Cheney rebukes Russia on democracy

VILNIUS - Vice President Dick Cheney has accused Russia of backsliding on democracy and urged it to stop using energy supplies for "blackmail" in one of Washington's sharpest rebukes to Moscow.

"Russia has a choice to make," Cheney told Baltic and Black Sea leaders at a summit in Vilnius, calling on Moscow to return to democratic reform at a time of increasingly chilly relations between the United States and Russia.

Cheney also took specific aim at Moscow's use of its vast energy supplies for what Washington says is sometimes the bullying of neighbors.

"No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation," he said.

Russia, which is trying to harness its position as an energy giant, drew international criticism earlier this year when it briefly turned off its gas taps to Ukraine in a pricing dispute that disrupted supply to Europe.

Moscow has also warned Europe the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom - the world's top gas producer - could divert its supplies to Asia if it is barred from the European retail gas market.

Cheney's harsh remarks could further antagonize Russia, which holds a veto in the UN Security Council where Washington intends to push for a resolution demanding Iran curb its nuclear ambitions. Russia opposes any sanctions.

He said opponents of reform in Russia were "seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade" by restricting democratic rights and warned President Vladimir Putin some of Moscow's actions could hurt relations with other countries.

But Cheney told leaders of post-communist nations with a history of domination by the former Soviet Union: "None of us believes that Russia is fated to become an enemy."

He said G-8 members planned to make clear at a summit in St. Petersburg in July Moscow had "nothing to fear and everything to gain from strong stable democracies on its borders".

The address by Cheney, a powerful, independent-minded vice president known for a hard line on Russia within the administration, marked an intensification of US and European Union criticism against Moscow for its record on democracy.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also addressed the conference and, like Cheney, referred to diplomatic tensions with Russia.

Russia suspects the US policy of promoting global democracy is really an instrument to establish itself as the dominant power in the post-Soviet states.

In the past two years, peaceful revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia have brought pro-Western governments to power.

Solana made clear Europe hoped Belarus, a key Russian ally, would follow suit. "The European Union will continue to support the aspirations the people of Belarus," he said. "One day, I'm sure, they will see a democratic breakthrough in their country."

Cheney called Belarus the last dictatorship in Europe and urged the immediate release of opposition leader Aleksander Milinkevich as well as other opposition members.

"Peaceful demonstrators have been beaten, dissidents have vanished and a climate of fear prevails under a government that subverts free elections... there is no place in a Europe whole and free for a regime of this kind."

He also said Russia had restricted human rights.

"In many areas of civil society - from religion and the news media, to advocacy groups and political parties - the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people," he said.

Cheney was on six-day trip billed as a pro-democracy tour. Lithuania, which regained independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was the first stop. He also planned to visit oil-rich Kazakhstan and the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia.

- REUTERS