[Donna Lee Nardo]

Hat tip to NW_Arizona_Granny for e-mailing this commentary.

Morning Ruth!

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Ping

[GBA]

Wanting Russia to be our friend will not make it so.

[nuconvert]

pong

[yldstrk]

Russia cannot be trusted. Putin is a murdering KGB power monger.

[ravingnutter]

I sure hope this author is watching his back, considering Putin critics keep turning up dead.

[GarySpFc]

Let's see, Putin has a 77% favorable rating with Russians, which compares with Ronald Reagan's best. Elections by outside observors have been validated as fair.

"Yeltsin believed in private enterprise?" Oh! If you call letting the oligarchs steal all of the state resources for kopecks on the Ruble, then that is correct. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a communist leader, is a prime example. He set up a dummy company, which bid $2 billion for Yukos, the intimidated the opposition bidders, and one was murdered. He put in his personal bid of $200k for Yukos. After bidding was complete he disolved the dummy company, which left his $200k as the winning bid. Oh, he never paid the $200k.

Yeltsin allowed the oligarchs to rule and reign in a way which would make the robber barons and mafia look like choir boys. Look up the Russian oligarchs and see how they stole their billions instead of listening to Russophobes like Anders Aslund.

Putin, Reagan and FDR

The Russia of today has a freedom unimaginable in Soviet times and stability unimaginable in the Yeltsin era. By Edward Lozansky. (President American University in Moscow)

If Westerners worried that Russian President Vladimir Putin would escalate the stinging war of words with the Bush administration, notably the combative Vice President Dick Cheney, they can rest easy. Mr. Putin's positive and quite constructive approach to the United States, most notably in his annual State of the Nation speech this week, should lessen any fears that Cold War breezes are returning.

Indeed, Mr. Putin stressed in his speech that Cold War mistakes shouldn't be repeated and many times he described his plans for “contemporary Russia” and the “modernization of Russia.” He focused on three local issues — energy, education and health service — that will be worldwide priorities at the July Group of Eight (G8) summit, which he will host.

In many respects, the Russian president's address sounded like practically any contemporary State of the Union Address by an American president. He talked of the need for strong economic progress, of economic freedom, of equal conditions for competition, of a responsible economic policy and of financial stability to encourage entrepreneurs. He sounded surprisingly like Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Putin acknowledged that much of the technological equipment used by Russian industry lags “not just years but decades behind the most advanced technology the world can offer.” Russia, he said, “must take serious measures to encourage investment in production infrastructure and innovative development while at the same time maintaining the financial stability we have achieved.”

Unquestionably,we should always be skeptical of past adversaries. That's human nature. But this is not the rhetoric of a saber-rattler, a Cold War-era leader bent on stirring up another battle with the West to raise his stature at home and on the world stage. Unlike Russian leaders before him, Mr. Putin didn't take the bait that the vice president tossed out last week when Mr. Cheney accused Moscow of backsliding on democracy. Mr. Putin did not ignite another firestorm of invective.

Indeed, in his speech, the Russian leader was as mindful of the threats of terrorism from elsewhere as any major leader. He contended that the rest of the world isn't considering seriously enough terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And he identified plans for Russia to deter potential terrorist attacks.

While the West again may want to paint Russia as bad, it is as plain as the clearest Russian vodka to me that Russia is making real progress in its long journey away from Soviet times. Am I naive, or even blind? Assuredly not. I know firsthand of this transformation. In 1975, I got in big trouble with Soviet authorities for publicly criticizing their foreign and domestic policies and I now spend a lot of time in Moscow running the American University in Moscow, the first private school in Russia, founded in 1990.

Does Russia have more to do in terms of democracy building? Of course. But far from falling into old habits, the Russia of today has a freedom unimaginable in Soviet times and stability unimaginable in the Yeltsin era.

To truly grasp the changes underway in today's Russia, you need only have heard a brief passage in Mr. Putin's State of the Nation address, in which he talked of the challenges he has faced: “Working on this great national program that aims at providing basic comforts for the broad masses, we have indeed trodden on some corns, and we will continue to do so. But these are the corns of those who attempt to gain position or wealth, or even both, by taking shortcuts — at the expense of the common good.”

Those were fine words — but they weren't Mr. Putin's. He was quoting Franklin D. Roosevelt, who spoke them as president in 1934. Now if that isn't a symbol and signal of change in Russia, Vice President Cheney, I don't know what is!

[RusIvan]

She worked for the weekly Novaya Gazeta, Russia's last independent newspaper.==

"Last independent newspaper"?:)) How about "Exile" or "MoscowTimes" then? Or "Komersant"? Or "Novoe Vremya"?

[RusIvan]

Right now, Russia is apparently preparing for a war against the independent former Soviet republic of Georgia. With no justification whatsoever, Putin personally has accused Georgia of state terrorism. He likened the arrest of four senior Russian military spies in Georgia to the acts of Stalin's henchman Lavrenty Beria. Russia has evacuated its diplomats and citizens from Georgia and imposed a nearly complete embargo. Major Russian military maneuvers are under way. ===

What "Major Russian military maneuvers" I'd like to learn?

BTW it is enough justification for Isarel to start war with Lebanon when they captured 2(!) soldiers not 4 military officers.

[MarMema]

It couldn't be plainer that the United States needs a serious policy toward Russia and needs it fast.

Eurasianism Explained

[nw_arizona_granny]

It couldn't be plainer that the United States needs a serious policy toward Russia and needs it fast. <<<

Morning to you, thanks for posting this.

Too much going on over there, to make one sleep well at night.

[supremedoctrine]

"Not even Putin wants to revive Communist Ideology"

---

\\\ Not a surprise. No Russian leader since Stalin really actually believed in the Communist "ideology": it merely served as an effective tool to brainwash their citizens with and they ALL were smart enough to know it. When the Soviet System and their hegemony over the Soviet "bloc" collapsed, that was the official death knell of the so-called "ideology". Russia now is finding it more exciting and inviting apparently to keep its options open and ally itself with whoever can do it the most good. It is not very often the USA or the West.