*BAD GUY RUSSIA?

*Bad Guy* Russia emerges as central player in Western diplomacy.

MUNICH :

AT THE ANNUAL MUNICH event, a rare gathering of European and US security officials that also attracts top Russian diplomats, American policymakers were -

Visibly irritated with Moscow's public denials of accusations of meddling. ''O am amazed that .......the Russians come, they send someone, every year to basically refute the facts,'' US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said of the Russian presence at the event..........

European and US officials divided over US President Donald Trump's foreign policy found common ground this weekend in-

Decrying what they say is Russia's covert campaign to undermine Western democracies?

But the despite the transatlantic show of  anger at Russia during the Munich Security Conference,  Western officials and diplomats also acknowledged an uncomfortable truth that-

Russia is critical to resolving some of the world's worst conflicts.

From Eastern Ukraine to North Korea, Russia status as a nuclear power, its military intervention in Syria and its veto on the United Nations Security Council mean any  diplomacy must include Moscow, officials said.

''We can't find a political solution, without Russia,'' Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke Jensen, told Reuters.

''We need to reach a point where we can work to find a political solution, and they must be central to that.''

Publicly at least, *Russia was the bad guy* in Munich, roundly criticised for interfering in the 2016 presidential campaign after US indictment of  13 Russians this week, and more broadly for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

For the West, such unity of  purpose marked a change after a year of Trump's  ''America First'' rhetoric, his inconsistent statements on NATO and the European Union, his decision to pull out of-

The Paris climate change accord and his move to certify Iran's compliance with  2015 Nuclear deal.

[Agencies]