Putin slams Arab Spring, West calls Syria constitution vote a 'farce’

The U.S. and its allies have dismissed the Syrian regime's referendum on a new constitution as a "farce" meant to justify the bloody crackdown on dissent.   

But voters in government strongholds suggested why some Syrians have not joined the uprising against President Bashar Assad: loyalty, distrust of the opposition and fear his fall will ignite a civil war.   

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday's poll "a cynical ploy" and urged Syrians who still support Assad to turn against him. A "farce" and a "sham vote" was how German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle described it.     

"It's a phony referendum and it is going to be used by Assad to justify what he's doing to other Syrian citizens," Clinton said in an interview with CBS News in Rabat, Morocco.      

"The longer you support the regime's campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, the more it will stain your honor," she added, addressing Assad supporters, especially the military. "If you refuse, however, to prop up the regime or take part in attacks ... your countrymen and women will hail you as heroes."      

In turn, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned against a military intervention in Syria and an attack on Iran and claimed that the West had backed the Arab Spring revolts to advance its interests in the region.          

Instead of promoting democracy the Arab Spring had given rise to religious extremism, Putin said in an article published Monday in the Moscow News daily. 

The article outlined Putin's foreign policy platform ahead of next Sunday's election, in which he is all but certain to reclaim the presidency. 

"Learning from that bitter experience, we are against any U.N. Security Council resolutions that could be interpreted as a signal for a military interference into domestic processes in Syria," Putin said.    

He said that any attempt to launch a military action without a U.N. approval would undermine the world body's role and hurt global security.   

"I strongly hope that the United States and other nations will learn from the sad experience and wouldn't try to resort to a forceful scenario in Syria," Putin said. "I can't understand that bellicose itch."    

Putin said both the government and opposition forces must pull out of populated areas to end bloodshed, adding that the Western refusal to demand that from Assad's opponents was "cynical."    

Putin said that the Russian companies lost ground in the countries engulfed by the Arab Spring uprisings and are being replaced by firms from the nations that backed the regime change there.  

"That raises a thought that the tragic events to some extent had been driven not by concern about human rights, but a desire by some to redistribute markets," he said. "We mustn't watch that with an Olympian calm."  

The Russian state TV earlier reported that Russia's secret service foiled on Monday a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. 

The Ukranian intelligence revealed the plot after an explosion inside an apartment in Odessa. One person was killed in the blast while 2 others in connection with the plot were arrested.     

The arrested confirmed that they were acting on the orders of Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, an enemy of the Kremlin.

Reuters/LBCI