'Russia on a harmful path under Putin'
Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:53:42
Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain
Putin has turned Russia into an autocracy and as PM he is leading Russia down a "very harmful" path, says the US GOP nominee John McCain.

"His government -- former President Putin, and now Prime Minister Putin -- has taken his country down a path that I think is very harmful," McCain told ABC on Sunday, according to AFP. "They've become an autocracy."

When asked about his threat to bar Russia from being a G8 member, the US Republican Presidential candidate responded that "We need to improve their behavior."

The Arizona senator then referred to Russia's recent actions like reducing oil supplies to the Czech Republic, putting pressure on Georgia and Ukraine and even blocking a UN Security Council action on Iran.

As two main players on the international scene, the US and Russia never allow their interests to be threatened by the other.

With the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) moving eastwards, the US is trying to install pro-Western governments in the former Soviet republics to weaken Russia on its western flanks.

Russia, on the other hand, deems the measures in the region in particular the installation of a controversial US plan to deploy a missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe, a threat to its own sovereignty.

The newspaper Izvestia this week cited an anonymous top air force official as saying that Russia planned to base its nuclear-capable bombers in Cuba as a response to the US plans to place elements of a missile-defense system in its backyard.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=64 ... =351020602