West urged to raise Russia concerns at G8 summit

LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) Western leaders should voice concern over Russian moves away from democracy at a St Petersburg summit next month, former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said today.

The Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, that Russian President Vladimir Putin will chair from July 15 to 17, is ''absolutely the right place'' for Western leaders to speak out, Kasyanov said during a visit to London.

''It will be extremely important if leaders of the G8 politely but firmly state .... that they are concerned with the current political trends of Russia,'' Kasyanov, a Kremlin critic expected to contest Russia's 2008 presidential election, said.

The Group of Seven rich democracies, made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, has admitted Russia to most of its meetings and Moscow is the current president of the group.

US Vice President Dick Cheney caused shock in Russia last month when he accused Moscow of backsliding on democracy and using its energy supplies to blackmail neighbours.

Kasyanov, who served as prime minister for the first four years of Putin's rule until sacked in early 2004, said almost all the essential characteristics of a modern democratic state had disappeared in Russia over an 18-month period.

Putin is required by the constitution to step down in 2008, but Kasyanov said he believed the probability was growing that the president would stay on.

Kasyanov said he was concerned that many people both in Russia and the West were prepared to tolerate undemocratic trends because of business opportunities in Russia, whose economy has been lifted by high energy prices.

Reuters SK VP0047