Moscow: Moscow will veto any UN Security Council that will seek to slap Libya-type sanctions against Syria, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, reports RIA Novosti.
The US, France and Germany have called on Russia to cooperate in preparing a resolution on Syria for a vote at the UN Security Council.
"Russia will use its rights as a permanent member of the Security Council," Medvedev told the Financial Times newspaper published Monday.
But he indicated that Russia was amenable to other ideas from the West.
"What I will not support is a resolution similar to 1973 on Libya, because I am convinced that a good resolution has been turned into a piece of paper to cover a senseless military operation," the president said.
"If my colleagues asked me to abstain from voting so that they could bomb targets (in Libya), I would have certainly instructed (Russian) officials at the UN differently," Medvedev said.
Syrian rights groups have estimated that some 1,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests demanding the end of President Bashar al-Assad's rule broke out in mid-March.
Some 10,000 people have fled to Turkey as Syrian security forces have cracked down on towns and villages at the Turkish-Syrian border.
Moscow, which enjoys close ties with Damascus, has called for a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis.
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