From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 2/14/2008 12:05 PM
At a valedictory press conference, Putin flirts as he asserts Russia's might

DOUGLAS BIRCHAssociated Press Writer

Released : Thursday, February 14, 2008 1:11 PM

MOSCOW-In President Vladimir Putin's valedictory press conference Thursday, he claimed credit for Russia's rise from the ashes, blamed the West for reviving Cold War fears and pledged, after he leaves the presidency in May, to pour his energy into the role of Russia's prime minister.

Hunched forward at a table facing more than 1,000 journalists from across Russia and around the world, Putin by turns challenged, soothed and flirted with his questioners, obviously relishing his final performance in the annual event that has become a trademark of his presidency.

A confident, comfortable Putin spent 4 hours and 40 minutes fielding questions, a record for these events, and seemed reluctant to leave the stage.

"I don't see any serious failures," he said, speaking the amphitheater style Round Hall, a cavernous Soviet-style auditorium in the cloistered precincts of the Kremlin grounds. "All the goals that were set were reached, and the tasks fulfilled."

He also returned to the theme that has echoed throughout his second term: that Moscow is once again a world power determined to be respected, if not loved, by the U.S. and Europe.

"We will not slide into confrontation, but we believe we have the right to fight for our interests as our partners do," he said, when asked if Russia was acting aggressively toward the West.

Russians will elect a new president March 2 and Putin will step down from the post in May. But his longtime friend and aide, Dmitry Medvedev, is all but certain of winning the presidential race and Putin has agreed to become Medvedev's prime minister.

There has been speculation that Putin will serve in the post only temporarily, but on Thursday he committed himself to serving until, he said, he completes the work he has begun.

"The premiership is not a transitional post," Putin said. "If I can see that in this capacity I can fulfill these goals, I will work as long as possible."

He strongly suggested he would govern in tandem with Medvedev. While the president sets the course for the country, he said, "the highest executive power in the country is the government of the Russian Federation", which he would direct as prime minister.

Over the course of Thursday's event, the 55-year-old Russian president spoke with evident authority on everything from Russian regional development projects to German party politics.

In a blue suit and striped tie, he spoke with his hands flat on the table, boring in on questioners with his trademark intensity. He spoke, as usual, in short, simple sentences that often came to a sharp point, and he frequently bantered, or even flirted, with reporters, sometimes eliciting laughter and applause. From time to time, he sipped from a delicate teacup.

When it came to the United States, Putin sympathetically said that the job of the U.S. president was probably tougher than his, and that few understood how heavy a burden President George W. Bush carries.

But if he was sometimes kind, he was frequently critical. Putin repeatedly painted the United States and NATO as the aggressors in a series of disputes, saying Russia was being forced to react.

Washington and its allies have refused to ratify an amended version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, he pointed out, which limits the deployment of heavy conventional weapons around the continent. Putin suspended Russia's participation in the pact in December.

He likened the restrictions Russia faces under the existing treaty to a situation in which the U.S. would have to seek Russian approval before it sent troops from California to Texas. "We will no longer fulfill any colonial conditions," Putin said.

With Serbia's Kosovo province expected to declare its independence within days, Putin warned that Western plans for recognition of the split would set a dangerous precedent for similar breakaway regions around the world. He called the U.S. insistence that Kosovo was a special case a "lie."

"Why should we promote separatism?" he asked.

But Putin signaled that Russia is not ready to take dramatic military or diplomatic steps in retaliation for recognition of Kosovo's independence. "If someone takes an illegal, ill-considered decision, we won't follow suit," he said.

He refused to back away from a threat to target some nuclear missiles at Poland and the Czech Republic if those countries host a planned U.S. anti-ballistic missile system. "We are warning people ahead of time: If you take this step, then we will make that step," Putin said.

Despite these differences, Putin said he was ready to work with whoever is elected the next U.S. president, saying Russia and the U.S. have common interests in the fights against international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, poverty and infectious disease.

But the former KGB lieutenant colonel appeared to lash out at U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, a leading Democratic candidate for president- when one reporter quoted her as saying that former KGB officers have no soul: "At a minimum, a head of state should have a head," Putin said.

While the foreign press generally raised difficult issues of foreign policy, many of the questions from the Russian media included monologues praising Putin or pleas for his help with regional problems. Several times, the hall erupted in applause.

A French journalist asked whether it was credible that 99 percent of voters in Chechnya, the scene of a long-running insurgency, had voted for Putin's United Russia party in the December parliamentary elections. The Kremlin-backed political party dominates parliament.

Putin didn't bother to answer himself, and instead referred the question to a Chechen journalist in the audience. The reporter defended the vote, citing as evidence the fact that everyone in his family had voted for United Russia.

Putin typically makes flirtatious comments to female reporters at his press conferences, and Valentine's Day 2008 was no exception. A young reporter rose and, in a preamble to her question about difficult economic conditions, said: "I want to have a child."

"Congratulations," Putin responded. "Why are you asking me?"

Putin handled the few challenging questions with little evident strain.

Asked if he is Europe's richest man, he smoothly replied that he was rich in the love of his countrymen. Journalists who have suggested he has become a multibillionaire while in office, he added tartly, were spreading "nonsense" they had "picked out of their noses."

Asked why Russia failed to reach an agreement with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe about sending observers to monitor the March presidential ballot, he accused groups within the OSCE of trying to "teach" Russia to behave.

"Let them teach their wives to make cabbage soup," he said.

As he has repeatedly, Putin declared Russia's allegiance to democracy. But then he went on to praise new laws that have eliminated all genuine opposition from parliament.

At one point Putin contrasted what he called Russia's "quiet" presidential contest, where Medvedev is almost certain to win over three token opponents, with the seemingly unending political turmoil in Ukraine.

"Democracy is not a bazaar," Putin said.

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Associated Press Writer Steve Gutterman contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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