Russia hits back over US spy chief's charge

MOSCOW, March 1 (Reuters) Russia today said a top US intelligence official was harbouring ''outdated assumptions'' about Moscow by accusing it of backtracking on democracy.

Mike McConnell, the newly installed US intelligence chief, said on Tuesday Russia was taking a step backward in its democratic progress and could be heading toward a controlled succession to President Vladimir Putin.

''As a former Sovietologist Mike McConnell has old, outdated assumptions,'' Andrei Krivtsov, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told Interfax news agency. ''His judgement is groundless and is contrary to the character and state of Russia-US relations.'' McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Putin had become surrounded by ''extremely conservative'' advisers who are suspicious of the United States. Putin has to step down in 2008, his successor will be elected next March.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have been edgy since Putin, in a February 10 speech in Germany, accused the United States of wanting to dominate the world.

Putin has called Washington's plan to put a missile defence system in central Europe a threat to Russian security.

REUTERS AD BD1439