Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, delivered a stinging criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin?s rule, warning the Kremlin against using gas and oil supplies as ?tools of intimidation and blackmail? and accusing the Russian authorities of ?unfairly? restricting the rights of their citizens.

It was the strongest public rebuke made by a senior American official of Russia?s growing authoritarianism and its increasing willingness to employ energy policy for political ends.