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Rice tackles democracy, law in Russia

Assures Putin on U.S. relationship with former Soviet states

From CNN's Elise Labott

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Condoleezza Rice criticizes Russian President Putin for scaling back democracy.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that Russia's president must relax his tight grip on power and encourage an independent media.

In her first trip to Russia since becoming secretary of state, Rice also assured Russian President Vladimir Putin that deepening relations between the United States and former Soviet states do not pose a threat to Moscow.

Rice, a specialist on Russia and the former Soviet Union, spoke Russian for several minutes during a live interview on the Russian radio station Echo Moskvy.

During that interview she focused on U.S. concerns about Putin's centralization of power and the need for the Kremlin to encourage a more independent media.

Russia is seen as a critical test for President Bush, who has made democracy the cornerstone of his foreign policy. Bush will meet with Putin next month in Moscow during commemorations for the 60th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Nazis.

"For the U.S.-Russia relationship to really deepen and for Russia to gain its full potential, there needs to be democratic development," Rice said in response to questions posed by the public over the Internet.

"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."

Rice met with Putin for nearly two hours Wednesday. While discussing the possibility of Russia increasing its oil supply, she said she spoke "pretty pointedly" about the rights of foreign investors in the wake of the Yukos oil scandal

A Moscow court is expected to deliver a verdict next week in the trial of Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsy, a case Washington has viewed as a political vendetta against an opponent of Putin.

Rice told reporters aboard her plane en route to Lithuania that considering the trial and the state sell-off of Yukos divisions, "People are really watching ... that indeed there is rule of law in Russia."

She added, "Investors need to see the law is not going to be used somehow as a weapon against foreign investors."

Both the Kremlin and the Russian public have expressed concern about U.S. support for revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, both former Soviet states.

Pro-Western governments and Moscow

Rice said she impressed upon Putin that growing U.S. relations with those countries and their new pro-Western governments does not create a "zero-sum game," and that the United States and Russia could cooperate on an approach to the region.

But signaling Russian concern about U.S. interference in its own back yard, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after meeting with Rice, "I am convinced the United States, as much as Russia, wants stability in the international relations and will achieve its goals on the basis of international law."

During her radio interview, 54 percent of listeners who responded to a call-in poll labeled the United States a strategic adversary of Russia.

Rice arrived Wednesday afternoon in Vilnius, where she was greeted by members of the Lithuanian national basketball team.

She will meet ministers from the other 26 NATO member countries and will participate in meetings of the NATO-Russia Council and the NATO Ukraine Commission.

The NATO talks will center on turning the trans-Atlantic alliance into the primary venue for political dialogue on international issues, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and democratic reform in the Middle East.

NATO ministers will also discuss the steps Ukraine must take in order to join the alliance. The NATO-Russia council will formalize a so-called status of forces agreement that will allow joint exercises and eventually a joint military capability.

Also on Thursday, Rice will meet with members from the opposition in neighboring Belarus, which she has repeatedly called "the last true dictatorship" in Europe. She has pushed for greater democracy there. (Full story)

"It's time for change to come to Belarus," she said during a press conference with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus.


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