesn?t expect US-Russian relations to backtrack once Putin replaces Medvedev, who spearheaded efforts to improve relations with the US.

?I have presumed all along that you did not have a policy over the last three and a half years from Mr Medvedev without Mr Putin being a part of it,? Collins said, adding that the efforts to improve US-Russian relations over the last three years represent the work of both the Russian and the American governments.

However, Collins would not make any predictions. ?We have to wait to see once the Russian leadership is through this electoral process - and I do expect Mr Putin to be president however that is done in one or two rounds - what will the policy of the new government be,? he said.

?It?s rather hard to see how Russian interests would change radically in the coming year. There are certain things that we know are issues between Russia and the United States: missile defence being one. We have not moved that problem too much closer to resolution, but we are co-operating in Afghanistan. I think there is no reason that we won?t see that continue. I don?t think the basic interests have changed,? Collins said.

The two countries have also disagreed over the NATO military campaign that led to the overthrow of Libya?s Muammar Qaddafi and US-led attempts to censure Syria at the United Nations for its crackdown on anti-government unrest, which Russia says is part of another attempt at regime change. Russian has also slammed US plans to impose sanctions against Iran, saying that they would disrupt talks on Tehran nuclear programme.

Collins said there isn?t any indication from the Obama administration that they are changing their approach to Russian policy in any significant way. ?After all Mike McFaul is in many ways intimately involved in the development of that policy and has been for the last three and a half years. He?s close to the president [Obama]. The president sent him there because he represents his policy. I don?t really see there is reason to think there is movement away from Russia. There are all sorts of indications for instance in Washington that the administration hopes to see the Jackson-Vanick issue resolved fairly early this year and that?s part of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) accession.

"So I don?t see that they?re moving away from the areas of co-operation they have had. At the same time, I don?t think they have turned a blind eye to the areas where we had differences,? Collins concluded.

Source: http://www.neurope.eu/article/putin-slams-washington-russia-won-t-tolerate-external-interference

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