Rice: 'Russia should drop Cold War mentality'

By POTSDAM, GERMANY
Russian attitudes are locked in the past, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday, adding that the United States is perplexed by the current fracas with Russia over a planned US missile system in Europe. "We want a 21st Century partnership with Russia, but at times, Russia seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era," Rice said, referring to the suspicions and territorial ambitions of the Cold War. Rice's remarks referred to a laundry list of US complaints about post-Soviet Russia, including democratic retrenchment under Putin. "Democratic institutions and an open society are not a source of weakness," Rice said. "Nor is freedom of speech and freedom of the press just a nuisance. In this regard we find Russia's recent missile diplomacy difficult to understand," Rice said.