French President Nicolas Sarkozy (l) welcomes RussiaÕs Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on May 29, 2008 at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin compared the US to a Òfrightening monsterÓ and urged France to distance itself from its American ally.
ÒHow can one be such a shining example of democracy at home and a frightening monster abroad?ÕÕ Putin said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde transmitted live to journalists in Paris on Saturday.
Putin, speaking the day after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said the US was creating Ònew Berlin WallsÓ in Europe by pushing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to expand into ex-Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
The Russian prime minister, who passed on the presidency earlier this month to his handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, continues to set the foreign and domestic policy agenda. Under PutinÕs eight-year presidency, Russia clashed with the US and the European Union over matters such as NATO expansion and a planned US missile-defense system in eastern Europe.

Presidential Power
Under RussiaÕs constitution, the president is supposed to be solely responsible for foreign policy and has more formal authority than the prime minister, who can be fired by presidential decree and is charged with implementing Kremlin policies.
Putin remains the Òpre-eminent powerÓ in Russia, said Michael Emerson, a former EU ambassador to Moscow and an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.
ÓThe EU has to deal with the people who are there, both of them,Ó Emerson said.
Putin, who has threatened to point missiles at Ukraine should it host missile bases as a NATO member, said expanding the military alliance deeper into former Soviet territory risked a return to Cold War competition. Military Infrastructure

Abkhazia Autonomy
Putin said he approved of a plan to give GeorgiaÕs breakaway region of Abkhazia autonomy but not full independence.
But Georgia accused Moscow of trying to annex the impoverished Black Sea region after Russia sent unarmed troops on Saturday to rebuild a railway in Abkhazia, Reuters reported.
Russia called the deployment Òhumanitarian aid.Ó Georgia said on Friday it had stopped spy plane flights over Abkhazia to quell Western fears that tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow could degenerate into war.
Russian state television broadcast footage on Saturday of columns of military trucks arriving in Abkhazia, where most of the population have been issued with Russian passports.
The row over Abkhazia has pitted Russia against Western states that support Georgia and want to see it join NATO.
AbkhaziaÕs separatists say they will settle for nothing less than full independence from Tbilisi.
Since the start of this year Russia has sent in extra peacekeeping troops to Abkhazia and intensified ties with the separatist administration.
An unmanned Georgian spy drone was shot down over Abkhazia by what a United Nations report said was a Russian fighter plane. Moscow denied involvement.
Russia says its priority is to prevent bloodshed and protect Abkhazia from possible Georgian aggression. Some observers say its real aim is to punish Georgia for its NATO ambitions and seek revenge for KosovoÕs split from Serbia, which it opposed.

Nine Tamil Tiger rebels and four soldiers were killed in new clashes in Sri LankaÕs restive north, the military said Sunday.
Fighting broke out Saturday in Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya and Welioya regions, a military official said on condition of anonymity citing government orders, AP said.
Authorities have vowed to defeat the rebels and dismantle their de facto state in the north by the end of this year.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be reached for comment. It was not possible to independently verify the militaryÕs claim because reporters are not allowed in the war zone.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to carve out an independent homeland in the islandÕs north and east for ethnic minority Tamils, who have faced decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

A Thai opposition group vowed on Sunday to hold more anti-government street rallies in Bangkok in a bid to force the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to step down.
ÒWe will stay here until the government resigns,Ó Somsak Kosaisuk, one of the PeopleÕs Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leaders, told Reuters by telephone from the rally at the Makawan Rangsan bridge near the Grand Palace in the heart of Bangkok.
His remarks came a day after Samak appeared to back off from a threat to crack down on the protests that have ignited fears of a military coup.
The PAD, a coalition of civic groups, and the opposition Democrat Party accuse SamakÕs government of being a puppet of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The rallies which began a week ago are similar to the PADÕs street campaign against Thaksin before he was ousted in a 2006 coup. The protests two years ago started small but grew to 100,000-strong crowds before the military intervened.

Hundreds of women converged on a stadium on the outskirts of Harare on Saturday to pray for peace ahead of the countryÕs tense presidential run-off amid mounting political violence, AFP said.
ÒAs we pray today there are some fellow Zimbabweans who are hiding in mountains afraid to come down fearing that they may be surrounded and attacked,Ó Tawona Mtshiya, vice-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, told a crowd drawn from various denominations. ÒIn our situation in Zimbabwe today, a solution can only come if we pray to God.Ó
The prayer service was organized by a group called the Zimbabwe WomenÕs National Prayer Task Force, which is seen as politically neutral.
Zimbabweans go to the polls on June 27 for a second-round presidential election between President Robert Mugabe, who has led the country since independence in 1980, and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai fell just short of an outright majority in a first round of voting on March 29 while his party wrested control of parliament from MugabeÕs ZANU-PF in a simultaneous legislative poll.

Autonomy referendums in two Bolivian states Sunday could boost a movement to decentralize authority and block President Evo MoraleÕs populist reforms.
MoraleÕs quest to empower BoliviaÕs long-oppressed Indian majority has alienated mixed-race residents in the nationÕs eastern lowlands, fueling old regional grudges against a government centered in the western capital of La Paz, AP said.
On Sunday, the eastern states of Beni and Pando will likely vote to declare autonomy from that government, following the lead of neighboring Santa Cruz, a hotbed of anti-Morales sentiment where 86 percent of voters opted for autonomy earlier this month.
Morales has dismissed all three referendums as illegal Òsurveys.Ó Organized by the statesÕ pro-autonomy governments, SundayÕs votes will be monitored by few international observers and likely boycotted by the presidentÕs supporters.