May 5, 2006
"ALL MEN" INCLUDES RUSSIANS:
U.S. Warns Russia to Act More Like A Democracy (Peter Baker, May 5, 2006, Washington Post)
The Bush administration has warned Russia that the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight nations in St. Petersburg could be a debacle unless the Kremlin takes specific actions in the coming weeks to demonstrate a commitment to democracy, according to U.S. officials.The administration has privately identified to Moscow concrete steps it should take before the July meeting, such as registering civil society groups that have been harassed, as a way of deflecting criticism that Russia has no business hosting a summit of democratic nations. And administration officials have sharpened their rhetoric about Russia's backslide toward autocracy.
At a European democracy conference in Lithuania yesterday, Vice President Cheney accused Russia of "unfairly and improperly" restricting the rights of its people and using oil and gas as "tools of intimidation or blackmail" against neighboring countries.
"Russia has a choice to make," Cheney said. "And there is no question that a return to democratic reform in Russia will generate further success for its people and greater respect among fellow nations."
Strong Rebuke for the Kremlin From Cheney (STEVEN LEE MYERS, 5/05/06, NY Times)
Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday delivered the Bush administration's strongest rebuke of Russia to date. He said the Russian government "unfairly and improperly restricted" people's rights and suggested that it sought to undermine its neighbors and to use the country's vast resources of oil and gas as "tools of intimidation or blackmail."Posted by Orrin Judd at May 5, 2006 8:22 AM"In many areas of civil society — from religion and the news media, to advocacy groups and political parties — the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her people," Mr. Cheney said in a speech to European leaders in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius. "Other actions by the Russian government have been counterproductive, and could begin to affect relations with other countries."
Mr. Cheney's remarks, which officials in Washington said had been heavily vetted and therefore reflected the administration's current thinking on Russia, appeared to lay down new markers for a relationship that has become strained and could become significantly more so in the months ahead.
Quandry coming for the media here -- while they won't be able to resist shoving Bush's "I looked into his soul" quote about Putin back in his face going into the G-8 summit, to do so means to expose Russia's backsliding away from democracy, and helps justify the new tougher stance the administration is taking. It ought to make for some interesting pretzel logic from the New York Times and other of the usual suspects in the the run-up to their meeting.
Posted by: John at May 5, 2006 10:37 AM"I looked into his soul"--the sould of a KGB man.
There is still only one kind of good Communist.
Posted by: Lou Gots at May 5, 2006 11:18 AMRussia has oil, gas, uranium, gold, and other resources on which the world's economies depend. Putin is aligning Russia with China against us. Europe depends on Russia's oil and gas to heat up their homes and run their cars. Germany's former PM, Schroder is running Russia's state oil and gas that Putin renationalized a couple of years ago. Right now our allies are Japan and India who are worse than us in terms of natural resources. Thus the US is not in a good position to chide Putin on democracy.
Posted by: ic at May 5, 2006 6:41 PMWhat are they going to do, eat oil?
Posted by: oj at May 5, 2006 6:45 PMRussia is the anti-Japan.
Japan, despite its dearth of natural resources, has been a regional and sometimes world power for hundreds of years, based on the ingenuity of its peoples.
Russia, and the FORMER SOVIET UNION ( ;-) ), have natural resources aplenty, but the Czars and the Kremlin badly bungled in handling their human capital, and modern Russia is losing population at about 1% a year. They may end up with a population half of its current size before they stabilize.
Their abundant natural resources will not keep them a world power, as they lose the people with which to work those resources.
Posted by: Noam Chomsky at May 5, 2006 7:48 PMThanks, Noam. We shall never stop singing Te Deum and Non Nobis.
Posted by: John Kevlock at May 5, 2006 10:09 PMTrue, many of Cheney's criticisms are valid, but the timing of his speech is is likely to damage relations at a time we need Russia most. Also, his remarks look a bit hypocritical given his silence about at his stop in the illiberal autocracy of Kazakhstan.
Posted by: Jonathan at May 6, 2006 11:00 AM