MOSCOW - A Russian newspaper said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney's harsh criticism of Moscow's human rights record signaled the start of a new Cold War.
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The Kommersant business daily compared Cheney's speech Thursday in neighboring Lithuania to Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Mo., saying in that it "marked the beginning of a second Cold War."
Churchill coined the "Iron Curtain" expression in his 1946 speech that warned of Soviet expansion.
Asked to comment on the comparison, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov refrained from criticizing Cheney. But he condemned Thursday's conference in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, which brought together pro-Western Eastern European leaders.
"There are forums that create an impression ... that they are convened ... for the sake of uniting against someone," Lavrov said.
The government-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta belittled the venue as a gathering of nine small nations trying to rival the Group of Eight.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta said the countries were trying to establish themselves not by "defending normal relations with our country, but rather through efforts to exaggerate and use the contradictions existing between Moscow and some of its partners in the West."
Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Cheney's speech "looks like a provocation and interference in Russia's internal affairs in terms of its content, form and place."
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed annoyance that Russia had not been invited to the conference of former Soviet republics and allies.
Cheney accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."
His criticism — some of the Bush administration's toughest against Russia — came just two months before President Bush joins his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg for a summit of major industrial powers.
Cheney warned that Russia's backsliding could harm Moscow's relations with the United States and Europe.
"Russia has a choice to make. And there is no question that a return to democratic reform in Russia will generate future success for its people and greater respect among fellow nations," the vice president said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/...ZhBHNlYwM3MjE-
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
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The Kommersant business daily compared Cheney's speech Thursday in neighboring Lithuania to Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Mo., saying in that it "marked the beginning of a second Cold War."
Churchill coined the "Iron Curtain" expression in his 1946 speech that warned of Soviet expansion.
Asked to comment on the comparison, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov refrained from criticizing Cheney. But he condemned Thursday's conference in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, which brought together pro-Western Eastern European leaders.
"There are forums that create an impression ... that they are convened ... for the sake of uniting against someone," Lavrov said.
The government-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta belittled the venue as a gathering of nine small nations trying to rival the Group of Eight.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta said the countries were trying to establish themselves not by "defending normal relations with our country, but rather through efforts to exaggerate and use the contradictions existing between Moscow and some of its partners in the West."
Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev said Cheney's speech "looks like a provocation and interference in Russia's internal affairs in terms of its content, form and place."
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed annoyance that Russia had not been invited to the conference of former Soviet republics and allies.
Cheney accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and using its energy reserves as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."
His criticism — some of the Bush administration's toughest against Russia — came just two months before President Bush joins his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg for a summit of major industrial powers.
Cheney warned that Russia's backsliding could harm Moscow's relations with the United States and Europe.
"Russia has a choice to make. And there is no question that a return to democratic reform in Russia will generate future success for its people and greater respect among fellow nations," the vice president said.
---
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/...ZhBHNlYwM3MjE-
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
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