And people wonder why I'm so pro-Putin. Good God, he pulled Russia out of a world-historical calamity, and people quibble (e.g. Kagarlitsky) about whether or not his actions correspond with their own agendas. The dogs bark, the caravan moves on...
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>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
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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