Rice: US not lecturing Russia

2005-05-08 21:04

Moscow - US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that Washington was not "lecturing" Russia on democracy, on the eve of a World War II commemoration clouded by strains over history.

Rice insisted that President George W Bush's views on Soviet history would not be a source of tension during his dinner with Russia's Vladimir Putin, ahead of Monday's commemoration.

Bush and Putin were expected to discuss the Middle East, Iran and "the continued march of democracy in Europe and also in Russia," Rice told reporters on Air Force One en route to Moscow.

In a speech in Latvia on Saturday, Bush said the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states and other states in central and eastern Europe at the end of World War II was "one of the greatest wrongs in history."

Russian officials have denied that the Baltic states were occupied.

Rice downplayed any sense of discord. "I think it's highly unlikely this is going to be a source of tension in their meetings," she said, referring to the differing views on recent history.

"I've watched them together, and they are friendly, their wives are going to be at this dinner; President Putin went out of his way to invite the President for a private dinner."

Bush will talk to Putin about the Baltics and "the need to recognize that he has democratic neighbours - independent, democratic neighbours now, with whom Russia should want and have good relations, is going to have extensive trade relations, because they are neighbours and they have a long history," she added.

"This is not an issue of lecturing Russia, it is that the United States and Russia have a deep and broad relationship. We'd like it to get deeper and broader.

"And the issue of common values and how Russia's democracy progresses is one of the issues on the agenda, an important issue on the agenda."

- AFP