EUROPE: Bush pressed to intervene in Russia

By Guy Dinmore in Washington Financial Times; Nov 05, 2003

The Bush administration yesterday came under pressure from Congress and its rightwing supporters to punish Russian president Vladimir Putin for what Senator John McCain denounced in a blistering speech as Russia's slide towards "neo-imperialism abroad and authoritarian control at home".

Mr McCain, the outspoken senator who lost a bitter nomination battle for the Republican presidential candidacy in 2000, said George W. Bush should not invite Mr Putin to the next summit of the Group of Eight industrialised democracies, to be hosted by the US next June. Loan guarantees should also be halted, he said.

"A creeping coup against the forces of democracy and market capitalism in Russia is threatening the foundation of the US-Russia relationship and raising the spectre of a new era of cold peace between Washington and Moscow," he warned.

His speech was the first public show of force by conservatives in reaction to the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the politically active head of Yukos oil company.

So far the Bush administration's response to events in Russia has been muted. A senior State Department official yesterday told reporters the US did not want to "jump to conclusions" over the cases against three of Russia's leading businessmen, although it did view them as politically motivated. He said there had been "pointed" high- level conversations with Russian officials.

Mr McCain spoke of a crackdown on the media, assassinations of journalists and activists, deaths of thousands of civilians in Chechnya, and heavy-handed pressure on Russia's neighbours. He also said there remained "credible allegations" that the Russian FSB secret services had a hand in the 1999 bombings of Moscow apartment blocks that were blamed on rebels and led to a renewed military campaign in Chechnya in 2000.

"This is not the behaviour of a modern European nation," he said. "It is a form of unenlightened despotism cloaked in the mantle of international respectability, which Russia derives principally from its relations with other great powers, particularly the United States."

Mr Bush has not addressed the issue in public and appears particularly exposed after cultivating a close personal relationship with Mr Putin.

"PUTIN HAS A VERY CLEAR CONCEPT ON THE DIVISION OF POWERS"

Roma, 5 nov. (Adnkronos) -

"You know how I always myself use to battle against a political use ofthe magistracy. But in this case, that of Yukos, one can not speakabout a political use of it". This is what Silvio Berlusconi underlinedin a press conference with Vladimir Putin at Tempio Adriano. Thepremier said that during the meeting with the Kremlin's leader also thecase of Yukos was discussed.

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Comment: If Berlusconi would have to do today with the "clearness of concept onthe division of powers" of the juridical system he is now praising hewould have been buried 100 meters under earth by the very same system. M.M.

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Ciampi: Putin's reforms feed the democratic progress in Russia

From an excerpt of "At the eve of the Italian-Russian summit, Putin andCiampi [Italian President] pass over Yukos", by Roberto Landucci.

ROMA (Reuters) - 13:17

"Russia made significant progresses in the developments of its owneconomy", said today Ciampi in front of journalists, reading adeclaration after his meeting with the Russian President. These results"would not have been possible without the profound reforms advocated bypresident Putin. Their success feeds the economic, social and democratic progress of Russia."