St. Petersburg, April 12. 'It's good that Hussein's regime in Iraq is eliminated,' said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a session of the Russian-German forum Petersburg dialogue. According to Rosbalt, Putin said that 'we always said he did not correspond to the norm on human rights, and never concealed the regime.' At the same time, he said that 'we said that it is impossible to decide such problems through war.' He also said that 'In the world approximately 80 percent of the countries do not correspond to the Western standard of democracy, and what now, declare war on all of them too?' Putin said that '(he hoped) such an idea did not enter into anyone's head.'
'The principle of sovereignty of governments must be unshakable and the preparedness of governments to introduce Western standards of democracy must be determined by the government itself,' said Putin. Criticizing the war in Iraq, he also said that Russia talked about means of conducting this war. 'Eliminating the tyrannical regime - plus using means, loss of human life, humanitarian catastrophes - are all clear negative consequences of this war,' he said. 'Now we must do everything in order that together with the U.S. and Great Britain we will decide the problem of strengthening foundations of international law,' said Putin.