US and Russia Clash on Key Issues

[onedomino]

Rice, Putin Have Tense Meeting
Wednesday, April 20, 2005

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154103,00.html

VILNIUS, Lithuania — When a high-level meeting between governments has not gone especially well, the participants sometimes speak afterward of their "frank exchange of views."

Such was apparently the case on Wednesday in Moscow, where Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (search) met with Russian President Vladimir Putin (search).

Appearing on Moscow Radio, Rice spoke the language, but her first trip to Russia as secretary of state hardly bespoke a meeting of the minds.

Rice proclaimed Russia a "strategic partner" and was warmly received by Putin. But on issue after issue — the pace of Russia's democratization, restrictions on foreign oil investors and the security of Russian nuclear materials — the secretary spoke only of differences aired, not of tangible progress made.

At one point, her host, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, responded sarcastically to Rice's exhortations.

"I would say, like the U.S. is interested in a strong and a democratic Russia that could play its active role internationally, we are also interested that the U.S. should be a strong and democratic partner and country playing an active role internationally," said Lavrov.

Rice claimed "improvements" in American access to Russian nuclear sites even as she fended off suggestions that Washington's push for inspections is an affront to Russian sovereignty.

"We do not consider in any way the inspections that need to take place, issues of sovereignty. These are issues of cooperation," Rice said.

The United States has encouraged pro-democracy movements in former Soviet states like the Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan. But in Moscow, the secretary faced suspicion that the United States is trying to "encircle" Russia with newly Democratic nations.

"The United States has no desire to see Russian influence in these areas diminished. In fact, we see this as a zero-sum game but one in which everybody has much to gain," she said.

When President Bush visits Russia next month, he will renew U.S. efforts to get Putin to embrace democracy following a series of moves that have only consolidated Putin's power.

On her trip, Rice emphasized the need for democracy.

"For Russia to gain its full potential, there needs to be democratic development. There should not be so much concentration of power just in the presidency," she said.

U.S. officials have also complained about the imprisonment and trial of Russia's richest tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the state's confiscation through taxation of his company, Yukos Oil.

Rice closes out her trip with a series of NATO meetings in Lithuania, about which she sounded much more optimistic. Rice said America's trans-Atlantic alliances no longer need to be put on the couch and analyzed, but put to work.

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[Annie]

Putin has been in a bad place for awhile. There is no doubt that the 'reformation' if you will is not complete and not going well. It's hard to say if he is consolidating the power of the presidency in an attempt to regain control over some of the former satellites or just to stop the hemorrhaging. In any case, it does not bode well for US/Russian relations.

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11965-4304681,00.html

20/04/2005Saul Hudson - ReutersUS Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the Kremlin's tight grip on power and the media "very worrying" and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to cling on to power beyond his present term.

Rice made some of the sharpest US criticism to date of the Kremlin's record on democracy at the start of a visit to Moscow, the first by the former Soviet specialist since being confirmed as President George W Bush's foreign minister.

[...]

With meetings scheduled with senior Russian officials including Putin on Wednesday, Rice told reporters on board her plane as she flew in to Moscow: "Trends have not been positive on the democratic side."

"The centralisation of state power in the presidency at the expense of countervailing institutions like the Duma (parliament lower house) or an independent judiciary is clearly very worrying," she added.

Even more pointedly, she also said it "would not be a positive development" if Putin changed the constitution to be able to run for a third successive term.

The Kremlin leader has said on several occasions he will not seek to stay on when his second and, under the constitution his final, term ends in 2008. Rice said Washington took him at his word on this.

Russia is considered a test case of Bush's vow to make democracy central to all Washington's bilateral relations.

Rights activists complain Washington has been too tolerant of Russia's backsliding on democracy, for fear of losing Putin's cooperation on Bush's top priority, the war on terrorism.

They accuse Putin of restricting democracy by abolishing the election of regional governors, pursuing a vendetta against the YUKOS oil company and tightening Kremlin control of the media.

[...]

 

[NATO AIR]

This will be a tense situation for a good while to come. In the end, how Putin reacts to the growth of democracy around his nation will be the key. Does he embrace it and help support/develop it, in order to keep Russia's own borders strong and its near region secure and stable from Islamic extremism and secessionist movements? Or will he give in to jealousy, anger and old glories and try to undermine them? If he is unwilling himself to make Russia more democratic, but steps aside in 2008, we should not punish him and should try to strengthen our relations with Russia. However, if he seems quite intent on securing even more power for himself and makes no effort to show he is going to step aside in 2008, we should continue to hold our relations with Russia in a critical, always developing and evolving light.

 

[IceEyes]

I think the presidents of USA and Russia are to meet in May? Also NATO and Russia signed some sort of agreement, on troops passing each others territory amogst others. Maybe things will ease up?

Rice is kind of cool, she says Belarus is the last true dictatorship in Europe. (She doen't know about my wife)

 

[onedomino]

In the end, how Putin reacts to the growth of democracy around his nation will be the key.

The only interest Putin has shown in democracy was the suppression of the Ukrainian poll results. He has ripped off the Russian oil industry because its principle member was a political rival, he took away the right to vote for regional governors, and he has suppressed the media. What’s next? Rename the FSB to KGB?

 

[nosarcasm]

http://www.freedomhouse.org/media/pressrel/122004.htm

RUSSIA DOWNGRADED TO “NOT FREE”
Putin’s Russia Declines Amidst Further Political Restrictions, Increased Authoritarianism
Other Setbacks—and Gains—in Former Soviet Union
Modest Advances Registered in Middle East

NEW YORK, December 20, 2004 -- Political rights and civil liberties have become so restricted in Russia that the country has been downgraded to "Not Free," Freedom House announced in a major survey of global freedom released today.

The global survey, "Freedom in the World," shows that Russia was the only country to register a negative category change in 2004, moving from Partly Free to Not Free. However, Russia was not the only country in the former Soviet Union that experienced political and civic changes: setbacks took place in Belarus and Armenia, while freedom gained in the aftermath of civic protests in Georgia and Ukraine.

"Russia's step backwards into the Not Free category is the culmination of a growing trend under President Vladimir Putin to concentrate political authority, harass and intimidate the media, and politicize the country's law-enforcement system," said Freedom House Executive Director, Jennifer Windsor. "These moves mark a dangerous and disturbing drift toward authoritarianism in Russia, made more worrisome by President Putin's recent heavy-handed meddling in political developments in neighboring countries such as Ukraine."

Putin is still very popular with the Russian public. The economy
thanks to the increased oil revenue did well but in the end
his corrupt government will be in trouble.