President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he would challenge US President George W. Bush when they next meet over whether Washington was trying to "isolate" Russia. In an end-of-year news conference, the Kremlin leader also implied criticism of Washington's Iraq policy saying he doubted that planned elections there would be democratic while the country was under full occupation.
Putin, who forged a strong personal bond with Bush after throwing his weight quickly behind the war on terror, hailed the US leader as a "decent and consistent" person. He said he saw the United States not only as a partner but an ally of Russia.
Putin's overt backing of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich in the rigged poll, to be re-run on Sunday, drew criticism from Western countries including the United States.
Putin reacted sharply to a question referring to statements that Russia was better off without Ukraine.
"If we take this as a desire to limit Russia's ability to develop its relations with all its neighbours, then it represents an aspiration to isolate the Russian Federation," he said.
"I don't think that this is the aim of US policy," he said. Referring to a planned summit in Bratislava on February 24, he said: "I will, of course, put the question: 'Is this so?'
Putin went on to say that, if indeed there was a plan to isolate Russia, it would explain a policy in Chechnya "directed at creating elements that would destabilise the Russian Federation".
This appeared to be a reference to Western calls for a political settlement in Chechnya where Russian forces have been battling separatist guerrillas off and on for 10 years.
His words suggested that both Ukraine and Chechnya would figure in his summit talks with Bush in the Slovak capital. During the three-hour news conference that touched on a wide range of issues, Putin voiced continued support for the war on terror, but sniped at Washington over Iraq where he opposed the US-led military invasion.
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