Yahoo! News - Russia Rejects U.S. Criticism of Planned Reforms
ASTANA (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday curtly rejected U.S. criticism of sweeping political changes proposed by President Vladimir Putin, telling Washington to stay out of its business.

Putin, citing the need for radical reform to beat terrorism, has said he will nominate regional governors himself in the future and proposed changes to the electoral system that will effectively stop the rise of a strong parliamentary opposition.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with Reuters, echoed liberal criticism in Russia by saying the planned changes were "pulling back on some of the democratic reforms." He pledged to raise his concerns with the Russian leadership.

But, speaking in Kazakhstan on the sidelines of a meeting of ex-Soviet states, Putin's foreign minister said Washington had no right to impose its own model of democracy on others.

"First of all, the processes that are under way in Russia are our internal affair," Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday in reference to Powell's comments.

"And it is at least strange that, while talking about a certain 'pulling back', as he (Powell) put it, on some of the democratic reforms in the Russian Federation, he tried to assert yet one more time the thought that democracy can only be copied from someone's model," Lavrov said.

"We, for our part, do not comment on the U.S. system of presidential elections, for instance."

Lavrov said Washington had also faced tough choices and been forced to introduce stringent measures in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. targets.

"Following the events of the Sept. 11, they adopted very serious measures which also were given a mixed reaction by their society and produced a mixed public opinion," he said.

"And so I repeat that our process is our internal affair. And the president reiterated that all the proposed changes ...will be within the framework of Russia's constitution."

Do as we say, don't do as we do. Don't you guys know that by now? Just wait until someone invades a country on the basis of "pre-emptive" security. We won't have a diplomatic leg to stand on.