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Russian influence worrying US: Putin
President Vladimir Putin hit out at Western criticism of the Kremlin, saying it was aimed at countering Russia's growing influence in the world.
- AP
- Published: 00:00 January 25, 2007
Moscow: President Vladimir Putin hit out at Western criticism of the Kremlin, saying it was aimed at countering Russia's growing influence in the world.
At a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi after talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin suggested, without naming it directly, that the United States saw Russia as a threat to its unchallenged superpower status.
"Russia's economic, political and military potential is clearly growing and a competitor that had already been written off is emerging in the world," Putin said in comments shown on state television.
"This is the main reason [for criticism], the unwillingness to take into account Russia's legitimate interests and a desire to put it in a position where someone has decided it should be," he added.
Already facing criticism that he has stifled democratic freedoms since coming to power in 2000, Putin's reputation in the West has been severely tarnished by accusations that he has been misusing Russia's oil and gas wealth to bully ex-Soviet neighbours and Western energy companies.
Unreliable partner
Disruptions of Russian gas and oil supplies to Europe in the past year have stoked fears in European capitals that Moscow is an unreliable partner.
A dispute between Russia and Belarus interrupted part of Russia's oil deliveries to the EU earlier this month, a year after a similar cutoff of gas to Ukraine also affected Europe, which relies on Russia for a quarter of its oil and over two-fifths of its natural gas.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who met with Putin in his residence in Sochi on Sunday, stressed Russia's importance as an energy provider to Europe and called for "irritations" in supplies to be avoided.
Meanwhile, foreign-controlled energy projects have also come under increasing pressure from the Kremlin in recent months as it pursues a drive to secure majority state control in major oil and gas fields.
In December, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its Japanese partners sold a majority stake in the giant Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project off Russia's far east to state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom amid intense regulatory pressure.
An Arctic oil and gas development controlled by France's Total SA and the giant Kovykta gas field in eastern Siberia that its owned by the Russian division of BP PLC are seen as the next targets. Putin shrugged off concerns that Russia is throwing its weight around.
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