Kremlin hits out at Cheney speech

By Jonathan Marcus
BBc diplomatic correspondent

Dick Cheney delivered a sharp rebuke to Russia

The Kremlin has described US Vice President Dick Cheney's tough condemnation of Russia on Thursday as "completely incomprehensible".

Mr Cheney made his comments in a speech in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

He accused the Russian government was using oil and gas as tools of intimidation or blackmail.

His comments come just over two months before the G8 summit of major industrial countries and Russia which is being held in St Petersburg.

US criticism

Dick Cheney's blunt attack on what the Bush administration sees as the Kremlin's growing authoritarianism comes at a delicate moment in US-Russia relations.

Speaking in Vilnius on Thursday, Mr Cheney pointedly referred to the Baltic States as representing "the very front lines of freedom in the modern world".

His comments will further sour the atmosphere in the run-up to the G8 summit, to be hosted by President Putin in mid-July. And they are inevitably going to complicate US efforts to win Russian support for tough United Nations action against Iran.

Indeed several senior US statesmen I have spoken to in the past few days see the Iran dossier as representing a litmus test for relations between Washington and Moscow.

On that reading relations might only get worse.

Politics of energy

But what is most interesting about Mr Cheney's comments is the way they highlight the issue of energy.

High oil prices, China and India's growing demand for fuel, and Russia's new influence, combine to make many international problems that much harder to grapple with. The US of course has its own axe to grind as well.

Mr Cheney was on Friday in Kazakhstan promoting a new gas pipeline route that will by-pass Russia.

The scramble for energy resources, so-called "pipeline diplomacy", has been likened to "the Great Game" during the 19th Century - the struggle for influence in Central Asia.

And today, just as then, there are bound to be both winners and losers.