Moscow ? President Vladimir Putin took a swipe at the United States in his state of the nation address Wednesday, bristling at being lectured by Vice President Dick Cheney and comparing Washington to a wolf who “eats without listening.”

During an emotional moment in the nationally televised speech, Putin used the fairy-tale motif on the need to build a fortress-like house and to illustrate Russia’s need to bolster its defenses. He also suggested that Washington puts its political interests above the democratic ideals it claims to cherish.

“Where is all this pathos about protecting human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests? Here, it seems, everything is allowed, there are no restrictions whatsoever,” Putin said, smiling sarcastically in the address to both houses of parliament.

“We are aware what is going on in the world,” he said. “Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening, and he’s clearly not going to listen to anyone.”

Political analyst Alexei Makarkin told Ekho Moskvy radio the “wolf” reference was a response to the “United States, its actions in Iraq and plans toward Iran, its games on the territory of the CIS (former Soviet territory) and its criticism of Russia.”

Putin’s speech came nearly a week after Cheney on May 4 took a verbal slap at the Russian leader, saying the government sought “to reverse the gains of the last decade.”

Trade status

In another apparent barb aimed at the United States, Putin said countries should not use Russia’s World Trade Organization membership negotiations to make unrelated demands.

“The negotiations for letting Russia into the WTO should not become a bargaining chip for questions that have nothing in common with the activities of this organization,” Putin said.

In April, U.S. senators visiting Moscow said Russia’s democracy record and its stance in the Iranian nuclear crisis would influence Congress as it considers Moscow’s bid to join the global trade body.

Nationalist legislator Alexei Mitrofanov told reporters in the Kremlin that Putin’s Russia was in no way looking for a confrontation with the West, “but we want to be a politically and economically independent state.”

Putin pointed out that Russia’s military budget is 25 times lower than that of the United States. Like the U.S., he said, “we also must make our house strong and reliable.”

“We must always be ready to counter any attempts to pressure Russia in order to strengthen positions at our expense,” he said. “The stronger our military is, the less temptation there will be to exert such pressure on us.”

Putin said the government would work to strengthen the nation’s nuclear deterrent as well as conventional military forces without repeating the mistakes of the Cold War era, when a costly arms race with Washington drained Soviet resources.

Health issues

Turning to health care issues, Putin called the demographic slide that has shrunk Russia’s population by millions since the 1991 Soviet collapse “the most acute problem of contemporary Russia,” and he encouraged legislators to budget for more generous birth bonuses, childcare support subsidies and educational benefits for mothers to encourage women to have children.

“I am convinced that with such an approach, you will earn words of gratitude from millions of mothers, young families, all the citizens of our country,” Putin said.

He also called on more Russians to take in foster children from institutions where about 200,000 orphans and abandoned children are interned.

Russia’s population dropped by about 4 percent to 142.7 million between 1993 and 2006, according to the Health Ministry. Experts attribute the plunge to post-Soviet economic turmoil that has badly hurt the state health care system, leading to a drop in birth rates and life expectancy. Increased poverty, alcoholism, soaring crime and emigration have also taken their toll, leading to an average life expectancy of just 66 years – 16 years lower than Japan and 14 years lower than the European Union average.