The Moscow Times.com -- Opinion / Editorial
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/11/25/005.html
Thursday, November 25, 2004. Page 8.
Putin Can't Have It Both Ways
Editorial
As President Vladimir Putin and the new European Commission chiefs gather for a summit on Thursday in The Hague, disagreements over the Ukrainian election cast a dark cloud over their first meeting. Putin may have been planning to cash in the chips Russia earned by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol -- indeed, welcoming Russia's support for the environmental treaty was at the top of a to-do list for the summit as recently as Monday, according to an EU press release. Instead, it looks more likely Moscow will be playing defense.
Russia's relationship with Europe -- and with America -- was already under pressure, ever since Putin unveiled plans to do away with elections for governors and single-mandate Duma deputies. Even U.S. President George Bush took Putin aside last week at a summit in Chile to express concerns about the electoral changes. Putin reportedly offered a long, rambling response that reached back into Russian history and the country's experience with Stalinism. It's not yet clear how Bush (who is not, incidentally, a history buff) took it.
Regardless, Putin's stamp of approval on an election that has been uniformly criticized in the West won't help. In its relations with Europe and the United States, Russia has long been walking a tightrope: Western concerns over Russian democracy, Chechnya and Yukos were leveraged against improving economic ties, measured cooperation in the war on terror, cheery rhetoric, and a few other odds and ends like the Kyoto Protocol. But the Ukrainian fiasco, coming after Putin's proposals for changes to Russia's electoral system, reveals a widening gap between Russia and Western democracies.
Plainly put, Putin can't have it both ways. A patina of support for democracy isn't going to cut it in Europe -- not over the long term, at least. Moscow will be hard pressed to foster productive political ties with Brussels and Washington if it is perceived to be trampling democracy at home and abroad.
Putin should realize that his biggest geopolitical tool, Europe's dependence on Russian energy supplies, does not give him a carte blanche to meddle in traditional spheres of influence.
No matter whom Ukrainian voters actually chose as their president, Moscow cannot expect to win friends and wield its influence by continuing to insist that evidence of widespread fraud in the Ukrainian poll is inconsequential.
Russia should look hard at the situation in Ukraine and use the summit as a springboard for discussion of a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the standoff. It's not too late to turn a crisis into an opportunity. But that window is closing fast.
There you have it, Europe caving in again, for money. By their behavior they have effectively told Putin he can meddle all he wants.