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Medvedev was speaking a day behind U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched a blistering attack on Russia, saying it had taken a "dark turn" and urging the West to stand up to what she called its bullying strategy.

"All the time in that place are discussions that 'Finally they (the Russians) will show their true colors .. that the hawks require won'," Medvedev told a gathering of political society groups in the Kremlin.

"We are in effect being pushed down a path that is founded not on fully-fledged, civilized partnership with other countries, but without interruption autonomous unravelling, behind thick walls, behind an Iron Curtain," Medvedev said.

"That is not our pathway. For us there is no sense going back to the gone. We be delivered of made our rare."

He said the NATO alliance's role in the Georgia conflict showed it was unable to cater guard in Europe, underlining the need for a modern assuredness mechanism.

"That is understood even by those who in private conversations with me say … 'NATO will take care of everything'. What did NATO make certain, what did NATO ensure? NATO only provoked the conflict, and not more than that."

Responding to Medvedev's remarks, NATO spokesman James Appathurai told Reuters: "There is nothing provocative in partnership and there is also nothing stimulant in promoting democratic reform, relating to housekeeping reform and supporting a country's aspirations to move closer to the Euro-Atlantic community."

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Russia launched a huge counter-attack by country, sea and conduct hindmost month back Georgian forces tried to retake the Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia. Western states condemned Russia's actions as disproportionate.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has subsequently said Russian troops and armored moved into Georgia before his forces attacked, an allegation Moscow has denied.

Russian officials say NATO's agreement to take in Georgia as a member — albeit at an unspecified date in the future — emboldened Georgia to attack South Ossetia. The Kremlin says Western states furthermore played a role through arming Georgia's military.

Medvedev's hypothe cate that Russia will not retreat into authoritarianism appeared aimed, in part, at rebuilding battered confidence without interruption fiscal markets.

Russian stocks this week suffered their worst losses in a decade, admitting they recovered strongly on Friday after the state made available a $130 billion emergency support package.

And a recital released by Russia's Foreign Ministry later on Friday accused Rice of distorting the events which direct to the war.

"This does not cause great surprise considering Washington's bias in support for Tbilisi's bankrupt regime," the specification said.

"We in Russia are not going to indulge too much in rhetoric or be dragged into a confrontation — either rhetorical or anything else. We face to the future and we expect the American side to do the same."

The fall was caused by the agency of a combination of global financial turmoil, falling oil prices and place of traffic worries that the rift with the West over Georgia had driven up political risk.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in London; Writing through Christian Lowe; Editing by Richard Balmforth)