RUSSIA: US Senator John McCain has said Europe and America must work together to prevent Russia's "autocratic" president, Mr Vladimir Putin, from abandoning democracy and reasserting the Kremlin's old-style central control.
Speaking in Dublin last night at a meeting of the University Philosophical Society at Trinity College, Senator McCain said that Europe and the US had the power to hold Russia to "a higher standard".
"President Putin rules as an autocrat. I have described as a 'creeping coup' his efforts to use the Chechen war to roll back the democratic gains Russia won in the 1990s. In recent months, I have had to start calling this a 'galloping coup'," said Senator McCain.
"His crackdowns on independent media continue, as does the repression of business executives who oppose the President."
Senator McCain said that despite the difficult relations between America and parts of Europe over the past two or three years, there was still much that united the two.
He also praised the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, for his role in the Iraq War.
"I believe that we are engaged in a just war against tyranny and danger. Americans and Iraqis are grateful to all who have participated in this struggle, and we include Ireland and its courageous prime minister in this group.
"Americans not only welcome European leadership, we believe it is necessary to make the world a safer, better place," he said.
"The US and its democratic friends could choose to pursue narrowly defined national interests . . . And yet we choose - we must choose - a very different path.
"When the United States and the countries of Europe stand together, it creates a moral and political force that gives no ground to the enemies of freedom. The world needs us together and we need each other."