Putin, the Oligarch of Soul!
Posted on 10/31/2003 6:40:43 PM PST by Brian S
By Guy Dinmore in Washington Published: October 31 2003 20:22 | Last Updated: October 31 2003 20:22
Confident of his ability to determine the character of a man, President George W. Bush struck up a close relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin the first time they met more than two years ago, declaring afterwards: "I was able to get a sense of his soul."
That bond was strengthened after the al-Qaeda attacks on the US mainland, when the Russian president gave strong backing to the "war on terror". But now there is deep concern among US business and political circles that Mr Bush has overlooked what they see as Russia's slide back towards authoritarianism.
"It's very important that Bush takes another look at that soul," said Stuart Eizenstat, a former US deputy treasury secretary and member of the international advisory board that assists the senior officers of the Yukos oil company.
The stakes were much higher than the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chief executive of Yukos, and would determine whether Russia continued on the path of strengthening democratic and economic reforms "or returns to a more statist, semi-totalitarian, autocratic direction", Mr Eizenstat told the Financial Times.
The Bush administration was so focused on Iraq and getting Mr Putin's support for the "war on terror" that it was willing to turn a blind eye to threats to democracy, not just in Russia, but elsewhere, Mr Eizenstat said, commenting on the US rush to recognise last month's flawed election results in Azerbaijan.
In public the administration's response to the Yukos affair has been muted, what analysts called a "wait and see" approach.
The seizure of a 44 per cent block of Yukos shares by Russian prosecutors was a "grave step", the State Department said on Friday. "It raises serious questions for domestic and international investors on ownership rights in Russia."
Hardline conservatives close to the administration have also called for a tougher response. Richard Perle, an adviser to the Pentagon, was quoted in a Russian newspaper as saying Russia should be dropped from the Group of Eight industrialised democracies.
Leon Aron, Russia specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the Yukos affair was emblematic of a struggle over the shape of Russian capitalism and society. It should be raised at the highest level, he said.
Putin, the Oligarch of Soul!
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