Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday likened the UN Security Council resolution supporting military action in Libya to medieval calls for crusades.

Mr. Putin, in the first major remarks from a Russian leader since a coalition of Western countries began air strikes in Libya, said that Moammar Gadhafi’s government fell short of democracy but added that did not justify military intervention.

“The resolution is defective and flawed,” Mr. Putin told workers at a Russian ballistic missile factory. “It allows everything. It resembles medieval calls for crusades.”

Mr. Putin said that interference in other countries’ internal affairs has become a trend in U.S. foreign policy and that the events in Libya indicated that Russia should strengthen its own defence capabilities.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent Security Council member, abstained from the vote on Thursday in which the council authorized a no-fly zone over Libya and “all necessary measures” to protect civilians against Gaddafi’s forces.

China’s most important political newspaper ratcheted up the country’s criticism of Western airstrikes against Libya on Monday, comparing them to the U.S.-led invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, The People’s Daily, said in a commentary that the United States and its allies are violating international rules and that in places like Iraq “the unspeakable suffering of its people are a mirror and a warning.”

“The military attacks on Libya are, following on from the Afghan and Iraq wars, the third time that some countries have launched armed action against sovereign countries,” it said.