MOSCOW, June 20: Criticism of Russian democracy under President Vladimir Putin might backfire at a forthcoming summit with Mr Putin pointing the finger at other countries, a Kremlin aide warned on Tuesday in what was seen as veiled criticism of the US.

Igor Shuvalov told journalists western leaders were entitled to raise the topic if they wished at next month’s Saint Petersburg summit of the G8 group of the world’s leading industrial nations.

“But I don’t think this question would be very advantageous for our partners,” said Mr Shuvalov, the Kremlin aide in charge of preparing the session.

Mr Putin ‘might well himself provide his colleagues with eloquent examples of the way democracy was working in several other countries’, he said pointedly.

Attempts to raise this subject might end up like a bomb which could go off in the wrong place, the official suggested.

But he said he was confident that a planned meeting between Mr Putin and President George Bush on July 14 would go a long way to defusing current misunderstandings between Russia and western countries.

“Everything will go off as planned,” Mr Shuvalov said of the G8 meeting between July 15 and 17. “I do not expect any surprises. We are not preparing any surprises for anyone.”

However, Mr Shuvalov also reiterated his country’s refusal to ratify the Energy Charter, which is being seen by Europe as a guaranteee of energy supplies.

Energy is also expected to be a sensitive summit issue, with criticism in the West that Russia is allegedly trying to use its strong position as an energy exporter as a political weapon. —AFP