Russia chastises U.S. over energy

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin's top political adviser Wednesday accused the United States of seeking international energy domination under the guise of promoting democracy and insisted that Russia is committed to building its own style of political pluralism without outside interference.

"When our partners interpret energy security as full control over our energy resources, I think we have a right to understand it differently," said Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of the presidential administration and the architect of some of Putin's most controversial steps to reassert the power of the state in Russia.

"People talk to us about democracy, but they're really thinking about our energy resources," Surkov said.

He noted that during Vice President Dick Cheney's recent visit to Kazakhstan, an oil-rich state whose human-rights record is often criticized, the American "harshly criticized Russia's democracy and then praised Kazakhstan's.

"Kazakhstan is our brother and neighbor, but I'll never believe they've advanced further in the cause of democracy than Russia has," he said. "We know our flaws. But we don't get involved in things that are not our business, and we'd like to be treated in the same way."

The politely combative tone came shortly before the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other foreign ministers of the Group of 8 industrialized nations for annual meetings chaired by Russia this year. Energy security is a top theme for the talks, as is Russia's re-emergence as a global oil and gas superpower able to use its energy supplies as a lever in dealing with the new Western-backed democracies emerging along its borders.

Wednesday's meeting with reporters was a rare look at the secretive, 41-year-old adviser widely known as the "gray cardinal" of the Kremlin.

Surkov has quietly played a significant role in steering Russia toward a return to state control over strategic sectors of the economy, from oil and gas, and managing the development of civil society.

With occasional references to Dostoyevsky and Noam Chomsky, Surkov outlined the Russian administration's vision of a "sovereign democracy," in which Russia moves toward the kind of political system idealized in the West but adapted to Russian standards and independent of outsiders seeking to manage Russia's course for their own gain.

"It means that as we build an open society, we don't forget the fact that we are a free nation, and we want to be a free nation among other free nations, and work with them and cooperate with them on the basis of fair rules, and not be controlled from outside," he said.

He rejected any idea that Russia lost the Cold War and must have democracy imposed from outside.

"We don't believe we were defeated in the Cold War. ... We believe that Moscow did much more than Washington or London for the democratization of Eastern Europe or Central Asia."