MOSCOW, Dec 9 (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin's outbursts over Ukraine betray a deep Russian suspicion that Western talk of democracy in former Soviet republics is in fact a sophisticated ruse for imposing an alien economic order there under which the world's wealthiest rule, experts say.
The recent hardening of rhetoric from Moscow confirms renewed ascendency in foreign policymaking of intelligence and armed services that view the world in competetive East-West terms and does not augure well for future relations between Russia and the West, diplomats and analysts believe.
"A portion of the Russian leadership suspects that hidden within the West's theory on promoting democracy is the idea of promoting its own economic and geopolitical interests," explained Sergei Karaganov, an analyst with the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy which is close to the Kremlin.
Those interests, say many in Russia, center on establishing a firm hold on vast and potentially lucrative new markets throughout the former Soviet Union by first ensuring that governments still unable to shirk Moscow's influence are succeeded by others prepared to protect Western investment.
Russia is increasingly "irritated by the steady expansion of NATO and the European Union" and in fighting with the West over a disputed presidential election in Ukraine "Russia made an attempt to halt this expansion and to force the West to take account of Russian interests," Karaganov said.
Western leaders insist that Russia, if it has truly embarked on the path of democracy, has nothing to fear from this expansion of Western institutions because they are free, transparent and only enhance stability because "stable democracies make better neighbors," as one diplomat put it.
But Russia chafes at what it perceives as being lectured to in this way by the West on the virtues of adopting political and economic systems that, as Moscow sees it at least, have only helped Western economies flourish and totally dominate those very systems since World War II.
That irritation has been articulated in spectacular fashion during the past week by Putin, who has repeatedly put his finger on the notion that the democracy the United States and the European Union want to export is a Trojan horse camouflaging threats of all kinds for Russia and others.
On a visit to Turkey last week, Putin likened the West's efforts to establish its views of democratic government and market economies on former Soviet territory to "being dictated to by a kind but strict uncle" who lays down the law for how those in his charge must live.
"And if they don't obey, they will be beaten with a rocket and missile club, as happened in Belgrade," Putin said, referring to the NATO war on Serbia, another predominantly Slavic country, in 1999 that was fiercely opposed by Russia.
Those colorful remarks came just days after Putin used a visit to India to launch a salvo at the United States in particular, accusing Washington -- without directly naming it -- of running a "dictatorship ... beautifally gift-wrapped in pseudo-democratic phraseology" to the detriment of most of the rest of the planet.
A senior US diplomat acknowledged that the recent muscular shift in the expression of Russia's approach to foreign relations appeared to reflect either Moscow's mistrust or misunderstanding of Western policy objectives in a part of the world dominated by Russia for more than two centuries.
But the diplomat, speaking on condition that he not be further identified, also made clear that the United States at least had no intention of shying away from pursuing its goals in the region despite the Kremlin's misgivings.
"We're disappointed that the Russians' immediate reaction has been to view this as an East-West dispute ... instead of addressing the real problem" which is one of democracy versus no democracy, the diplomat said of tensions over Ukraine.
The diplomat scoffed at suggestions made in some Russian foreign policy circles that there had been a tacit understanding between Washington and Moscow that Russia would be allowed to pursue its objectives unfettered in the former Soviet Union if it did not stir up too much resistance to the United States over US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I don't think they're under that impression," he said, but admitted: "There may have been a lot of Russians who wished there were such an understanding."
Putin, for one, seemed to have got that message clearly.
In a direct slap at the United States, the Russian leader said Tuesday that he "cannot imagine" how elections desperately sought by the United States could take place in Iraq as planned on January 30.
Iraq was, after all, under "total occupation" by foreign forces and still being shaken by major violence, making it hard to conceive how truly free and fair elections could take place in such an environment, Putin said.

12/09/2004 10:50 GMT - AFP