West must resist Russian bullying: Rice

The West must stand up to "bullying" by Moscow, which is becoming increasingly authoritarian and aggressive, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a hard-hitting speech in Washington on Thursday.

In her first major address on Russia since its incursion in Georgia last month, Rice warned that Russia risks reversing its gains toward global integration and said Russia now faces a united U.S.-European diplomatic defense of Tbilisi.

The attack "has crystallized the course that Russia's leaders are taking -- and brought us to a critical moment for Russia and the world," Rice told the German Marshall Fund, a transatlantic policy research group.

"We cannot afford to validate the prejudices that some Russian leaders seem to have: that if you pressure free nations enough -- if you bully, and threaten, and lash out -- we will cave in, and forget, and eventually concede," Rice said.

In response to a question, Rice said there was no comparison between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Russia's invasion of Georgia.

"I don't think that bears any resemblance to invading a small democratic neighbor whose only crime, apparently was that it wished to be part of the emerging transatlantic world."

Rice went on to say, Russia's behavior threatened its participation in a number of global diplomatic, economic and security bodies, including the Group of Eight industrialized nations, and jeopardized Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

Rice appeared to underscore a State Department view that President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin might lose their popularity in Russia once the economic fallout of their decisions fully sinks in.

Despite U.S.-Russian differences, Rice said, they did not mark a return to the Cold War and Washington will continue working with
Moscow on areas of common concern, such as the international drive to stop Iran's sensitive nuclear work.