Kremlin Accuses Us Magazine of Editorial Spin

Russia claimed a leading American journal used Soviet-style censorship today, saying that an article penned by the foreign minister had been so heavily edited that the Russians decided to pull it rather than publish it.

The Kremlin complained that the prestigious US magazine Foreign Affairs chopped Sergei Lavrov's piece almost in half and introduced wording that referred to a new Cold War. But James Hoge, the Foreign Affairs editor, today denied there had been any attempt at censorship and described the comments by Mr Lavrov's office as a distortion and "utterly erroneous".

Russia's foreign ministry said that Mr Lavrov had offered a piece for the magazine in May, in response to an article written by the Ukrainian opposition leader, Yulia Timoschenko.

Instead of welcoming it, however, editors at the magazine chopped Mr Lavrov's piece by "40%", the foreign ministry said, "losing a considerable part of its original meaning". They also insisted on adding a subtitle: Averting a new cold war.

The editors made other "utterly artificial and unacceptable demands", the foreign ministry complained, and demanded further editorial changes that suggested Mr Lavrov supported the Bush administration's foreign policy - when he didn't.

"The editor's flat refusal to remove the sub-headline about a new cold war was the last straw... As a result of the excruciating and sluggish exchanges with the editors, the likes of which could only be found in diplomatic history, we decided to give up trying to place Sergei Lavrov's article in Foreign Affairs," the Moscow ministry said.

It added scathingly: "This experience was reminiscent of the worst features of the Soviet censorship past, which some in America seem to be trying to revive."

Foreign Affairs is the world's leading journal on international affairs, read by statesmen and diplomats and with an illustrious 80-year history behind it. Mr Lavrov's article - posted in full today on the foreign ministry's website - appears to be little more than a harmless romp through Russian foreign policy.

In it, Mr Lavrov says that Russia is against "unilateral responses" - such as the US-led invasion of Iraq, adding: "Recent experience shows as clearly as ever that no state or group of states possesses sufficient resources to impose its will on the world." Mr Lavrov also complains about the US administration's missile defence plans in Europe, Nato's eastward expansion towards Russia, and proposed independence for Kosovo.

Despite these difficulties, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and US president George Bush enjoy a "close and honest working relationship," Mr Lavrov avers. Current US-Russian tensions could be resolved if both sides "bury the cold war legacy" and develop an "equal partnership", he concludes, hardly originally.

Today, Russia's foreign ministry described the journal's behaviour as "regrettable" and said it did not appear to be interested in "an open, free and reasoned debate on international affairs and US foreign policy".

But Mr Hoge took issue with the Russian version of events: "The unfortunate assertions emanating from the Russian foreign minister's office regarding Foreign Affairs are utterly erroneous. The foreign minister's essay on Russian foreign policy was accepted for publication and then put through the magazine's normal editing process to clarify points, eliminate redundancies, and not in any way to change its political content."

He said the edited draft was sent back to Mr Lavrov with instructions to make any changes he wanted. The text was returned with a number of changes, all of which were incorporated into the final draft.

The magazine said it also accepted changes after its copy deadline in the wake of the Bush-Putin Summit in Maine earlier this month, and that a press officer in Russia's Washington embassy had complimented the edited version.

Mr Hoge said Mr Lavrov's office had completely distorted the discussions over the headline and sub-title. Mr Lavrov's headline, Containing Russia: Back to the Future?, was accepted. He was asked to provide a subtitle "to better draw in readers" and Foreign Affairs, "to be helpful", suggested several but made clear that the wording should be the minister's choice.

"Instead he (Mr Lavrov) withdrew the article without explanation," Mr Hoge said.