Medvedev lashes out at US ‘Benevolent’ hegemony

Russia's President has slammed America's global dominance saying all nations have the right to remark on the policies of a state whose actions affect the world.

Speaking at the opening of a global security conference in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl on Monday, Dmitry Medvedev said those problems of one country, have the potential to lead to international conflict.

"This happens immediately and incompetence and reluctance to solve one's own problems inflict damage not only to your country but to a huge number of other countries," he added.

The Russian president also lashed out at what he thought the "ill-thought-out" policies of a country that led to the global financial melt down.

Medvedev did not refer to the United States by name but the target of his comments was clear.

His remarks came shortly before the US President Barack Obama delivered a key speech in New York, where he described the global economic crisis as Washington and Wall Street's "collective failure".

Medvedev like others, see that the international community should have a say when the world's richest countries make decisions with global implications.

His comments further developed those ideas, attacking efforts by any party to advance what he called "utopian projects of global supremacy ...or 'Benevolent Hegemony'".

There can be no "high-flown justification for military adventures, suppression of rights and freedoms -- of any illegal activities," he stressed.