Oh, great. Let's piss off the Russians. Nice move, Dick.
VILNIUS (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney launched one of Washington's sharpest attacks on President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, accusing Russia of backsliding on democracy and using its energy supplies to blackmail neighbors.
The Kremlin rejected Cheney's charges, saying his comments were completely incomprehensible.
"Russia has a choice to make," Cheney told Baltic and Black Sea leaders in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, calling on Moscow to return to democratic reforms at a time of increasingly chilly relations between the two former Cold War rivals.
Cheney criticized Moscow for playing power politics with its vast energy reserves at a time of record world prices and accused it of bullying neighboring countries, many of which were dominated by the Kremlin in the Soviet era.
"No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation," he said.
"The speech of Mr. Cheney in our opinion is full of a subjective evaluation of us and of the processes that are going on in Russia. The remarks ... are completely incomprehensible for us," said Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov said the West applied double standards when judging Russian business ventures and that Russia would scrupulously fulfill commitments to European consumers.
Cheney's remarks are widely to antagonize Russia, which holds a veto in the U.N. Security Council where Washington intends to push for a resolution demanding Iran curb its nuclear ambitions. Russia opposes any sanctions.
I swear, these guys won't be happy until the whole world absolutely loathes us.