WikiLeaks row: Putin labels US embassy cables 'slanderous'

Russian prime minister condemns cable describing him and President Dmitry Medvedev as Batman and Robin

Vladimir Putin gave his reaction to the WikiLeaks cables in a candid but frosty interview with US talk show host Larry King. Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/AP

The Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has condemned as "slanderous" a US cable describing him and Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, as Batman and Robin.

Speaking in a candid but frosty interview with talkshow host Larry King, the Russian prime minister dismissed suggestions that his tandem style of leadership with his protégé, Medvedev, resembled the uneven power share between the two characters.

"The truth of the matter is, this is about our interaction, which is an important factor of the domestic policies in this country," he said. "But to be honest with you, we didn't suspect that this would be done with such arrogance, with such a push and, you know, being so unethically done."

Several messages between US embassies and the state department released by WikiLeaks this week have included salty characterisations of Russia's leaders.

Putin is described as an "alpha dog" running a state dominated by the security services, while Medvedev is pale, hesitant and "Robin to Putin's Batman".

Putin also dismissed an assessment by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates – revealed in the WikiLeaks documents – that "Russian democracy has disappeared". He pointed out that presidential elections in the US sometimes produced a winner who did not gain a majority of the popular vote.

"When we are talking with our American friends and we tell them there are systemic problems in this regard, we can hear from them 'Don't interfere with our affairs. This is our tradition and it's going to continue like that,'" he said. "We are not interfering. But to our colleagues, I would also like to advise you, don't interfere either [with] the sovereign choice of the Russian people."

In the pre-recorded interview with King – to be shown on CNN this evening – Putin echoed the dominant perception in Russia that the embassy cables were deliberately leaked by a faction in the US government or military.

"Some experts believe that somebody is deceiving WikiLeaks, that its reputation is being undermined in order for it to be used for political purposes," said Putin, apparently speaking from an office in Moscow. "Such an opinion is being expressed here."

Putin said that if the leak had not been deliberate, then US information security needed to be beefed up. In a more conciliatory comment, he added: "There have been leaks before. This is not such a catastrophe."

In a separate move, Turkey's prime minister today accused US diplomats of slander after other leaked cables said he had accounts in Swiss banks, painted him as an authoritarian who hates Israel and said he leads a government with Islamist influences.

"The United States should call its diplomats to account," Tayyip Erdogan told an audience in Ankara in his first comments on the leaks, which received wide coverage in Turkish media.

"The US is responsible in first degree for the slanders its diplomats make with their incorrect interpretations. There are lies and incorrect information in those documents," he said.

In 2004, the then US ambassador, Eric Edelman, portrayed Erdogan, whose AK party swept to power in 2002, as a politician with "unbridled ambition stemming from the belief God has anointed him to lead Turkey".

Another cable by Edelman in 2004 said: "Inside the party, Erdogan's hunger for power reveals itself in a sharp authoritarian style and deep distrust of others: as a former spiritual adviser to Erdogan and his wife Emine put it, 'Tayyip Bey believes in God … but doesn't trust him."

Writing about alleged corruption in the AK party, Edelman said: "We have heard from two contacts that Erdogan has eight accounts in Swiss banks."

Erdogan said he did not have "a penny in Swiss banks" and said he would resign if such accusations were proved.

"We will continue the process on these diplomats within international law, our officials are working on this," he added.