MOSCOW — The Russian government has hit back at accusations by US vice-president Dick Cheney of using its energy resources as ‘tools of intimidation and blackmail’. It called on the west to recognise Russia’s progress towards market principles and democracy. Writing in Monday’s Financial Times, Viktor Khristenko, the Russian energy minister, says Russia is ‘deeply puzzled by recent commentary in the west that distorts Russian energy policies’. He calls on international leaders to work together at the G8 summit Russia will host this summer to establish a plan to achieve global energy security. ‘The truth of the matter is that Russia has moved away from Soviet-era arrangements of subsidising energy prices to our neighbours and turned to market-based pricing mechanisms,’ Mr Khristenko says. ‘We are aware that old impressions fade slowly, but it is time for the west to recognise and acknowledge the maturing role and state of progress that Russia has achieved.’ Also this weekend, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, issued a direct rebuttal of Mr Cheney’s speech in Lithuania last week – even suggesting he had been misinformed by advisers. President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is expected to deliver a toughly worded state of the […]