Rice says U.S. won't punish Russia

ANKARA, Turkey -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Saturday that Russia had recently fallen backward on democracy and democratic reforms but said that the government of President Vladimir V. Putin would not be punished or isolated by an American cutoff of cooperation in a variety of other areas.

Rice's comments, which came just before a dinner meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, were the latest indication that President Bush's vow to spread freedom in the world in his inaugural address did not signify a major change in the American approach with certain countries.

Rice said Bush's inaugural address, which declared that support of freedom would become a priority of U.S. policy, would lead to American officials raising the issue but only in the context of other cooperative ventures, many of which she said would involve integrating Russia with democratic trends in the West.

"To the degree that the emphasis continues to grow in American policy and rhetoric about democracy and the importance of it, of course it becomes a central part of every discussion we have around the world," Rice said to reporters on her plane here from Warsaw, Poland.

But she also emphasized that cooperation with Russia had led to progress in combating terrorism, stabilizing Afghanistan and Iraq, and to Russian willingness -- despite deep misgivings -- to accept new democratic but somewhat anti-Russian governments in Ukraine this year and in Georgia after a popular uprising in the fall of 2003.

"On the matter of domestic trends in Russia, yes, I think those have been less favorable in recent times," Rice said. "We've made no secret of that, but we're not going to stop working at it. We haven't stopped talking about it, and I think it continues to be an important part of our dialogue."

She said Bush's inaugural address should not be seen as suggesting a "clean break" with the past but rather building on policies already under way. "I don't really believe that the isolation of Russia from the broad trends that are developing worldwide is the answer," Rice said. Rather, she said, American policy would support democratic reformers in Russia and inform it "about the expectations of the world about Russian in terms of rule of law and support for free press."

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