RUSSIA: The visit of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Russia got off to a shaky start yesterday when a bomb threat was made to her hotel.
US officials said two bomb threats were made, one claiming a device was in her hotel, the other that a bomb had been placed close by. The hotel, the Renaissance, in central Moscow, was sealed off and Russian special forces swept it for explosives, while Rice's motorcade headed instead for the US ambassador's residence.
No device was found but the threat comes a month after the attempted assassination, by bombs and machine guns, of former Russian deputy premier Anatoly Chubais on the outskirts of Moscow. Last July the American editor of Forbes Russia, Paul Klebnikov, was shot dead in a Moscow street.
Dr Rice's visit is intended to prepare the way for the visit of George Bush, who is due to attend VE Day commemorations in Moscow on May 9th. Relations between Washington and Moscow have been cool since last December, when each accused the other of interfering in Ukraine's presidential elections.
Last February the two presidents bristled, each accusing the other of lapses in democratic values during a summit in Bratislava.
Dr Rice voiced concerns about the state control of most electronic media, and about President Putin's decision to appoint provincial governors himself rather than allow them to be elected.
"The centralisation of state power in the presidency at the expense of countervailing institutions like the Duma [ lower house of parliament] or an independent judiciary is clearly very worrying," she told reporters on the aircraft.
But once in Moscow, her tone was more conciliatory. "There is a considerable amount of individual freedom," she said. "One can't imagine reverting back to Soviet times."
She said America would support Russia's continued inclusion in the G8 group of industrial nations, following criticism that Russia, a long way behind the other leading economies, should be eased out of the group's summer meeting.