Posted on 08/19/2005 4:09:22 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
President Vladimir Putin (file photo) (CTK) Russian President Vladimir Putin called yesterday for a timetable for pulling foreign troops out of Iraq. The Russian leader said many Iraqis view the foreign troops as "occupiers" and suggested the withdrawal will encourage insurgents to abandon violence in favor of contributing to the creation of the state. The United States was quick to reject his call, saying it is still too early for a pullout.
Moscow, 19 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Speaking to reporters in the Black Sea resort of Sochi after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Putin first reiterated his call for an international conference on Iraq.
Putin disapproves of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and insists such a conference might help bring peace to the strife-torn country.
Then the Russian president went one step further. He said it is imperative to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
“We deem it necessary to work out a timetable for the gradual withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq," Putin said. "Many Iraqis, we know this well, still consider these forces to be occupiers."
Encouraging Iraqi insurgents to take part in their country’s political process, he added, is another argument in favor of a swift pullout.
“Resolving this task will enable a significant part of the armed Iraqi resistance to be brought into the process of creating a state," Putin said.
President George W. Bush has consistently rebuffed international calls to set a schedule for withdrawing the 138,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. Putin's plea was no exception.
A few hours after the Russian president's statement, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing in Washington that Iraq was not yet ready for a withdrawal of foreign troops.
"I think [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush has spoken very clearly on our views on the issue of security assistance to the Iraqis," McCormack said. "As Iraqis stand up [increase] their capabilities, we and the multinational forces will be able to stand down [withdraw]."
McCormack also suggested the United States had little intention to hold an international conference on Iraq by the end of the year, as Putin proposed.
"We did, recently, have an international conference that was organized in Brussels, which had great attendance from around the world, from around the region, from Europe -- there was a delegation from Russia there, I believe, as well -- in which countries came together to express support for Iraq," McCormack said.
Putin has openly opposed the Iraq war. But this is the first time he has made such a clear-cut statement on the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
Putin’s statement comes just days after Russia carried out military exercises in the Barents Sea during which new intercontinental ballistic missiles were tested.
Yevgenii Volk, a political analyst and the director of Moscow's Heritage Foundation think thank, said both events indicate Putin might be trying to gain more influence in world affairs by flexing his country's military muscle.
“It is significant that the declaration was made directly after the Northern Fleet’s military exercises where, whatever people might say, scenarios of an atomic war with the U.S. were developed," Volk said. "This [declaration] is clearly a display of strength, and Putin is showing that Russia’s military power must and can translate into the strengthening of its political influence, no matter where the area of conflict is located.”
Russia and China also launched unprecedented joint military exercises yesterday amid U.S. concerns that the two giants might form a military alliance.
"YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN. I do not always defend Putin"
Gary, do I have this right? - here you are crying that you are not a Putin lackey and then you trot out every Kremlin spin line there is.
"however on this point he is somewhat justified "
"you do not see and admit what the EU, Poland, and the U.S. invested far more in monies and help than Russia"
"If yes, then you would know Putin is up against a determined enemy, and has to fight them "
"The press in Russia is in many cases run by the oligarchs, which are anti-Putin."
I suggest a new title to the article.
"US calls for withdraw time table from Chechnya for Russian troops."
Red6
http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1988/458814.shtml
"The famine of 1921-1923 was only the first of three such tragedies inflicted upon the Ukrainian nation by the Communist regime. The other two took place in 1932-1933 and 1946-1947"
And don't forget the even lesser known 1947 famine which killed nearly a million and set the stage for Mao to starve 20 million within the next few years.
"I deny that the bulk of Gulag prisoners were Russian. "
From Anne Applebaum "Gulag a History", Chapter The Prisoners. She spent many months researching the Gulag archives, interviewing the survivors in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Baltics, Poland, etc.
"Odd things it sounds, in most camps there was no clans for Russians, the ethnic group which formed the decided majority in the camps, according to the Gulag's own statistics, throughout their existence. Russians did, it is true, attach themselves to one another according to what city or part of the country they came from, Muscovites found other Muscovites, Leningraders other Leningraders and so on."
Actually from this point of view - you ought to know it too. :(
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