Rice: 'Russia should drop Cold War mentality'

By POTSDAM, GERMANY
Published: MAY 31, 2007 22:32
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.