Russia will build its ties with the West slowly and carefully and will not allow a return to a period of stand-off, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.
Quoted by Russian news agencies, he said: "We will build up ties with Western colleagues patiently and calmly. I already said that we will not return to the period of the Cold War."
He was speaking a week after US Vice President Dick Cheney lambasted Russia for backtracking on democracy, in Washington's strongest criticism of Moscow since Putin came to power.
But Putin made no apologies for his chosen course, which some Western observers say is a return to the totalitarian past, saying Russia was perfectly capable of looking after itself and had no intention of lecturing anyone.
"If we do not stick our nose into other people's affairs and don't declare the whole world to be our sphere of influence, then we have the resources to absolutely solidly guarantee our own security," he told reporters.
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