Russia wants to be a close ally of the United States but Washington does not treat it as an equal, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Time magazine published Wednesday.
"We want to be a friend of America," the Russian leader told the magazine. "Sometimes we get the impression that America does not need friends" but only "auxiliary subjects to command."
Putin, who was named as the magazine's person of the year in the same edition, gave the interview at his dacha outside Moscow. Asked if he'd like to correct any American misconceptions about Russia, Putin told Time: "I don't believe these are misconceptions. "I think this is a purposeful attempt by some to create an image of Russia based on which one could influence our internal and foreign policies.
"This is the reason why everybody is made to believe... (Russians) are a little bit savage still or they just climbed down from the trees, you know, and probably need to have ... the dirt washed out of their beards and hair."
Washington and Moscow have recently clashed notably over US missile defence plans in central Europe, with Russia's military chief of staff warning that the launch of US interceptor missiles could trigger a Russian missile strike.
Other issues to have caused friction between the two include how to tackle Iran's nuclear ambitions and the ongoing situation in Iraq. Asked about his personal relationship with US President George W. Bush, Putin says the two spoke on the telephone after Russian intelligence recently uncovered a terrorist threat against both Russia and the United States.
"I have a very good personal relationship with Mr Bush," he said. "He is a very reliable partner, a man of honour." Like Bush, he identifies terrorism as a key threat of the 21st century, but declines to label the threat Islamic saying that "radicals ... can be found in any environment."
In the interview, Putin also takes the opportunity to say that Russia's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq in 2003 has been vindicated. "If one looks at the map of the world, it's difficult to find Iraq, and one would think it rather easy to subdue such a small country," Putin said. "But this undertaking is enormous. Iraq is a small but very proud nation."
Asked about fierce Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov, Putin repeatedly suggested the former chess champion was a stooge of the West because he spoke to the foreign press in English after his arrest last month.
"If you aspire to be a leader of your own country, you must speak your own language, for God's sake," Putin said. Challenged on allegations that he is surrounded by corrupt officials, Putin told the magazine said: "If you are so confident, then I presume you know the names and the systems and the tools ... Write to us."
And asked about Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter who wrote a critical account of Putin and was murdered while investigating rights abuses in Chechnya, Putin said he believed she was killed by someone wanting to frame his administration. He also discusses predecessors Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev, praising them for dismantling a system that had lost support of the Russian people. "I'm not sure I could have had the guts to do that myself," he said.
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