WASHINGTON – Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday took a shot at Vice President Dick Cheney’s shooting skills as he warned against criticism of Russia at this weekend’s G-8 summit.
Putin was responding to Cheney’s tough talk in May that Russia is backsliding from democracy and using its oil and gas as “tools of intimidation for blackmail.”
“I think your vice president’s expression there is like his bad shot on his hunting trip,” zinged Putin on NBC’s “Today” show, referring to Cheney’s accidental shooting of a pal.
Putin’s punch came as Bush flew last night to Germany to start his European trip in medieval Rostock, Germany, which was once behind the Iron Curtain. He heads to Russia tomorrow for private talks with Putin before the eight-nation summit in St. Petersburg.
Cheney spokeswoman Jenny Mayfield said Cheney’s comments about Putin are “consistent with what [President Bush] has said” and declined to respond to the Russian president’s insult.
Putin said Russia will listen to “well-intentioned criticism” but added: “We will categorically object to . . . interfering in our internal affairs.”
The Russian leader told a French TV channel that talk of the need for democratization remind him of how colonial empires once talked “of the white man’s mission.”