Albright tells Republicans don’t make Russia a foe

"We cannot recreate the enemy," Albright said testimony said, adding that she was "very discouraged" by some of the comments made.

"We are at a crucial turning point. If we see everything in red terms, we are in trouble," she added.

Congressional Republican criticism of President Bill Clinton’s Russia policy came to a head last week with a report saying it had undermined Russia’s transition and discredited America in the eyes of the Russian people.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, said the government poured cash down a "rat hole" by supporting lending billions of dollars to Russia despite rampant corruption.

Other more moderate Republicans like New York Republican Representative Benjamin Gilman, the committee chairman, also criticised the administration for not doing enough.

"Having failed to truly stand up to the massive corruptionin the Russian government, will there be somebody now to call the Putin government to account for the sake of democracy?" he said.

At one point, Rohrabacher referred to the Soviet Unionrather than the former one, and was sharply corrected by Albright, a scholar of democratic transition in the region.

Albright said the Clinton administration was very concernedby some of Putin’s actions but believed that it was best to stay engaged.

But she voiced concern about government pressure on theindependent media and said Russia’s economic recovery was still fragile.

"Russia has not yet made a deep enough commitment toreform, approved anti-money laundering legislation or initiated a truly serious battle against corruption," she said.

This made foreign investors wary and meant Russia’seconomic prospects were "still in doubt," she added.

She noted in particular a struggle for Media-Most, Russia’sonly independent media group whose owner Vladimir Gusinsky says he signed a deal "at gunpoint" to sell his empire to Gazprom.

"President Putin has said a free press is the key to thehealth of a society. And we obviously agree," Albright said.

"But it will be hard to take this statement seriously ifRussia’s state-run national gas monopoly, Gazprom, succeeds in its current effort," she added.

REPUBLICANS’ REAL TARGET IS GORE, SAY DEMOCRATS

Democrats say the outpouring of criticism against Clinton’sRussia policy is really timed to hurt Vice President Al Gore, who played a pivotal role in it and is running for President.

California Democrat Tom Lantos defended Clinton’s policy,noting that the Soviet Union started to crumble when President George Bush was in power in 1989. Clinton took office in 1993.

"It was between 1989 and 1992 that Russians had thegreatest expectations, many of them unrealistic," of what American could do to help their country, Lantos said.

He was responding to statistics cited by Republicanlawmakers suggesting that Russians had a far less favourable view of the United States than they had 10 years ago.

Gilman cited concerns that Putin’s election had effectivelybeen rigged because of "slander" against his opponents in government-run media, leading to what he quoted one commentator as saying was a "velvet coup."

Albright said Putin was perhaps more instinctivelypragmatic than democratic but that the Russian people had backed him as their leader. She said Putin understood he needed the West’s support to make a success of his country.