Vladimir Putin on George W. Bush(‘s foreign policy):
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday blamed U.S. policy for inciting other countries to seek nuclear weapons to defend themselves from an “almost uncontained use of military force” — a stinging attack that underscored growing tensions between Washington and Moscow.
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“One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way.”
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In what the Russian leader’s spokesman acknowledged was his harshest criticism of the United States, Mr. Putin attacked Mr. Bush’s administration for stoking a new arms race by planning to deploy a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe and for backing a U.N. plan that would grant virtual independence to Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo.
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Mr. Putin said it was “the almost uncontained hyper-use of force in international relations” that was forcing countries opposed to Washington to seek to build up nuclear arsenals.“It is a world of one master, one sovereign … it has nothing to do with democracy,” he said. “This is nourishing the wish of countries to get nuclear weapons.”
Senator John McCain described Putin’s speech as “the most aggressive speech from a Russian leader since the end of the Cold War.”
Putin isn’t exactly happy with the fact that Russia has significantly lost influence in the region (and in the world). His criticism – for a large part – seems to be based, not just on the Iraq war, but also on “the process of NATO expansion”, the missile-defense system, Kosovo, etc.
Tsar Putin I should, perhaps, focus a little bit more on his own policies and a little bit less on what America is doing. His words can only be described as hypocritical. He is drawing more and more power to himself, political opponents get assassinateddie strange and sudden deaths, meanwhile there is also something like Chechnya as some of you all might remember, etc.
Frankly, Putin comes across as an angry, spoiled little kid, formerly a bully, who has discovered that there are stronger kids around on the playground.
Tsar Putin I is not complaining about U.S. aggressiveness, he is complaining about losing influence in his own backyard.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.