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Bush attacks Russian tactics
27/11/2007 14:01 - (SA)
William C Mann
Washington - President George W Bush criticised Russian authorities for the way they broke up weekend election demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin.
Bush expressed deep concern on Monday over the detention of political leaders, including former international chess champion Garry Kasparov, during the weekend in Moscow, St Petersburg and two other Russian cities.
"The freedoms of expression, assembly and press, as well as due process, are fundamental to any democratic society," the president said in a statement.
"I am particularly troubled by the use of force by law enforcement authorities to stop these peaceful activities and to prevent some journalists and human rights activists from covering them," Bush said.
"I am hopeful that the government of Russia will honour its international obligations in these areas, investigate allegations of abuses and free those who remain in detention."
Abide by laws
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the criticism, saying police had responded properly to "provocations" by protesters who refused to remain in an area where city authorities had permitted them to demonstrate.
"All democratic states have laws, and people must abide by them," Lavrov said in Washington, in remarks broadcast on Tuesday on state-run Vesti-24 television. "I saw nothing in the actions of the law enforcement organs to indicate that they exceeded their authority."
Separately, US officials vigorously denied Putin's weekend allegations that the United States was to blame for a decision by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe not to monitor upcoming Russian elections. Putin had claimed the absence of monitors was intended to help cast doubt on the credibility of voting that is expected to bolster Putin's power.
State Department officials insisted Putin's allegations were false even though US officials did visit the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights about the Russian voting.
"The Department of State's message was very clear that this was ODIHR'S decision to make," said Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, one of two ranking department officials in the delegation to the Vienna-based organisation. The other was Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.
"At no time did we directly, indirectly, not through nuance, not through pressure, anything; in no way did we try to steer them," Fried said.
The OSCE election monitoring office announced its decision on November 16 not to send an observer mission to monitor Russia's election because Moscow had taken too long to issue visas and had created other obstacles, including restricting the size of the mission to 70 people. Far more observers would have been needed, it said.
"This was not about United States, it was not about US-Russia relations; it was about Russia and its elections," Fried said.
- AP
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