AP_World Hopes Medvedev Improves Relations (March 3) 
03.03.2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Filed at 12:43 p.m. ET
AP -- World leaders described the Russian election as flawed Monday, but said they hope Dmitry Medvedev will help bring more democracy to the vast nation and repair relations damaged during Vladimir Putin's presidency.
Countries unhappy with the Putin approach were critical of the way the contest was held under heavy Kremlin control, but Russia's friends hailed the election as a triumph for the Russian people.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated Medvedev and emphasized that he wanted to repair relations that sank to a new low after the Kremlin refused to hand over the suspect in the 2006 poisoning death of ex-Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Litvinenko's killing led to retaliatory expulsions of diplomats in both countries. The Kremlin accuses the British Council, a cultural organization, of being an espionage front and forced two of its offices in Russia to close.
''We will judge the new government on its actions and the result of its actions,'' Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said.
President Bush's administration said it looked forward to working with Medvedev.
''It's in our mutual interest for Russia and the United States to work together on areas of common interest such as nonproliferation, counterterrorism and combating transnational crime,'' National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he hoped that under Medvedev's leadership, Russia and the European Union could develop a relationship based ''on respect for the values to which we both declared our commitment.''
Berlin said the fact that Putin's hand-picked successor won with 70 percent of the vote showed Russians' desire for continuity and stability. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner joked although ''not quite Stalinist,'' the size of Medvedev's majority was impressive.
At least one country, Serbia, offered unreserved praise. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica congratulated Medvedev on his ''great victory'' and praised Russian as ''a guardian of the basic principles of the international law.''
Russia has backed Serbia by refusing to recognize Kosovo's independence.
Leaders in Estonia, Finland and Sweden hoped relations would improve. And in South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki offered his support on ''the daunting task of consolidating democracy and good governance.''
European countries have been stung by Putin's willingness to use Russia's energy supplies as a weapon in disputes with other countries. Russia supplies about a quarter of the gas consumed in Europe.
The election was neither free nor fair said Andreas Gross, the head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe -- the only Westerners allowed to observe the vote.
However, he said the vote amounted to a vote of confidence in Putin's government. Gross said observers believed the outcome would have been the same even if there had been no tampering.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Election-World-View.html?scp=4&sq=Estonia&st=nyt
 
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