Russian Opposition Asks G-8 to Push Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, chairs a meeting on energy issues in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Saturday, July 12, 2006. From right, ccw, Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Ryazanov, Rosneft oil company president Sergei Bogdanchikov, Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov, Russia's natural resource minister Yuri Trutnev, presidential chief of staff Sergei Sobyanin. Russia, in setting the agenda for the G8 summit beginning Saturday in St. Petersburg, has made energy security one of the top issues. (AP Photo/ITAR-TASS, Sergei Zhukov, Presidential Press Service) (Sergei Zhukov - AP)

MOSCOW -- Russian opposition movements appealed Wednesday to Group of Eight to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end what they called systematic political repression, saying the country was increasingly moving away from democracy.

Putin, meanwhile, accused Western officials attending the conference _ intended to counter the image of a democratic Russia the government will be presenting at the G-8 summit of the world's top industrialized nations opening Saturday _ of interfering in internal Russian affairs.

"Systematic repression against the Russian opposition has become in fact the prelude to the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg _ that is to say, part of its agenda," participants of the "Other Russia" summit said in a statement to the G-8.

"It is apparent to us that this campaign of repression is centralized and ... sanctioned by the political leadership of our country," they said.

The organizers said dozens of opposition and rights activists have been forcibly prevented from attending the gathering, many of them beaten and detained, and urged the G-8 leaders to demand their immediate release and to end all unlawful actions against the opposition.

They said nationalist lawmaker Sergei Glazyev was prevented from speaking at the forum when he was assaulted by hooligans, alleging it was a government-sponsored attempt to sabotage the event.

The organizers also said that security officers in plainclothes detained several opposition activists attending the conference Tuesday night without any explanation, and injured a German photographer trying to photograph that.

Moscow police were unavailable to comment on the allegations late Wednesday.

Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov accused the government of curbing democratic institutions and freedoms, and urged liberal forces to unite before the 2007 and 2008 parliamentary and presidential elections.

"The authorities are increasingly stifling the political sphere ... it's no longer just threats and bureaucratic obstacles, they have already resorted to repression," Kasyanov told the delegates.

Since Putin came to power six years ago, independent television networks have been reined in, the parliament has been transformed into an obedient body, and direct elections of regional leaders have been abolished.

The two-day conference was a rare opportunity for Russia's embattled opposition groups to unite, but it again demonstrated the deep divisions among liberal forces.

The two most prominent liberal parties, the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko, did not attend to protest the inclusion of ultranationalist and radical groups that they said would undercut the democratic character of the meeting.

Putin's former economic adviser Andrei Illarionov, who helped organized the conference, charged the two parties were "not democratic and not in opposition" to the authorities, signaling continuing divides among the liberal opposition.

A number of Western diplomats, including British Ambassador Anthony Brenton and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, attended the conference despite indications from the Kremlin that their presence would not be welcome.

Edward McMillan-Scott, a European Parliament member from Britain, told the forum that Russia represented "a threat to Europe's stability and security," because it was "led by a regime that is selfish, corrupt and which is unreliable."

In an interview with Canadian TV channel CTV, Putin indicated the Western officials' attendance was being seen as interference in Russia's internal affairs.

"If officials of other countries support this undertaking, it simply means they are trying to influence the internal political arrangement of Russia a little bit," Putin said, according to the Kremlin transcript.