Warning the United States that any attempt to impose its agenda on international issues will meet with resistance, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the two countries will need each other more and should have good relations in a rapidly changing world.
The world, said the Russian leader who will step down in May but has stated his readiness to be the next premier, is witnessing a rapid growth and would change even more in the next 30 to 50 years with new centres of political influence growing as India, China, Brazil, South Africa, Japan and several other countries become stronger.
"I am not saying that this is good or bad, I say that it will be different. And I am therefore absolutely confident that Russia and the US, not only today but also in the future will need each other even more and need to have good relations. And the future Russian and American leaders who understand this will be in demand and be successful," he told the Time magazine.
Putin, who has been named as the person of the year by the US magazine, said any attempt by the US to dictate its agenda would "not meet with understanding but resistance".
"In order to be successful today, we need to be able to negotiate and find compromises. And the ability to compromise is not just a diplomatic formality you reach with a partner, rather it is respect for their legitimate interests."
Putin, who is not known to mince words, called on the United States to fix a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq and reiterated that attacking Iraq was "a very big mistake" in the first place as also sharply attacked NATO, describing it as "the stinking corpse of cold war".
Asked about the US presidential candidates for the next year's election or whom he would like to see succeed President George W Bush, Putin said he had no particular preferences and regardless of who his elected, Russian and American leaderships are going "to construct a good partnership".
"We think that this is simply indecent and harmful, and harmful to ourselves because if we were to allow ourselves to do so, then we would compromise the person that we wanted to see at the head of a given state as the population of a given country can start to doubt which interests a given person is representing", Putin said.
Time has selected Putin over former US vice-president Al Gore, Chinese president Hu Jintao and US Commander in Iraq Gen David Petraeus.
The magazine believes that he had exerted more influence over world affairs than any other leader this year.
Asked about CIA's report that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapon programme three years ago, Putin said it vindicated Russia's stand.
"This also bears witness to the fact that there are people in the US administration who believe that we need to speak the truth. This shows that we, basing ourselves on objective data, can construct an honest dialogue," he added.
He, however, warned that if the report had been published simply to divert the Iranians' attention from the preparations for military action, "then I believe that this would be very dangerous because any military action against Iran would represent yet another very big mistake."
Describing the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 as "very big mistake", Putin said, "It seems easy to crush such a small country".
He praised the initiative in the West Asia taken by Bush as also his determination to fight terrorism.
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