February 14, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 25, 1428

AMMAN, Feb 13: Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of using Russia as a “threat” to secure funds from Congress for its military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan and for its anti-missile programme in Europe.

“For more than 10 years we have been listening to what our partners have been saying about different topics. We are very patient and very tolerant, but we have the feeling that we are misunderstood,” Putin told reporters in Amman.

“They have begun to stir up so-called threats created by Russia, which don’t exist, in order to ask the US Congress for funds for their military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, and to build their anti-missile shield in Europe,” he added.

“These are not our problems. They are not linked to Russia,” Putin said, after separate talks in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

Putin was responding to questions over the debate provoked by the blistering attack he made against US policies last week at a security conference in Munich.

The Russian leader said on Saturday that Washington had disastrously “overstepped” its borders, “imposed itself on other states” and that US dominance was “ruinous”. In Amman, he said: “Everything I said in Munich, I said openly and frankly to our American partners.” “There is nothing unusual for them in what I have said. I am certain of everything I said. All that was the truth.” Last week US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Russia is among countries that pose a potential military threat, prompting Moscow to demand an explanation.

“We asked, via the US ambassador in Moscow, for a clarification of the official position of the US administration regarding Robert Gates’ comments,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said on Monday.

Kamynin said there had recently been a series of statements by US military and intelligence officials that caused Russia “perplexity”. On Feb 7, Gates told a Congress that the United States has to boost its military machine to face all threats, not just the war in Iraq.

“We need the full range of military capabilities. We need ... the ability for regular force-on-force conflicts, because we don't know what’s going to develop in places like Russia and China, in North Korea, in Iran and elsewhere,” Gates said.—AFP