Putin Urges Russian Role in New NATO

President Vladimir V. Putin called Wednesday for a complete overhaul of the European security system, asserting that the continent will never be free of distrust between East and West as long as NATO continues to exist in its present form without Russia as a member.

Speaking at the first big, no-holds-barred news conference of his 18 months in office, a vigorous and businesslike Russian president boasted a little, joked a little and occasionally lectured journalists.

He also appeared on the edge of losing his temper once during the nearly two-hour meeting--when challenged about alleged human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya.

He said there ought to be a “single security and defense space in Europe,” which he said could be achieved only by disbanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or admitting Russia to it, or creating a new body in which Russia could become an equal partner with the United States and European democracies.

Putin spoke just two days before he departs to join the Group of 8 industrialized nations gathering in Genoa, Italy, where he will meet with President Bush.

The Russian leader said he believes the good personal relationship developed with Bush at a summit last month in Slovenia will help both nations deal with thorny differences on such issues as nuclear weapons reductions and a proposed U.S. missile defense system.

The news conference was held in the Kremlin hall where the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union used to rubber-stamp Politburo decisions and was attended by about 500 Russian and foreign journalists.

The decision to meet the media en masse seemed to reflect Putin’s increasing confidence as a communicator. The session was open to all accredited journalists, and questions were not screened in advance.

Seated at a table with one aide, Putin fielded all 23 queries put to him, ranging from security and economics to legislation and the color of his dogs (one white, one black). He even asked for more questions after his aide said the conference was finished.

Sergei A. Markov, director of Moscow’s Institute of Political Studies, said Putin was visibly enjoying himself, eager to rise to the level of a world statesman.

“He did it splendidly, in perfect Russian, open-soul style but with taste too,” Markov said. “He is so confident about what he is doing now that he is ready to discuss it anywhere at any level.”

Another commentator, Dmitry Y. Furman of Moscow’s Institute of Europe, was less impressed: “I don’t know why he decided to hold this press conference. To show that he is smarter and more intellectual than his predecessor? We’ve known that.”

Putin’s comments about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization went further than he has gone in the past. He said that while Russia would prefer to see the alliance dissolved now that the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact have disappeared, he realizes that it is not on the West’s agenda.

In that case, he said, he urged Russia’s eventual inclusion in NATO or else the creation of an entirely new defense and security organization to replace it, with Russia as a member.

“If at some point in time we fail to do this, we shall be stuck with differing levels of security in Europe [and] we shall continue to mistrust each other,” he warned.

In answer to another question, Putin said that a friendship treaty Russia signed Monday with China did not mean that the two nations plan to coordinate responses to Bush’s plans for a missile defense system. “Each state decides what to do and how,” he said.

Later, Putin hinted that he will come to his discussions with Bush with a counterproposal to the defense system, which Russians fear will gut the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty and trigger a new arms race.

Asked what he had seen when he looked into Bush’s soul at their Slovenian summit, Putin said he found Bush “fairly good-hearted . . . pleasant to deal with. Perhaps I shouldn’t be saying this, but he struck me as a touch sentimental.”

Putin was most impassioned when he talked about Chechnya, the breakaway republic where Russian forces have been bogged down in an ugly war with separatists for nearly two years. Soldiers and pro-Russian sympathizers are being killed at a rate of 10 to 20 a week by detonations, ambushes, attacks and assassinations.

Unable to locate large concentrations of rebels to fight, troops have been rounding up civilians, looking for suspected guerrillas. Soldiers recently were accused of human rights violations in the arrests of hundreds of men in three villages.

Putin was asked by U.S.-funded station Radio Liberty whether all the reports of alleged abuses meant his Chechnya policies needed to be revised. Instead of discussing abuses, Putin launched into an animated justification for the war.

He said the “radicalization of the Muslim world” had penetrated into the region, where some were seeking to create a “united states of Islam” on Russia’s southern fringe. He said the extremists had tricked Chechens into rebelling against Russia.

As Putin finished up, another journalist called out from a back row in Russian: “You haven’t answered the question!”

“What is it that you didn’t understand?” Putin replied curtly. “I was asked if I was going to change my approach. I said no. What don’t you like about my answer?” He ordered a microphone be given to the journalist who challenged him.

When she asked about the roundups of civilians, he said they helped troops find militants that were on a wanted list. He asked why journalists were more concerned about human rights abuses than crimes of the militants--particularly assassination of pro-Russian administrators and religious leaders in Chechnya.

“I repeat, we will fight against those who break the law on the side of the militants and those [Russian officials] who yield to their provocations.”

“That must answer your question,” he said finally, leaning back heavily in his chair.

* Sergei L. Loiko of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.