Your trusted source

The Republican Senator John McCain has delivered a stinging rejoinder to Vladimir Putin, writing in an editorial for the newspaper Pravda that the Russian president has made himself and his country a friend to tyrants, the Guardian reported.

McCain accuses Putin of corruption, repression and self-serving rule in the opinion piece, which answers the Russian leader's newspaper broadside published a week earlier in the New York Times and elsewhere.

In the opinion piece headlined "Russians deserve better that Putin", McCain singles out Putin and his associates for punishing dissent, specifically the death in prison of the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The Russian presidential human rights council found in 2011 that Magnitsky, who had accused Russian officials of colluding with organised criminals, was beaten and denied medical treatment.

McCain criticises Putin for siding with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a two and a half year civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people.

McCain insists he is not anti-Russian but rather "more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today."

"President Putin doesn't believe ... in you. He doesn't believe that human nature at liberty can rise above its weaknesses and build just, peaceful, prosperous societies. Or, at least, he doesn't believe Russians can. So he rules by using those weaknesses, by corruption, repression and violence. He rules for himself, not you," McCain writes.

The senator submitted the editorial to Pravda and was told it would be posted on Thursday. The Associated Press obtained a copy.

McCain assails Putin and his associates for writing laws that codify bigotry, specifically legislation on sexual orientation. A new Russian law imposes fines and up to 15 days in prison for people accused of spreading "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" to minors.

On Syria McCain says Putin is siding with a tyrant. "He is not enhancing Russia's global reputation. He is destroying it. He has made her a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed, and untrusted by nations that seek to build a safer, more peaceful and prosperous world."

McCain criticises the imprisonment of the all-women punk rock band Pussy Riot. Three members were convicted of hooliganism after staging an anti-Putin protest inside a Russian Orthodox church.

The article by McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, comes a few days after the US and Russian officials reached an ambitious agreement that calls for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within a week and its complete eradication by mid-2014. Diplomatic wrangling continues.

Last week, in an opinion piece for the New York Times, Putin blamed opposition forces for the latest deadly chemical weapons attack in Syria and argued Barack Obama's remarks about America were self-serving. Putin said it was dangerous for America to think of itself as exceptional, a reference to a comment Obama had made.

McCain is not the first US lawmaker to respond to Putin. The House armed services committee chairman, Howard "Buck" McKeon, wrote in an editorial for the Moscow Times about suppression of the Russian people and disregard for basic human rights.