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Russia dismisses charges of wielding "energy weapon"

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MUNICH, February 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's defense minister vehemently rejected accusations Friday that the country was using its vast energy resources to bring pressure to bear on neighboring countries.

"I will categorically deny the thesis that energy is a weapon for us [Russia]," Sergei Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister, said upon his arrival in Munich for an international security conference.

Ivanov confirmed that an Iranian delegation would arrive in Moscow February 16 to discuss a Russian offer to enrich the Islamic Republic's uranium on its territory. The proposal is seen as a potential compromise to end the long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear programs, which some countries, led by the United States, have said will be used to develop nuclear weapons.

Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been at the center of controversy in the last few months for calling for Israel to be "wiped from the face of the map" and other provocative statements, cast doubt on Russia's proposal to enrich uranium on its territory for Iran's energy needs.

"We have been made an offer to have uranium enriched outside Iran," the Iranian leader said. "But what will we do if at some point we are not supplied with nuclear fuel?"

He added that the Iranian people would not be deceived.

The accusations that Russia was using its resources to bring pressure on neighboring countries appeared after Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in early January in a gas price dispute. The dispute was soon resolved after the Ukrainian and Russian gas companies agreed on transition to market gas prices.

Also, blasts on trunk gas pipelines and electricity transmission lines near the border with Georgia in mid-January left the republic without heat and electricity for more than a week, prompting the Georgian leadership to accuse Russia of destabilizing the situation in the republic. President Putin later rejected such accusations as unfounded.

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