After General Powell’s briefing, Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said that the burden of proof on disarmament now lay squarely with the Iraqi regime. However, both state and private media were more caustic.

The pro-Kremlin Vremya Novostei newspaper commented that Mr Powell had spoken “eloquently but unconvincingly” adding that: “His arguments in favour of a war against Iraq at first sight seem weak and could be used in various ways — either by those who want war or those who don’t want it.”

A commentary in the business-oriented Vedomosti newspaper reflected the opinion of many in Russia who believe that the US will launch war under any pretext it chooses: “The American administration let it be understood that it considers itself justified in launching an invasion of Iraq without sanction from the Security Council simply on the basis of November’s Resolution 1441.”

Powerful Russian lawmakers meanwhile said that Washington was pushing Saddam Hussein into a corner.

“Saddam is facing a choice between dying and dying in heroic resistance. He has been offered no other alternative,” said Vladimir Lukin, the deputy speaker of the lower house and Moscow’s former ambassador to Washington.

Yesterday’s poll by the Public Opinion Foundation found that 61 per cent of Russians thought their country should remain neutral if military operations began against Iraq. Just over 50 per cent said they believed that the United States was motivated by a desire to control Iraqi oil or to show “who’s boss in the world”.

Only 12 per cent believed US assertions that Washington was motivated by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and its alleged links to international terrorism.

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