Russian Lawmaker Hits US on Posture vs Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, January 12, 2003

Russian Lawmaker Hits US on Posture vs Iraq

Visiting Russian parliamentary leader Gennady Seleznev has criticized the looming US invasion of Iraq, saying no country should fashion itself as constable of the world.

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Visiting Russian parliamentary leader Gennady Seleznev has criticized the looming US invasion of Iraq, saying no country should fashion itself as constable of the world.

"This world would be completely changed if one country would be able to act as policeman of the world," Seleznev, Chairman of the State Duma, or lower house, of the Federal Assembly of the RussianFederation, said here Saturday in an interview with the PhilippineStar daily.

"Iraq is an independent state. It is not the 53rd state of the United States," the newspaper quoted him as saying on Sunday.

Seleznev arrived in Manila on Thursday for a four-day visit at the invitation of Philippine House of Representative Speaker Jose de Venecia. He is the highest-ranking Russian lawmaker to visit the Southeast Asian nation.

"We, including the absolute majority of Russian society, believe that only with the consent of the United Nations Security Council can one country interfere with another sovereign country. Without this consent, it is not right," stressed Seleznev.

He said Russian President Vladimir Putin also shared this view.

Seleznev said that if the UN mission to Iraq concludes that the Iraq has none of the alleged weapons of mass destruction in its arsenal, "the economic sanctions against Iraq must be lifted."

"The United States once threatened to invade Cuba because it did not like its leader Fidel Castro. And now, they do not like the leader of Iraq, so they want to topple him. Who knows, one day,they would not like the leader of the Philippines and they will threaten to topple him, too," Seleznev added.

Seleznev said that Russia would like to "draw the attention of the international community to the existence of the Security Council. It exists, and it works," he said.

But he stressed that Russia stood foursquare behind efforts to crush terrorism and its roots.

"We support all efforts against terrorism. We faced this challenge when we saw that Chechen separatists were supported by international terrorist networks, including that of Osama bin Laden," said Seleznev.

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