June 05, 2007
Bush Not Cowed By Putin's Threats
If Vladimir Putin's vow to point missiles at Europe in response to a U.S. defense shield there are worrying President Bush, he isn't showing it. One day after Putin threatened a second Cold War with the West, Bush again expressed Washington's disappointment in Russia's transition to democracy.
Speaking before the Democracy and Security Conference in Prague, Bush told a receptive audience, "In Russia, reforms that once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development."
Bush will not be alone when he airs his concerns about Russia's increasingly authoritarian government at the G-8 summit in Germany this week. As noted yesterday, France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain's Tony Blair are also expected to seek face time with the Russian leader on that topic.
European leaders are also alarmed at Putin's threats, which may particularly chafe the former Eastern Bloc nations that have agreed to host the U.S. missile shield. Poland has signalled its OK for 10 U.S. missile blockers, and the Czech Republic has done the same for a U.S. radar.
Bush is bookending the G-8 with meetings in those countries -- today with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Friday with Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Earlier today, in an appearance with Klaus and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Bush said he would work to persuade Putin that the true reason for the defense shield was to protect Europe from "rogue" states, not Moscow.
"As I've told President Putin, Russia is not our enemy. The enemy of a free society such as ours would be a radical, or extremists, or a rogue regime trying to blackmail the free world in order to promote its ideological objectives," Bush said, insisting the shield was "a purely defensive measure, aimed not at Russia, but at true threats."
Bush also sought to splash some cold water on Putin's remarks yesterday, in which he strongly hinted that he would respond to the shield with a beefed-up nuclear arsenal. "The Cold War is over. It ended. The people of the Czech Republic don't have to choose between being a friend to the United States, or a friend with Russia. You can be both," Bush said.
But the president also seemed to indicate that Washington would not be bullied over the matter, either. During his speech at the conference, Bush seemed to aim a quote from Andrei Sakharov, the Nobel Prize-winning Soviet dissident, at Putin directly. "A country that does not respect the rights of its own people will not respect the rights of its neighbors," Bush remarked.
Though Bush's arrival in Europe has been met with protests -- a predictable occurence since the Iraq war began four years ago -- many on the continent have long memories of the Iron Curtain, and of America's role in helping dismantle it. One of the biggest applause lines in the speech came when Bush asserted, "The United States is committed to the advance of freedom and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism." That line might have been met with snickering elsewhere, particularly in the States.
European papers appear to be aligned against Putin today; opinion can be read here, here, here and here. The Guardian has opinion that puts the blame more squarely on the United States.
Posted at 12:19 PM
Posted to:
Bush Administration, President Bush, Russia, Vladimir Putin
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