President Putin last night denied there was any cooling of Russia's relations with European governments despite the EU's role in helping the pro-Moscow candidate's defeat in the Ukrainian election.
On the eve of a visit to Germany tomorrow and a Russia-EU summit to be hosted by Tony Blair in London next month, the Russian leader talked bitterly about the "orange revolution" and the street protests which saw a pro-western president emerge in Ukraine.
"One of the parties cannot be cornered by means of unconstitutional activities. Otherwise other people in the region can say 'Why don't we act against the constitution?'", he told the Guardian during a 2½-hour meeting with western journalists and academics in the Kremlin.
He highlighted the weekend resignation by President Viktor Yushchenko's chief of staff, Oleg Zinchenko. "He said corruption was blooming there and people round the new president have started to enrich themselves. We said this before and no one wanted to listen to us," he added.
Mr Zinchenko yesterday said that if corrupt officials in Ukraine were not fired they could reverse the results of last year's orange revolution. Mr Zinchenko accused Petro Poroshenko, the head of Ukraine's defence and security council, Oleksandr Tretyakov, a top aide to Mr Yushchenko, and Mykola Martynenko, who heads the pro-presidential faction in parliament, of attempting to subdue all branches of government. They denied the charges.
Mr Putin declined to blame western governments directly, saying "I don't think any western countries, either European or the United States are working against the Russian Federation", but added that Russia knew certain non-governmental organisations in Ukraine were financed by foreign governments.
Student movements, websites, and radio stations helped to bring huge crowds into the street in Kiev to demand clean elections. Mr Putin said Russia was not against change but "we're only afraid these changes will be chaotic. Otherwise it'll be a banana republic where the one who shouts loudest is the one who wins".
Mr Putin has been criticised in independent Russian newspapers for twice visiting Kiev to support the pro-Moscow candidate who was defeated. He made it clear that in Berlin this week he will not repeat this. He would meet Angela Merkel, chancellor Gerhard Schröder's challenger in the imminent German election, as well as the chancellor.
Mr Putin is in his second term and under the constitution cannot stand again. The Russian press as well as opposition parties constantly speculate that he may seek a device to stay in power. But the Russian president yesterday to gave his clearest denial so far. "I'm not going to run for president in 2008. We're not going to amend the constitution," he said. "Although I don't intend to be president again, I intend to stay in Russia," he added with a smile.
He spoke with repeated anger about what has been happening in the former Soviet republics. "We cannot go back to the Russian empire. Only an idiot can imagine we're striving for that," he said.
Mr Putin said he had not talked to "George" by telephone since the disaster in New Orleans, but on the first day Russia had offered to send cargo planes with water purification equipment and medicine. When he saw what was happening, "I couldn't believe," he said. The disaster showed that "however strong and powerful we believe we are, we're nothing in the face of nature and God almighty."