Vice President Dick Cheney launched one of Washington’s sharpest attacks on President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ( May 4th,2006) , accusing Russia of backsliding on democracy and using its energy supplies to blackmail neighbors.
“Russia has a choice to make,” Cheney told Baltic and Black Sea leaders in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, calling on Moscow to return to democratic reforms at a time of increasingly chilly relations between the two former Cold War rivals.
“America and Europe want to see Russia in the category of healthy democracies, and yet opponents of democracy in Russia are seeking to reverse the progress of the past decade,” he said. “In many areas of civil society — from religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties — the Government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people.”
was addressing leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Georgia — all former Warsaw Pact countries that are at varying stages of integration with the EU and Nato. He voiced particular support for Ukraine, criticising Russia for cutting off gas supplies to Kiev in January in what was widely seen in the West as punishment for the Orange Revolution of 2004.
Cheney criticized Moscow for playing power politics with its vast energy reserves at a time of record world prices and accused it of bullying neighboring countries, many of which were dominated by the Kremlin in the Soviet era.
“No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolise transportation,” he said. His comments reflect the growing tensions between the White House and the Kremlin. With his own ratings low, President Bush is under pressure to take a harder line with Mr Putin, who has reasserted central control over media, parliament, business and regional government since 2000. Some US politicians are even calling for Russia’s expulsion from the G8.
Russia drew international criticism earlier this year when it briefly turned off its gas taps to Ukraine in a pricing dispute that disrupted supplies to Europe.
Moscow has also warned Europe the Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom, the world’s top producer, could divert supplies to Asia if it is barred from the European market.
Update:
The White House on Friday backed Vice President Dick Cheney’s tough speech on Russia and said Russian President Vladimir Putin should move on democratic reforms before hosting a major international summit in July.
Bush and Putin had a strong relationship in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but the ties have cooled in the last year or so and Washington has been disappointed at what it sees as backsliding on democracy in Russia.
“You have to be blind and obtuse not to understand that some of our hopes for the U.S.-Russian relationship in the beginning of the administration have not been realized,” said a second senior administration official.
The official said no formal review of U.S.-Russia relationship was under way but that the Bush administration was troubled by Russia’s “distrust of democracy and Russia’s unconstructive relations with many of its neighbors.”
Wild Thing’s comment…..Cheney nailed it and I am proud of him! Cheney is right and it’s time we told the Russians that this is not going to be tolerated. Cheney is a favorite of mine.
Putin’s a dyed-in-the-wool commie. Always has and always will. The Clinton/Albright/Berger crew helped destroy any chances of a Western-friendly Russia, and gave us the America-phobic monstrosity that is Russia today.