- (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday
blamed U.S. policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons
to defend themselves from an "almost uncontained use of military force"
- a stinging attack that underscored growing tensions between Washington
and Moscow.
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- "Unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved
a single problem, they have become a hotbed of further conflicts,"
Putin said at a security forum attracting senior officials from around
the world.
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- "One state, the United States, has overstepped its
national borders in every way."
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- The Bush administration said it was "surprised and
disappointed" by Putin's remarks. "His accusations are wrong,"
said Gordon Johndroe, Bush's national security spokesman.
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- In what the Russian leader's spokesman acknowledged was
his harshest criticism of the United States, Putin attacked Bush's administration
for stoking a new arms race by planning to deploy a missile defense system
in eastern Europe and for backing a U.N. plan that would grant virtual
independence to Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo.
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- Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz.,
who was also attending the conference, described Putin's remarks as "the
most aggressive speech from a Russian leader since the end of the Cold
War."
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- The United States and an increasingly assertive Russia
repeatedly have butted heads during the past year, with Vice President
Dick Cheney accusing Moscow of using its energy resources as "tools
of intimidation or blackmail." Washington also has been angered by
Russia's reluctance to impose meaningful sanctions against Iran, which
is accused of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian
atomic energy program.
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- But Putin said it was "the almost uncontained hyper
use of force in international relations" that was forcing countries
opposed to Washington to seek to build up nuclear arsenals.
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- "It is a world of one master, one sovereign ...
it has nothing to do with democracy," he said. "This is nourishing
the wish of countries to get nuclear weapons."
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- "This is very dangerous, nobody feels secure anymore
because nobody can hide behind international law," Putin told the
gathering.
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- Putin did not mention the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan,
but he voiced concern about NATO's expansion plans as possible challenges
to Russia.
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- "The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do
with modernization of the alliance or with ensuring security in Europe,"
Putin said. "On the contrary, it is a serious factor provoking reduction
of mutual trust."
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- On the missile defense system, Putin said: "I don't
want to accuse anyone of being aggressive" but suggested it would
seriously change the balance of power and could provoke an unspecified
"asymmetric" response.
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- On Kosovo, Moscow has said a solution imposed against
Serbia's consent could serve as a model for other separatist provinces
elsewhere in the world. Washington, which supports Kosovo's independence,
maintains that the Kosovo situation is a "one-off" because the
province has been under U.N. rule since 1999 when Serb forces were ejected
following a brief aerial war with NATO.
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- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had little to say
about the accusations, remarking only that Putin "was very candid."
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- NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he
was disappointed by Putin's criticism about NATO expansion. "Who can
be worried that democracy and the rule of law is coming closer to somebody's
border?" he asked.
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- Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president's
speech was not "confrontational" and attributed his blunt words
to the sense that the number of conflicts fomented by Washington "was
constantly growing" and that international law was being undermined
by such actions.
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- "It is in the interest of the United States, the
European Union and other countries that international law is upheld, not
further destroyed," Peskov said.
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- Minutes earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel - whose
country holds the European Union's rotating presidency - had praised Russia,
saying it would be a reliable energy supplier to Europe. She called for
closer relations between the EU and Moscow to enhance stability on the
continent.
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- "How relations between the EU and Russia evolve
will have a crucial impact on how security in the region will develop,"
Merkel told the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy. The forum
is often used as an opportunity for officials to conduct diplomacy in an
informal setting.
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- Russia's reputation as a supplier of natural gas to the
West was damaged in the recent past when it halted supplies to Europe through
main pipelines crossing Belarus and Ukraine due to pricing disputes with
those two countries.
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- Merkel also said that the international community is
determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Tehran needed
to accept demands made by the U.N. and the International Atomic Energy
Agency, she said.
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- On the sidelines of the conference, Iranian nuclear negotiator
Ali Larijani defended his country's nuclear program as peaceful, saying:
"We are no threat to our region or other countries," while indicating
a willingness to return to negotiations.
- ___
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- Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and David Rising
contributed to this report.
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