Rice Urges Russia to Show 'democratic Development'

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, today voiced carefully-worded criticisms of democracy and media freedom in Russia.

Her comments - made prior to a Moscow meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin - came after she described the alleged backsliding of democracy in Russia as "very worrying" last night. Today, her language was more diplomatic.

However, in an interview with the radio station Ekho Moskvy - one of Russia's few remaining independent media voices - she questioned the "concentration" of power accumulated by Mr Putin since he took over at the Kremlin in 2000.

Replying to questions sent in to the station by members of the public, Ms Rice said: "All that we are saying is that for the US-Russia relationship to really deepen, and for Russia to gain its full potential, there needs to be democratic development.

"There should not be so much concentration of power just in the presidency - there needs to be an independent media ... so that the Russian people can debate and decide together the democratic future of Russia."

The international media organisation Reporters Without Borders has called on her to condemn narrowing press freedoms in Russia.

Ms Rice, making her first visit to Moscow as the Bush administration's most senior diplomat, also said the US would be monitoring next Wednesday's verdict in the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former boss of the oil giant Yukos, who has been charged with fraud and embezzlement.

The Kremlin is pursuing Yukos for $27.5bn (£14bn) in back taxes, and Mr Khodorkovsky faces 10 years in jail. Critics of Mr Putin have claimed the prosecution is politically motivated.

"I know that there will soon be a verdict [in the trial], and we and investors and the rest of the international community will hope that it is a process that inspires confidence, that the rule of law obtains in Russia," Ms Rice said.

She also gave what analysts described as an unusually upbeat account of US-Russian cooperation on international issues, citing Russian cooperation with the US and other countries in efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.

"Russia is not a strategic enemy," Ms Rice said. "Russia is a strategic partner in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons." She added that Russia was also a partner "in solving regional issues, like the Balkans or the Middle East".

The secretary of state did not mention other areas of tension, including what US officials perceive to be Russian inaction in curbing violations of American intellectual property rights on videos and computer software. Washington also believes Russia has a poor record in the stemming of human trafficking.

Ekho Moskvy invited its listeners to vote on whether they considered the US to be an ally or an adversary, with 54% regarding it as an ally. Ms Rice stressed that Russia should not consider the US as a threat, willing to exploit shifts to democracy in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine.

She added that there was no reason why the US and Russia could not cooperate in their approach to these countries, and rejected the view that US attempts to monitor Russian nuclear sites were an intrusion on the country's sovereignty.

One listener asked Ms Rice whether she saw any difference between the Bush administration's policy of "exporting" democracy and the export of socialist revolution, the goal of the former Soviet communist regime.

She replied that if people were asked whether they wanted to be "free from the knock of the secret police at night, people will say yes", and said the US was speaking out in favour of people's rights to have a say in their own futures.

Ms Rice and Mr Putin were expected to discuss next month's visit to Russia by the US president, George Bush, who will be joining ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe.

Washington has previously accused Russia of holding elections that fell short of international standards, and of meddling in last November's Ukrainian election on behalf of the pro-Moscow candidate.

Russian leaders, meanwhile, have long opposed US policies in Iraq, and are concerned about alleged US attempts to "encircle" Russia through establishing a military presence in former Soviet republics - a concern Washington says has no basis.

State-controlled Russian television channels have been playing down Ms Rice's visit, and have not broadcast her critical comments.

In an article published in the government newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, today, the Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Alexander Yakovenko, said US and Russia were working to widen areas of accord.

"This is important against the background of mistrust of Russia, persisting among a definite part of the American political elite and of attempts to play under rules of former confrontation, when any success by one side was automatically regarded as a defeat of the other and vice versa," he wrote.