In an interview with Larry King of CNN, the Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin said that he thinks the U.S. Defense Secretary Gates does not have a truthful picture of the state of democratic advances in Russia.

“He is deeply misled,” Putin stated. The Russian Prime Minister further noted that even though Russian officials recognize that the American system is not perfect, they never try to interfere with America’s internal business. Thus, the American government should not interfere with the domestic affairs and the sovereign decisions of the people of Russia. 

The web-site WikiLeaks published what appeared to be Secretary Robert Gates’ correspondence with his French counterpart, where the American military commander wrote that democracy in Russia is gone, and the Russian government is an oligarchy governed by security forces.

The Prime Minister noted that the logic of the now popular call that Russia needs to be pressed on because it is undemocratic is fatally flawed. Mr. Putin also noted that he has heard these accusations “a thousand times.” At the end, Russian officials ceased to accord any significant attention to such practices. Nonetheless, the Russian Prime Minister was unpleasantly surprised that the United States is still using the same unsubstantiated arguments as a foreign policy tool.

With regards to the military papers released by WikiLeaks, Mr. Putin has said that someone is intentionally trying to raise the credibility of the web site to use it later for a political purpose. In general, Mr. Putin suggested that diplomatic services should keep a better eye on their documents. The Russian Prime Minister said that he doesn’t see any catastrophe coming because of the secret publications.