Russia hit back on Monday at United States and European Union criticism, most recently voiced by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, that it was using energy as a political weapon, and said it was time the West came to terms with Russia’s progress as a market economy.
”We are deeply puzzled by recent commentary in the West that distorts Russian energy policies,” Russian Energy and Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko wrote in Monday’s edition of the British business daily Financial Times.
”The truth of the matter is that Russia has moved away from Soviet-era arrangements of subsidising the energy prices of our neighbours and turned to market-based pricing mechanisms,” Khristenko wrote.
The article appeared after Cheney used a speech in Vilnius on Thursday to warn the Kremlin against rolling back democracy and using its vast oil and gas resources as ”tools of manipulation or blackmail” to further its political aims.
Russia briefly cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in January amid a price dispute.
Supplies to European clients further downstream were also disrupted as a result, sparking concerns about Russia’s reliability as an energy supplier.
Moscow rejected Cheney’s remarks as uninformed and Khristenko, although he did not refer to Cheney by name, said Russia’s policies on energy in particular and on market and democratic reform in general were ”consistently misinterpreted”.
”We are aware that old impressions fade slowly, but it is time for the West to recognise and acknowledge the maturing role and state of progress that Russia has achieved,” he said.
”At a time when Russia has embarked on a speedy transition to market principles, we are accused of politicising the energy issue.”
Khristenko said Moscow fully agreed with long-standing demands from the United States and the European Union that it abolish Soviet-era subsidies — subsidies that it retained until recently for ex-Soviet republics even though 15 years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
”These subsidies must end, not for political reasons but for economic ones. Price liberalisation and the discontinuation of subsidised power resources have been named as the main conditions for admission of former Soviet states to the World Trade Organisation,” Khristenko said. – AFP
