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RIA-Novosti Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned the US government and non-governmental organizations to avoid interfering in Russian politics and pursue their goals in ex-Soviet states exclusively by "understandable and transparent" methods, Russian news agencies reported on 21 September, citing his comments at Stanford University in the United States. "We appreciate that the USA has legitimate interests in the post-Soviet space, both in the field of combating terrorism and in accessing energy resources. These are entirely legitimate interests, which we do acknowledge, but we would want the methods by which they are realized to be understandable and transparent," the RIA news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in a report at 0540 gmt. In a further report, at 0543, Lavrov was reported to have issued a warning to non-governmental organizations. "The number of non-governmental organizations in Russia is going up. The only thing we will not tolerate is for these organizations to be used to finance political activities, particularly from abroad. This would distort the national political process, thereby undermining the country's development in the future," he said. ITAR-TASS news agency reported at 0607 gmt that Lavrov said a civil society is not sufficiently developed in Russia, but its media are entirely free. "One of the problems in Russia today is an insufficiently developed civil society," he said. "But we are always ready for a candid conversation on this problem." "As far as the media are concerned, our experience of the 1990s indicated that they can easily become an instrument to further private or group interests to the detriment of the public interest and the democratic process itself," said Lavrov. He went on: "An objective and unbiased analysis of the Russian media will demonstrate that the authorities in the Russian Federation come under much tougher criticism than the authorities in many Western countries." He said the issue of media freedom has come up occasionally at his meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "I suggest she read extracts from Russian publications with criticism of the Russian Federation authorities," he said. He also echoed Russian criticism of the US television network ABC for broadcasting an interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev on 28 July. He said this broadcast can only be explained by "double standards", RIA reported at 0541 gmt. "Double standards in relation to terrorists lead to double losses, because terrorists depend on moral support from the outside," he was quoted as saying. RIA quoted Lavrov as saying that over the past four years militants from over 50 countries, including Western ones, have been killed in Chechnya. "It is precisely for this reason that ABC's provision of a platform for Basayev, who has been included in the UN terrorist list, was beyond reason. There is only one way to explain this: the lives and security of Americans are one thing and the lives and security of Russians are quite another," said Lavrov. , |
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