RUSSIA: Mary Robinson joined other prominent political, business and religious leaders yesterday in condemning creeping authoritarianism in Russia.
She signed a letter with Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, billionaire George Soros, former Czech president Vaclav Havel and other prominent figures as Russian president Vladimir Putin arrived in Prague on a short tour of central Europe.
In Hungary and the Czech Republic, Mr Putin emphasised the need for reconciliation between Moscow and its old Soviet-era satellite states, and insisted that Russia was a reliable business partner and provider of crucial oil and gas to Europe.
But the letter, which appeared in newspapers in the Czech Republic and abroad, lambasted Mr Putin for using a decade of conflict in Chechnya to justify "a return to autocracy".
"The Chechen war both masks and motivates the re-establishment of centralised power in Russia - bringing the media back under state control, passing laws against NGOs. . . leaving no institutions and authorities able to challenge or limit the Kremlin," the letter said.
"How much longer will we play blind as the Russian government, raising the bogeyman of terrorism, obliterates the freedoms gained after the fall of the Soviet empire?" the letter continued.
"A capital has been destroyed before our eyes, for the first time since Hitler punished Warsaw in 1944," the piece said, referring to the Chechen capital, Grozny.
"Such an inhumane act cannot be disguised with the 'war against terrorism' label."
The letter could sour Mr Putin's trip to two new EU members with which Russia has reasonably good relations - in contrast to its chilly ties with Poland and the Baltic states - and to which it already pumps large amounts of oil and gas.
"No one in Europe should ever have any doubts about the reliability of Russian gas to Europe - never," Mr Putin said, responding to fears that crucial energy supplies to the EU could be hostage to the political whims of the Kremlin.
He reiterated the point in a 1,700-word text released yesterday, which underscored Russia's role as a global energy power during its year as president of the Group of Eight.
"Energy egotism is the road to nowhere," Mr Putin said.
"We will strive to form a system of energy security which will take into account the interests of the whole world."
