Russian reaction: Having lost the fight to stop US-led forces going to war against Baghdad, Russia now faces a rematch with Washington over its business interests in Iraq, while fending off allegations of both harbouring Saddam Hussein and trying to seize his secret archives, writes Dan McLaughlin.
The Foreign Ministry here denied yesterday that Saddam was hiding in the Russian embassy in Baghdad, denouncing such reports as attempts to discredit Moscow, as it prepares for talks with its anti-war allies on Iraq's future tomorrow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and French President Jacques Chirac are set to meet in St Petersburg to push for a UN-led effort to rebuild Iraq, while eyeing their own potentially lucrative roles in the oil-rich nation's future.
"It is very important for Russia, France and, to an extent, Germany, that they return as soon as possible to Iraq and regain their interests there," said Mr Alexander Pikayev, a political analyst at the Carnegie Centre in Moscow. "And for that, they need the UN to play a considerable role in Iraq."
Mr Pikayev said yesterday he thought Mr Chirac had asked to join Mr Putin and Mr Schröder at their long-planned summit, after seeing US National Security Adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice make a flying visit to Moscow this week.
"He wants to make sure Putin is still part of the coalition and is not about to jump over to the US side," Mr Pikayev told The Irish Times.
He also said UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan - who yesterday cancelled plans to join the three leaders in St Petersburg - had done so to avoid appearing to align himself with Washington's critics at a time of delicate diplomacy.
Russia quickly tempered its criticism of Washington once war began, but not before US warnings that Moscow's staunch stance had jeopardised both its claim to $8 billion in debt from Baghdad, and the billion-dollar deals to develop Iraqi oil fields that Russian firms have signed in recent years.
US allegations that Russian firms had sold arms to Iraq further sullied relations, as did the bullets that last weekend strafed a convoy carrying Russia's ambassador to Iraq away from bomb-shattered Baghdad, in a shooting that the envoy blamed on US troops.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service denied reports yesterday that the CIA had planned to stop the convoy after discovering that it was carrying secret Iraqi intelligence documents out of the country. Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper said the plan to seize the files had been foiled when Iraqi soldiers unexpectedly returned fire.
Neither Iraqi nor US forces has accepted responsibility for the shooting.
Some commentators here are now casting doubt on the wisdom of Mr Putin's challenge to President Bush, saying Russia may have wrecked its key international relationship by so vehemently opposing US plans in the Gulf.
Mr Viktor Kremenyuk, deputy director of Moscow's USA-Canada Institute, said a vehemently anti-war nation actually gave Mr Putin little room for manoeuvre, just a few months before parliamentary elections and a year before a presidential vote.
"Showing sympathy towards US plans could have been disastrous domestically," Mr Kremenyuk said.