Russia angry over U.S. policy

By Ron Popeski

MOSCOW (Reuters): Russia has become increasingly strident in denouncing U.S. policy moves seen as threatening its interests, but analysts say a crisis in relations is unlikely, however bitter the exchanges might seem.

The tougher U.S. approach has generated much debate in Moscow about whether Russia's approach to foreign policy should be altered -- particularly to reflect the country's weakened post- Soviet position and financial straits.

In Moscow's latest outburst on Wednesday, the Kremlin's Chechnya spokesman denounced as "absolutely unacceptable" planned U.S. contacts with the separatist government in the region, where it has been battling guerrillas for 18 months.

A day earlier, the Foreign Ministry accused the Pentagon of failing to adapt to "the realities of the post-confrontational period" after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeated charges that Russia was transferring high technology to hostile states.

Other slights in recent days have included U.S. support for ex-Soviet Georgia in the face of what the State department said was "Russian pressure" and praise by FBI director Louis Freeh for Bulgaria's move to expel three Russian diplomats.

"Recent developments represent a distancing rather than a serious deterioration. The partnership (of the early 1990s) didn't work and both sides are setting new priorities," said Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy head of the prestigious U.S. and Canada Institute.

"The U.S. side has to determine its role in world affairs over the next five to 10 years," he said.

"It clearly feels it has not received all the answers it needs about where Russia is going. There is still uncertainty over whether President (Vladimir) Putin is restoring order or moving towards dictatorship."

Differences with the new administration of President George W. Bush have taken center stage in Moscow in recent weeks.

Russia underscored opposition to the planned U.S. national missile defense with a counter-proposal to guard against missile threats from "rogue states", with heavy emphasis on diplomacy.

Putin annoyed Washington by feting the president of Iran -- a country high on Washington's "rogue" list -- and pledging to sell Tehran arms and complete construction there of a nuclear power plant.

Bush spoke of a Russian threat to security on the eve of a visit to Washington by Sergei Ivanov, head of Russia's Security Council and a Putin ally, which produced no agreement on when the two presidents would meet.

In a front-page essay in Wednesday's Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Thomas Graham of the Carnegie Endowment think-tank said Russia should take account of its weakened post-communist status and concentrate on areas of diplomacy where success was possible.

"Russia no longer occupies the central place in the American sphere of interests that it once had ... and Russia's importance is not identical in every instance," he wrote.

"The first step in improving relations should be restoring the trust which has been damaged so badly ... America and Russia should concentrate their efforts on those spheres where Russia still wields importance and where there is hope for success."

Russian leftists blame Moscow's post-Soviet leadership for weakening the country by taking on large Western debts and allowing the military -- its Cold war-era trump card -- to deteriorate.

"This was a trap bound to close sooner or later. It has now snapped shut," said Nikolai Ryzhkov, former Soviet prime minister and now a member of parliament. "We took the rope in our own hands and put the noose around our neck, leaving the Americans merely to pull on it."

Liberals said that however unhappy Moscow might be with U.S. foreign policy, common sense and the need to court investors might require a more moderate response.

"Our policy of digging a fork into sensitive places does not concur with our national interests -- investment, restructuring debts, acquiring new technology," said Vladimir Lukin, Russia's first post-Soviet ambassador to Washington.

"The Americans are conducting themselves in the American way and that means brazenly. They tell us they will have it out with us if we carry on like this. But it is clear they are in more of a position to do so than we are."