Putin Defends His 'Democracy'

Criticism Of Bush, Iraq War In Exclusive Interview With Mike Wallace

(CBS)  Putin, however, has disagreed with Mr. Bush about his decision to go into Iraq. “I thought that was a mistake and told him so,” says Putin. “But he is the president of the United States, and he’s the one who makes the decision.”

In Bush’s defense, Putin said everyone believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, Putin still thinks the Iraq war may have been Mr. Bush’s biggest blunder.

“Democracy cannot be exported to some other place. This must be a product of internal domestic development in a society,” says Putin. “But if the U.S. were to leave and abandon Iraq without establishing the grounds for a united country, that would definitely be a second mistake.”

President Bush has voiced his own concerns about democracy in Russia because President Putin has been centralizing more and more power in the Kremlin. Putin, however, insists he is not rolling back democracy, although he has eliminated some public elections.

“There was a time when the regional governors were elected, correct?” asks Wallace.

“Absolutely right,” says Putin.

“And, all of a sudden, Putin says, ‘No, no, no. I shall appoint the governors.’ That’s democracy?” asks Wallace. “That’s not democracy, the way I understand it. Now maybe, I’m just dead wrong.”

“You’re absolutely wrong," says Putin, laughing. "And you know you are. For instance, India is called the largest world democracy. But their governors have always been appointed by the central government, and nobody disputes that India is a large democracy.”

“Why did you change from electing your governors to appointing your governors?” asks Wallace.

“The principle of appointing regional leaders is not a sign of a lack of democracy,” says Putin, who then criticized America’s Electoral College system.

“In the United States, you first elect the electors and then they vote for the presidential candidates. In Russia, the president is elected through the direct vote of the whole population -- that might be even more democratic,” says Putin. “And you have other problems in your elections. Four years ago, your presidential election was decided by the court. But we’re not going to poke our nose into your democratic system because that’s up to the American people.”

His obvious implication was that Americans should not poke their nose into Russia’s democracy. But 60 Minutes had some questions of our own about freedom of the press in Russia.

“I am told that there are three major TV news channels and that they are controlled by you,” says Wallace. “Your people run these news channels and the opposition has no news channels, if there is indeed opposition to you.”

“There is opposition to me. It’s normal,” says Putin. “The opposition has an opportunity to openly express its views and that’s what they are doing.”

Where?

“Everywhere,” says Putin. “Including in the streets, and on radio and television and in newspapers.”

This is true, but Putin did not deny that the Kremlin controls the most powerful news broadcasts on the three main television networks. But Putin is a counter-puncher who then pointed to problems between journalists and the government in the United States: “Haven’t we seen resignations of leading American journalists from the national media due to their positions on Iraq?”

“What are you saying, Mr. President?” asks Wallace. “Journalists resigning because what?”

“Don’t you know that some of the American journalists were fired because of their positions on Iraq or the presidential election campaign?” says Putin.

“Were you talking about Dan Rather, at CBS News?” asks Wallace.

“Yes, exactly,” says Putin, who apparently believed that Rather’s resignation as anchor of the CBS Evening News meant that he had been fired from CBS.

“On our TV screens, we saw him resigning,” says Putin. “We understood that he was forced to resign by his bosses at CBS. This is a problem of your democracy, not ours.”

“He still works for CBS News,” says Wallace. “He continues to work as a matter of fact on 60 Minutes.”