U.S. Report Says Russia Is Not a Reliable Partner

WASHINGTON -- Russia's emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair U.S.-Russian ability to cooperate on key international security issues, according to an analysis by a major U.S. foreign policy organization released on Sunday.

Continuation of Russia's drift away from democratic norms under President Vladimir Putin "will make it harder for the two sides to find common ground and harder to cooperate even when they do," said the report, which was issued by the Council on Foreign Relations.

It warned that some critical problems cannot be dealt with effectively unless Moscow and Washington cooperate.

"If Russia remains on an authoritarian course, U.S.-Russian relations will almost certainly continue to fall short of their potential," it said.

The report was co-chaired by Jack Kemp, a former Republican presidential candidate, and John Edwards, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2004. Kemp formerly served in the House, Edwards in the Senate.

Release of the report was timed to coincide with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Washington, his first as foreign minister. He is due to arrive Monday and will meet the next day with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The report urged that the United States preserve and expand cooperation on dealing with the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program and on coping with the risk of Russian nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands.

On the whole, though, the report said relations were headed in the wrong direction.

"In particular, Russia's relations with other post-Soviet states have become a source of significantly heightened U.S.-Russian friction," it said.

It urged that Washington counter Russian pressures that undermine the "stability and independence" of its neighbors by helping to secure the success of those states that "want to make the leap into the European mainstream."

The report was especially critical of the Kremlin's energy export policy, accusing it of turning "a prized asset of economic relations into a potential tool of political intimidation."

Ukraine, it said, "has been the most shocking and coercive application of this view to date, but others may lie ahead."

The report recommended that the United States go beyond mere expressions of concern about the rollback of Russian democracy. It urged that Washington step up support for organizations committed to free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

"Russia's course will not -- must not -- be set by foreigners, but the United States and its allies cannot be indifferent to the legitimacy of this process and to the leaders it produces," the report said.

Among many setbacks to Russian democracy in recent years, the subordination of the judiciary to executive power received particular importance in the study.

"Under President Putin, power has been centralized and pluralism reduced in every single area of politics. As a result, Russia is left only with the trappings of democratic rule -- their form, but not their content," the report said.

Lavrov, speaking to U.S. journalists in Moscow ahead of his trip, called for "clear and honest" relations. He implied U.S. officials had aired the two countries' problems through the media instead of using quiet diplomatic channels.

"We can't believe in official, public diplomacy when some concerns are flagged throughout the media, very often without proper justification, very often based on wrong assumptions," Lavrov said Friday, speaking in fluent English.

He did not specify which media reports he was referring to, but may have been responding to U.S. newspaper reports last week that said the White House was "recalibrating" its policy toward Moscow due to concerns that Russia's democratic institutions had been weakened by Putin.

Lavrov said that "direct dialogue, a clear and honest raising of concerns and the receiving of clear and honest answers is ... something the state of modern Russian-American relations deserves."

Wow - this is a first - Free Republic members touting a product worked on by STROBE TALBOTT - the man who gives Gorbachev ALL the credit for the end of the Cold War AND denies Reagan his rightful legacy of having defeated Communism... The same Strobe Talbott who told "us" to put all our eggs in the Gorbachev basket and forget about Yeltsin.... Yeah, I'd bank on anything he worked on (/sarcasm)

Here's Strobe (and btw, he's the reason the Clinton Administration squandered all the good chances we had to ensure Russia chose the right path):

"In the May 21, 1984 Time, he insisted: "The Reagan Administration has made a bad situation worse in two ways: First, by convincing the Soviet leaders that the U.S. no longer accepts military parity as the basis for relations with Moscow; second, by challenging the legitimacy of the Soviet regime, calling the USSR an `evil empire' doomed to fail."

Here's Strobe telling Eastern Europe they shouldn't be free:
"Throughout the 1980s, most of these pundits derisively condemned Mr. Reagan's policies. Mr. Talbott faulted the Reagan administration for espousing "the early fifties goal of rolling back Soviet domination of Eastern Europe," an objective he considered misguided and unrealistic. "Reagan is counting on American technological and economic predominance to prevail in the end," Mr. Talbott scoffed, adding that if the Soviet economy was in a crisis of any kind, "it is a permanent, institutionalized crisis with which the U.S.S.R. has learned to live." (That's right Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc., etc., if Strobe had his way you would NOT be free)

More from Strobe Talbott praising Gorby:
"Gorbachev won Time's esteemed award because they share the same foreign policy outlook. To both, the Soviet threat was a Western, right-wing delusion.Dissing Reagan again in favor of Gorbachev:
"Strobe Talbott, writing in the issue of Time magazine that declared Gorbachev "Man of the Decade," dismisses what he calls the "conceit" that Gorbachev is a consequence and vindication of Western policy, and says flatly: "Gorbachev is responding primarily to internal pressures, not external ones..."

And more about this putz (his complicity in the Russia-Iran Missile sales):
"Talbott didn't want anything to interfere with his agenda of aid to Russia,"say congressional aides familiar with his role in quashing the information and lobbying to get Oehler fired. "Raising the issue of Russian missile transfers to Iran was sure to anger the Russians - something Talbott wanted to avoid at all costs." A top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it more politely: "Israel is on the receiving end of these missiles, whereas Strobe Talbott views this issue in the broader context of U.S.-Russian relations." By mid-summer, however, with the Russian transfers accelerating, not slowing, Lott teamed up with Senator Joseph Lieberman to introduce legislation that would impose sanctions on the Russian firms engaged in the transfers and cut off U.S. aid to Talbott's pet Russian projects, including the high profile flights of American astronauts on board the Mir space station. To quell the storm, Talbott finally agreed to hand the issue over to retired Ambassador Frank Wisner, who in July was asked to be the U.S. delegate to a joint committee with the Russians to investigate the allegations of missile transfers to Iran. His Russian counterpart was none other than Yuri Koptev, the head of the Russian Space Agency - the very man the Israelis claimed was behind some of the Russian missile deals with Iran."

Sorry - can't give any credence to any report on any subject that had Strobe Talbott working on it.

Take a good look at the biographies at the end of the report. A lot of left-leaning, or downright leftist "think tanks" represented (ex: World Wildlife Federation). Also look at the time periods the participants were government workers (big hint - Bill Clinton). I find it odd that the group of people who were the ones advising Clinton on Russia and got it soooooo wrong are now publishing this. Well, expect the report to be quoted by the DNC. (And, there are some valid points made in it [a broken clock is right twice a day too], but the irony is these are the folks who were standing watch when Russia started veering down the wrong path and their own ineptitude is the root of the problems vis-a-vis our situation with Russia)

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