MOSCOW, March 20: A White House white paper on national security shows that the United States ‘imposes’ democracy on other nations in pursuit of its own political interests, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday.

“The new ‘Strategy’ sees an active role for the United States in democratising countries bordering on Russia, (trying to) convince that democratic progress imposed on the neighbours from the outside benefits their peoples,” the ministry said in a communique.

“One cannot escape the impression that (Washington) uses populist slogans to defend its own interests,” the statement continued, referring to the ‘National Security Strategy’ report released last week.

The 49-page foreign policy blueprint cautioned Moscow that ‘efforts to prevent democratic development at home and abroad will hamper’ ties with its neighbours, Europe, and the United States.

The report drew up a balance sheet of what it called President George Bush’s foreign policy successes and remaining ‘challenges’, such as the conflict in Iraq and tense standoffs over nuclear programs run by Iran and North Korea.

“No one has, or can have, a monopoly on the interpretation of democracy,” the Russian foreign ministry statement said. “One can contribute to the creation of democracy, but each state must follow its own path toward democracy, as did and does the United States.”

Russia, the statement said, defends ‘a different approach: pragmatism, multilateralism, defence of national interests, but without sliding into confrontation’.

In recent months the United States has expressed concern that Russia under President Vladimir Putin may by drifting toward what some have called a renewed ‘totalitarianism’. —AFP