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Russia's Putin says policies have broad backing
June 24, 2002
By Ron Popeski
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking before this week's talks among leaders of the G8 industrialized nations, said Monday that Moscow's pro-Western foreign and defense policies enjoyed the support of the country's diplomats and military.
In only his second full-scale news conference, Putin engaged in a freewheeling two-hour exchange with reporters, renewing support for the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign and vowing to press on with a drive to join the World Trade Organization.
Just two days before the G8 talks in Canada, Putin denied suggestions his policies, especially his pro-Western outlook since last year, were contested by the establishment.
"As for the military and the Foreign Ministry and so on, it is incorrect to think that domestic and foreign policy are based solely on the president," Putin told 700 journalists in a Kremlin hall that once housed the Soviet parliament.
"I can assure you that I do not lock myself away in a room, come up with an idea, emerge and then issue orders. ... This is a matter of discussion and debate, sometimes heated debate."
The former Soviet-era KGB officer said Russia's military, often reputed to be at odds with his backing for Washington and with the presence of U.S. troops in ex-Soviet states, were "no more stupid than civilians -- not in Russia or in other countries.
'MODERN PEOPLE'
"These are modern people who understand economic and political reality and are able to look into the future.
"To a great extent, decisions on participation in the anti-terrorist operation and NATO were based on analyses by the general staff and the Defense Ministry."
Putin flies to the G8 summit in the Canadian Rockies with the aim of proving that Russia is becoming a full member of the Western community in economic, as well as political, terms.
Putin acknowledges that millions of Russians remain below the poverty line, but has promised to amend laws and practices to become the last major industrialized country to join the WTO.
He dismissed a reporter's suggestion that most Russian businessmen opposed WTO membership, saying such views were held only by those fearing the arrival of cheap quality goods. Remaining outside the WTO, he said, would be "dangerous and stupid."
Putin also renewed denunciations of European Union policy on the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, saying Moscow still opposed moves to oblige its residents to secure visas to cross Poland or Lithuania once those countries join the EU.
Disregarding aides' appeals to take no more questions, Putin dealt with issues of interest across Russia's 11 time zones.
He promised to probe allegations of dubious electoral practices in Tuva, on the Mongolian border, and of interference in court cases in Nenets in the Arctic. He chided a reporter for saying election abuses could be eliminated by having the Kremlin appoint mayors.
FORMER SOVIET NEIGHBORS
Putin accused the former Soviet republic of Georgia of belatedly acknowledging the presence of armed militants on its territory and said no one could remove them without Russian help. He also brought into the open a dispute with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, saying his vision of a merged post-Soviet state was unrealistic.
In Chechnya, where Russian forces have battled separatists since 1999, he promised elections and a new constitution within a year, once local security forces were in full control.
Putin avoided open differences with his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, who has criticized him on the Belarussian merger issue and the reinstatement of music from the Soviet-era national anthem.
"I am the one heading the country now," he said. "We respect the first president, we listen to his opinion and take account of it in making decisions, but we will act independently."
He said he had personal experience of Russians' privations.
"I may have lived in the presidential residence for two years, but for nearly 30 years I lived in a communal flat in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) even when I was a KGB officer," he said. "I know full well what ordinary Russians live through."
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