Putin: NGOs mustn't meddle in Russia's affairs

Moscow, Feb 14 (AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin today warned foreign-funded non-government organisations against meddling in the country's affairs. Putin also angrily lashed out at recent US criticism of the Russian-led post-Soviet alliances. Speaking at a meeting with top officials of the main KGB successor agency, Putin mentioned what he described as "recent nervous statements about integration processes in the former Soviet lands." While Putin didn't name any names, he appeared to refer to a statement by former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said in December, while still in the job, that Russian-led regional alliances represent an attempt to restore the Soviet empire. Putin has described the existing economic and security groupings of ex-Soviet nations as precursors to a stronger Eurasian Union, which he pledged to form by 2015. He insisted the new alliance would help Russia and its neighbours boost economic efficiency and compete more successfully in global markets. Putin said today that efforts at closer economic and political integration between Russia and its neighbours "can't be stopped by shouts or calling down." He told officials of the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, they must be prepared to thwart foreign attempts to derail the integration plans. "They may use various instruments of pressure, including mechanisms of the so-called 'soft power,'" he said. "The sovereign right of Russia and its partners to build and develop its integration project must be safely protected." Putin, who won a third presidential term in a vote last March, has taken a tough posture toward Washington, accusing the US State Department of fomenting protests against his rule in order to weaken Russia. After Putin's inauguration in May, the Kremlin-controlled parliament quickly rubber-stamped a series of repressive laws that sharply hiked fines for taking part in unauthorised protests, extended the definition of high treason and required non-government organisations that receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents," a term that sounds synonymous to spies in Russian. Leading Russian NGOs have vowed to ignore the bill, which also allows an unlimited number of inspections and checks that could paralyse the activities of NGOs. Putin today strongly defended the bill in language that reflected the Kremlin's view of NGOs as an instrument of Western pressure. (AP) ASY 02142356 NNNN