Putin defends Russia's right to belong to G8

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has forcefully defended his country's right to be a member of the G8 group of nations pointing to Russia's growing economic and military muscle.

Moscow's record on human rights, Chechnya and a recent clamp-down on the activities of human rights group have prompted some Western politicians to call for Russia, which is chairing the G8 this year for the first time, to be expelled.

But Mr Putin told over 1,000 journalists at his annual Kremlin press conference yesterday that such views belonged to 'ill-wishers' living in the last century.

"Nobody wants the G8 to become a gathering of fat cats," he said explaining that Russia's membership allowed the club to better understand developing countries and poverty.

"I know how G8 leaders feel. Nobody is against Russia joining the club, everyone is for it.

"Can anyone imagine solving nuclear security problems without the involvement of Russia, the world's biggest nuclear power? Let them (critics) say what they want....A dog barks, but the caravan passes."

Mr Putin also talked tough when asked to comment on the recent 'spy rock' scandal which saw four British diplomats in Moscow accused of espionage and of covertly funding human and civic rights groups.

Though he opined that relations between London and Moscow were so solid that they had not been badly damaged by the episode, he suggested that the British government had acted like a 'puppeteer' in the way it had tried to control and finance Russian human rights groups.

"We are for their funding to be transparent. We don't want them led by puppeteers from abroad."

In combative mood, he also defended his support for autocratic governments in Uzbekistan and Belarus.

Several Russian female journalists lightened the mood by asking a smiling Mr Putin how at 53 he "still looked so good."

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