>"Chechnya, Darfur, and Jewish Activism"
><http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/furuhashi050506.html>.
>
>Hey, MP, you have my permission to send this to Marc Cooper or anyone
>else for that matter. Spread the word!
Where you say:
>Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney "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'" ("Strong Rebuke for the Kremlin From
>Cheney," New York Times 4 May 2006), presenting no evidence
>whatsoever. Of course, his motive has nothing to do with human
>rights and everything to do with Moscow's refusal to agree to the US
>demand for sanctions or military strikes on Iran.
I think that's just part of a larger problem, from Washington's POV: Russia is no longer on its back, as it was during the Yeltsin years, taking stupid advice from Harvard economists and impotent in international relations. Note how Cheney complained about Russian energy "blackmail" - Russia has become a power in a field that the US likes to dominate. These troglodytes can become cold warriors all over again!
Doug