Russian President Vladimir Putin is essentially saying President George Bush should “Hurry up and take it or leave it on my shield offer” — making you wonder what Bush will see now if he gazes into Putin’s eyes:
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the U.S. should “hurry” to make a decision on his proposal to share a European missile shield.
Russia’s offer to deploy a radar warning and control system in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, a neighbor of Iran, is “the best of all solutions,” Putin said in an interview at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“The U.S. should accept my proposal,” the Russian president said today, speaking in German. “They have to hurry up with their decision, I’m not giving them much time.” A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow couldn’t be reached for comment immediately.
It sounds like an ultimatum being presented as something less than an ultimatum and a stance that is unlikely to improve already cooling U.S.-Russian ties. MORE:
Putin, nine months from leaving office, made the offer to President George W. Bush at the Group of Eight Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, on June 7. The Russian proposal counters a U.S. plan to build missile-shield facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic. The U.S. says it needs the anti-missile system to protect Europe from attacks by “rogue states” such as Iran.
Putin’s comments today were “a reaction to the rather cool response in Washington to his Azerbaijan proposal,” said Yevgeny Volk, a political analyst in Moscow with the Heritage Foundation, by telephone.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said June 8 that the U.S. would “take a look” at the Russian proposal.
“You have to have a sense of what the missile defense system is trying to do and the optimum places to provide interceptors, place radars,” Rice said in comments posted on the State Department’s Web site. “It’s geometry and geography on how you intercept a missile, not a political decision.”
And what does Putin have to lose by taking this position? Not much:
“It’s a win-win situation for Russia,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst in Moscow. “If the U.S. accepts, it’s a victory. If the U.S. rejects it, Russia calls them aggressive and imperialistic.'”
And, above all, post-Communist Russia under Putin should not be perceived as one of the U.S.’ allies.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.