Posted on 11/30/2003 7:24:23 PM PST by RussianConservative
MOSCOW - In a reflection of rising anti-Russia sentiments in U.S. political circles, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, overstepped their bipartisan affiliations in November to send a joint, tough-worded proposal to the U.S. Senate, asking President George W. Bush to use his influence and exclude Russia from the G8, the elite club of world’s most advanced industrialized countries, measured by economic output.
Rep. Tom Lantos and Rep. Chris Kox are also preparing a similar proposal to be tabled before Congress soon, according to the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
Russia finally became a full G8 member at the Kananaskis Summit in Canada on June 27, 2002, after spending almost a decade with an observer status acquired at a similar summit in Denver, in the United States, in 1997.
The attacks on Russia gained a momentum at the Seventh Annual U.S.-Russia Investment Forum in the city of Boston in mid-November, when financier George Soros joined Richard Pearle, a former adviser to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in calling for expulsion of Russia from the G8 for failing to live up to the elite club’s main membership-eligibility criteria, according to reports in Western media.
Condemning Russia for what he termed the "political persecution" of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky — indicted on seven charges in October and since held in Moscow’s notorious Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial facility — Soros told the gathering at the forum that Moscow’s actions against Yukos have raised reasonable questions whether Russia really qualifies for membership in the G8, which is supposed to be a democratic organization, Associated Press reported. “To belong to the G8 is a privilege, which a country earns by being democratic. Not to express concern would be a dereliction of duty,” he said.
Soros — who has invested several billions of dollars in both business projects and philanthropic programs in Russia — said that the arrest of Khodorkovsky has raised doubts as to whether [President Vladimir] Putin is committed to building a democratic society.
The recent proposal submitted to the Senate, the McCain-Lieberman resolution, expresses a negative position on the Kremlin's selective persecution of its opponents, suppression of the free press and activities in Chechnya, according to news reports citing the Senate’s press office.
Working to expel Russia from the G8, the senators argued, according to Kommersant, “would be the U.S. leadership’s reaction to gross violations, because Russia’s membership in the G8 ought to be suspended till it stops suppressing political liberties, the independent press and supremacy of the law and demonstrates its adherence to the democratic principles that unite the G8.”
The United States will not turn a blind eye when attacks on democracy and a free-market economy threaten the freedoms of Russian people and the basis of the U.S.-Russian relationship, McCain said. “I believe it’s time for a strict, sober and, at the same time, impartial and cool-headed review of U.S. policy’s response to the budding authoritarian forces in Moscow and to send signals to Putin that non-democratic behavior will lead to the expulsion of Russia from the Western democracies.”
Lieberman said that Putin’s attacks on democracy violate the spirit of the G8 and contravene the G8-membership obligations Russia promised to fulfill when it joined the organization. “[Under such conditions], we have to use our leverage within the G8 to return Russia to a democratic path of development,” he added.
We've tried everything to get him out of office, but more democrats vote for him than republicans. It's a major battle here in Arizona. The illegal aliens aid him a LOT.
This sounds like a good idea for Bush. Throw Soros in Graterford for a few months.
Watch him walk out carrying a purse.
Prosecution of corrpt "oligarchs" by the elected government is not an "attack on democracy".
Business interests.
At the peak of his deal-making activities, in the nineteen-seventies, the Saudi-born businessman Adnan Khashoggi brokered billions of dollars in arms and aircraft sales for the Saudi royal family, earning hundreds of millions in commissions and fees. Though never convicted of wrongdoing, he was repeatedly involved in disputes with federal prosecutors and with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in recent years he has been in litigation in Thailand and Los Angeles, among other places, concerning allegations of stock manipulation and fraud.
Khashoggi is still brokering. In January of this year, he arranged a private lunch, in France, to bring together Harb Saleh al-Zuhair, a Saudi industrialist whose family fortune includes extensive holdings in construction, electronics, and engineering companies throughout the Middle East, and Richard N. Perle, the chairman of the Defense Policy Board
Perle is a managing partner in a venture-capital company called Trireme Partners L.P., which was registered in November, 2001, in Delaware. Trireme’s main business, according to a two-page letter that one of its representatives sent to Khashoggi last November, is to invest in companies dealing in technology, goods, and services that are of value to homeland security and defense. The letter argued that the fear of terrorism would increase the demand for such products in Europe and in countries like Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
He has access to classified information and to senior policymakers, and give advice not only on strategic policy but also on such matters as weapons procurement.
12 posted on 11/30/2003 10:50 PM EST by RussianConservative (Hristos: the Light of the World)
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Don't forget that Senator Lieberman announced in 1999 that the scum Kosovo "Liberation" Army (which is tied in with other major Muslim terrorist groups around the world) does, in his words, "represent American ideals".
What did the USA ever do to have jerks like Soros, McCain, and Lieberman in positions of influence?
"SEN. JOHN McCAIN: It's very disturbing as to what's happened. There's not one truly independent media outlet in Russia today. Those that are "independent" are cowed by the government. That's one of the fundamentals as we all know of a free and open society."
I think the the good Senator mis-spoke and said Russia instead of the United States.
Also, what deals have OPEC made with Russia. I'm for snubbing OPEC and getting a deal with Russia. Any ties between OPEC and McCain?
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