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March 14, 2004 -- Spanish and Russian voters are choosing anew president today, and some see cause for American concern in both countries.

Critics of the Russian election note that opposition media has been intimidated, and rarely covers opposition candiadates.

Spain's election comes as authorities are still struggling todetermine just who was responsible for setting off the 10 bombs thatkilled 200 and injured more than 1,500 during the morning rush hour onThursday. Al Qaeda and the Basque separatist group ETA have been mentioned as suspects.

On ABCNEWS This Week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave his thoughts on the Spanish attacks, and what they could mean to Spanish-American relations and the war on terror. He also voiced concerns about developments in Russia.

Following are excerpts of the conversation:

George Stephanopoulos, ABCNEWS' This Week anchor: Al Qaeda seems to claim credit for the bombing. Do you believe it?

Secretary of State Colin Powell: Don't know. The Spanish authorities are examining the tape that suddenly appeared, as well as examining the individuals,interrogating the individuals they've picked up. I think Spain still considers that ETA could be a candidate for responsibility for this act. But they're keeping themselves open to al Qaeda or others. We just don't know yet. … This is not the first time that Spain has dealt with terrorist incidents. In fact, long beforeterrorism became such an issue for us, it has been an issue forSpanish authorities as a result of ETA terrorist activities, anorganization that is on our list of terrorist organizations. So they're good at this, and I'm sure that the Spanish authorities will get to the bottom of it, find out who was responsiblefor this terrible tragedy.

George Will, ABCNEWS' This Week: "[There are] two ways Spain could react to this. They could say, 'This hit us because we got implicated with the United States.' Or they could react and say, 'We're not going to be pushed around.'If the governing party loses [in elections] today, would that be an ominous signfor the ability of terrorists to shift opinion?

Powell: I think what we saw right after the incident was Spaincoming together. And there was that remarkable scene in Madrid ofhundreds of thousands of Spaniards coming out to denounce terrorism.I don't think the case has been made that somehow this will causeSpain to step back from the war against terrorism or step back fromtheir efforts at working with the United States. Even the oppositionparty, challenging the P.P. Party, as it's called, knows that with aU.N. mandate, they should keep their forces in Iraq.So I hope that this will not change Spanish attitudes toward thewar on terror or toward their efforts in Iraq. I think Spain has beenon the right side of this issue, both with respect to terror and withrespect to Iraq, and I hope the Spanish people will continue to movein that direction and vote in that direction.

Stephanopoulos: You mention these various terrorist groups, andthere's some analysts looking at this now who see some cross-pollination, that maybe some renegade ETA elements were working withal Qaeda, and we may be going back to a period like we saw in the1970s, where you had Bader-Meinhoff gang, Red Brigades working withthe PLO and the IRA, all different groups with different goals, butsharing a means.

Powell: The meaning is to destroy innocent people and tochallenge civilized society. I can't tell, I don't see anything yetto suggest that ETA was connected to al Qaeda in any way. But let'sjust remember that these are organizations that are determined to killinnocent people. I don't care what their political objective is.Sometimes they don't have one. Sometimes it's just the killing ofinnocent people. And we all have to come together to defeat terrorism in what formit manifests itself.

Will: Madrid raised a lot of people in one question. Why hasn'tit happened here, all these days since 9/11?

Powell: First of all, I'm glad there has not been. I hope it'sas a result of our efforts. I hope that we are defending our homelanda lot better.But there have been attacks in many other parts of the world,Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, and now in Spain. And what it should sayto all of us is that this is a threat to the whole civilized world andnot just to the United States, not just to Europe, the whole civilizedworld.And these people have to be fought. They have to be dealt withwith all the tools at our disposal, law enforcement, financial,intelligence, military, you name it.

Stephanopoulos: [Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.] gave a majorspeech at UCLA a couple weeks ago, and here's what he had to say:

[begin clip]

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.: I don't fault George Bush for doing too much in the waron terror. I believe he's done too little. Where he's acted, hisdoctrine of unilateral preemption has driven away our allies and costus the support and critical cooperation of other nations.Iraq is in disarray with American troops still bogged down in adeadly guerrilla war, with no exit in sight.In Afghanistan, the area outside of Kabul is sliding back intothe hands of the resurgent Taliban and emboldened warlords.

[end clip]

Stephanopoulos: He goes on to attack your policy in North Korea,in Iran, in the Middle East. It's a broad-based critique, and you'veheard it time and time again. He says it's the most arrogant, inept,reckless foreign policy he's ever seen.

Powell: Well, you know, it is a political year. We are seeing acampaign unfold. But let's take up a few of these items. Allies have been pushedaway? We had over 30 allies standing with us in Iraq. Most of theNATO allies are with us in Iraq, with their troops on the ground.Afghanistan? NATO is in Afghanistan doing work. The country isgetting ready for elections. The country just passed a constitutionfor the Afghan people. Women are participating in life. Thecountry's coming back alive. Roads have been built.Yes, we still have some problems in the southeast section of thecountry. And we're going to deal with those problems. ButAfghanistan is a success story at this point compared to where it waswith the Taliban and with al Qaeda that essentially captured a wholecountry. That's not the case any longer.With respect to North Korea, we know more and more about what theNorth Koreans were up to. We're learning more and more out of theA.Q. Khan network that they had been trying to develop an alternativemethod of developing nuclear weapons … than the previousadministration knew about. Frankly, we got taken with the agreedframework of 1994 because by then the North Koreans were alreadyfiguring out a way to cheat on it.And we're not going to fall for that this time. So what did wedo? Did we unilaterally go in and invade North Korea? No. We gotNorth Korea's neighbors to agree with us that this was a seriousproblem for the neighborhood as well as for the United States.And we are now all agree, the United States, China, South Korea,Japan, and Russia, working with North Korea, that they have to committhemselves to the complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement ofthat program before they can expect benefits from the internationalcommunity.

Powell: Russians Like Democracy

Will: There's a presidential election today in Russia, anelection of sorts. People say that it's really evidence that Russiais continuing to slip back into authoritarianism. Does that worryyou? Does it matter whether Russia is authoritarian or not? Do wehave a big stake in democracy there?

Powell: I think we do. And it does concern me. And I haveexpressed those concerns, and the president has expressed thoseconcerns, to President Putin and to the other Russian leaders. But at the same time, I think it's an overstatement to think thatRussia is going back to the days of the Soviet Union. They're notgoing back there. I think they have discovered what democracy isabout. They like it, and they want to be able to vote for theirleaders. Why the Russians continue to do things like that, makingit hard for people to participate in the political process, by denyingthem access to media and by occasionally harassing them and takingother actions that we find, you know, frankly not very wise or smart,why do it when you have a president who is extremely popular and isgoing to win hands-down? He should be encouraging others to at leastmake a try of it.

Will: He's going to win with East German numbers. … I mean, he's going to get 80 or 90 percent of the vote.

Powell: The fact of the matter is, though, he is popular inRussia. President Putin has brought a level of order and stability tothe country that the country was looking for and wanted after the rather hectic and chaotic days of Mr. Yeltsin.And so, we note all of these things. We note what happened inChechnya with respect to those elections. And we don't hesitate topoint out to President Putin that he should use the popularity that hehas to broaden the political dialogue, and not use his popularity tothrottle political dialogue and openness in the society. But they're still learning. But I don't see it going back to thedays of the Soviet Union. But we are concerned about a level ofauthoritarianism creeping back in the society.

Stephanopoulos: I was going to ask how much of that popularitycame because he shut down so much of the alternate media.But let me ask another question about it, as well. There's a newCIA assessment that basically says you're concerned about a newassertiveness by Russia, by Putin after these elections, with hisneighbors in Georgia, in Ukraine, in Chechnya. Does that concern you?

Powell: It concerns me. And we're in conversations with him.And the interesting thing here is that, on all of these issues — Georgia, Central Asia, the Caucasus — we have open, candiddiscussions. … So I think there are many areas of cooperation that exist withthe Russian Federation. And in these areas where we think they aremoving in the wrong direction, or taking tacks that are inconsistentwith democracy, we are discussing it with them.