The Kremlin today described critical remarks by US Vice President of its regime as "completely incomprehensible".
Mr Cheney said Russia was backsliding on democracy and using its vast energy supplies to bully its neighbours.
"The speech of Mr Cheney in our opinion is full of a subjective evaluation of us and of the processes that are going on in Russia. The remarks ... are completely incomprehensible for us," said Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Mr Cheney, in remarks that could cause tense moments when Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts his first summit of the G8 industrialised nations in July, earlier told Baltic and Black Sea leaders in Vilnius that Moscow should return to the path of democratic reform.
Speaking to Baltic and Black Sea leaders in Vilnius, he said opponents of reform in Russia were "seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade" by restricting democratic rights.
He said G-8 members planned to make clear at a summit in St. Petersburg in July Moscow had "nothing to fear and everything to gain from strong stable democracies on its borders".
