Putin's challenge to West puts him and G-8 at odds
(AP)Updated: 2007-06-06 20:11
KUEHLUNGSBORN, Germany _ It is Vladimir Putin's eighth and probably final summit with leaders of the world's richest democracies, but with his blunt anti-Western statements and threats of a new arms race the Russian leader looks increasingly alienated among his Group of Eight colleagues.
Before heading to the summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Putin took his bellicose rhetoric to new heights, promising to point Russia missiles at those U.S. allies in Europe who agree to host U.S. missile defense sites.
A threat _ unheard of from a Kremlin leader since the Cold War _ reflected simmering tensions between the West and an oil-rich and increasingly assertive Russia. The two sides also have clashed over independence for the Serbian province of Kosovo, Russia's human rights record and a Soviet-era treaty on conventional forces.
Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst with close ties to the Kremlin, said last week's test of new, more powerful Russian missiles was also part of Russia's preparations for the G-8 summit.
"Putin is getting prepared to withstand pressure to make Russia more cooperative on missile defense, Kosovo and Iran. In a sense, missile tests were part of these preparations," Pavlovsky told The Associated Press.
Russia-West relations have plunged to their lowest level since the Cold war amid Western concerns about Russia's backsliding on democracy _ concerns that have been fueled by the contract-style murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the killing of former spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in London.
Some in the West have questioned whether Russia has a
right to sit at the same table with liberal Western democracies.
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