Moscow ? President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia wants good relations with the United States, but he objected vigorously to Vice President Dick Cheney’s recent criticism of democratic backtracking by the Kremlin.

“We see how the United States defends its interests; we see what methods and means they use for this,” Putin said at a news conference after a summit meeting of Russia and the European Union in his most direct criticism of Cheney’s remarks.

In a speech earlier this month in Lithuania, Cheney accused the Kremlin of rolling back democracy and strong-arming its ex-Soviet neighbors.