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Russia's Putin calls on US to end Iraq war
March 20, 2003
AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Thursday on the United States to stop its war against Iraq and rejected US claims that President Saddam Hussein's regime posed a danger to other countries.

However Russia also stressed that Iraq will not splinter Moscow's partnership with Washington in the global anti-terror coalition.

Putin convened a top government meeting to plot Moscow's response to a war it had for months fought hard to avert and which officials here said threatened to topple existing global security mechanisms.

"If we install the rule of force in place of international security structures, no country in the world will feel secure," a stern-faced Putin told a meeting attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and the foreign and defense ministers.

"That is why Russia insists on a quick end to military operations," he said.

"I would like to underline that military action is taking place contrary to international public opinion and contrary to the principles of international law," said Putin.

The United States abandoned its efforts to have the UN Security Council approve military action against Baghdad after apparently failing to gather enough support in the UN Security Council ahead of a vote.

"This military action is unjustified," Putin stressed. "There has been no answer to the main question: Are there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and if so, which ones?"

His comments were some of the sternest of any world leader directed against the United States and highlighted a chill in Moscow's relation with Washington that had not been seen since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

But they were softened somewhat by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov who argued that the two sides still intended to remain partners.

"We will remain partners rather than opponents," Ivanov told reporters.

"We must continue our dialogue with the US administration in order to convince it that this war will have difficult consequences for everyone, including the United States," Russia's top diplomat said.

"If this war breaks us apart, then it will weaken us in the face of new global threats."

Some 200 demonstrators -- watched by 600 police -- protested the war outside the US embassy and security was stepped up across the country as the foreign ministry called on all Russian media to pull out of Iraq.

The three major Russian television stations have reporters filing regular dispatches from Baghdad and Channel One cancelled all afternoon television programs and devoted all its air time to the war.

Meanwhile Russia's lower house of parliament called on Putin to seek a UN General Assembly emergency session "due to the military action launched by the United States and Britain against Iraq."

Russia had struck an alliance with fellow permanent UN Security Council members France and China, along with Germany, in a hard-nosed diplomatic drive to block the joint US-British strikes.

Nationalist Russian lawmakers condemned the United States for what they said was a flagrant violation of international law.

"All the mechanisms of solving international disputes are being ruined" by the attacks, Communist Party boss Gennady Zyuganov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The United States "has completely ignored the will of the people around the world and decisions reached by international organizations," Zyuganov said.

Others called for calm and a diplomatic counterstrike to the US-led war against Moscow's Soviet-era ally.

"What we can now do is improve our relations with nations whose positions (on Iraq) are close to ours, in order to try and limit the damage being done (by the United States) to the international rules of the game," said Vladimir Lukin, the deputy speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

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