Bush And Putin: The Strange “Romance”?
Cathy Young, writing in Reason Magazine, asks:”Why is the president so kind to Vladimir Putin?”:
In June 2001, when George W. Bush held his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, he famously declared that he had “looked the man in the eye” and “was able to get a sense of his soul,” in which he evidently saw only good things untainted by years of KGB service. This beginning of a beautiful friendship was reportedly aided by Putin’s touching story of a cross which he received from his mother and which miraculously survived a fire at his summer cottage. (As one of Russia’s surviving liberal commentators, Yulia Latynina, has noted, if Bush had belonged to a different faith Putin would no doubt have shared an equally touching tale about “a piece of advice given by a wise rabbi.”)
In the six years since then, much has happened in Russia: first and foremost, a steady and brutal rollback of the freedoms gained since the start of glasnost in the late 1980s. Independent television has been obliterated; most of radio and the print press have been muzzled as well. The multiparty system has become an unfunny joke. Vocal critics of Putin have ended up in prison and, in several notorious cases, suspiciously dead. What’s more, Russia, an ostensible ally in the War on Terror, has used this alliance mostly to justify its military’s atrocities in Chechnya while refusing to back the U.S. on a wide range of foreign policy issues (mostly notably on sanctions against Iran). Anti-American hysteria has been rampant in the servile Russian press. In his speech last May commemorating Russia’s victory over Germany, Putin transparently suggested that the United States was seeking world domination in the same manner as the Third Reich.
Meanwhile, the beautiful friendship endures.
There’s a lot more so read it all.
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4 Responses to “Bush And Putin: The Strange “Romance”?”
What’s so strange about the Bush-Putin relationship? From what I can tell, they are both running parallel courses from their offices in Washington and Moscow. They have both sought to stifle democracy and create single party rule. They have both shrouded their governments in secrecy. They both share a deep animosity for the west. And they both have used the threat of terrorism to shield their governments and actions from criticism.
And notice how none of Putin’s excesses really mattered over the last decade. That is until he defied America by opposing the missile shield and sanctions on Iran.
I think Putin’s Russia is a bigger threat to world stability than the press reports or most opinion pieces bother to address
However, I have no problem with Bush and Putin sitting together at candle-lit dinners. .It’s one way to gauge what one can gain from the other. It beats the no-talk Acis of Evil approach hands down. I just hope we won’t need to drag out the ‘love is blind’ refrain.
I think Chris is pretty spot on. Bush and Putin are both authoritarian leaders that demand obediance and see nothing wrong with doing as they please despite the interests of the people they are supposed to represent. I’m sure Putin thoroughly appoves of the Milatary Commissions Act since its pretty much straight out of his own playbook.
Chris, don’t overreact to Bush. Bush is not doing anything as bad as or as well as Putin is doing; Bush’s goals aren’t as broad or evil and Bush is inept, while Putin continues to progress — he even kills critics not only at home but abroad.