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What does McCain think we would accomplish -- other than a new parading of our moral superiority -- by so public an insult to Putin and Russia as a Bush boycott of the St. Petersburg summit? Do we not have enough trouble in this world, do we not have enough people hating us and Bush that we have to get into Putin's face and antagonize the largest nation on earth and a co-equal nuclear power? What is the purpose of this confrontation diplomacy? What does it accomplish?==

Good questions. Cheney picked up on most popular leader of Russia today. Russian people won't like it at all. What Cheney did just rise up the anti-americanism in Russia on record altitude. He did so stupid that it is unbeleiveable.

Cheney "killed" Vlad Rizhkov already. Guy just disappeared from political scene. No one can find him and get interview:). Rizhkov is new "political dead" now.
Interesting how many more "russian democrates" Cheney will "kill"?

Buchanan is correct here. Our current policy vis a vis Russia makes no long term sense. Most Freepers seem unaware that conservative monarchist Russia was one of Americas best friends for the entire 19th century. Putin has made mistakes of course, but all and all he has been a good leader for Russia and seems to have their support. Telling Russians they were better off under the drunk Yeltsin with a collapsing economy and chaos has to leave the average Russian questioning the motives of the West, and I am scratching my head along with them. I was in Russia during those days and have visited once again recently and the progress is remarkable. Many big problems remain but the general direction is one we should welcome.

Paleoconservatives like Buchanan and myself were against communist USSR, but not traditional Russian conservatism. The expansion of Nato and the constant nitpicking are slowly pushing Russia into the hands of China and other rogue states. Putin is a modern day Stolypin, a traditional Russian conservative which does have authoritarian elements. Confusing that with Stalinist communism and messianic world domination is intellectually dishonest and an insult to the millions of REAL victims.